Ten New Children’s Books That Embrace Joy and Celebrate Community

I’m writing this month’s column on a very cold winter’s day. School’s closed, the roads in our neighborhood are shut down due to snow, difficult news keeps rolling in, and the whole world feels heavy. My kids are old enough now to be aware of current events, old enough to feel some of that heaviness themselves. But they’re not too old for books, and they’ve already discovered that in hard times, a good book can really help.

Here are just a few of those good books: ten new releases that embrace joy, celebrate the power of community, or encourage us to care for one another. When we give stories like these to our children, we are really giving them ways to dream about and plan for a kinder and more hopeful world, and that’s a thought that keeps me going on even the coldest days.

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Julie Fogliano, Because of a Shoe
illustrated by Marla Frazee
Knopf, February 3
recommended for ages 2-5

Have you ever pleaded with a child to put on their shoes? Bribed a child to put on their shoes? Lost your temper because a child won’t put on their shoes? Picked up a stubbornly shoeless child and carried them out to the car while they cry and you cry, too? My friend, you need this book. Picture book virtuosos Julie Fogliano (And Then It’s Spring) and Marla Frazee (The Boss Baby) bring artistry and humor to a shoe-related spat between mom and child, honoring everyone’s messy emotions and reminding kids and caregivers that even when we’re at our frazzled worst, our love for one another can make things right.

Kate Hosford, You and I Are Stars and Night
illustrated by Richard Jones
Beach Lane Books, February 3
recommended for ages 4-8

Cozy “bedtime books” are perennially popular gifts for new parents, and You and I Are Stars and Night is one of the nicest I’ve seen in a while. Poet Kate Hosford brings her talent for gentle rhyme to the text, which follows a caregiver and child through a day of magical island adventures: swimming with mermaids, flying with gulls, and playing hide and seek in a forest. Their loving relationship (described as “fork and spoon,” “slip and slide,” and other complementary pairings) is beautifully depicted by illustrator Richard Jones. Pick this one up if you’re looking for a bedtime read-aloud that’s comforting and sweet, but never saccharine.

Mel Rosenberg, Emily Saw a Door
illustrated by Orit Magia
Random House Studio, February 24
recommended for ages 4-8

This delightful picture book begins when a little girl named Emily knocks on a big blue door. Emily asks to come inside, but the people on the other side of the door say that this door is only for those who are blue, and Emily isn’t. So she sets off to find the door that is just right for her. There are many doors in Emily’s world—doors for liars, stair climbers, tigers, snakes, and those who speak very quietly—but none for Emily. Fortunately, she’s a resourceful kid, and she uses a few sticks of colorful chalk to draw a more welcoming door of her own. The simple, inclusive message of the story is timeless, and I love the illustrations.

Stephen Barr, If This Were the World
illustrated by AG Ford
Neal Porter Books, February 17
recommended for ages 4-8

Imagination, experimentation, and care for others take center stage in this picture book about a group of kids on a playground at recess. The kids have played every game they can think of, and now they’re stumped: What can they possibly play next? When Omeed holds up an orange and asks, “What if this were THE WORLD?” the kids are all in. But they soon discover that the orange doesn’t make a very good world (it’s delicate and too tiny for everyone to have a piece), and they search for a new world—one that’s good for playing with, easy to share, and a place they can all take care of. AG Ford’s energetic illustrations make readers feel like they’re part of the wild recess fun.

Sandra Neil Wallace, Marie’s Magic Eggs: How Marie Procai Kept the Ukrainian Art of Pysanky Alive
illustrated by Evan Turk
Calkins Creek, February 10
recommended for ages 7-10

I first learned about pysanky eggs—Easter eggs decorated with intricate wax-relief designs—from another children’s picture book, Patricia Polacco’s Chicken Sunday. Now, thanks to Marie’s Magic Eggs, I know much more about the Ukrainian tradition of pysanky and how it was nurtured in the United States in the talented hands of Marie Sokol Procai, who traveled alone from Ukraine to Minnesota in the early 20th century, when she was only thirteen years old. Illustrated in a style reminiscent of pysanky, this warm-hearted nonfiction picture book celebrates the communities that immigrants have built in America and the traditions they bring with them that fill the lives of their new friends and neighbors with joyful color.

Avi, The Road from Nowhere
Scholastic, January 6
recommended for ages 8-12

Young readers who can’t get enough historical fiction will want to check out this new adventure from beloved children’s novelist Avi. The Road from Nowhere is set during the economic crisis of 1893 in a Colorado silver mining camp called Gatchett’s Gulch. Thirteen-year-old Ollie, his brother Gus, and a girl named Alys are the only three kids in town, and Gatchett’s Gulch doesn’t offer much of a future for any of them. Ollie dreams of having enough money to help his family move somewhere else and lead a different kind of life. When the kids find a cave full of silver, Ollie’s dreams seem suddenly within reach, and an Old West adventure to claim the riches ensues.

Huda Al-Marashi, Hail Mariam
Kokila, February 24
recommended for ages 8-12

Mariam Hassan has just transferred from public school to Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School, which is “covered in pictures of Jesus.” But Mariam and her family are Muslim, and Mariam already feels like an outsider in her new school community. She dreams of making a best friend, or of being class president, and she can’t stand the idea of disappointing her family with the lower grades she suddenly seems to be getting. Being cast as Mary in the school’s Christmas play finally gives Mariam a chance to shine, but is playing the role a betrayal of her own faith? Mariam’s thoughtful attempts to decide who she is, where she belongs, and what she believes make Hail Mariam a refreshing new coming-of-age story for middle grade readers.

Lindsay H. Metcalf, Footeprint: Eunice Newton Foote at the Dawn of Climate Science and Women’s Rights
Charlesbridge Teen, February 10
recommended for ages 12 and up

Lindsay H. Metcalf has written a number of nonfiction books for younger readers, but Footeprinte, a biographical novel in verse, is her first foray into young adult literature. It’s a well-crafted look at the life of Eunice Newton Foote, a 19th-century American scientist and women’s rights activist who I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t heard of before reading this book. At a time when female scientists were still considered unusual, Foote performed groundbreaking early research into climate change and was the first to link carbon dioxide levels to global warming. She was also a fierce campaigner for women’s rights, attending the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. Metcalf’s lightly fictionalized account of Foote’s extraordinary life makes fascinating reading for teens and adults.

Annie Cardi, Winter White
Union Square & Co., January 27
recommended for ages 14 and up

Annie Cardi’s new YA novel Winter White is an update of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, a play that I like a lot but haven’t seen retold before. Cardi’s rendition of the story is set against the backdrop of the opioid crisis on a farm in rural Maine, where Pia and her brother Max live with their strict and controlling father, Leo. When Leo breaks his leg and Pia is allowed into the wider world to take over his shady delivery business, Pia begins to ask questions about her family’s past and the secrets her father may be hiding. I’m excited to see how Cardi reimagines Shakespearean themes and plot twists in this realistic contemporary setting.

Cory McCarthy, Postscript
Dutton, February 17
recommended for ages 14 and up

Stonewall honoree Cory McCarthy writes fiction that’s poetic, rule-busting, and often breathtaking, and I can’t wait to read his latest. Set in the aftermath of apocalypse, Postscript follows West, who’s been surviving for some time on a yacht with an unknowable Captain off the coast of what turns out to be New England. Then Captain trades West away to another seafaring stranger who leads him to a community of survivors, all of whom are wrestling with what it means to be alive at the end of the world—sometimes grieving, sometimes joyful, always deeply human. Relief prints by the author add to the text’s personal, handcrafted feel.