Artist and poet Douglas Florian has created numerous award-winning picture books over the years, including Dinothesaurus and Insectlopedia. A book by Florian is often destined to become part of family lore, lovingly passed down from child to child to grandchild. And that’s certainly true of his newest title, Windsongs: Poems about Weather. 

Each poem in this appealing collection appears in white lettering on a bright page, opposite illustrations rendered with gouache paint, colored pencils and rubber stamps on primed paper bags, giving the volume a cheerful, homespun feel. Weather, of course, fascinates everyone, and after reading this book, kids and parents alike might find themselves creating their own poems, inspired by Florian’s poetry about the dew, drought, thunder and frost, among other topics. 

Some of the poems here are silly, others playful or evocative. A poem entitled “Fog” begins: “The fog is just a cloud that’s lost. / A cloud that’s gone astray. / It woke up in a hazy daze / and slowly lost its way.” The collection concludes with a poem about climate change, including a reminder that “Mars is too cold, and Venus too hot. / Our blue planet Earth is all that we’ve got.” Back matter includes a glossary and weather websites for kids. Windsongs is a gift for the whole family!

In London, Nate Macabuag designs and builds prosthetics for people with limb differences. “To be able to give someone something that they didn’t have access to before—it’s a good feeling,” he says. At Chicago’s Field Museum, Lauren Nassef helps care for specimens used in scientific research. And in the Bronx, shopkeepers Dan Treiber and Reina Mia Brill spend their days surrounded by toys. “We sell things that bring people joy,” Dan says. “We sell happiness!” 

Those are just a few of the 28 professions depicted in Shaina Feinberg and Julia Rothman’s fascinating and inspiring Work: Interviews with People Doing Jobs They Love. 

The duo, who write and illustrate the New York Times’ popular Scratch column (about “money—and the people who deal with it”), previously teamed up for How We Got By, a collection of 111 personal accounts about getting through hardships. This time, they wanted to create a book for kids in the vein of their newspaper column. 

For Work, Feinberg and Rothman interviewed people around the world about their skills, motivations, daily tasks and favorite aspects of their careers. The answers are varied and intriguing, presented in brief biographies that also include discussion prompts such as “If you could invent anything, what would it be?” Rothman’s art is detailed and vibrant, ranging from portraits of people at their jobs, to illustrations of a wildland firefighter’s helicopter and a cobbler’s custom shoes.

Those looking for answers to “What do you want to be when you grow up?” will delight in learning how youthful propensities might translate into grown-up jobs: For example, an artist who climbed trees as a child now paints murals on very tall buildings. They’ll also gain insight into Rothman’s and Feinberg’s own work via the final entries in this engaging, illuminating collection, as well as the “How We Made This Book” section that follows. 

Another nice touch: The duo note that many illustrations were based on photos, and include credits for each one, ensuring that, from start to finish, their book explores, celebrates and values work and the people who undertake it. Work is a helpful resource and entertaining read that’s sure to broaden horizons and inspire exploration.

With nearly 50 books under his belt, beloved author and illustrator Barney Saltzberg turns his attention to canines in his latest zany offering, The Smell of Wet Dog: And Other Dog Poems and Drawings. He proclaims his love in the first poem, “I Love Dogs,” followed by the title verse, which describes their odor as “Imagine moose and skunk perfume. / An odiferous stench, a paint-peeling plume.”

Young readers will relish these often rip-roaringly funny short poems, with lines like “A long stretchy / drizzle of slobbery ooze / dribbles and splats / on my favorite shoes.” Kids will readily identify with lines like “It’s hard to sit. / It’s hard to stay. / Who makes these rules up, anyway?”

This is a celebration of all things dog—the good, the bad and the smelly—that adult dog lovers will enjoy as well. Saltzberg’s endearing spot illustrations complete the package, with big-eyed dogs of all shapes and sizes cavorting, rolling around in messes, leaping into the air and staring pleadingly at each other and the reader. How can you not fall in love? There are poignant moments as well, with poems about a lost dog, an aging pet and the undying adoration that dogs have for their owners—and vice versa. (Cat lovers: a sequel is likely in store, as the last page features a cat saying, “You forgot . . . / the cat!”)

The Smell of Wet Dog is chock-full of luscious light verse designed to draw in even the most reluctant of poetry readers.

The City Sings Green & Other Poems About Welcoming Wildlife is an inspirational treasure trove that introduces young readers to the concept of rewilding, showing how cities and communities around the world are repairing some of the environmental damage caused by human habitation. Focusing on 11 intriguing examples, Erica Silverman has created a unique blend of poetry, science, civics and activism. 

Each story is compelling: a honeybee highway in Oslo, Norway; a Los Angeles school that tore up their asphalt playground to create a natural oasis; and cities in Australia that built rope bridges over highways so that western ringtail possums might safely cross. Silverman introduces each short lesson with a poem celebrating an ecological achievement, accompanied by a prose explanation of the specific details. It’s a winning combination that succinctly informs and delights, while helpful back matter provides additional resources. Both the poetry and prose of The City Sings Green are widely accessible.

Ginnie Hsu’s cheery illustrations are an ecological feast, filled with bright colors that readily convey the benefits of each endeavor. Her art is particularly immersive, leaving readers feeling as though they’ve practically taken a walk through many of the places described, often seen from an animal’s point of view.  

The City Sings Green is inspiring, and likely to encourage budding environmentalists to more closely consider the intersection between humans and nature. 

Tamales for Christmas transports readers right into Grandma’s kitchen, filled with warmth, comfort and creativity. . “Her kitchen is the heartbeat of our familia, loud and cramped and perfumed with delicious smells,” states the book’s narration. Grandma is based on author Stephen Briseño’s grandmother and her cooking skills, legendary among her numerous children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  

With the holidays approaching, Grandma sells her tamales to make money for Christmas gifts, and the bright, saturated colors of Sonia Sánchez’s art immediately infuse a festive spirit into this big-hearted tale. Gray-haired Grandma always has a smile on her face, delighted as she enlists her entire family’s help with her project. Each spread oozes joyous commotion: pots steam on the stove, children run from room to room, Grandma’s busy hands layer the corn husks. Her work begins in the fall and lasts until Christmas, sometimes before dawn as well as at night. There’s an ongoing tally of the tamales she makes, starting with 15 dozen and ending at 1,000 dozen—12,000 tamales! Young readers will enjoy keeping track of the count, as well as the repeated refrain, “With masa in one hand, corn husks in the other,” used to describe the matriarch’s efforts. 

While heroic and quick to help out neighbors, Grandma is also human. As the months pass, she keeps making her specialty, even on Halloween night. She whips up a big feast for Thanksgiving—no tamales, however—and finally takes a well-earned break in early December, propping her feet up on the couch, “long enough to play a game, weave stories that get everyone laughing so hard our eyes tear up and our sides hurt.”

Briseño never loses sight of the holiday spirit. As the narrator says, “We finally enjoy the best present Grandma could have given us. Each other.” Both story and art shine in Tamales for Christmas, making readers feel as though they’re part of this big, loving family. 

Thank You, Everything is a unique picture book meant to be enjoyed over and over: It may easily become a favorite of preschoolers as well as young elementary students. One morning, a child wakes up, eats breakfast and receives a box containing a mysterious treasure map that launches a grand journey. Told with minimal prose, this intriguing tale opens up the world to readers in a multitude of fascinating ways, leading them on a grand adventure that lasts for months and involves travel by bicycle, train, bus, plane, raft and hot-air balloon.

Icinori—the design and illustration duo of Mayumi Otero and Raphael Urwiller—use a bold yet limited color palette that favors shades of turquoise and rust to create wildly stylized, dynamic illustrations. Their graphic designs are eye-catching throughout, whether portraying a glass of water, jungles of wild animals or winding pathways reminiscent of an M.C. Escher painting. The pacing is perfect, prompting readers to appreciate and take close-up looks at small details (a bath towel, a canteen, a caterpillar) while also admiring big, beautiful landscapes (a bustling city, a dark forest lit by a full moon, a mountainside strewn with boulders, a mysterious palace).

The narrative, translated from French by Emilie Robert Wong, is equally distinctive. Just as Goodnight Moon uses a repeated refrain, the explorer in this picture book, as the title suggests, thanks each and every thing encountered, starting simple (“Thank you, alarm clock) and getting progressively more intriguing (“Thank you, volcano”). This delicious blend of art and prose is both soothing and exciting, and will encourage young imaginations to soar. The mystery of the final destination—where a surprise awaits—will keep readers engaged from start to satisfying conclusion.

Thank You, Everything is a delightful book filled with wonder and gratitude, feelings that will linger with readers long after they close its cover.

Former Young People’s Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye is one of the most distinguished and celebrated poets writing today. Grace Notes, her magnificent, evocative new poetry collection, is dedicated to the memory of her mother, Miriam Naomi Allwardt Shihab, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 94. 

In her introduction, Nye shares how she first came to creating poetry about families, and the ways in which she encourages young writers. She tells readers, “I honor my beautiful, brave mother and know she might take issue with a few of my perspectives, but that’s okay. . . . I hope that anyone who reads these poems has occasion to think about their own family members even more than mine. It’s our lifetime project. It helps us keep living.”

While the masterful poems in Grace Notes evoke the specific history of her mother’s life and, later, the author’s grief at her passing, Nye never leaves readers out of the frame. Throughout, the poet encourages readers to ask questions and think deeply. In the very first poem, “How Parents Get Together Anyway,” she describes her parents’ meeting and marriage, then asks, “What about you? How did your parents / end up in the same spot?” 

A powerful, deeply felt book that will make a thoughtful gift for both teens and adults.

Young readers devour books in graphic format, whether they’re novels, graphic nonfiction, traditional comics—or innovative works like Vikram Madan’s newest, Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock: A Graphic Novel Poetry Collection Full of Surprising Characters!. Having worked as an engineer before returning to his first love of “rhyming and doodling,” Madan has created more than a dozen books, including the poetry collection A Hatful of Dragons.

Madan’s latest is funny and quirky—the sort of book you give to kids who claim not to like poetry, as well as those who do. The interconnected poems feature goofy, silly creatures like ghosts who turn into ghost guppies, squishosaurs, and the Nozzlewock (you’ll have to read to find out more). Throughout, Mandan’s background in STEM shines through, in poems on topics like wormholes and scientists. 

Madan celebrates wordplay, and doesn’t shy away from unusual or long words. As the squishosaurs explain, “Where other dinos trot or plod, / We undulate and flow. / Our protoplasmic pseudopods / Are silent as the snow.” Madan’s artistic style is appealing; the panels vary in size and are easy to read, making this a great choice for readers new to the graphic format.

Bursting with energy and bright images, Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock is smart, sassy and perfect for reading alone or out loud together. It’s already on this reviewer’s list for a certain 8-year-old!