Honestly got bored halfway through trying to be connected to too many stories while feeling pushed and pulled around the panels. Obviously, the artwork is gorgeous but I’d like to know the intended effect of having such chaos throughout as it made the read entirely unpleasant.

A nice introduction for family members of transgendered individuals to help show the diverse amount of gender that exists.

Age: Toddler- 1st grade

Librarian Amadee Rickets rewords common tunes (BINGO, I'm a Little Teapot, Happy Birthday) to teach best practices for social-emotional engagement in the world. Feels familiar to the songs on Daniel Tiger that help younger children through common life situations that may cause negative feelings such as frustration, anger, fright, and positive feelings like making friends and being kind. These songs could easily be a staple in classrooms and storytimes. Highly recommend!

Themes include: Being gentle and kind, taking care of oneself, asking for help, feelings (anger, fright, thankfulness), making mistakes, being quiet or loud, circle time, inclusivity, and being a good friend.

Age: All ages--great for family storytimes

Monsters take baths before bed. What do they take baths with: soap, rubber duckies, pudding, or shampoo? Chocolate pudding of course! Perfect goofy way to look at bedtime by asking listeners to guess what monsters need to go to bed. Hint: It's always the most silly answer. With the crisp images and solid background, this book also lends itself to be transformed into a flannel board story.

As an aside, clearly this author has potty trained kids before because when asked what the monster needs to go potty, it's the only real response in the whole book. It's no joking matter, kids.

Age: Toddler+
Seasons: Rain

A short picture book leaves room for great discussions about inclusion, acceptance, and multicultural living. To me, the umbrella symbolizes a community, whether that be the idealistic US or a classroom, that always has enough room for anyone of any size, shape, or color. Although not explicitly said in the words, it will be important for the reader to invite the listeners to talk about the racial, age, and abilities differences between the people under the umbrella.

Age: Preschool+
Toys: Stuffed Animal

Roderick loves playing the question game with his parents so he can stay up as long as humanly possible, taking advantage of his parents penchant for over-explaining things. When presented with a sleeping buddy, Roderick is bothered by its large, "freaky" eyes and tosses him away only to find out that Sleepy is alive. Sleepy proceeds to drag Roderick through the same drawn-out bedtime production that Roderick just did to his parents, until he is as worn out as they and promptly passes out in bed.

Perfect for fun voices and shared reading, this will be another hit with the preschool and younger elementary crowd.

First line: “ The day I came squealing and squalling into the world was the first time someone tried to kill me. I guess it should have been obvious to everyone right then that I wasn’t going to have a normal life.”

This is EXACTLY what I needed! Action, an emerging heroine, more substance than suspense, suspense, and a non-white lead character (and sub characters). I also love that it’s sci-fi set in the past—and with a critical lens of the past and our country’s religious justification for brutality and slavery.

Jane’s character was not your typical neutral good hero who uses culturally moral judgements to guide her actions. She existed more on the spectrum of chaotic good, using violence against violence as a means to right the world

Spoiler

, even killing her own father to do it

. For a young adult book, this appears to be quite uncommon, adding another intriguing dimension to the story.

Perfection. I can’t wait for the series to continue.

Age: Infants

Large close-up illustrations of babies make this an excellent read-aloud, although the length will need to be trimmed in reading. The text jumps between several rhyming meters so, once again, things can be edited for reading aloud. I suppose there are several other picture books out there to read aloud but I really do love the illustrations and inclusion of diversity.

Age: Infant

Large, close-up photographs of babies and toddlers show common things throughout a baby/toddler's day. An essential read-aloud for storytimes!

Age: Babies

Each page reveals a toddler experiencing something rhyming with "you." A simple book with bold illustrations make this perfect for baby storytimes. And, yes, babies and toddlers poo so I'm happy for the inclusion of this common activity.