Booky Woogy

A Very Good Parade by Eleanor Davis. Abrams, 2026. 9781419785733 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5+ Format: Hardcover picture book    What did you like about the book? Every time I read this exuberant book I laugh with pleasure. Gabby is a short brown kid with a giant bun of hair who’s dressed in a tutu, cape, crown, red booties, and wields a spatula as a baton. With her…

Little Yu & the Treelings: Lost in Peach Blossom Paradise by Xiong Liang. Translated from the Chinese by Chloe Garcia Roberts. Elsewhere Editions, 2026, c2019. 9781962770491 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 3.5 Format: Hardcover, picture book sized fiction    Genre: Fantasy What did you like about the book? Little Yu is intrigued by the the peach blossom petals floating on…

Small Monster, Big Monster: A Seriously Silly Book of Opposites by Allan Sanders. Phaidon, 2026. 9781837292110 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4.5 Format: Board book    What did you like about the book? Urban monsters teach opposites in this entertaining board book. From ON and OFF the bus, to the BIG monster with a sweat band trying to play basketball with SMALL humans, to…

Mabel and Merryglow: The Journey by Anne Montel and Loïc Clément, illustrated by Julien Arnal. Translated from the French by Charis Ainslie. Post Wave, 2026, c2023. 9798895090930 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5 Format: Hardcover graphic novel/picture book    Genre:  Fantasy What did you like about the book? This follow-up to Mabel and Merryglow: The Spark, from earlier…

The Animal Detectives: Solve Nature’s Wildest Mysteries by Moira Butterfield, illustrated by Merle Goll. Buster Books, 2026. 9781837251698 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4 Format: Hardcover      What did you like about the book? Harriet Whiskerton, a hare, and Vince Van Shell, a tortoise, are nature detectives at the Animal Detective Agency. They narrate their…

I Am Kylian: The True Story of an International Soccer Champion by Kylian Mbappé, illustrated by Faro. Rodale Kids, 2026, c2021. 9798217445844 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4 Format: Paperback graphic novel     Genre: Biography/memoir What did you like about the book? From the cover image of Mbappé in his signature celebratory pose, to the the details about his playing…

Lightseekers: A Kingdom of Shadows by Emily Bain Murphy. WaterBrook, 2026. 9780593601457 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5 Format: Paperback    Genre: Fantasy What did you like about the book? For about as long as he can remember, it has just been Finn, his little sister Lydia and his best friend Adrion surviving as best they can on the street of The Bells. Finn, white,…

Dinosaur Day by Edward Miller. Beginner Books, Random House, 2026. 9780593377284 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5 Format: Hardcover reader     What did you like about the book? Spend a day with the dinosaurs, as they eat, play, and eat some more. Short rhyming couplets in a pleasing ABCB scheme are simple and descriptive, and new readers can predict the ending rhyme:…

An Invisible River to Cross by Taraneh Matloob, illustrated by Kristen Balouch. Red Comet Press, 2026. 9781636551449 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5 Format: Hardcover picture book      What did you like about the book? Afsaneh is learning English in a new land, far from where she was born. It feels like “crossing an INVISIBLE RIVER where there is no beginning and no end.”…

The Magical Orchestra by Lauren Crisp, illustrated by Ella Hobbis. Tiger Tales, 2026, 2025. 9781664300934 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4.5 Format: Interactive picture book    What did you like about the book?  A forest orchestra, made up of animals large and small, gets ready to perform in this lovely musical picture book. Bears play the drums, a wolf blasts the French…

Aku: Journey to Ibra by Micah Johnson, illustrated by Durk van der Meer. Random House, 2026. 9780593811788 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4 Format: Hardcover  Genre: Science fiction What did you like about the book? Aku (his friends call him by his initials instead of Arthur Keaton Underwood) is a 12 year old Black boy who loves video games, baseball and inventing…

Whale, That Was Unexpected by Casey Lyall, illustrated by Kathryn Durst. Tundra, 2026. 9781774883617 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5 Format: Hardcover picture book What did you like about the book? Move over, Bert Dow, Deep Water Man, there’s a new kid in town, or, on the water. Maude, a fisherwoman of a certain age, has been on the open sea in her trusty little boat…

Fatal Glitch: Let’s Play a Game by Erin Entrada Kelly & Eliot Schrefer, illustrated by Jeannette Arroyo. Stonefruit Studio, an imprint of Sourcebooks, 2026. 9781464241079 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 3.5 Format: ARC (9/26 publication date)    Genre: Science fiction/horror What did you like about the book? A shadowy android-like creature announces to the reader that they…

Maggie’s Big Break by Jennifer Dickinson. Includas, 2026. 9781949983234 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4 Format: Paperback     Genre: Realistic fiction What did you like about the book? Maggie is excited to begin 6th grade at Danbury, an all-girls school. She’s an aspiring actor and can’t wait to get involved with a real production on a real stage. Despite having a…

The Boring Drawing Book by Erica Harrison. Messy Press, 2026. 9781067098582 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4 Format: Paperback interactive  What did you like about the book? Young doodlers will be thrilled with the mandate of this activity book, which is to make the boring stuff “unboring.” There are over 70 drawing activities, from the simple, like adding rungs on a…

Banana Express: The Big Journey Behind One Small Delivery by Jung Jinho. Translated from the Korean by Aerin Park. Scribble, 2026, c2024. 9781964992280 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4 Format: Hardcover picture book     What did you like about the book? When Minjoo needs a quick breakfast, she orders bananas to be delivered first thing in the morning. But what happens so…

The Palace of Facts by Kate Olesin, illustrated by Andy Smith. What on Earth!, 2026. 9781804661710 Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 3.5 Format: Oversize hardcover    What did you like about the book? The Royal Society of Astonishingly Amazing and Fantastically Fabulous Facts invites readers to tour their fact collection, displayed throughout their “illustrious Palace.”…