Lynn: 
Change is hard for most of us. For young children it is especially difficult as they often aren’t old enough to really understand why change is happening. And importantly, kids seldom feel any power to affect those changes that seem so overwhelming. I think many adults are feeling that same helplessness in these chaotic times.
Award-winning author Rebecca Stead makes her picture book authorial debut with a book about change and how one small family addresses it. Anything (Chronicle, 2025), is guaranteed to go straight to a reader’s heart, young or old, and to offer one way to take on something out of our control.
A young girl narrates her story of a day in a new apartment where her Dad has a chocolate cake waiting. He says it is a birthday cake for the new apartment and tells her she can have three anything wishes. “A rainbow for my room,” is the first wish, she tells him, and colors appear on the white pages for the first time as he paints a huge rainbow on the wall. The girl saves her wishes for a bit, but she makes silent wishes all related to going back to their old apartment, none of which come true.
Stead’s beautifully understated and authentic prose makes it clear that both the father and the child are regretting the change and both are working hard at protecting the other. The father’s actions are so understanding of the child’s feelings and his imaginative responses so wise, especially to the big Third Wish. The resolution will be satisfying to young readers and bring tears to adults.
The powerful partner to Stead’s evocative writing is Gracey Zhang’s artwork. Plain white backgrounds are the ideal backdrop for the small vignettes and full-page drawings. Zhang uses ballpoint pen and gouache to great effect. The scratchy sketches have the feel of a child’s crayon drawings and are deeply expressive despite the simple lines.
This is a powerful book that will speak to so many and that stays in the reader’s hearts and minds. Anything makes a terrific read-aloud and discussion starter, both in a classroom or in a family struggling with changes of their own. This is a must purchase!
I have never wished to be 20 years younger any more intensely than while reading 
Families who love the outdoors are eager to introduce their little ones to the fun of camping and hiking. Many schools around the nation are integrating outdoor education into their curriculum. It’s not always easy to find books on these activities for pre-schoolers, so I am excited to write about two excellent board books from Duopress, an imprint of Sourcebooks. The series is Terra Babies on the Go, and the two titles I want to feature are
loved this interesting and inviting picture book about a very unusual subject – physically moving a house! Teri Roche Drobnick’s debut picture book, 
Readers, I am back and so sorry for my absence! Life happens and I didn’t eke out time to write. But the books are still here to talk about and I hope to be a regular blogger again.
: My Swimming Life 
more than an underdog sports story! This GN delivers not only that but is also a story based on a true event featuring an all-girls hijab-wearing team from a Muslim high school in Milwaukee. Aliya’s family has moved from warm Tampa to freezing Wisconsin and she is missing her old home terribly. She is also missing her winning basketball team as the Salam High School team is pretty terrible. In fact, they’ve never had a winning season. Not only does Aliya’s team have to battle discrimination, both of their culture and their gender, but they have to figure out how to come together as a team. It all makes for a compelling story that will have readers racing to the end. I read this in galley but even in that format, the illustrations are expressive, dynamic, and vivid. Stock up!
Brinkley Yearbook series expecting it to be a story about a female athlete battling to play on a male team. The surprise here is that the new coach welcomes Alexandra or Al delightedly. The baseball team looks to be a shoo-in to win its tenth season until Al captures the attention of the media and all their focus goes to her. Feeling jealous and left out, the rest of the team resents her fame and their winning season is in jeopardy. Bright colorful illustrations make this a fun, fast read and the topic of PR and social media is timely and important.
The iconic Hoover Dam is familiar to lots of us. Many young readers have visited the dam, driven over it or heard about it in the current news about lowering water levels. It is so familiar that perhaps the astonishing details of its development, construction and impact have been overlooked lately. Happily, Simon Boughton has remedied those issues with his new and fascinating book, 
Amateur scientist Thomas Jefferson had a lot on his plate what with the Revolution, Declaration of Independence, a Constitution for a new country and all but he still found time to read scientific books such Comte de Buffon’s treatise on animals. Until, that is, he read the section on American wildlife! Comte de Buffon dismissed the New World as being cold and inferior with the bears smaller and wolves puny! Jefferson knew this wasn’t true and when he looked more carefully he discovered that de Buffon’s facts were inaccurate. In fact, the French scientist had never even been to America!
es after the secret work at Bletchley Park, its long-hidden stories finally started to be revealed. I’ve read several accounts of pivotal people involved in cryptography but here, wonderfully, in 
When you think of the letter B do you think of “Big Baboons Bathing in Blue Bubbles”? Or does the letter P evoke thoughts of “Perky Penquins Painting Pretty Pictures”? Well, I haven’t but after reading Sylvie Daigneault’s stunning 
bookendsblog.net 