Welcome to the last Picture Book Spotlight for January 2024! I’ve got six new picture books for you today. This week was a little skimpy on the new picture books, so I added two titles from earlier this month that looked interesting, but did not make the list in their publication week.
My top picture book pick this week goes to The Last Stand by Antwan Eady. This story is about a young Black boy and his father working a stand at a local farmer’s market. The father gets sick, and the community helps to support the family in their time of need.
But there is much more to this story than this one father and son. Throughout the story, there are hints of declining farmer’s markets in the US, particularly Black-owned farms. There is also a note at the end about the USDA’s history of discrimination against Black farmers.
The Last Stand is illustrated by brothers Jerome and Jarrett Pumphrey. If those names sound familiar to you, it may be because they recently won a Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor – Illustrator Award for the amazing There Was a Party for Langston.
The links to the January Google Slides presentation, the printable list of all the January 2024 Spotlight titles, and the Ginormous booklist are at the bottom of this post. I do not plan to add any additional titles to the January presentation or printable list. We’ll have new ones for February coming next week!
You will also find links to the YA and Middle Grade Spotlights for this week at the bottom of this post.
Author: Antwan Eady
Illustrator: Jarrett & Jerome Pumphrey
Publication date: January 30, 2024
Genre: picture book
Setting: Farmer’s market stand
Recommended for: PreS - Grade 3
Themes: farmer’s market, fruits and vegetables, community, fathers and sons, family businesses, people looking out for one another, discrimination
Protagonist: father and young son, both Black
Starred reviews: Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus
Pages: 40
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
Every stand has a story.
This one is mine.
Saturday is for harvesting. And one little boy is excited to work alongside his Papa as they collect eggs, plums, peppers and pumpkins to sell at their stand in the farmer’s market.
Of course, it’s more than a farmer’s market. Papa knows each customer’s order, from Ms. Rosa’s pumpkins to Mr. Johnny’s peppers.
And when Papa can’t make it to the stand, his community gathers around him, with dishes made of his own produce.
Author: Michelle Meadows
Illustrator: Jamiel Law
Publication date: January 30, 2024
Genre: picture book biography
Setting: Harlem, New York, USA; Switzerland, and France; 1924-1987
Recommended for: PreS - Grade 3
Themes: American literature, authors, using one’s voice, Harlem Renaissance, racism, LGBT+, discrimination
Protagonist: African American writer James Baldwin, queer
Starred reviews: Publishers Weekly
Pages: 48
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
Before he became a writer, James “Jimmy” Baldwin was a young boy from Harlem, New York, who loved stories. He found joy in the rhythm of music, family, and books.
But Jimmy also found the blues, as a Black man living in America.
When he discovered the written word, he discovered true power. Writing gave him a voice. And that voice opened the world to Jimmy. From the publication of the groundbreaking collection of essays The Fire Next Time to his passionate demonstrations during the civil rights movement, Jimmy used his voice fearlessly.
Author: Elana K. Arnold
Illustrator: Magdalena Mora
Publication Date: January 30, 2024
Genre: picture book
Recommended for: PreS-Grade 3
Themes: fish, family stories, kindness, saving a life, making new friends, shyness
Protagonist: young girl with brown skin and dark hair
Starred reviews: Booklist
Pages: 40
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
Once, there was a girl named Kiki, who found a fish on the asphalt.
The fish was very hot and very dry.
But when Kiki put it in the bathtub, it started swimming, and growing, and . . . speaking?
“I want to grant you a wish for saving me,” it said.
A wish-granting fish!
Alas, this fish was only a fish of small wishes, and Kiki’s wish was too big.
Unless . . . there was a way for both their dreams to come true.
Author: Tang Wei
Illustrator: Kelly Zhang
Publication date: January 16, 2024
Genre: picture book
Setting: Chengdu, China
Recommended for: PreS - Grade 3
Themes: grandmothers, nutrition, healthy food, fruits and vegetables, gardens, family, love
Protagonist: eccentric and energetic Chinese grandmother
Starred reviews: no starred reviews
Pages: 40
Notes: Translated from Chinese
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
Granny may be old, but she’s certainly not feeble – or idle! She’s built a splendid vegetable garden from scratch on the rooftop of her Chengdu apartment building.
She collects thrown-away produce and feeds it to her chicks and geese – or composts it for the garden.
She waters, weeds, and teaches the neighborhood children to care for the garden like she does: with love, patience, and pride.
And come harvest time, Granny gathers her fresh produce and cooks up delicious meals for her friends and family…or gives them their own bags of yummy treasures so they can cook on their own!
Author: Karen Gray Ruelle
Illustrator: Hadley Hooper
Publication Date: January 23, 2024
Genre: picture book
Recommended for: PreS-Grade 2
Themes: dogs, pets, imagination, parallel lives, seasons
Protagonist: little girl
Starred reviews: no starred reviews
Pages: 32
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
For as long as she can remember, Joy has wanted a dog.
It doesn’t matter what kind: big, little, spotted, curly. She wants one so fiercely, she makes dogs out of snow, seashells, or whatever’s at hand!
However, none of the dogs Joy makes are quite what she yearns for. The seashell dog washes away, and the snow dog melts into a puddle.
Little does Joy know that her perfect dog friend is just around the corner—wishing just as fiercely for a kid—and waiting to be discovered.
Author: Emma Bland Smith
Illustrator: Susan Reagan
Publication date: January 30, 2024
Genre: picture book biography
Setting: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Recommended for: Grades 2-5
Themes: cooking, traditional gender roles, cookbooks, the importance of measuring, sexism
Protagonist: Fanny Farmer (1857-1915); female, white
Starred reviews: no starred reviews
Pages: 40
Notes: Includes multi-page timeline.
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
When Fannie Farmer learned to cook in the late 1800s, recipes could be pretty silly.
They might call for “a goodly amount of salt” or “a lump of butter” or “a suspicion of nutmeg.” Girls were supposed to use their “feminine instincts” in the kitchen (or maybe just guess).
Despite this problem, Fannie loved cooking, so when polio prevented her from going to college, she became a teacher at the Boston Cooking School.
Unlike her mother or earlier cookbook writers, Fannie didn’t believe in feminine instincts. To her, cooking was a science. She’d noticed that precise measurements and specific instructions ensured that cakes rose instead of flopped and doughnuts fried instead of burned.
Students liked Fannie’s approach so much that she wrote a cookbook. Despite skepticism from publishers, Fannie’s book was a recipe for success.
Written with humor and brought to life with charming illustrations, this book explores the origins of Fannie Farmer’s quintessentially American cookbook. A cookbook that was beloved because it allowed anyone to make tasty things, with no guessing, no luck—and certainly no feminine instincts—required.
THE LINKS YOU’LL NEED FOR JANUARY
- January 2024 – Picture Books – Google Slides presentation – click “use template” to make a copy – share with students and teachers! This presentation is now complete for January. I do not plan to add additional titles to the January list.
- Printable list of all January 2024 Spotlight titles – sorted by genre and grade level group; click “use template” to make a copy. This list is now complete for January 2024.
- The Ginormous Book List – this week’s Picture book Grade titles are #3821 – #3826 on The Ginormous.
MORE JANUARY 2024 NEW RELEASE SPOTLIGHTS
ABOUT THE SPOTLIGHT
The New Release Spotlight began in May 2016 as a way to help librarians keep up with the many new children’s and YA books that are released each week.
Each week, school librarian Leigh Collazo compiles the New Release Spotlight using a combination of Follett’s Titlewave, Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes and Noble. Recommended grade levels represent the range of grade levels recommended by professional book reviewers. See the full selection criteria here.
Inevitably, there are far more books that meet my criteria than can make it on the Spotlight. When I have to make the tough decisions on what to include, I just use my “librarian judgment.” Would I buy this book for my own library? Would my students want to read this book? Is the cover appealing? Does it fill a need?