SLJ Reviews

Kwanzaa is an African American and pan-African holiday that celebrates family, community, and culture. These board books, picture books, and audiobooks will help young children learn more about it and get into the spirit of the holiday.

Caregivers can read these poems to children to help them on their journey to slumber.

These three chapter books feature lovable, quirky animal sleuths solving wacky mysteries and getting into plenty of high jinks along the way.

Cree, Sioux, and Ojibwa are featured in these picture books across fiction and nonfiction categories. Among them are an old favorite, vastly updated, plus a biography about the hero of the drum.

At story hours or in more casual settings, readers will come away from these two charming books about family and baking hungry. In each, family and friends—woodland animals or human dear ones—gather, and beautiful loaves of challah are enjoyed by all.

Books in translation are a great resource to enrich young minds and library shelves. Here, SLJ rounds up 7 recent titles for the middle grade set.

From board books that invite the littlest readers to hippity-hop to anthologies that encourage older readers to explore deep themes in narratives, these 11 titles celebrate the Festival of Lights in a variety of ways.

With these titles, young readers can see some of the many different ways people celebrate Christmas around the world.

November's starred offerings include nonfiction by Kwame Alexander and Andrea Davis Pinkney, as well as a professional reading title about Judy Blume.