News & Features

These eight titles center anthropomorphic animals, from snails to cats, and many more, celebrating special days like Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Purim.

New York doctor Jaclyn Sisskind shares the positive impact books have made on her patients and her concern for the harm of book bans.

Schools respond to the dip in reading scores with more tutoring and summer school programs; new reading curriculum; additional co-teachers and reading specialists in the classroom.

Fighting for environmental justice, these young people write some books of their own, too.

Steer teens toward these powerful works and organizations focused on environmental movements and climate justice.

This year's SLJ Best Books cover, was created by Guojing, author/illustrator of The Flamingo, a 2022 SLJ Best Book. Guojing is the 25th cover artist in an annual tradition of Best Books covers that began in 1998.

Portland-based illustrator Kalila J. Fuller did the honors for our November 2022 cover story on the representation of Native people, stories, and culture in children's publishing.

 For our September issue, journalist Martha Hinton reported on new approaches to teaching the topic of slavery in U.S. classrooms. 

For our October cover on horror comics, Stephen Giplin depicted a child reading Mark Fearing's graphic novel Welcome to Feral, while the classic monsters in the bedroom look on in terror.