When an artist friend came to visit me a few years ago, she remarked on the art hanging up in our house. “It’s all by picture book illustrators!” she said. And I laughed, because although she was perfectly right, I hadn’t even realized it until then.
But I do love and admire picture book art, which seems almost magical to me. At its best, it conveys a narrative, appeals to a wide-ranging audience, and works just as well on its own as it does in the company of text.
This month’s list of new children’s book recommendations pays special attention to forms of visual magic: a wordless picture book, a work of scientific nonfiction that’s dressed up like a graphic novel, and several more titles that play with artistic elements in interesting and beautiful ways.
*
Dayeon Auh, The Three-Year Tumble (trans. Tim Mohr)
NorthSouth, March 25
(recommended for ages 4-8)
A grandfather is distraught when he takes an accidental tumble down the side of Mount Misfortune. After all, according to local legend, anyone who falls down the mountain has only three years left to live. As the third anniversary of his fall approaches, the grandfather becomes convinced he’s on death’s doorstep, but his quick-thinking granddaughter comes up with a way to turn the mountain’s curse to their advantage.
Dayeon Auh’s joyfully unique paintings bring warmth and color to every page of this Korean folktale retelling, and the clever conclusion will leave young readers giggling.
Kirli Saunders, Afloat (illustrated by Freya Blackwood)
Levine Querido, March 4
(recommended for ages 4-8)
Australian artist Freya Blackwood’s textured, sketch-like illustration style is put to wonderful use in this picture book with text by Gunai author Kirli Saunders. The art tells a story of a First Nations community where people of all ages work together on a massive weaving project, eventually creating a whale that rises into the sky with the people on its back.
Saunders’ lyrical language spins an invitation to Indigenous, Native, and First Nations young people to learn the wisdom of their elders and find strength and resilience in a changing world. Afloat is a work of art that adults will appreciate for its thoughtful beauty, and I think children will find it magical, too.
Marta Bartolj, Finding Forgiveness
Chronicle, March 11
(recommended for ages 5-8)
This wordless picture book from award-winning Slovenian illustrator Marta Bartolj follows a young boy whose beloved pet bird flies away after the boy’s friend accidentally lets the bird out of its cage. The boy is angry with his friend, but as he searches the village for his pet, he notices neighbors all around him making mistakes, getting upset—and then deciding to forgive one another and repair their relationships.
Bright blue tones set against an otherwise limited color palette direct readers’ attention to the story’s narrative events, making this book a great choice for children of any age or reading ability who are ready to explore the ways that we can take care of one another even when it feels difficult to make amends.
Amy Alznauer, The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape (illustrated by Anna Bron)
Candlewick, March 4
(recommended for ages 7-11)
I love any book that teaches me something new, and I think I learned at least twenty new things from The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice. Did you know that only a few kinds of geometric shapes can be tessellated, or fit together over and over without any overlaps or gaps?
Pentagons are particularly tricky to tile in this way, and for a long time, mathematicians thought that only a handful of different five-sided shapes could be tessellated. To their surprise, in the 1970s, an amateur mathematician, artist, and mom named Marjorie Rice discovered a brand-new tiling pentagon. And then she discovered three more!
In this fascinating and extra-cool nonfiction picture book, author Amy Alznauer and illustrator Anna Bron work in harmony to teach readers of all ages about the history of geometry, make tricky concepts easier to understand, and celebrate an unconventional mathematician’s extraordinary accomplishments.
Lynne Rae Perkins, At Home in a Faraway Place
Greenwillow, March 18
(recommended for ages 8-12)
With her dad and grandma, Lissie travels from an English-speaking country to a Spanish-speaking “faraway place” to spend two weeks visiting her dad’s friend Raúl. Lissie is nervous about the trip: It’s her first time traveling so far from home, and she isn’t sure how to communicate without knowing any Spanish.
But as she explores Raúl’s hometown and begins to make friends, Lissie picks up some Spanish phrases and finds other creative ways to make connections and have adventures.
Written and illustrated by Newbery medalist Lynne Rae Perkins, At Home in a Faraway Place feels almost like it could be a kid’s real travel journal. The chapters are short and light-hearted, and the Spanish phrases Lissie learns are accompanied by drawings to help native English speakers understand them, too.
Sarah Todd Taylor, Alice Éclair, Spy Extraordinaire: A Recipe for Trouble (Alice Éclair #1)
Nosy Crow, March 18
(recommended for ages 9-12)
If you’ve ever longed to craft epic desserts in a Parisian pâtisserie, or to pursue enemy spies across Europe—well, you and I would get along really well. Also, you’re going to love Sarah Todd Taylor’s fun novels about Alice Éclair.
Lucky young Alice is a “baker by day, spy by night” and the star of her very own middle grade series, originally published in the UK. A Recipe for Trouble takes readers to 1930s France, where Alice boards the famous Sapphire Express to stop a German spy from carrying off a mission that could pave the way for invasion.
A second Alice Éclair adventure is scheduled to make its US debut this fall.
Cindy Jenson-Elliott, The Doomsday Detectives: How Walter and Luis Alvarez Solved the Mystery of Dinosaur Extinction (illustrated by Theo Nicole Lorenz)
Tu Books, March 11
(recommended for ages 10-13)
I’m planning to pick up a copy of The Doomsday Detectives for my budding paleontologist, but I know it’ll be tough for me not to steal it away from her. Through comic-style panels, traditional nonfiction prose, sidebars, infographics, and more, author Cindy Jenson-Elliott and illustrator Theo Nicole Lorenz explore how scientists answered one of history’s biggest questions: What happened to the dinosaurs?
Along the way, they touch on related subjects large and small, from tsunamis and plate tectonics to the nuts and bolts of the scientific method. This book isn’t just a visual delight; it’s written with true respect for its audience of young scientists.
Rachel Ekstrom Courage, Nothing Bad Happens Here
Delacorte, March 18
(recommended for ages 12-17)
You don’t have to be on a beach vacation to enjoy Nothing Bad Happens Here, a summery, smart YA thriller that’s good fun at any time of year. Lucia usually spends the summer in her hometown of Pittsburgh, but this year, she’s joining her mom on a trip to Nantucket, where the pair will be staying with Mom’s wealthy new boyfriend.
It’s all crushed-seashell driveways and beach bonfires until Lucia discovers a dead body of a teenage girl in the water. Determined to find out what happened to the girl, Lucia starts to dig deeper into the mysterious and possibly mythical lives of the teens she’s started to befriend, with page-turning consequences.
Hayley Chewins, I Am the Swarm
Viking, March 25
(recommended for ages 14-17)
When they turn fifteen, each of the women in Nell’s family receives her own form of wild and unsettling magic. Nell’s mamma changes from one age to another, which means Nell can never rely on her as a caregiver.
Her sister Mora’s blood is filled with music, causing Mora to self-harm in order to release the magic. For Nell, the enchantment—or curse?—arrives in the form of insects that mirror her emotions: a burst of joyful butterflies, hopeless moths, or angry wasps.
Hayley Chewins’ fresh, immediate free verse succeeds as both poetry and storytelling, drawing readers close to Nell as she wrestles with powerful emotions that have the capacity to be both beautiful and dangerous.
Miriam Zoila Pérez, Camila Núñez’s Year of Disasters
Page Street YA, March 18
(recommended for ages 14 and up)
I was charmed right away by the narrative voice of fifteen-year-old Camila, who’s introspective and totally real about the ups and downs of life as an anxious human in a messy world. When Camila is left embarrassed and hurt after her first romantic relationship with a girl, she agrees to let her best friend perform a tarot reading to divine what the future holds.
But the cards’ predictions aren’t exactly as comforting as Camila had hoped, and every life change, from new romances to tangled-up friendships, holds the very real-feeling possibility of disaster. I loved spending time with Camila and her Cuban American family over the course of one well-crafted and transformative year.
