WHO HID THE STARS: HOW LIGHT POLLUTION CHANGES THE WORLD

 I wrote about the lovely and lyrical picture book, LIGHTS OUT, when it released in 2020. I hope you'll take a moment to click on that link and read about this remarkably powerful and gently persuasive book. It takes a creative approach to the animals' struggles when light pollution disrupts countless generations of evolutionary adaptations. I highly recommend that title and think of it often, especially during the two seasonal bird migration periods in Spring and Fall. 

If you are reading this as it posts live, you are smack in the midst of a several-week migration of birds from the southern regions to the north. Some birds travel established migration patterns for hundreds of miles, and others whose flyways cross thousands of miles. Science is studying but still has much to learn regarding how those paths remain so predictably consistent, how birds navigate them. Many are birds who have never traveled those paths. What we can do to learn from them, about how they do it, matters. In the meantime, everyone is certain that most birds include moonlight and starlight (yes, stars are used in some sort of magnetic compass orientation) so that LIGHT, of the natural sort, is essential to their success. 

    

EERDMANS BOOKS for Young Readers, 2026

WHO HID THE STARS: How Light Pollution Changes our World is written by Valentina Gottardi, Macie J. Michno, and illustrated by Danio Miserocchi. The translation by Sylvia Notini is masterful in capturing the complex text with a fluency and clarity that serves the authors well. This is a thorough examination of the impact of light pollution not only on birds but on water life, plant life, insects, communication among members of species, and many light's impacts that we directly observe (road kill, bugs zappers, and more) on a daily basis.

A Kirkus review calls the illustration "razzle-dazzle art", and I concur. The back matter and embedded-in-text suggestions for ways to modify our human activities allow young people not only to change their own habits but to become advocates for protection of the night skies. 

To learn more about light pollution, check out 

DARK SKY INTERNATIONAL.

OTHERWISE KNOWN AS JUDY THE GREAT: A Poetic Ode to Judy Blume

CHRISTY OTTAVIANO BOOKS, 20026

 There are countless authors of books for kids, picture books and otherwise, that adults are unaware of. parents and others may recognize the titles of some classics (GOODNIGHT MOON comes to mind, or BROWN BEAR BROWN BEAR), but relatively few adult readers of these books could recall their authors' names. 

But mention the name JUDY BLUME and the percentage of adult recognition skyrockets. Many of those "lightbulb" recognizers will rattle off one or more of Blume's titles that really mattered: to themselves, to their kids, and even to current generations.

Sadly, JUDY BLUME was not yet writing books when i was looking for strories  as a kid. In fact, she was growing up, as I was, in a world that did not offer kids much in the way of current interesting releases. Even Beverly Cleary was barely getting started. 

That, in fact, is partly why she grew up to WRITE books that reflected REAL kids, REAL concerns, and stories that felt like readers' REAL lives. The good news is that those JUDY BLUME books were coming out while I taught reading and literacy with students across many ages. They and I came to know and love her titles. 

NONE of her books were picture books, although she did expand her portfolio to write young adult/teen titles and novels for adult readers.I'm excited to share a picture book poetry biography of JUDY BLUME now, since April is poetry month, and every day is JUDY BLUME Respect Day! (I made that last one up!)

OTHERWISE KNOWN AS JUDY THE GREAT: A POETIC ODE TO JUDY BLUME is written and illustrated by Selina Alko. The award-winning author-illustrator uses a series of poems in different forms to reveal Judy's life, focusing strongly on her early years and family life. Readers find that Judy's close knit family provided safety and security, but it also led her to trying to do things right and BE a good girl,  LITTLE. MISS. PERFECT. Her brother's frequent pranks and boundary-pushing made Judy's self-imposed pressure even greater.

The mid-century life she led is presented on the page with mid-toned, colorful art, offering a sense of warmth and happiness. The illustrations also include collage-effect, scrap-book-style sections of text passages, assembled symbols of her life, and detailed items related to underlying concerns Judy felt as a child. Her "bargaining with God" to achieve a longed-for adventurous life, to help her brother recover from illness, or even to end the war (WORLD WAR II) came back in ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET. Each poem reveals not only Judy's complex growth and imagination, but also the issues that she later explored in her novels for young readers. 

Many of the poems are titled to convey reminders of specific books she wrote as a mother of two (a boy and a girl). These were stories she wished for in her now childhood, ones she saw her children longing to read. The books she wrote allowed young readers to navigate their own lives, to pursue and contemplate truths. A Judy Blume timeline clarifies content from the poems, paired with a few family photos. Selina Alko's extensive note in back matter reveals the extensive research she did into an author she loved. She lists multiple connections with Judy: being Jewish, loving ALICE IN WONDERLAND and NANCY DREW books, and seeking answers to questions that life presented. Judy's books are frequently listed as BANNED, and Judy continues to work against censorship. 

There are individual poems that can spark lively conversation, but taken as a whole this is biographic journey through the young experiences that fueled an American author everyone should know. The references and further readings in back matter are a great resource, but a doubt they capture and convey JUDY as well as this picture book does. 

THE GALLAUDET ELEVEN: The Story of NASA's Deaf Bioastronauts

Little Brown, & Company, 2026

  I first learned about the remarkable GALLAUDET ELEVEN several years ago when Gallaudet University mounted a fantastic display of their achievements, DEAF DIFFERENCE + SPACE SURVIVAL. If this review or anything about the program catches your curiosity, I urge you to click that  title above and learn more from the wealth of videos, articles, and other resources about these fantastic young contributors to essential space research.

That's what I did at the time when  news was breaking about the G-11 program from fifty years earlier. After watching, reading, and researching more about the program, I contacted two of the original ELEVEN who were active and eager to share the hidden history they had carved. 

During the ensuing years I corresponded and worked with Harry (Sonny) Larson and David Myers, two of the three members of the team who were still alive more than half century after their work ended. Once our manuscript for a picture book was ready to submit, another author had been doing the same research and beat my submissions to a contract. These things happen. Kerry O'Malley Cerra is a multi-award-winning children's author who also happens to be deaf. Her picture book about these unsung heroes released last month. THE GALLAUDET ELEVEN: The Story of NASA's DEAF Bioastronauts is written by Cerra and illustrated by Kristina Gehrmann. 

Cerra's approach launches by indicating the excitement and appeal of early space exploration, including students at Gallaudet College (now University).Those students faced disappointment when it became clear that their deafness would eliminate them from applying  as astronauts.Several pages reveal space race pressures, the dangers of motion sickness, and the need for  understanding and treating motion sickness in anyone attempting to travel in space.  The NASA doctor working on this problem visited Gallaudet College to recruit and test  volunteers for immunity from this effect. Some (not all) Deaf people have damage to the vestibular system in their inner ear. This allows them to experience movement without dizziness or nausea. Eleven men qualified and became decade-long volunteers to undergo tests that would-be astronauts would also take, serving as the baseline goal for tolerating the movement without sickness. 

Spinning, swinging, bouncing, zero-gravity, and living in a rotating room involved measuring eye movements, blood work, and comparing accuracy and speed in operating manual devices. All eleven young men had other jobs and often participated during vacations or by taking time away from work and family. Their days were long and exhausting, with complications that none of the NASA crew used ASL, American Sign  Language. But they committed to serving their country and this important program. They continued for more than a decade while America's first manned flights led to the Apollo moon program and the eventually moon landings and exploration. With the current ARTEMIS Moon program well underway, foundational data from  original G-11 studies, along with the medications and adaptations those tests led to, remain the basis for safety for today's astronauts.

Not unlike HIDDEN FIGURES (Black women who made the calculations that assured safety for these flights), the efforts of the GALLAUDET ELEVEN remained unknown to all but a few until the exhibition was finally presented more than fifty years later. Now this new picture book makes the men and their contributions known to generations old and new. More details are found in back matter, along with an introductory letter provided by Barry before his death. I'm excited to say that the book launch was at Gallaudet University and both David Myer and Harry Larson attended and signed stacks of books for their new-found fans. Our goal all along was to document their program efforts in ways that could find readers of any age.

I hope you'll find and read this new book and become as much a fan of these bioastronauts as I am. This was never a "secret" program, but was an underreported aspect of a very glamorous program. Let's all celebrate the men who quietly and generously dedicated themselves to the program because they had, as Harry says, "The difference they needed."

WHO IS SINGING?

When an important and delightful nonfiction picture book released some years back, I was invited to write a blurb. It was an honor to do so, and this is what I said:

"The author's winning pattern of question/response page-turns combines delightfully with readable bird calls and colorful images, inviting young nature-lovers to listen, observe, and gain confidence in the outdoors. This appealing introduction to familiar bird song patterns and habits offers a sort of 'first book of birding'."

 That's why I was so pleased to learn that this book is being re-released in a larger format, high quality picture book that continues to sing to me.  WHO IS SINGING? is written by nature-focused Janet Halfmann  and illustrated by Chrissy Chabot with crisp, simple images and coloration that are particularly useful for younger audiences at the first stages of bird observation and identification. This new offering is  a sort of "first field guide" for little ones with little hands, big ears, and enormous curiosity about the world. 

Belle Isle Books, 2026

In the northern hemisphere we are in prime season for bird song, with feathered songsters declaring territories, imprinting hatchlings with species pattern calls, and just singing in celebration of  the start and end  of a day. 

Recent studies document the correlation (nearing proof of causation) that increasing screen time with little ones actually rewires their brains, developing a few areas while failing to develop many more crucial patterns of seeing, hearing, and thinking. Yes, screens and their contents are interactive and colorful, but so is nature. Halfmann's informative, well-written, and interactive birdcall/bird-spotting book is an active, outdoor alternative that kids will welcome. 

Here's a link to my full original review. Some of  my initial praise follows and it all remains true:

Halfmann limits her choices to some of the most familiar birds in the midwest (and much of the country), each of which still has large populations that can be found in urban, suburban, and rural locations. She also provides a winning pattern of question/response for page turns. The opening question includes a "readable" translation of familiar birdsong, followed by a page turn that depicts the bird interacting within typical habitat, including food/prey, diurnal/nocturnal settings, and some typical behaviors. 

Interior images used with permission.

Halfmann's text patterns will also have young ones reading along and chiming in as each turn begins with the phrase, "Take a bow... " then repeats the bird's name. Those few lines incorporate the visual content regarding habitat, food, and species patterns.

As is typical in many of Halfmann's nature-focused titles, back matter includes useful learning content and ideas for activities. In this case, the content mentions the ways these "worded" songs were selected, that other wordings exist, and suggests ideas about creating our own versions of recognizable birdsong. It's easy to hear some of thesbirdsonge on YouTube. Just search for BIRDSONG. Share this delightful book with little ones, then take them, and yourselves, out into the wide world and LISTEN!"

StarBright Books, 2010

As with Janet's many other titles, study guides and teaching activities  are available on her website. It's also worth noting that her books are "keepers" in terms of sustained popularity and appeal to young audiences across time. Books like GOOD NIGHT LITTLE SEA OTTER (published in multiple languages) and others have landed on state favorites lists year after year. A great benefit of WHO IS SINGING is the range of familiar and widely distributed birds that are featured, and the accessibility of their songs for imitation. Young folks across the country will find birds they recognize and be able to succeed at interacting with them in song. That's a real-world, screen-free activity that never becomes boring and could lead to endless questions and investigations as readers grow into nature-lovers. 

In a recent conversation with an illustrator I was bemoaning my own lack of art skills. Their comment reminded me of this book. I'm paraphrasing here, but the gist is this: 

Every kid loves to draw, even if they don't think they are good at it. They just want to do it, and the more they do, the better they become. It works for adults, too. Those who develop an interest in birds are likely to find appeal in making sketches and field notes for themselves. An adult version of that is THE BACKYARD BIRD CHRONICLES, written and illustrated by AMY TAN. (Yes, THAT Amy Tan!)

On a sad side note, North American birds are struggling to survive, with some estimated population drops in the range of 50% reduction in only the last few years. Some of this is due to habitat loss and climate changes, but some is due to a highly contagious infection that spreads easily through bird-feeding stations. My longtime advice to provide a feeding station is now guarded, adding a note to check with your local parks and wildlife services to see if yours is an area that is discouraging feeders for the coming season. This book provides a super opportunity to still engage young learners to engage with birds in an interactive way while learning about our responsibility to be informed and helpful in maintaining and restoring their populations. We can't and won't protect creatures about whom we know nothing.