CITY SUMMER, COUNTRY SUMMER: An Intimate Look At Ordinary Life

One of the more challenging things to help young writers learn is the power of writing "small moments". Early writers want to share adventures and magical tales, rockets and dragons. Those are fantastic topics and need more encouragement than they sometimes are given. Even so, few children are as emotionally affected by dragons as they are by small moments in their personal lives. Moments of joy or worry or loss or celebration. Reading and writing those stories from their own experiences provide insights and inner processing of the emotional landscape of daily life. 

During BLACK HISTORY MONTH, and beyond, many of the picture books that so wonderfully reveal major moments in our American history focus on "big" events and eras in our shared experiences. I've reviewed many of those, HERE, HERE, and HERE, for example. There is value in providing accessible stories that too often were untold or even denied. The BIG parts of history need to be shared and understood. 

KOKILA, 2025

 CITY SUMMER, COUNTRY SUMMER, written by Kiese Laymon and illustrated by Alexis Franklin, reveals a ubiquitous history of small summer moments with heart and joy. The faces on the cover only hint at the experiences of the boys portrayed, two local brothers in Mississippi and one New York City boy, all spending the summer next door to each other with relatives. 

Mississippi native Mildred D. Taylor's award-winning middle grade novels explored this multi-generational pattern often. After the Great Migration into Northern States, families would send children South during summers to visit and learn from extended family. This may not be the first picture book to examine this cultural pattern through a  contemporary Black lens, but I have not found others. 

The voice is a slightly reflective first person approach to the process of meeting, measuring, befriending, puzzling, and recognizing "safeness" in the others. Not safety, but safeness. A recognition of themselves in the others, for saying both "I love you" and "I am afraid" to the others without risking the spoken words. The vibrant colors, the glowing skin, the dense but nearly monstrous garden, the perspective of overhead smiling adult faces, hands spraying their bodies with water, the slides down a hillside all say what words dare not. 

Don't come to this thinking it is some kind of City Mouse/Country Mouse parallel, or that it is a series of "summer fun" antics, fun for the sake of fun. There are shadows of both, in this tentatively tender relationship story. But those elements only serve the bigger picture of young folks with dark skin who have lived in a world in which caution is an essential skill. The story and their adventures reveal the process of  exploring trust in a potentially hurtful world. 

Please read this. Experience the lively scenes and read the text several times. Find and feel the  layers of simple statements and underlying emotions and hopes. You will come away enriched.

And, perhaps, awakened.

Teacher friends who read this book will recognize wonderful mentor text for writing small moments.

AFRO-INDIGENOUS: Black History In Need of Representation

HEARTDRUM, 2025

I can imagine no better creators to share the stories and images of contemporary youth whose family tree is rooted in both Black-and-Indigenous ancestors than the team behind STRONGER THAN. The shared voices of poet-extraordinaire NIKKI GRIMES and Choctaw member-storyteller STACY WELLS provide a genuine family account of brothers with such heritage. As notes from both authors and further material in back matter indicate, there are few if any other stories in picture books that explore a heritage  so often reported in Black families, even when tribal or clan connections are not traceable. Sadly, Native and Black individuals (and communities) share the history of oppression and societal exclusion (and much worse), which sometimes led to friendships, marriages, and blended  communities of mutual support.

In this story, the brothers are descendants of survivors of the Trail of Tears and the Tulsa Race Massacre. Through a family-storytelling style, the brothers AND readers learn about both periods and persecutions in America history. They also learn of the strength of their family, recognizing their courage to continue despite tragedy, and, as a result, gaining in confidence and identity. 

Illustrations by E. B. Lewis not only imbue the current and historic story members with individuality and personality. The powerful images are bathed in masterful shifts of color and tone, shadow and light, conveying the interiority of the boys and their family as if music is swelling, soothing, or pounding in the background. The moods and tones, their shifts and transitions, make this account feel like an impactful film. 

This storytelling is launched by the recurring nightmares for one brother, a pattern that has him dreading bedtime. Most stories about nightmares, monsters under the bed, and things that go bump ih the night are aimed at younger audiences with many employing an amusing or comical approach to ease anxiety. This, by contrast, is a story aimed at school age readers and above, with depth and detail that connect across subject areas in integrated curricular studies.

We need contemporary stories of strong Black boys as well as Native People whose heritage stories were rarely shared and even now are facing attempts at erasure. The publisher, HEARTDRUM, is actively working to bring these satires to the shelves, including authenticity and language that readers of any background will welcome and learn from within the context of quality literature. I hope you'll take time to read and consider this new, award-winning picture book, then share it widely. 

IT'S PRESIDENT'S DAY: Celebrate with REVOLUTIONARY FRIENDS

What better day than PRESIDENTS' DAY to turn the spotlight on a nonfiction picture book, REVOLUTIONARY FRIENDS: General George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, written by Selene Castrovilla and illustrated by Drazen Kozjan.

CALKINS CREEK, 2013

 This is a distinctly appealing account of the Washington/Lafayette relationship we've all heard about, if only in HAMILTON. This nonfiction picture book has a deeply touching heart. Lafyette is often portrayed as a young, flamboyant, even cavalier Frenchman (of minor royalty) whose attention to the American Revolutionary War seems more youthful bravado than commitment to a cause.

At least that's the way I have viewed him. In this case, we see Lafayette and Washington in the full relationship that arose between them, that of a mentor/father/son with and deep true affection. Washington's national stature was the earned success of a non-nobleman, a general, then a president. He was a generation older, stood a head taller, and exuded the solemnity and stability that counterbalanced the zeal and exuberance of young Layfayette. 

This account makes clear that Lafayette's idealism was deep-seated and spanned the Atlantic to embrace both continents. He viewed himself as fully French and yet devoted himself and risked his life (repeatedly) to support the cause of the rebellious colonies.

I'm a fan of the text, including the brief and well-chosen inserts from Lafayettte's own writing. The illustrations range from formal introductions and settings to tense moments of war and treatment of threatening injuries. While revealing the formality of a bygone time and military roles, portrays of their contacts, expressions, and postures reinforced their mutual respect thoroughly. 

The back matter provides the remaining stories that readers (at least this one) longed to discover, as well as life-line timelines for each. It's a worthy addition to what seems a well-worn era, and one that humanizes the costs to emotions and personal commitments to a high-minded cause- Democracy.

This is firm reminder of the force of big ideas, adherence to principles, and dedicated friendships. It would be accessible for younger readers but is especially valuable for use with older readers in integration with social studies and history. The material opens discussions about where borders and b outcries lie in relation to deep-seated principles. It also presents a wealth of enlivened scenes for considering the relaunching of democracy in a modern (at the time) society that had for centuries been configured on monarchies, power, and wealth. Highly recommended.

THREAD BY THREAD: An unforgettable Journey

 Here's a picture book that enchants on its surface and aches at its core. How to write about refugees for very young audiences and still resonate with heart and hope? Try this one. Then, perhaps donate to a school or refugee center or family, or talk it up with someone you know who might not seem welcoming to the need for acceptance of desperate humans. I know, these are mice, but the story is universal!

Eerdman Books for Young Readers, 2023

THREAD BY THREAD is written by Alice Briere-Haquet and illustrated by Michela Eccli, with translation by Sarah Ardizzone. The cover image allows for some effective predicting. This seems like a delightful and charming story, a clever presentation of the warmth of family and home using mixed media and delicate but appealing line art in color. If that was your guess, you'd be right, on the first spread. 

But the title page features one unraveled strand of yarn, suggesting that the peace and contentment are short-lived. Endpapers, too, show that curly, unfurled yarn from the faoundaitonof the family's home along with some other yarns in different colors and conditions. 

The  minimal text is as pure as the knit one/purl one process that once constructed the security of their lives. The race to escape is inevitable, show on mostly white pages with literal and symbolic images shown in scenes combining color pencil art and yarn. Tension rises as the dangers increase, the pace intensifies, and the stakes rise. With nearly nothing to cling to, the escape across waves includes loss, and arrival reveals an armored encounter. What happens next is where the heart and hope enter the design. This community effort not only helps produce a new roof over their heads, but builds a social network and surprises that suggest not only safety but joy. 

This irresistible little picture book contains a global story, told through the universally identifable characters of mice. By no means does it replace picture books that reveal more details and specifics of individual and varied refugees and their cultures. For some examples that I've reviewed in the past, check HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and CROCODILE CROSSSING. 

And if that knit-bit caught your attention, check out Mac Barnett and jon Klassen's EXTRA YARN.

Side note: I read this and loved it when it first released a few years ago. The warm response (in the midst of ice and ICE) of the Minneapolis community brought it back to mind. If you know of little ones who are wondering about the things they see in news and media, remind them that the horror and chaos are nominally caused by concern about refugees and immigrants. The en-armored characters on the arrival shores could be discussed as having potential for acceptance or rejection... or worse. The choice they make (those with power and authority) leads to this happy and satisfying ending. The other titles linked can help do the same. Don't miss out on using such a tender and fun picture ebook with young audiences. 

Side-side note: This book works especially well as a LAP book (even if that just means Looking At Particulars). This is a delightful example of ways that illustration details, even the smallest, hold full stories within them and enhance the encompassing story with richness and depth.