NAVIGATING NIGHT: A Glimpse At Family Work

 The first week of MAY is designated to celebrate SMALL BUSINESSES, and that's a topic worthy of attention throughout the year. Many "small businesses" are larger than you'd think, but are designated as such because they are not massive, large-stock companies. They may or may not be family-owned, may employ dozens or even hundreds of folks, but they remain "small fish" in the big pond of our American economy. A great many "small businesses" are more micr-businesses, run entirely or  nearly-so by family.  Relatives keep things running, or others may be employed as needed or seasonally. These often operate on shoestring budgets and rely on local support to remain viable. 

That description is especially typical of independent food service operations, from mobile food trucks to corner shops to multi-outlets in a single community. The demands on family members to make such a business succeed are incredible. We can try to imagine what those stresses might be if we take a moment to appreciate having their services available in our neighborhoods. 

ANNE SCWARTZ BOOKS, 2026

NAVIGATING NIGHT, written by Julie Leung and illustrated by Angie Kang, is a recently released picture book that invites readers along for the ride as Baba (father) takes his daughter along for the end-of-night delivery from his Chinese restaurant. It is a dark and dreary night, and she is more than just a companion. In this pre-GPS story, daughter navigates using a physical map, providing directions throughout multiple deliveries. She wishes she could be home, watching television or playing games. She cringes when witnessing the verbal assaults on her father or lack of tips if the delivery isn't prompt enough. 

Their time together, though, is priceless. Baba uses their drive to reveal his own challenges while in China, during times of fear and hunger. As they struggle to find delivery routes to new addresses, Baba describes his solo journey to this country. He was chosen as the one to use a single ticket, designated as the source of support for his family there and also the family he would build in a new world. Tender text references the hardships of isolation, lacking local language, and seeking ways to survive for himself and secure the future of his families. 

Baba's story is dark and intense but dealt with gently, as are the colors of the soft-edged illustrations. As they nearly complete the deliveries, Baba reminds daughter that he would be "lost" without her. The tone-shift to a steaming meal at the warmly lit family table in the restaurant shines through with love and appreciation. That goes both ways, as Baba makes daughter feel valued and daughter (the narrator) sees her own routines and her family life in new light. 

CANDLEWICK, 2025

The author note reveals that the story reflects her childhood memories, sharing a sense of the cross-generational sacrifices within immigrant families. Children become translators, navigators, and advocates. I highly recommend reading aloud this author note and the illustrator's note after sharing the book. The story is stacked with potential for young listeners to share their own experiences of family responsibilities and heritage. The storytelling and illustration also offer mentor text and images for young writers to find "small moments" from their own lives with family and caregivers that can reveal layers of values and caring. 

This lovely family story invites returns from readers in the same way that a favorite family restaurant calls us back again and again. If you are interested in another recent book about parent jobs at night, check out NIGHT JOB, written by Karen Hesse and illustrated by G. Brian Karas. In this one the dad is the night shift custodian in a school, which should intrigue many a student!

OTHERS: A Story for ALL of US

 If ever there were a picture book that models the immeasurable power of dialogue and questioning, this would be it. From the cover we see the premise: two boys are on one side of a tall hedge, offering an awareness that they are on one side and on the opposite side of that divide are OTHERS. In fact, the cover illustration indicates that whatever, WHOEVER, is on the opposite side is unknown. The sense that the unknown should be feared, or at least avoided, is made. Nothing there is threatening. The threat is the fear itself.  From that opening, an exchange of questions and answers ensues. 

Ten Speed Young Readers, 2026

OTHERS: A STORY FOR ALL OF US is written by Kobi Yamada and Illustrated by Charles Santoso. Each expansive double spread features a white background, the only reference for a massive (and firmly rooted) hedge that spans the center gutter, leaving the two boys on the left and something else on the right. Depending on their discussion and questions (and answers), the "other" (on the right) is either amorphous or vaguely familiar or actually not "other" at all. 

The dialogue between the boys is nearly Socratic in terms of questioning not only the specifics of "others" but also the nature of ourselves. The  hoys are not confrontational, but curious, convinced buteventually allowing for patterns that challenge earlier assumptions. When potential similarities are considered, the questions allow for anything being possible, which only calls on common sense to affirm that those others most likely are very much like themselves. 

The ultimate question arises when the questioning boy climbs over and is no longer "there" with his friend but is on the side of the others. Does that make him "other"?  If each feels they are "here" then what does that make the other on either side? And how many other divisive hedges and "others" could there be? And if all have more in common than they are unalike, are we all "here" together? The final page spreads pull back to geographic expanses, ultimately offering a view of our planet from space. This feels perfectly timed to share with discussions and images from the recent Moon orbit flight. Even those travelers, circling the moon, are part of our life HERE. We are each others' "others", and we are more one than we typically choose to see. 

I am as much a fan of philosophy as I am of history, birds, and other topics shared in these posts. When it comes to picture books, though, I tend to favor subtlety over the obvious. Too often I find that direct discussions of broad concepts become a bit didactic or preachy. In this case, though, I found myself fully engaged with the two boys and their verbal journey through the pages. Picture books tend to need changing scenes, a strong plot or challenges, certainly nothing as "static" as this arrangement provides. The shifts come on the right spread, where those "others' reflect the changing considerations about them taking place on the other side of the hedge. The power of thought and discussion feels like the star of this book, the driving dynamic. The impact of resolution is a newfound openness, a willingness to think and reflect. This felt like a potential conversation between friends. Especially young ones. 

If only more adults could be as open to thinking and considering their assumptions and fears as these boys are. I'm hoping perhaps some adults might learn from them. 

If you missed a prior post about the ultimate results of OTHERING people as described in  UNBREAKABLE, I hope you'll take a moment to read it now, HERE. 

UNBREAKABLE: A Loaded and Heartbreaking Account of Japanese Internment

ABRAMS BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS, 2026

 I have a strong interest in and curiosity about history, in large part because of the STORY in hiSTORY. This picture book relates one such compelling and important story, co-authored by a member of the actual family portrayed and told with only slight variation from the way the experience actually unfolded.

 UNBREAKABLE: A JAPANESE AMERICAN FAMILY IN AN AMERICAN INCARCERATION CAMP is co-authored by Minoru (Min) Tonai and Jolene Gutiérrez, with illustrations by Chris Sasaki. 

It's my sincere hope that the facts surrounding one of this country's most shameful policies and practices is not unknown to any adult readers, and that most young people will have learned about it by the time they reach elementary school. Whether that's the case or not, this makes a significant contribution to the topic and could be a powerful introduction to the history and important discussions.

I've shared a few other picture book accounts of that history HERE, HERE, and HERE. Others, like ALLEN SAY, have devoted their lives to sharing aspects of this history (personal and national) throughout his long and lauded career. As with Holocaust stories, or any survival stories, each account reveals specifics unique to that individual and family, but also contributes to understanding the patterns of their combined experiences, elements that tell an even bigger story. And TRUTHS.  Each story matters, and, combined, they matter even more.

In the case of this story, the co-author MIN was a child when his father was visited at their home in California, accusing him of being a spy. Min and his siblings were born in the United States, but that offered no protection after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Neither did it matter that their neighbors and friends offered testament to the family's loyalty to their adopted country. Min's father is taken for investigation and kept from them for years, while Min and his family were forced from their home with limited belongings, no answers, and nothing but hope that they would one day see their father again. 

The literary device used in telling this account was that Min's father gave him a small rock before he was taken, a symbol and reminder to stay strong. This narrative choice emerged from Min's early fascination with rocks and his  eventual use of rocks throughout the long internment: to beautify the grounds, to establish order in their surroundings. Eventually the war wound down, the closure of the camps began, and the return of Min and his family (including his father) to their homes was as unceremonious as was their removal. 

Back matter describes more details, clarifies the facts, and provides a timeline.The lifelong mission of Min to speak in schools and groups about this part of history is well-documented. Although he died (age 94) before the book's release in 2026, his adult children continue his outreach mission . The US government acknowledged the illegality and damage of this policy and practice many decades later, and young readers today are digital witnesses to patterns that mirror this discriminatory and illegal practice with other populations, using many of the same arguments that failed to justify the actions against immigrants and native born citizens. 

Sasaki is an award-winning animator (Pixar) and picture book illustrator whose command of color, light, shadow, and contrast are powerful and well-suited to this stark story. The figures themselves are tenderly sympathetic but firmly linear and compelling. Lines throughout felt suggestive of bars and fencing, whether vertical or horizontal. Even the blinds in the windows with their filtered light foreshadow the horizontal barbed wire wrapping the camp. There is rich fodder for discussions of injustice, xenophobia, fear, and abuse of power, but the quiet strength and dignity of the family (and many others) invites empathy and support. The span of time during which people were incarcerated allowed Min to grow from a preteen to a young man, while his parents aged beyond the calendar years. 

Whether this historic era and heartbreaking incarceration is new or a sadly familiar tale, this book deserves a place on your shelves and in your hearts. I hope you'll read it. Reflect, please, how painfully harmful FEAR is, especially when it is the driver of policy. Notice that those who were implementing the investigations and incarcerations are not shown clearly, reminding me of the masked ICE agents in today's assualts on individual rights. Those who have nothing  to be ashamed of in their choices and actions are not afraid to stand and be seen. 

CARTER HIGGINS: A Big Deal in Little Books

If you've never read (or realized that you've read) picture books by CARTER HIGGINS, allow me to introduce you. If you don't click on her name now to learn more about her and her books, please do so once you reach the bottom of the page. I've followed blog posts by Carter for years. Working with books as a librarian was her career and her personal delight, always with an uncanny ability to see in the best of them (in the images especially) the depth of ideas and intricacies of detail and meaning that could be found and shared with young audiences. Nuance and discovery were traits of her book reviews and explorations and I learned a great deal by reading her thoughts.

In time, she was immersed enough in the world of picture books to write her own. In her many  amazing books she has been paired with stellar illustrators who rose to the high bar of her language and concepts. Her books show how thoroughly she absorbed and learned from the best examples of others that she often celebrated in her blog posts. Please explore her website to see examples of her work and confirm them as evidence for my praise. 

CHRONICLE BOOKS, 2022

One particular title is a seemingly small work that is in fact quite complex and rich. BIG AND SMALL AND IN-BETWEEN is written by Carter Higgins and Daniel Miyares. It includes a few complex interactive paper folds and gatefold features, but the words and art merit long pauses and appreciation at each page turn. The concepts of big, small, and in-between represent sections within the book, each followed by multiple spreads of examples. These range from literally-sized references, to emotionally evocative ones (BIG is the donut that your brother has because he got to it before you could!), to imagined ones, challenging ones, and figurative ones.

 Each experience in each grouping combines with simple but evocative language ("a boat below the sky and above the swell" with illustrations that expand the concepts and entice further inspection of the many ways in which things like in-between-ness can be noticed and appreciated. The cover art and end papers invite scrutiny, too, offering rich opportunities for close inspection and discussion of discoveries.

The "concept spreads" offer an enjoyable read-through and discussion of comparative size, value, impact, etc. They also welcome discussions of emotions and reactions. We sometimes describe little ones who struggle for self-regulation as having BIG FEELINGS, and yet, don't we all?  Even the most accommodating child (or adult) likely feels deeply and strongly about many things, but has managed those feelings, wrestling them into levels of expression that won't "make waves". A book like this, one with such gentle and delightful language and color, can be dipped-into a page at a time. It  is a priceless tool for folks to find themselves within. It invites discussion and encouragement, acceptance of BIG FEELINGS even among those who try so hard to deny or suppress them.

Finding a way to describe just "what kind" of a book this is can be a challenge. It is not as literal as a few concept books Carter has created, including her numerous board books and interactive books. This has several of those qualities, including the durable construction and smaller square trim size. But it has even more pages than a typical 32 page picture book, far more than an eight- or sixteen-page board book. The labeled concepts of size are much more ambiguous or internal, still aimed at readers of any age but inviting longer, lingering consideration.

I urge you to spend similar reflections time exploring her website. She offers activities related to her books for those focusing on early language and concept development. In case you didn't click on CARTER HIGGINS above, do it now!