JP highlights--publishing in April 2024

Every creation two friends build together end up tumbling down, except their friendship.

Lucia and her brother help their mother sell churros made with love on a warm, rainy day in New York City.

"Five children, from five different cultures and in five different decades, grow up in the same building on the Lower East Side of New York City"--

How do you cheer someone up when they're stuck in a boring old hospital bed? Cora is determined to find a way. Grandpa Jim can only see a small square of blue sky from his hospital window, so Cora decides there's only one thing to do--she will bring him some sea to go with it! First, she brings him a hat full of sea. Then she brings him a hat full of countryside. She even brings him the moon, the black velvet night, and the shimmering, glimmering...

As a young girl seeks reassurances to more elaborate what-ifs, her father's reassurances paint a picture of infinite care, showing her there is no limit to the love he has for her.

"A girl in India discovers an ancient step well in this companion book to the creators' much-loved Out of the Way! Out of the Way! When a girl discovers a slab of stone on a weedy patch of land, she calls to her friends, "Look! Look!" The children clear away the weeds and garbage and find more stones. They call their families to come and see and begin to dig around the stones. Word travels to villages nearby, and more and more people join in, until...

When someone steals her friend Sandra the sheep, Mavis, a chicken who's afraid of EVERYTHING, summons up her courage, a tractor, a lasso and a lot of hen-spiration to be the hero the barn needs.

Ernest's parents are worried because he never really smiles, but Ernest assures them that he is happy--he is just not the kind of guy who smiles.

After he is mistakenly invited to a birthday party, a spirited badger tries to stay on his best behavior but has some difficulty repressing his badger-like instincts.

Just look at what you can build out of ordinary stuff when you follow your imagination! Children and their caretakers will love this beguiling child-led tour of a make-believe world constructed from everyday household and backyard objects. Words and pictures work together cleverly to spark eureka moments: that "ship" is really a table, that "dark cave" is really a laundry basket, and more, as a day full of building, playing, and pretending turns into...