Big new titles perfect for the littles.
Escargot and the Search for Spring by Dashka Slater (author) and Sydney Hanson (illustrator) (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers). “I have made a decision. I will dig through the enormous snowbank and go out into the world to look for signs of spring. You should come! While we are digging through the snow, we can talk. Tell me, what do you do when you are suffering from ennui?” With that, the insouciant, slimy Frenchman and his bunny pal set off on a silly search for evidence that warmer days are coming!
My Mother’s Tongues: A Weaving of Languages by Uma Menon (author) and Rahele Jomepour Bell (illustrator) (Candlewick). “My mother has two tongues. With one tongue, she speaks Malayalam. With the other, she speaks English…To me, she speaks a combination of both, saying, ‘Sumi, help me ee saadhanangal eduthuvekkaan.’ The languages hop, like rabbits, from her tongue.” The young girl marvels at her Indian mother’s immigrant story — and the stories of immigrants everywhere — in this sweet, gentle celebration of our multilingual, multicultural world.
The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn by Shawn Harris (Knopf Books for Young Readers). “Once upon a time, in a land where horses were mythical beasts, found only in the pages of books for children, it was common to see a unicorn. But not one this size.” Okay, so the itsy-bitsy pink guy isn’t the hugest, most intimidating unicorn you’ll ever meet. But when he comes across a wee gnome who’s ever smaller than he is? The tiny, horn-topped equine starts to realize that maybe he’s not too little. Maybe he’s exactly the right size…
