Kathy G. Short, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
This month’s WOW Currents focuses on trends in global literature for young people published and/or distributed in the U.S. between July 2023 and July 2024. Each year, we identify new books published during this time period, examining the books and consulting book reviews to determine which texts are of most interest to K-12 educators. In this process of updating our global reading lists, we also gain a sense of current trends in the themes, topics and genres of global books being published for children and teens.
The updated 2024 K-12 recommended global reading lists are available on the Worlds of Words website. The lists are organized by grade level bands, K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-10 and 11-12, with a fiction and nonfiction list at each level. The lists are organized around broad themes, such as strength through relationships, forced journeys, taking action, locating self in the world and mythological quests. Books from previous years that remain in print are kept on the lists. Readers interested in the most recent books should focus on books published in 2023 and 2024.
The recommended books are identified by examining the global books sent to the center for review purposes, searching databases, reading book reviews and consulting global book awards. The books on our lists are set in cultures outside the U.S. or involve characters who move between the U.S. and another global culture. Some are international books that were first published in another country before being adapted or translated for publication in the U.S.
The range of global cultures on our lists continues to grow, so that while English-speaking countries still dominate (Canada, UK, Australia), numerous other countries are now represented, such as India, Nigeria, Ghana, Vietnam, Philippines, Jamaica and Iran. Many of these books are created by authors and illustrators who write out of their family heritage or their own immigration experiences. The majority of translated books are picturebooks from Scandinavia and Europe or Japan and Korea, such as Out of the Blue (Bach-Lauritzen & Kjærgaard, 2024) from Denmark, Pepper and Me (Alemanga, 2024) from Italy and The Shade Tree (Lee, 2023) from S. Korea.
One powerful set of picturebooks focuses on the multiple ways in which grief and memory play out in children’s lives. Empty and Me by Azam Mahdsavi and Maryam Tahmasebi (2023) is a bilingual book in Persian/English from Iran in which a girl’s journey of grief after the death of her mother is personified through a figure named Empty. In The Heart Never Forgets by Ana Otani and H. Goodman (2024), a Nigerian girl pays tribute to the memory of her grandfather during a West African masquerade parade, while in The Remembering Stone by Carey Sookocheff (2023), a Canadian girl tries to keep the memory of her grandfather alive by carrying a skipping stone in her pocket. John and Thomas Dougherty (2024) from the UK depict grief through a hare-shaped hole that a turtle sees where his friend used to be in The Hare-Shaped Hole.
The significance of children’s relationships with grandparents continues to be depicted in picturebooks, such as At the Drop of a Cat by Elise Fontenaille and Violeta Lopez (2023), translated from French about a boy who loves spending time with his grandfather, an immigrant who uses language in playfully unusual ways. My Grandfather’s Song by Nguyen Quang Phung (2023), translated from Vietnamese, depicts a grandfather who teaches his grandson the beautiful songs of nature. Abuelo, the Sea and Me by Ismee Williams and Tatiana Gardel (2024) follows a young girl who walks with her abuelo through the seasons as he shares stories about his life in Havana, Cuba.
Food dominates picturebooks on immigrants and family traditions, so much so that a separate blog post will feature these books. Other picturebooks featuring immigrant experiences include a family from Afghanistan in The Carpet by Dezh Azaad and Nan Coa (2023) and a Hmong family in a Thai refugee camp in Caged by Kao Kalia Yang (2024). Historical fiction about Vietnamese refugees include Finding Papa (Krans & Bui, 2023), a picturebook, and two middle grade novels, The Cricket War (Pham, 2023) and Mèo And Bé (Nguyen, 2023).
In nonfiction, picturebook biographies are a major trend with a focus on people from different national backgrounds in a range of fields. Daughter of the Light-Footed People by Belen Cabot and Natalia Castro (2024) is the story of an Rarámuri Indigenous long-distance runner from Mexico, while Game of Freedom by Duncan Tonatiuh (2023) focuses on Mestre Bimba, the legendary capoeira player from Brazil who used this art form to resist racial oppression. Masked Hero by Shan Woo Liu and Lisa Wee (2023) is about a Chinese physician who developed the first version of the N95 mask to defeat the 1910 Manchurian plague. A fascination with how shapes work together led a Hungarian professor of architecture to a new invention in Erno Rubic and His Magic Cube by Kerry Aradhya and Kara Kramer (2024). The Girl Who Heard the Music by Marni Fogelson and Marta Alvarez (2023) is the story of Mahani Teave, a pianist who used her fame to build a solar powered school of music and art in Rapa Nui. Rashin Kheirinyeh takes readers to 13th century Iran in Rumi: Poet of Joy and Love (2024) with Persian-inspired illustrations.
The global issues of environmental destruction and climate change are reflected in picturebooks and novels that go across genres. Nonfiction picturebooks, such as Planting Hope by Philip Hoetzel and Renato Alarcao (2024) and As the Seas Rise by Angela Quezada Padron (2024) highlight the work of environmental activists in Chile and Guatemala. Realistic fiction, such as Turtles of the Midnight Moon by Maria Jose Fitzgerald (2023) set in Honduras, portray current environmental dilemmas. Fantasy and science fiction is especially popular as a means of portraying the future consequences of environmental destruction in Sayantani DasGupta’s The Chaos Monster (2023), a fantasy that combines eco-mystery with Bengali folklore, and Soyoung Park’s Snowglobe (2024), a Korean YA dystopia. The picturebook Flooded by Mariajo Illustrajo (2023) is particularly interesting as a group of animals ignore the rise of water until it’s almost too late to save their city, a commentary on the risk of ignoring climate change.
Middle grade and young adult global fiction continue to be strongly dominated by fantasy, mythological quests, and science fiction, with books coming out of many global traditions and authors, including Ambelin Kuwaymullina, Vanessa Le, Yoon Ha Lee, Zohra Nabi, Rajani LaRocca and Rashani Chokshi. One last trend is YA retellings of classic tales, such as Plain Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brosgol (2024), a Victorian-era fantasy that upends “The Little Mermaid,” Where the Dark Stands Still by A. B. Poranek (2024), a reimagining of “Beauty and the Beast” steeped in Polish folklore, and Into the Bright Open by Cherie Dimaline (2023), an Indigenous queer remix of “The Secret Garden.”
We invite you to spend time reading the updated 2024 K-12 recommended global reading lists to locate books that meet your needs and interests. Each book includes text complexity information, a short annotation and the country or culture within which the book is set. The most highly recommended books are starred.
WOW Currents is a space to talk about forward-thinking trends in global children’s and adolescent literature and how we use that literature with students. “Currents” is a play on words for trends and timeliness and the way we talk about social media. We encourage you to participate by leaving comments and sharing this post with your peers. To view our complete offerings of WOW Currents, please visit its archival stream.
- Themes: Kathy Short
- Descriptors: Books & Resources, Debates & Trends, Uncategorized, WOW Currents