This almost wordless picture book set in the dawn of human life imagines how art and storytelling were born from the power of one young girl’s observation.

When Janie’s neighbor Mrs Tolen goes into hospital with a broken hip, it looks as though she will have to move out of her old caravan and into a house. Janie is desperate to help, but all seems lost until her school visits a local recycling plant. All it takes from there is imagination, a supportive community, and lots and lots of hard work to transform Mrs Tolen’s old caravan into a safe and secure new home!

The candles are lit, the food is prepared, and the sweet smell of copal floats in the air on Día de Muertos. Built with love and dedication, the family ofrenda stands with pride. As everyone gathers to share in this ritual, each element added to the ofrenda is infused with significance-from the sugar skulls placed with care on top of the embroidered cloth to the golden petals that guide the way. Told after the style of the English nursery rhyme, The House That Jack Built. The Ofrenda That We Built invites readers to learn about and celebrate the Day of the Dead by joining in the building of a family ofrenda. With warmth and brightness, this gorgeously illustrated book is a joyful ode to family traditions, bonds that transcend time, and the memory of loved ones who have passed but who we continue to remember.

Alfred Nobel was the man who founded what became known as The Nobel Prizes. Nobel also invented dynamite, becoming very wealthy from his invention. Saddened by its use for harmful destruction, Nobel left his fortune to create yearly prizes for those who have rendered the greatest services to mankind.

A powerful social emotional picture book about friendship and courage in the face of hardship. When Conejo’s house blows away in a storm, his friends and neighbors take turns helping him look for it. Though they do not find his house, they each send him on his way with good cheer and small gifts. Conejo is grateful for their support, but still finds himself sitting with sadness for some time. When the rain clears, Conejo finds the courage to rebuild. He fills his new home with the memories, love, and support he collected from his friends along the way.

Once, on an alligator shaped island in the middle of a wide sea, there lived a little girl who loved maps and dreamed of one day knowing other places. In another part of the world, at the mouth of a wide bay, there lived an old man who in his youth dreamed of sailing the world and making friends in foreign lands. When these two strangers connect through a message in a bottle, their communication inspires a visit that forges a lasting friendship, which expands both their worlds.

As she grows up, Tatiana, a young Ojibwe girl, celebrates the big events of her life by wearing the beautiful ribbon skirts she creates with her nookomis (grandmother), a tradition connecting her to generations of her family.

Evelyn Del Rey is Daniela’s best friend. They do everything together and even live in twin apartments across the street from each other: Daniela with her mami and hamster, and Evelyn with her mami, papi, and cat. But not after today, not after Evelyn moves away. Until then, the girls play amid the moving boxes until it’s time to say goodbye, making promises to keep in touch, because they know that their friendship will always be special. The tenderness of Meg Medina’s beautifully written story about friendship and change is balanced by Sonia Sánchez’s colorful and vibrant depictions of the girls’ urban neighborhood.

No matter where she goes, or how big she grows, Wanjikũ knows her name. In the lush Kenyan countryside, a young Gikũyũ girl helps her grandmother with daily tasks. Here, as she tends to the cows, carries water, and plays in the fruit trees and sugarcane, she is called Wanjikũ. On the busy city streets of Nairobi, where she goes to school, she is called by her English name, Catherine. But at home with Wangarĩ, the maid who cooks and cares for her, she is again Wanjikũ. All grown up in boarding school, Catherine is the leader of her class, surrounded by friends from different cultural backgrounds. But at night, when she gathers with her fellow Gikũyũ sisters to speak her mother tongue, she is Wanjikũ once more. Gloriously illustrated, alive with the joie de vivre of girlhood, and based on the author’s own beloved childhood memories, Wanjikũ, Child of Mine is an ode to the heritage that walks alongside us, and a love song for the sisters we make on the journey.

An uplifting young reader debut about perseverance against all odds, Marie Miranda Cruz’s debut Everlasting Nora follows the story of a young girl living in the real-life shantytown inside the Philippines’ Manila North Cemetery.After a family tragedy results in the loss of both father and home, 12-year-old Nora lives with her mother in Manila’s North Cemetery, which is the largest shantytown of its kind in the Philippines today.When her mother disappears mysteriously one day, Nora is left alone.With help from her best friend Jojo and the support of his kindhearted grandmother, Nora embarks on a journey riddled with danger in order to find her mom. Along the way she also rediscovers the compassion of the human spirit, the resilience of her community, and everlasting hope in the most unexpected places.“Heartwarming!”—#1 New York Times Bestselling Author Melissa de la Cruz“A story of friendship and unrelenting hope.”—Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly