Family

Don’t Want To Go!

A resistant Lily discovers that new experiences don’t need to be scary in this engaging, deftly told story certain to resonate with young children. One morning, Lily’s mom wakes up with a sore throat and achy head and needs to stay in bed. But Lily’s dad needs to go to work. Who will look after Lily? When Dad arranges for her to spend the day at Melanie’s house, Lily is none too happy. “Don’t want to go!” she says. Even though Melanie has a friendly dog named Ringo and a funny baby named Sam, Lily is shy and wants to sit under the table with her toy Bobbo. But maybe a chance to make silly collages, or feed Sam lunch, or hold Ringo’s leash might make her feel braver–and maybe she’ll start having so much fun she won’t want to leave at the end of the day! With illustrations that keenly convey emotion through the subtlest gesture, Shirley Hughes mines a familiar situation for its most genuine moments and creates a truly reassuring story for young children.

Home Is Beyond The Mountains

When the Turkish army invades northwestern Persia in 1918, nine-year-old Samira and her parents, brother, and baby sister are driven from their tiny village. Taking only what they can carry, they flee into the mountains, but the journey is so difficult that only Samira and her older brother survive. Shunted from one refugee camp to another, from Persia to Iraq and back again, Samira finally ends up in an orphanage, where it seems that she will live out her childhood. Then Susan Shedd, the new orphanage director, arrives and, to Samira’s amazement, announces that she will take all the children back to their villages to make new lives for themselves. With wonder and fear, Samira and three hundred other orphans embark on an epic march of three hundred miles through the mountains towards home.

There’s Going To Be A Baby

In a first-time creative pairing, two of the world’s most treasured picture book creators offer a truly delightful book for new-siblings-to-be.When is the new baby coming? What will we call it? What will he do? We don’t really need a baby, do we? With sensitivity and wit, John Burningham follows the swirl of questions in the mind of a young child anticipating a baby sibling with excitement, curiosity, and just a bit of trepidation. In perfect tandem, Helen Oxenbury captures the child’s loving interactions with his mother — along with the fanciful future scenarios he imagines for the new family member he has yet to meet. Combining a warm, timeless story with illustrations both freshly enchanting and wonderfully nostalgic, this gorgeous book has all the hallmarks of a classic.

Secrets at Sea

In 1887, the social-climbing Cranstons voyage from New York to London, where they hope to find a husband for their awkward older daughter, secretly accompanied by Helena and her mouse siblings, for whom the journey is both terrifying and wondrous as they meet an array of titled humans despite their best efforts at remaining hidden.

Slated

In a future England, sixteen-year-old Kyla is one of the “slated,” those whose memories have been erased usually because they have committed serious crimes, but as she observes more and more strange events, she also gains more memories which put her and her boyfriend, Ben in danger.