Holiday Gift Guide 2021Like this list

40 items

• Carla and the Christmas Cornbread

  Hall, Carla,

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  Top Chef contestant and culinary personality Hall relays a sweetly nostalgic, family-focused tale. Young Carla’s favorite tradition is her grandma’s cast-iron skillet corn bread. After enjoying the treat, spending time with her grandparents, and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Christina's Carol

  Featuring the Classic Christmas Carol "In the Bleak Midwinter" by Christina Rosetti

  Rossetti, Christina Georgina, 1830-1894,

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  Based on the 1872 Christmas carol “In the Bleak Midwinter” by poet Rossetti, this edition combines previously published artwork and unseen art from the late dePaola’s personal collection. In one memorable spread, the Virgin Mary and Jesus are shown…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Christmas Owl

  Based on the True Story of a Little Owl Named Rockefeller

  Kalish, Ellen,

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  In this anthropomorphic retelling, when snow begins to fall and the town near Little Owl’s tree fills with lights, she wonders why. “Christmas!” Moose explains. She’s still baffled, as are the other animals. Then her home is cut down, and Little Owl…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Jan Brett's The Nutcracker

  Brett, Jan, 1949-

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  E.T.A. Hoffmann’s famous Christmas story of the girl and the wooden nutcracker receives Brett’s signature treatment in this rendition, which features elaborate period costumes, rich embellishments, intricate movement and detail, and vignettes around…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Little Owl & the Big Tree

  a Christmas Story

  Winter, Jonah, 1962-

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  With minimum sentimentality, the mother-son collaborators offer an effectively quiet celebration of a wild creature who encounters human civilization. Beginning by describing her at home in the forest—“The owl didn’t have a name—/ and of course she…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The People Remember

  Zoboi, Ibi Aanu

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  Zoboi describes the course of history as experienced by members of the African diaspora and enslaved African peoples. Simultaneously, the title demonstrates the seven principles of Kwanzaa through historical moments and movements and great Black…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Red and Green and Blue and White

  Wind, Lee,

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  Isaac and his best friend and neighbor Teresa have a lot in common: “They both loved playing in the snow,/ counting down to the holidays,/ and thought you couldn’t have too many sprinkles on a cookie.” But Isaac is a member of the town’s Jewish…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Three Latkes

  Kimmel, Eric A.

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  It’s the first night of Hanukkah in this rhythmic fable, and three anthropomorphic latkes are arguing over which of them tastes best. Each one claims that it is the most delicious based upon the type of potato it’s made of and what it’s fried in. An…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Big Bear, Little Bear

  Schneider, Marine

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  In this expertly crafted board book, readers can compare the personal effects of a brown, anthropomorphic Big Bear and child Little Bear. A gentle humor pervades the text: one red left-hand page reads “Big Bear’s car,” showing a reverse silhouette…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Circle Under Berry

  Higgins, Carter,

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  Using richly hued cut paper against a clean white backdrop, Higgins explores ways to observe color, shape, pattern, and position. Geometric shapes are suspended above or positioned beside one another, and later combine into simple figures—a green…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Dream Street

  Walker, Tricia Elam,

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  This buoyant celebration of community depicts a warm, closely knit Black neighborhood much like the one Elam Walker and Holmes, who are cousins, grew up in. Layered, brilliant collage portraits of the multigenerational residents make this…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Everybody in the Red Brick Building

  Wynter, Anne,

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  Lush collages illuminate the story of a restless night in a city apartment building. Following a “The House that Jack Built”–like chain of events, a baby’s loud cry wakes a neighbor, who checks on his parrot, whose “RraaK! WAKE UP!” rouses three…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Have You Seen Gordon?

  Epstein, Adam Jay,

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  Turning seek-and-find conventions on their ear, this opens with elaborately detailed, laugh-out-loud spreads showing anthropomorphized animals in a variety of busy settings. A chirpy narrator encourages readers to spot a hidden purple tapir named…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess

  Gauld, Tom,

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  The first children’s book from Eisner-winning cartoonist Gauld is an invented fairy tale about a pair of siblings: a robot made of wood and a princess charmed from a log by a witch. Each night when the princess falls asleep, she reverts to log form,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Milo Imagines the World

  de la Peña, Matt,

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  The award-winning creators of Last Stop on Market Street offer a glimpse at a child’s experience with parental incarceration through the bespectacled eyes of a Black boy named Milo. Riding the subway across New York City, Milo invents and sketches…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• On the Day the Horse Got Out

  Weber, Audrey Helen

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  “On the day the horse got out,/ the bells all rang,/ the birds flew south.” So begins this story whose images and text mix the everyday (a missing dog) and the fanciful (a sleeping dragon) while building a chaotic tension that never lets go. The…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Sweater Weather

  Phelan, Matt,

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  Getting ready to go out is a major production for a bear parent overseeing seven cubs. “Sweaters on!” orders the adult, after viewing the glorious autumn day outside. If only it were that simple. In nearly wordless vignettes, gestures and facial…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• We All Play

  Kimêtawânaw

  Flett, Julie,

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  Cree-Métis artist Flett starts with quiet, elegant portraits of animals at play accompanied by brief, motion-filled lines of text; the creatures “hide/ and hop,” “and sniff/ and sneak” “and peek/and peep.” Then a group of small children comes…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Beatryce Prophecy

  DiCamillo, Kate,

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  Newbery Medalist DiCamillo’s engrossing medieval fable verges on darkness while examining what changes a world. A mysterious child named Beatryce is found in the monastery barn holding the ear of a fierce goat. She holds a dangerous secret that…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Black Boy Joy

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  This luminous anthology, an instant bestseller upon its release, features 17 stories by as many Black male and nonbinary authors focusing on Black boys’ happiness. Filtering perennial subjects such as friendships, gender identity, and family through…Read moreRead more of this annotation