With Winter Institute kicking off in just a few days in Denver, Colo., Shelf Awareness concludes its four-part series on exciting books for 2016 with today's article on highly anticipated children's and early readers books. Put together with the help of independent booksellers from across the U.S., the preceding three parts featured fiction, nonfiction and YA and middle grade.
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Up first today is Thunder Boy Jr.,author Sherman Alexie's picture book debut. Illustrated by Caldecott Honor-winner Yuyi Morales, Thunder Boy Jr. is about a young Native American boy who wants to find the perfect name for himself. His father is called Big Thunder, and the boy doesn't want to just be called Little Thunder. Father and son must work together to find the perfect name. Linda Marie Barrett, general manager of Malaprop's Bookstore and Cafe in Asheville, N.C., chose Thunder Boy Jr. as a picture book to watch out for. It will be available May 10 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
Another picture book debut on today's list is Bethan Woollvin's Little Red, a retelling of the classic Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. Due out on April 1 from Peachtree Publishers, Little Red redraws Little Red Riding Hood as a mischievous young girl capable of saving herself from the Big Bad Wolf just fine. Melissa Fox, the children's events coordinator at Watermark Books in Wichita, Kan., called Little Red a great new picture book.
The next picture book from bestselling children's author Alison McGhee is Tell Me a Tattoo Story. With illustrations by Eliza Wheeler, the book tells of a father who recounts the story behind each one of his tattoos to his young son. Among the father's tattoos are a heart filled with numbers, an ode to his favorite childhood story and another celebrating past travels. A story of family history and love, Tell Me a Tattoo Story will be out on April 12 from Chronicle Books.
Excellent Ed, written by Stacy McAnulty and illustrated by Julia Sarcone-Roach, is the story of Ed, a lovable dog who doesn't understand why he can't sit at the dinner table or lie on the couch with everybody else in the family. Worried that he doesn't belong, Ed's only desire is to prove himself to his family. Eventually, Ed realizes that his family loves him the way he is. Chosen by Suzanna Hermans, co-owner of Oblong Books & Music in Rhinebeck and Millerton, N.Y., as a great picture book for 2016, Excellent Ed is due out from Knopf Books for Young Readers on May 17.
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On June 14, Newbery Medal-winning author and illustrator Lynne Rae Perkins returns with Frank and Lucky Get Schooled, about a boy, his dog and a homework-related catastrophe. Perkins's past work includes Criss Cross, for which she won the Newbery Medal, and The Broken Cat, which she wrote and illustrated. Frank and Lucky Get Schooled will be available from Greenwillow Press.
Written and illustrated by Caldecott Honor-winner Lane Smith, There Is a Tribe of Kids is another picture book generating quite a bit of buzz. Told through Smith's sponge-paint illustrations and inventive, whimsical dialogue, There Is a Tribe of Kids tells of a young boy who goes on a remarkable journey through the natural world, encountering elephants, penguins and much more, before returning home to his fellow "tribe." Another pick from Linda Marie Barrett of Malaprop's, There Is a Tribe of Kids will be out from Roaring Brook Press on May 3.
Sara Pennypacker, the author of the bestselling Clementine series, returns on April 5 with Waylon! One Awesome Thing (Disney-Hyperion). Illustrated by two-time Caldecott winner Marla Frazee, Waylon! is about a young science-loving boy named Waylon. Among his ideas for science projects are teleportation, breathing underwater and controlling gravity, but issues at home and at school are getting in the way of his scientific pursuits. He'll have to come up with a way to set things right so he can get back to work. --Alex Mutter