New Picture Books from Millbrook Press and Carolrhoda Books | Spring 2023 Preview

Join us to learn about our forthcoming picture books from Lerner Publishing Group!

 Dino Board Books
There's tons of dino-fun for everyone in this high-energy board book series. Dinosaurs face off on the field, battle on the court, and rally in the rink.

Stars of the Night: The Courageous Children of the Czech Kindertransport
Discover the powerful and sensitively told true story of the Czech Kindertransport, which rescued 669 children from Nazi persecution on the eve of World War II.

Sasquatch and Squirrel
Strawberry the Sasquatch is happy on her own—or so she thinks until an extremely enthusiastic squirrel named Nutty shows up. After a series of hilarious mishaps, they find a way to be friends.

Rise to the Sky: How the World's Tallest Trees Grow Up
What are the tallest living things on Earth? Trees! Discover what growing trees need so they can rise to the sky in this poetic look at the tree life cycle.

Finding Family: The Duckling Raised by Loons
Discover the true story of an unlikely family—an orphaned mallard duckling being raised by a pair of loons. Intriguing verse and striking illustrations combine in this heartwarming tale of unexpected animal cooperation.

Never Give Up: Dr. Kati Karikó and the Race for the Future of Vaccines
This picture book biography introduces Hungarian American biochemist Katalin Kariko, who played a critical role in developing the mRNA vaccine for COVID-19. Follow the journey of Katalin (Kati) Kariko from her childhood in rural Hungary.

Poop for Breakfast: Why Some Animals Eat It
Eating poop is gross! So why do some animals do it? Get the scoop on the surprisingly good reasons animals such as elephants, butterflies, rabbits, robins, and dogs devour disgusting doo-doo!

Hidden Creature Features
Animals have adaptations to help them survive. But some of those traits can be hard to spot at first glance. Rhyming text and eye-catching photos introduce eight creatures with hidden features.

Patterns Everywhere
When you take the time to look, you'll find that nature is full of patterns. Rhyming verse and stunning photographs introduce young readers to patterns throughout the natural world.

Climate Warriors: Fourteen Scientists and Fourteen Ways We Can Save Our Planet
Meet fourteen different scientists who are working to solve the climate crisis and the surprising ways they are doing it. This book informs young readers and gives them the tools they need to make a difference.

The Great Giraffe Rescue: Saving the Nubian Giraffes
After oil was discovered in the Nubian giraffes' habitat in Uganda, conservationists needed to move some of these endangered animals across a river to safer territory. But there was no bridge and giraffes can't swim. What did scientists do? Follow this unusual—and successful—rescue!


Music credits
"Farm" Kevin MacLeod (incompete

Transcript

0:09

we'll start off with Dino board books as you know we launched the board book versions of um some familiar uh dinosaur Sports stories in Spring 2022 um and these books are off to a nice start we have two in the first season and then there were an additional three that were publishing in Fall 22 and so in Spring 23 we're adding two more so that will bring us to a total of seven um we've got my first Dino wrestling and my first Dino racing with brief rhyming text from Lisa Wheeler to introduce each sport and illustrations we've adapted from the original picture books um created by Barry Gott they're really fun high energy read-alouds great for babies and toddlers with short attention spans we have two Carolina picture books for spring 23 the first is a non-fiction picture book called stars of the night it's a really powerful look at the check Kinder transport which was a movement to get primarily Jewish children out of Czechoslovakia prior to the invasion by the Nazis um as World War II was brewing it's created by author Karen stelson who we know from sachiko and a bowl full of Peace Karen has Jewish Heritage and was profoundly moved when she came across this story and just sort of taken with it and wrote the manuscript sort of it came out of her all at once and then she did the research she needed to back up everything but it really it reads so powerfully and it's told from the collective perspective of the children so it's written as we um which is a unique um way to write a non-fiction picture book but works extremely well here and illustrator Selena Alco is also Jewish and just poured her whole art heart into these illustrations their um collage pieces she sent in her physical art just recently in Danielle and I were pouring over it it just has all these incredible details in it really well done um so what happened is as this sort of Crisis was brewing a British stock broker named Nicholas Winton traveled to Czechoslovakia and ended up becoming involved in finding a way to get the children out because there were various Aid where workers involved in different ways but nobody was specifically focusing on the children and he just went pretty Rogue and had to fabricate documents in some cases but got the job done got 669 children out of Texas Slovakia into England where they stayed with Foster families the thinking of course was that it would be temporary but um the parents of most of these children ended up being taken to concentration camps and killed um it uh this the title of the book I wanted to mention comes from a direct quote from the mother of one of these children she said there will be times when you'll feel lonely or homesick let the stars of the night and the sun of the day be the messenger of our thoughts and love and so that's sort of a recurring thing the stars of the night the sun of the day and and it comes up throughout the book and the story spans more than 50 years um at the time the children were being sent away none of them knew who the person was who was orchestrating their rescue and it wasn't until Nicholas and winton's wife found a scrapbook in the Attic that it really became known that he was the one that there's this viral clip you can find on YouTube of a TV show when he was brought on live TV in Britain and um it turns out the audience is filled with the children he rescued more than 50 years after the fact it's incredibly emotional um and the book ends When the Children you know the grown children have learned who saved them and talks about how you know because they were saved their children their grandchildren and so on are here today um and then there's extensive back matter filling in a lot more details next up in a very different tone and then the first book we have Sasquatch and squirrel which is a hilarious news story by Chris Monroe it's about a reclusive Sasquatch named strawberry and a very impulsive squirrel named nutty um they come together one day and engage in Adventures including tree climbing accidental Beaver Lodge destruction and rebuilding logger pranks and just tons of physical comedy there are a lot of panels in this book a lot of fun and action and despite some minor injuries incurred on this first day of friendship uh the the two by the end of the book have sort of formed a burgeoning friendship and it ends on a very cute note so this one's lots of fun over to Millbrook this time um did you know that the various very tallest living things on Earth are trees it's true rise to the sky reunites the team behind plants cancer still author Rebecca Hirsch and wonderful illustrator Mia Posada um and the the book uses lyrical language to explore the tree life cycle specifically focusing on how the tallest trees grow so tall um it's you it touches on photosynthesis as well so we have curricular pieces well presented in this um interesting presentation focusing on these ginormous trees and the back manner includes the current Heights and locations of the tallest trees around the world finding family is the true story of a mountain duckling raised by loons first spotted by loon researchers in Wisconsin in 2019. now loons and Mallards do not typically get along they are generally more enemies than friends but this unlikely family came together and stayed together all summer long the duckling took on typical Mallard behaviors but also took on some wound behaviors like accepting minnows from the appearance and Diving underwater for food the text is written in beautiful free verse poetry by Laura Purdy Salas who we know quite well and the wonderful illustrations are by Alexandria neonakis who is new to us she's based I think in California um this story is fully based on fact and there is a theme of uncertainty which speaks to not only the situation in this book but is relevant to our lives in all kinds of other ways and I just want to read a brief snippet of text the future is a perfect mystery of possibilities like an unhatched egg mother and father and duckling have only now a family created one dabble and dive one piggyback ride one slippery minnow at a time the text and illustrations were vetted by expert Walter Piper who is the researcher who is in charge of the team that observed and documented this unusual animal family and the back matter includes more details about the science of this as well as a Venn diagram that shows the similarities and differences between loons and mallard ducks never give up is by an author and illustrator who are both new to us Debbie daddy and Juliana Oakley this book focuses on Dr Catalan kariko a hungry Hungarian American scientist who became fascinated by the idea of using mRNA to create vaccines in decades decades before the covid-19 pandemic ever came along Dr kariko grew up in rural Hungary and came to the U.S as an adult to pursue her career one interesting detail that's mentioned in the book is that Hungary was Communist at the time and there were limits on how much money you could bring out of the country so they hid their money in their two-year-old daughter's teddy bear to bring it into the U.S um Dr karika was demoted fired and have repeatedly told to give up her research because so many people thought it would never work but she eventually found success and began working for bio and Tech playing a major role in creating the Pfizer bio and Tech covid-19 vaccine this book is yes about covid but is also about far more than that it's the story of a woman in stem it's about persistence and it's about hope Katie as she is known continues to study other potential applications for using mRNA in medicine to help people in different ways and Katie and her daughter Susan Francia have reviewed the text and illustrations and provided photos for us to include in the back matter along with the timeline um so they are really really pleased by how the book is turned out it's been great to have their involvement we had a separate scientific expert as well just to cover all our bases so this is really well vetted and as far as I'm aware will be the first picture book bio out about Dr karikel I know there's at least one more coming a season after this finally our last picture book for Millbrook is poop for breakfast it's a hilarious new non-fiction picture book from Sarah Levine who we know from the Animal by animal books as well as other titles it's illustrated by Florence Weiser who I think has done a title for carbon this is her first with melbrook this yes is a gross that book but it's also more than just a grossout book it also explains the scientific reasons why different animals eat poop including dogs baby elephants termites rabbits and many more and this book is a sneaky way to talk about the digestive system which is very curricular um so I think that gives it sort of a bonus appeal to the classroom um the back matter includes more about digestion as well as tips for how to look at an animal's poop and determine whether it's a carnivore or an herbivore um so it's both fun and informative and I think it will go over well this nonfiction photo book for grades K to three is a companion book to Hidden animal Colors by Jane Park which we just released this spring following a similar format this book uses rhyming verse to introduce a variety of animals with hidden features and there are brief sidebars and prose to explain more about each of the animals the featured animals include Penguins platypuses and red-eyed tree frogs and if you look it's hard to see because it's so small but the cover is has a very cool photo the red-eyed tree frog has a special additional eyelid that's sort of like gold and lace-like and when it sleeps during the day it uses that eyelid to block out some light but ensure that it can still see shadows and movement so that it is safe from predators um so I had no idea it had this eyelid I was fascinated to learn it um there are lots of other similarly cool animal facts in the book um the back matter also has a great feature asking readers to think about how different features might be helpful in doing different tasks so what feature would be helpful if you wanted to climb a tree how about if you wanted to swim what about if you wanted to fly all right and on to the next book patterns everywhere is by Lisa varcole Perrin she's a new author to us and this is another K to 3 non-fiction photo book in this one of healing rhyming verse introduces a variety of patterns in nature including Coral shapes leaf veins snowflakes and rock layers there are gorgeous photos to give it lots of visual appeal and there are sidebars and Pros to explain more about the different pattern types the best commander encourages kids to go out into nature and make observations and look for patterns on their own and one of the fun little details that's also highlighted in the back matter is the fact that the rhyming text in fact also follows a pattern I think it might be a b b a anyway it's it's called out on the sell sheet and I thought that was a fun additional detail that you know patterns occur in lots of places and also in the text of this book on to middle grade science first up is climate Warriors which is by Laura gal um we know her of course as a picture book writer and also the writer of uh the book who is a scientist Laura has a PHD in neuroscience and is well connected in the scientific Community which gives her access to a lot of different people to make these science books this one I really like because it takes a new and Fresh Approach to climate change by emphasizing that there is not one single solution but rather a multitude of solutions short chapters feature different scientists explaining what they study and how it applies to combating climate change there are also action steps for readers in each section I think this is important we want books that appeal to Young activists kids who want to go out and do something make a difference um along with the standard back matter elements there's also a section highlighting young climate activists and there's information about how readers can write letters to elected officials and advocate for State change so I like that it has both the science and sort of Hands-On hero things that you can do and finally for Millbrook we have the great giraffe rescue we know the great rescue titles Sandra markle's been writing for us for a while this one is set in Namibia and focuses on what happens after plans for oil drilling are set in a place where giraffes are living and it puts the whole herd at risk so scientists kind of looked into what was going on and decided the best bet was to create what they call a satellite population a separate population of giraffes that's out of this Zone where the drilling is going to be taking place and the ideal location for this is on the other side of a river and it's a Deep River and it turns out giraffes cannot swim and this river is too deep for them to Wade across so the scientists ended up coming up with a plan to capture these giraffes get them loaded onto a truck that has sort of an open top trailer uh drive the truck to the river and onto a ferry where they are brought across the river and to their new habitat where they can live safely uh all goes well and it is a success so this is sort of another heartwarming story with a happy ending featuring lots of photos of a super charismatic animal so I think that will go over well