As we approach the holiday season, many of us with kids and grandkids will be shopping for books that feed their imaginations and engage their intellects.
Here are some recommendations from the Tucson Festival of Books:
“If You Come to Earth”
•“If You Come to Earth,” by Sophie Blackall — A boy writes a letter to an imagined visitor from outer space, explaining all the things visitors need to know about Earth and the people who live here.
Rich watercolor illustrations filled with intriguing details will draw children to return to this picture book over and over.
“Robobaby”
- “Robobaby,” by David Wiesner — In this picture book, a family of robots are excited by the arrival of a new baby but are nearly undone by technical difficulties.
- Disaster looms as they struggle with the directions on how to assemble baby Flange … until big sister comes to the rescue with her trusty toolkit and software update.
- “How We Got to the Moon,” by John Rocco — This National Book Award Finalist is an illustrated guide to the people, technology, and science of the moon landing.
- This middle-grade book places readers in the historic moment with dramatic full-page illustrations and first-person narration of the disasters, collaborations and engineering feats in the Apollo mission.
- “Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns,” by Duncan Tonatiuh — A pre-Colombian creation myth set in Mexico, where Quetzalcóatl — the Feathered Serpent — embarks on a dangerous journey with fearsome foes and difficult trials.
- The tale is told with warmth and humor deepened through picture book illustrations created around Mesoamerican styles and motifs.
- “Paola Santiago and the River of Tears,” by Tehlor Kay Mejia — A Rick Riordan Presents middle-grade novel introduces Paola, who has always been more comfortable with science than her mother’s La Llorona tales, searches for a friend along the banks of the Gila River in Arizona. Paola battles ghosts from her mother’s stories in a magical realm of Mexican-American mythology.
“When Stars are Scattered”
- “When Stars are Scattered,” by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed — This remarkable graphic novel is a memoir about Omar’s life in a Kenyan refugee camp and now a National Book Award finalist. Heartbreak and hope frame this touching portrayal of a childhood spent waiting. The book ends with a Tucson connection.
“Come On In”
- “Come On In: 15 Stories about Immigration and Finding Home,” edited by Adi Alsaid — This exceptional anthology explores the joys, heartbreaks and triumphs of immigration with short stories by Young Adult authors who are themselves immigrants or children of immigrants. Each story provides a snapshot of the many meanings of home to reveal the emotional complexities of immigration across global contexts.
