Make a present of a book! Our Junior Edition columnist Celia McGee recommends some of the must-have, must-buy kids books of the holiday season.
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Freedom Soup
By Tami Charles, Illustrated by Jacqueline Alcantra
Age 5 - 9
Every New Year’s, like Haitians everywhere, Belle’s grandmother, Ti Gran, makes Freedom Soup. This year Belle gets to help. Join them for vivid tales of history, family, struggles, freedom and joy. Recipe included!
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Rae's Coney Island Birthday Surprise
By Jem T. Hughes, Illustrated by S. Dey
Age 6 - 8
A girl in a tutu, a subway car. Rae and Dez have a long trip ahead to Dez’s Coney Island birthday celebration, and also, Rae is a little down. Her spirits and self-confidence are lifted by the different performers that get on and off their D train. Then comes the best surprise of all.
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Almost Time
By Gary D. Schmidt, Elizabeth Stickney, and G. Brian Karas
Age 4 - 8
A book with ample snow and a warm message, this story about a boy and his father in the great Maine woods gently contemplates nature, time and what there is to waiting, whether for maple-sugaring season or a loose tooth to make way for a new one.
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Rat Rule 79
By Rivka Galchen, Illustrated by Elena Megalos
Age 8 - 12
Its rabbit hole a giant lantern glowing on a midnight lawn, Rivka Galchen’s charming fantasy imagines a world elsewhere, animated by wild wordplay, fun with numbers, and way-out-of-the-ordinary creatures. When a young human visits, all bets are off on both sides of reality.
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Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky
By Kwame Mbalia
Age 8 - 12
A gift from next year to this, Tristan Strong was scheduled for release in 2020, but met with such excitement that it’s lighting up this season. Kwame Mbalia mines the lore, legends and folktale traditions of Africa and its diaspora for a spellbinding new mythology, and sends young Tristan Strong of Chicago into the thick of it.
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Ali Cross
By James Patters
Age 9 - 12
Yes, Ali’s father is Alex Cross, James Patterson’s famous African-American homicide detective, and, homework or not, does he have mysteries to solve! The disappearance of his best friend just days before Christmas drops Ali right into the family business, and the likable kid proves an able (and press-savvy) chip off the old block.
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Slay
By Brittney Morris
Age 13 - 18
Enter the MMORPG universe of SLAY, a Black culture-conscious gaming phenomenon, though the developer behind its sensational success remains cloaked in secrecy. She’s the brilliant, heart-warming high-schooler Kiera Johnson. A death in a dispute between SLAY players, a potential takeover-by-troll, and sudden mainstream-media attention riddled with race debates put her secret in play as she fights for the integrity of her virtual safe space in our divisive era.
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Patron Saints of Nothing
By Randy Ribay
Age 14 - 18
Putting his Midwestern normal on hold, Jay Reguero, a half-Filipino 17-year-old, returns to the land of his birth and the brutally repressive Duarte regime to get to the bottom of his cousin’s death at the hands of the police. In this thriller and immigrant saga, he feels his way through a drug netherworld, government echelons, and the web of male bonds to solve a mystery of unlawful death and evolving selfhood.
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With the Fire on High
By Elizabeth Acevedo
Age 14 and up
The Poet X author Elizabeth Acevedo rates five stars for her second novel. At its heart is the spirited Emoni Santiago, a high-school senior and single mother in the tougher reaches of Philadelphia with a flair for cooking that grows into a passion and a calling. Taking her in unexpected directions, with a dollop of romance, her hard-won aspirations and irresistible grit-under-pressure sizzle on the page.
