Time to update your kids’ book collections! This fall, we have new reading options from a disgraced pop star, a Time100 Philanthropy honoree, and a University of Minnesota professor, plus a tender story to help you declutter and make room for new books.
Lil Lizzo Meets Sasha B. Flootin’ by Lizzo, illustrated by Mark Pett
A picture book written in verse is a curious way to spring a pop star from the Khia Asylum, especially when the publisher releases a completely blank digital advanced copy to reviewers. I had to dig a little harder than usual to get the actual pages of Lil Lizzo Meets Sasha B. Flootin’ (Simon & Schuster, 40 pages) before its publication, but the charming text and illustrations made the effort worth it.
Lil Lizzo, the book’s main character, is sad because she needs to find “her own song.” Like a lot of misfits, she makes her way to the nurturing environment of the band room at school, the best place to express herself. Lil Lizzo and a music-less flute—Sasha B. Flootin’—go on an imaginative hero’s journey to make a beautiful song come out of the silver tube, a familiar trial-and-error quest to anyone who’s learned (or listened to a child learning) a wind instrument.
Illustrator Mark Prett’s artwork shows Lil Lizzo as an adorable girl, hair did in pigtail puffs with a backpack-sized pooch for a companion. Rhyming couplets are filled with wordplay and sassy dialogue:
Sasha said, “I give up!”
"But you’re Sasha B. Flootin’!”
“Hah,” said the flute, “More like Sasha B. Mutin’!”
In this fable, Lil Lizzo and Sasha learn about how a diligent practice regimen turns squeaks and squawks into sweet melodies.
Boarding Schools and the Indigenous Story by Ashley Fairbanks
Ashley Fairbanks, the Time honoree behind Stand With Minnesota and an all-around exceptional multi-hyphenate artist, writer, and activist, has a new book out about the legacy of American Indian boarding schools. Boarding Schools and the Indigenous Story (Crown Books for Young Readers, 240 pages) is geared toward middle-grade readers, but it’s ideal for anyone who wants a straightforward, well-organized history of how boarding schools fit into the long-term cultural genocide perpetrated by European colonizers on Indigenous people in North America.
Fairbanks fills in what public school textbooks and white-centered stories like Little House on the Prairie (even Netflix’s more culturally sensitive update) leave out. Seriously, I started to feel embarrassed about how little I knew about Indigenous history, especially hardships inflicted in the 20th century, like the Termination era, the 1956 Indian Relocation Act, and the Indian Adoption project. Fairbanks also covers the Minneapolis-based origins of the American Indian Movement in 1968.
The erasure of a people’s history is the whole point of cultural genocide. Thankfully, Fairbanks and other writers like Brenda Child (see the following book recommendation) are writing post-Kamloops books and making former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland’s work accessible to a wide audience. Each chapter ends with helpful discussion questions, and the history lessons are braided with fictionalized stories about Indigenous children.
Blue Bearies by Brenda J. Child (Bíne), illustrated by Jonathan Thunder, translated by Gordon Jourdain
In the picture book Blue Bearies (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 32 pages), Windy Girl attends the opposite of a boarding school. She enjoys a culturally relevant history lesson passed down from her ancestors. She goes on a field trip with Mrs. Mukwa, a Ms. Frizzle-esque personality who takes Windy Girl’s class on a school bus to learn about bears. “My grandmother taught me that what our people know about medicine, we learned from watching what bears eat,” Mukwa tells the class in a scene alongside illustrations of lady’s slipper, chokecherry, and the carnivorous sundew flower. In a circle-of-life lesson, the class learns how bears can chomp down thousands of blueberries per day, then sow seeds through their scat.
Blue Bearies is a follow-up to Child’s American Indian Youth Literature Award winner Bowwow Powwow, which also featured Windy Girl and her dog Itchy Boy in a canine-focused story about the origin of powwows and the importance of community celebrations. Child, who is the Professor of American Studies at University of Minnesota, also has a new book out about boarding schools, In Our Own Words: True Stories of Indian Boarding Schools.
Napesni Renegade: A Bison’s Journey by Marcie R. Rendon illustrated by Sam Zimmerman
Napesni Renegade (Charlesbridge, 32 pages) is based on the true story of a furry ruminant born on the Cheyenne River Reservation and taken by truck to restore a bison herd in Minnesota who escapes his human caretakers upon arrival. Award-winning author Marcie Rendon uses pleasingly alliterative language to describe the way bison amble, roll, graze, and romp. “Napesni stamped his hooves,” Rendon writes. “Sniffed and snorted. He shook his shaggy mane.” His refusal to go where he’s supposed to will feel familiar to the book’s target audience: preschool and early elementary kids practicing age-appropriate rebellions.
After Napesni explores his new surroundings and finds independence rather lonely, a gentle man coaxes him home. Colorful, pointillistic paintings of the animals show how Napesni reaches a happy ending as part of a herd created for Red Lake Nation here in Minnesota.
Everything Grandma Needs by Molly Beth Griffin illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan
Got an elder who can’t pare down their belongings? Or a kid whose overflowing toy bins make a clean room impossible? Or maybe you’re the one with a clutter conundrum? However the too-much-stuff problem manifests in your life, you have to read Everything Grandma Needs (Charlesbridge, 40 pages).
Molly Beth Griffin’s new picture book tells the story of how a multigenerational female trio gets together to declutter and downsize over the course of one emotional week, as Grandma prepares to move from a big house to a condominium. Together, they decide what to keep, throw away, and donate. Sounds simple, but in practice, it’s really hard!
Kids will like this book because the child character is the hero, helping her grandma begin with the easiest tasks and work her way up to the hard stuff. Adults will like this book because it’s practical for any age, especially the clutter-clearing tips in the back of the book.
The illustrations by Anait Semirdzhyan remind me of the avuncular realism in Mercer Mayer’s books. As Grandma’s big house goes from distressingly full to clean, the character’s faces morph from stressed to satisfied. But there’s no word on what happens when all of the excess is dumped at Goodwill, ARC, or Salvation Army. I’d love a follow-up from Griffin on how there’s actually no “away,” and tips on how to avoid overconsumption in the first place.
