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Margaret Kingsbury grew up in a house so crammed with books she couldn’t open a closet door without a book stack tumbling, and she’s brought that same decorative energy to her adult life. Margaret has an MA in English with a concentration in writing and has worked as a bookseller and adjunct English professor. She’s currently a freelance writer and editor, and in addition to Book Riot, her pieces have appeared in School Library Journal, BuzzFeed News, The Lily, Parents, StarTrek.com, and more. She particularly loves children’s books, fantasy, science fiction, horror, graphic novels, and any books with disabled characters. You can read more about her bookish and parenting shenanigans in Book Riot’s twice-weekly The Kids Are All Right newsletter. You can also follow her kidlit bookstagram account @BabyLibrarians, or on Twitter @AReaderlyMom.
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Happy Sunday, kidlit friends! We have been hurriedly buying school supplies this week since school starts in just one more week! When does school start where you live? I feel like Nashville starts really early.
Last newsletter was dedicated to the cats, so now I’m featuring all children’s books about dogs, plus two wonderful new releases.
There Are No Ants in This Book by Rosemary Mosco, illustrated by Anna Pirolli
This is such a funny picture book about ants. A child is ready for a picnic and thinks they’ve found the perfect, ant-less spot to have it. Then an acorn ant shows up. But it’s only one ant, so she continues her picnic. More and more various species of ants arrive, disrupting her picnic, yet when an even more unwelcome guest drops by, she hides the ants to keep them from being eaten. Picnics, after all, are more fun if shared. Back matter includes further details about the types of ants in the book.
Grow Up, Luchy Zapata by Alexandra Alessandri
Luchy Zapata has two best friends: Cami and Mateo. Cami’s family come from the same area of Colombia as Luchy’s and the families are friends. Luchy is so excited that the trio will be going to the same school together, but on the first day, it feels like Cami is more interested in being cool than Luchy’s friend. Then Cami begins stealing Luchy’s things as a joke, and the joke escalates into an all-out war, with Mateo trying to mediate. This is a funny middle grade novel full of friend drama.
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