April 22 – Earth Day

About the Holiday

By 1970 awareness was growing worldwide about the damage that industrialization, pollution, and pesticides were causing people and the environment. On April 22, 1970—the date of the first Earth Day—millions of people demonstrated for change. In response, in July of 1970, Republican President Richard Nixon and the U.S. Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency. Between 1970 and 1973 they also enacted laws such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act and more. Earth Day is now celebrated around the globe as a day for political action and civic participation.

Today, it’s more important than ever for citizens to participate in protecting the environment and speaking up against the policies of the current Republican president and administration so they do not reverse the progress and advancements we’ve made. This year the theme of Earth Day is Our Power, Our Planet and calls for people to unite around renewable energy. To learn more about this year’s theme, and discover ways that you and your kids can make a difference, visit earthday.org.

Thanks go to Terry Pierce and the Yosemite Conservancy for sending me a copy of We Leave No Trace! for review.

We Leave No Trace!

Written by Terri Pierce | Illustrated by Nadja Sarell

In her gentle invitation for the youngest children and their families to enjoy the outdoors while also treating its flora and fauna with kindness, Terry Pierce models the “leave no trace” principles that ensure harmony between people and nature. Pierce touches on such ideas as not collecting natural “souvenirs,” maintaining a small footprint, and always throwing away trash in verses that encourage adults and children to talk about how they, particularly, can be good stewards of the earth as they hike, camp, picnic, or just enjoy a walk together.

While each page spread introduces a different way that kids can pitch in to help nature, Pierce has also included a repeated rhyming couplet that reinforces a child’s pride in supporting a cleaner, healthier environment for all while also having fun. This lively phrase can turn any read-aloud story time into an enjoyable interactive read-along for little ones.

Kids will love hiking through Nadja Sarell’s vibrant landscapes that transports them to a mountain-side lake where various nature-lovers are boating, picnicking, and walking all within sight of a doe and her fawn and a bird that’s flying in low for its closeup; a forested trail in which a girl, instead of taking home a woodpecker’s feather, is snapping a picture of it; a park where ducks swim among lily pads as kids look on from a stone bridge while others play nearby; and more lovely locales. Each page spread also offers lots of opportunities for young readers to point out animals and other elements of nature as well as kid-favorite treats and activities.

We Leave No Trace! is a delightful adventure through nature that provides youngest children with easy and mindful reminders of how they can protect the environment now and for the future. Jaunty rhymes, repeated phrasing, and vivid illustrations that welcome discussion and interaction make this board book perfect for taking along on trips to playgrounds, parks, and other outdoor spots and a top choice for home and library collections.

Ages Baby – 3

Yosemite Conservancy, 2025 | ISBN 978-1951179373

About the Author

Terry Pierce is the author of more than twenty-five books for children, including We Leave No Trace!, Hello Meadow!, and Eat Up Bear! (Yosemite Conservancy), Love Can Come in Many Ways (Chronicle), Soccer Time! (Random House), Mama Loves You So (Little Simon) and My Busy Green Garden (Tilbury House). She is an outdoor enthusiast, enjoying backpacking, hiking, and rock climbing near her home in Mammoth Lakes, California.

About the Illustrator

Nadja Sarell is an illustrator living in Helsinki, Finland. She is the illustrator of We Leave No Trace!, Eat Up Bear! and Hello, Meadow! (Yosemite Conservancy), the Frankie Sparks, Third Grade Inventor series (Aladdin), and The One and Only Wolfgang (Zonderkidz). Nadja graduated with MA in dance from Theatre Academy Helsinki and graduated from North Wales School of Art and Design with BA in illustration for children’s publishing in 2004. Since then she has worked as a freelance illustrator in Finland and abroad. She loves to teach art, illustration, and dance for both children and adults.

We Leave No Trace! joins these two previous books in the Yosemite Conservancy’s “stewardship” board book series by Terry Pierce and Nadja Sarell

Eat Up, Bear!

Curious, hungry black bears just want to eat! Juicy berries, crunchy nuts, tender grubs, sticky honey—that’s good bear food. But if little park visitors and their families don’t watch out, their food will be bear food, too! The bouncy rhyming text and vibrant pictures in this board book show how people of all ages can help keep bears safe and thriving. Perfect for first-time and seasoned campers alike.

Hello, Meadow!

Grassy, flower-filled meadows are really pretty! It’s oh-so tempting to hike and skip right through them. But meadows are actually fragile, and human footsteps and picnics can cause them harm—then they cannot do their important work of providing a habitat for creatures and plants, filtering water, and even storing carbon. The lively text and beautiful illustrations in this sturdy board book show little nature lovers how to easily protect meadows while enjoying one of Earth’s loveliest features.

Earth Day Activity

Image courtesy of Explore More, Clean Less

Paint with Water

It’s fun to get creative with activities you can do outdoors that will leave no trace. Painting with water on boulders or river rocks or on areas of paved park trails or playground sidewalks with paint brushes or your fingers lets you explore your artistic side while being gentle with nature. You can find many more ways for kids to learn about and interact with the environment at Explore More, Clean Less!

You can purchase We Leave No Trace! from these booksellers

Yosemite Conservancy | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop

Picture Book Review

February 13 – It’s Random Acts of Kindness Week

Posted by Kath Carroll

About the Holiday

If you’re celebrating Random Acts of Kindness Week (February 9–15 in the UK and February 14–20 in the US), you can consider yourself a RAKtivist—a Random Acts of Kindness Activist. Being a RAKtivist is awesome! And easy! All it takes is to be kind to anyone you meet. Acts of kindness don’t have to be big, or hard, or expensive. In fact, the best kindness acts are free! If you see someone having a bad day, give them a smile. If someone’s struggling with a box, a bag or keeping their stuff in their locker, give them a hand. Does someone always eat lunch alone? Sit with them and get to know them. There are many other ways to embrace the slogan of the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation: “Make Kindness the Norm” and show you care about people near and far. You can learn how to become a RAKtivist and find lots of free resources to download for schools, households, and workplaces at randomactsofkindness.org. Here’s a daily Kindness Calendar to get you started!

The Welcome Book

Written by Danna Smith | Illustrated by Juliana Perdomo

New experiences and new people to meet are all around us every day. This is especially true for young children as they begin exploring the world around them. On the playground, in the classroom, at the library, on the bus or subway, in stores, and even during visits by extended family, little ones are always learning how to work or play together with someone new.

In her joyful and openhearted story, Danna Smith celebrates all the opportunities children have to embrace others and make them feel at home. In her uplifting rhyming verses, she tells little ones how much the word “Welcome!” and the warm feelings behind it mean to someone new or someone who is alone: “Welcoming someone shows that you care. / You’re happy to see them. You’re glad they are there.”

Smith also presents a pleasing array of examples of everyday and special occasions when children can make a difference by offering friendship—including calling someone over to join a lunch table or group activity, cradling a new sibling, greeting a dog with hugs, and listening when someone is sad. She ends her story with the reassuring knowledge that friendship shared is friendship gained.

Readers can’t help but smile at Julia Perdomo’s vivid illustrations that radiate the warmth of welcome on each page. Kids will connect with Perdomo’s varied scenes of diverse groups of kids supporting each other as they play and work together. Her expressive characters and clearly depicted situations invite kids and adults to talk about their own experiences in both being the new person and welcoming others as well as to role play “What if?” scenarios.

A bright, cheerful, and thoughtful board book to open the world of kindness, empathy, and friendship to the youngest readers, The Welcome Book is a story parents, teachers, and other adults will love sharing with their little ones and that kids will eagerly reach for again and again. This sweet book would make a heartwarming addition to home bookshelves and is a must for daycare, school, and public library collections.

Pair The Welcome Book with The Thank You Book by Danna Smith and Juliana Perdomo to spark an understanding and appreciation for gratitude in young children.

Ages Baby – 4

Little Simon, 2025 | ISBN 978-1665952026 (Board book)

About the Author

Danna Smith is a poet and award-winning author of numerous books for children, including One Blue Gnu; Rooftop Garden; Wake Up, Freight Train!; and several Little Golden Books. Her nonfiction picture book, The Hawk of the Castle: A Story of Medieval Falconry, received two starred reviews and is a Junior Library Guild Selection and a Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of the Year. Danna currently lives in northern California, where she is hard at work on her next book. For more information about her books and teaching activities, visit her website at DannaSmithBooks.com.

About the Illustrator

Juliana Perdomo is a writer and illustrator born in Bogotá, Columbia, surrounded by a huge loving family, friends, bright colors, music, weird fruits, sunshine, and lots of rain but also rainbows. She now lives there with her amazing son, Luca, her rocker partner Iván, and their crazy old dog, Menta. Juliana has a background as a psychologist and an art therapist, but her passion is children’s literature. She tries to make her work diverse, heartfelt and personal, folkish, a bit retro, joyful, and with a Latin touch. She feels deeply grateful to have participated in many beautiful projects: books, puzzles, animations, branding, family portraits, and magazines all over the world. Find out more at JulianaPerdomo.com.

Random Acts of Kindness Week Activity

The Welcome Book Coloring Pages

Have fun coloring these cheerful pages from The Welcome Book!

Welcoming the Rain | Welcoming a New Friend

You can purchase The Welcome Book from these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop (to support your local independent bookstore)

Picture Book Review

December 12 – Get Ready for Christmas

Posted by Kath Carroll

About the Holiday

It just isn’t Christmas without reading favorite traditional stories. Familiar characters, heartfelt themes, and feelings of warmth and excitement are tucked inside the pages just waiting to be released again after a long year. Today’s book allows you to share one of the oldest and most beloved Christmas classics with the youngest members of your family.

Thanks to Familius for sending me a copy of A Christmas Carol: Lit for Little Hands for review consideration. all opinions of the book are my own. This post contains an affiliate link.

A Christmas Carol: Lit for Little Hands

Adapted by Brooke Jorden | Illustrated by David Miles

One of the world’s most recognizable novels, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has thrilled readers ever since it was published on December 19, 1843. The novel’s combination of spooky ghosts, a loving family, and a lost soul in need of redemption keeps readers and listeners enthralled no matter how many times they’ve read it. But why should adults and older kids have all the fun? Now, with this Lit for Little Hands board book, even the youngest readers can enjoy all the intrigue of A Christmas Carol.

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Image copyright David Miles, 2019, text copyright Brooke Jorden, 2019. Courtesy of Familius.

Brooke Jorden’s nimble adaptation loses none of the snap of the original. Turn to the first page and there is Bob Cratchit toiling away under the gaze of a stern Ebenezer Scrooge who “was the meanest miser the world had ever known.” The counting house is as cold as Scrooge’s hatred of Christmas. On a pull-out tab kids even see him send away a little boy who’s come caroling. That night at home “a terrible clanking noise” interrupts Scrooge’s meager meal. What we know—but little ones might not—is what lurks on the other side of Scrooge’s door. With the pull of a tab, kids slide open the door to reveal the ghostly figure of Jacob Marley “surrounded by a heavy iron chain: punishment for all the cruel things Marley had done while he was alive.” He tells Scrooge he’s in for the same unless he changes his ways and tells him to expect three more ghosts.

Another turn of the page brings the Ghost of Christmas past. When kids pull the tab, the ghost and Scrooge fly from the window into the night sky and to the boarding school where Scrooge spent lonely Christmas’s alone. It makes Scrooge think of the boy who’d come caroling and sorry that he hadn’t given him a bit of money. As you may remember, the Ghost of Christmas Past also takes Scrooge to a party given by his former boss Mr. Fezziwig. Kids can spin a wheel and set old Scrooge dancing round and round with his younger self and his former colleagues and friends. “Scrooge remembered the joy he used to feel around Christmas, surrounded by friends and a kind employer.” He realizes that when money became the most important thing to him, he became sad and friendless.

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Image copyright David Miles, 2019, text copyright Brooke Jorden, 2019. Courtesy of Familius.

When the clock strikes two, the Ghost of Christmas Present appears in the midst of an enormous feast, Nearby a fire quivers and crackles as kids spin the wheel. The ghost transports Scrooge to the window of Bob Cratchit’s house, where he sees the large family having dinner. With a toggle, readers can set Tiny Tim’s famous cheery toast in motion as Scrooge “marveled that the Cratchit family has so little and yet were so happy.”

Scrooge didn’t have long to wait until the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come visited. In a cemetery, Scrooge saw Mr. and Mrs. Cratchit crying at Tiny Tim’s gravestone. The sight broke his heart, but then the ghost pointed Scrooge to another stone. Who’s is it? Children pull a tab that reveals the engraved name: Ebenezzer Scrooge. When he woke up the next morning, “Scrooge knew he must change.” He went out into town spreading Christmas cheer and “became as good a man as the world had ever known.”

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-a-christmas-carol-lit-for-little-hands-christmas-present

Image copyright David Miles, 2019, text copyright Brooke Jorden, 2019. Courtesy of Familius.

Quotations from Dickens’ original novel are sprinkled throughout the text, giving it the Old-World atmosphere that contributes so much to the effect of the story. With each visit of a ghost, Brooke Jorden includes a lesson that Scrooge learns or a memory he has of a recent time when he could have been generous or happy and chose not to, allowing young readers to understand how the ghosts affect Scrooge and how he changes in that night. Jorden chooses evocative language that kids will enjoy hearing and learning. Jorden’s board book version of A Christmas Carol demonstrates anew the genius of Charles Dickens in this story that touches all ages and is ever timely.

Using fresh tones of red and green, David Miles brings 1800’s England to life for kids. Bob Cratchit scratches away in his ledger with a quill pen and only a candle for light as thick snow falls outside the window. At home, Scrooge sits in a darkened room where the eerie, translucent ghost of Jacob Marley, wrapped in a chain, is sure to impress. Miles’ image of the feast surrounding the Ghost of Christmas Present contrasts sharply with the small turkey and plum pudding on the Cratchit’s table, a detail that will resonate with today’s children just as it did when the novel was first published. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is appropriately spooky, but not too frightening for young children. When Scrooge wakes up a changed man, the dark shades of Miles’ pages give way to bright pinks and cheery aqua, and the icy blizzard has ended.

Terrific fun and a fabulous way to share this classic with kids (adults will get a kick out of it too), Lit for Little Hands: A Christmas Carol would be a quick favorite on home, school, and public library bookshelves.

Ages 3 – 6

Familius, 2019 | ISBN 978-1641701518

You can find more books from Familius that joyfully reflect the habits of happy families, including reading, talking, laughing, eating, working, loving, healing, learning, and playing together as well as the Familius blog The Habit Hub here.

Get Ready for Christmas Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-snowflake-matching-puzzle

It’s Snowing! Matching Puzzle

If you’re wishing for a white Christmas, you’ll enjoy finding the pairs of identical snowflakes in this printable puzzle.

It’s Snowing! Matching Puzzle

**You can purchase Lit for Little Hands: A Christmas Carol at Familius**

Picture Book Review

December 27 – Visit the Zoo Day

Posted by Kath Carroll

About the Holiday

After all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s nice to just take a relaxing outing with the family. What better place to go than the zoo, aquarium, or other animal park? Don’t let the cooler (or cold) weather deter you! The meandering paths, opportunities to learn about the world’s creatures, and chance to get some fresh air all add up to the perfect way to spend the day!

I Love You, Elephant!

Illustrated by Carles Ballesteros

If you’re looking for a joyfully uplifting story to share with your baby or toddler, you’ll find it within the magically changing pages of I Love You, Elephant. The sweet sentiments begin on the cover as a little monkey, holding a banana and surrounded by hearts, comes to visit Elephant. Open the cover and Elephant’s small smile at seeing her friend becomes a wide-open grin as Monkey tells her, “I love your long trunk! I wish I had a trunk like yours.” Not only does Elephant get this compliment, but she also receives the banana as a snack.

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Monkey moves on and approaches Lion. “I love you, Lion,” Monkey unabashedly states as Lion glances in Monkey’s direction. Turn the page and Lion’s face lights up to hear how much Monkey loves his “shaggy mane.” The next animal to receive a visit from Monkey is Wildebeest, who looks a little skeptical while Monkey raises “thumbs up” fists to his head. But Monkey just wants to let Wildebeest know how much he admires his big horns. At this, Wildebeest gazes upward with a proud smile on his face. Zebra also gets a confidence boost that leaves her with a big grin of surprise.

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But what about Monkey? How do all the animals feel about him? It turns out they love Monkey as much as he loves them! What exactly do they love the most? Little ones will agree with Elephant, Lion, Wildebeest, and Zebra’s favorite traits about Monkey, and adults will love sharing the animals’ full assessment—“We love you just the way you are!”—with their kids.

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Adorably rounded faces that change with the turn of a page that sets in motion a “venetian blind” effect will delight little readers. The change in each animal’s expression reinforces the esteem-building result of Monkey’s spontaneous declarations of what he loves about his friends. The sweet examples in the story are wonderful springboards for discussion and are sure to inspire kids and adults to follow in Monkey’s footsteps and reveal what they love about each family member, their pets, their friends, their toys, their home, and, especially, about each other.

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Carles Ballesteros cleverly includes a guessing game each time Monkey approaches a new friend. Through props and hand gestures, Monkey hints at what trait he loves best about each animal. Young readers will have fun trying to name what trait Monkey likes. With vibrant, yet soothing, colors and stylized flowers, vines, and plants, Ballesteros sets his story in a welcoming jungle landscape that children will want to visit over and over again.

A sturdy board book that will become a favorite of babies and toddlers, I Love You, Elephant! makes a heartwarming addition to home, preschool classrooms, and public library shelves as well as a terrific baby shower or new baby gift—for the baby or a young sibling.

Ages Baby – 3

Harry N. Abrams, 2019 | ISBN 978-1419738821

To learn more about Carles Ballesteros, his books, and his art, visit his website.

Visit the Zoo Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-hand-print-elephants-craft

Elephant Handprint Craft

This easy craft is fun for siblings to do together and can make a nice decoration for a child’s room or a gift for mom, dad, or other family members.

Supplies

Craft paint in two colors of the children’s choice
Yellow craft paint
Black fin-tip marker
Crayons, markers, or colored pencils to make a background
Paper
Paint brush

Directions

Paint one child’s hand and press it on the paper. The thumb is the truck and the fingers the legs.
Paint the second child’s hand and press it on the paper near the other “elephant.” A couple of examples are: the elephants standing trunk to trunk or trunk to tail
After the paint has dried, draw on ears and an eye
Add a sun with the yellow paint
Add grass, trees, or other background features

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-I-love-you-elephant-cover

You can find I Love You, Elephant! at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | IndieBound

Picture Book Review

About the Holiday

We Leave No Trace!

Written by Terri Pierce | Illustrated by Nadja Sarell

Earth Day Activity

Paint with Water

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About the Holiday

The Welcome Book

Written by Danna Smith | Illustrated by Juliana Perdomo

Random Acts of Kindness Week Activity

The Welcome Book Coloring Pages

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About the Holiday

A Christmas Carol: Lit for Little Hands

Adapted by Brooke Jorden | Illustrated by David Miles

Get Ready for Christmas Activity

It’s Snowing! Matching Puzzle

You can purchase Lit for Little Hands: A Christmas Carol at Familius

Picture Book Review

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About the Holiday

I Love You, Elephant!

Illustrated by Carles Ballesteros

Visit the Zoo Activity

Elephant Handprint Craft

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**You can purchase Lit for Little Hands: A Christmas Carol at Familius**