Written & illustrated by Natalia Shaloshvili
Translated from Russian by Lena Traer

One of LitHub's Most Anticipated Children’s Books of 2026!

Sweet, tender, and perfect for the youngest picture book readers, this winning story about a most adorable kitten is an affectionate invitation to identify with and love this small cat!

What does a small cat need? Two little eyes, two little ears, big whiskers, and a tail, to start. What else does a small cat need? Maybe a walk in the flowers, a sip of milk, or a warm spot to laze around in the sun.

But above all else, what a small cat needs is... someone big or little—maybe someone just like you!—with cuddly arms and a huge heart to pet it and hear it purr. Yes, every cat needs that!

This is a tender and universal story through which author-illustrator Natalia Shaloshvili achieves something quite rare: illustrations that are of great artistic quality, and yet succeed in being warm, funny and relatable to children. With beautiful pacing and emotionally astute moments, this small story succeeds brilliantly in structuring an identification between small cat and child that will have young readers returning to this book again and again—to see themselves, while also feeling love and care for this irresistible kitten.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-477-4 • 9.7” (W) x 7.7” (H) • 40 pages • HC

Written & illustrated by Ryoji Arai

Translated from Japanese by David Boyd

From Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winner Ryoji Arai comes a gorgeous picture book about a child learning to accept mistakes, while having a magical experience in the wild, beautiful snow.

Selected for USBBY’s Outstanding International Books List, 2026!
A BookPage Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2025!

After accidentally ripping the pages of his father’s favorite book, a pensive, heavy-hearted boy leaves his cozy, warm house to ski through the snow. There, in the quiet and the cold, he stumbles upon a small stage that’s all lit up—a tiny snow theater, with tiny snow people and tiny ballerinas—that soon transforms into a large snow theater, presided over by the majestic snow queen.

As the boy joins the chorus of snow children, the snow queen lifts up her arms and snow falls and falls and falls, until all the boy can see is white—a snowstorm! And it’s at that precise moment that the boy’s father, who let his son go off alone but never lost track of him, is there to take his hand as they return home together.

Originally published in Japan and written and illustrated by one of the country’s most important picture book makers, The Snow Theater is a quietly enchanting tale about the wild beauty of nature, the powers of the imagination, and the unconditional love of a parent for their child.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-460-6 • 8.25” (W) x 11.6” (H) • 44 pages • HCJ

Written by Maria Popova

Illustrated by Sarah Jacoby

A Publishers Weekly Big Indie Children’s Book of Fall 2025!
One of Betsy Bird's Top Unconventional Children's Books of 2025! 

From The Marginalian creator Maria Popova and acclaimed illustrator Sarah Jacoby comes this gorgeous picture book about the dark side of the moon, and creative solitude as an antidote to loneliness.

Feeling like the loneliest creature on Earth, Re decides to go live in the coziest place on the moon. Re packs a suitcase and takes off on a beam of light, shooting out into the cosmic aloneness of space. Re's aim is to go into the cozy nook that the moon is said to possess. But shortly after arriving, Re makes a surprising discovery: Re is not alone. Indeed, another lonely soul has beaten Re there! And so, Re meets Mi, and while each lives in their own chamber of the nook, these two single souls still become, at times, a kind of togetherness. Each remains alone but less lonely, and now each can watch over the solitude of the other. Moreover, on certain nights, the solitary songs of them both might be heard cadencing the night together, in harmony, across the vast and starry sky.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-437-8 • 9” (W) x 9.5” (H) • 44 pages • HCJ

Librarians & booksellers, click HERE for Edelweiss!

Written by Gianni Rodari
Translated from Italian by Antony Shugaar
Illustrated by Dasha Tolstikova

PREORDERS NOW OPEN: We’re currently reprinting The Adventures of Cipollino, which will be back in stock by June 1.

A 2026 Mildred L. Batchelder Honor Book!
One of 100 Scope Notes’s Most Astonishingly Unconventional Children’s Books of 2025!
One of New York Magazine / The Strategist's Best New Books for Kids Published in 2025! 
A Kirkus Reviews Fall Preview selection!

In this enchantingly whimsical tale from Italy's great children's author, Gianni Rodari, a young onion named Cipollino sets out into the world to study scoundrels, and in so doing, he undoes the tyrannical Prince Lemon, while making a legion of friends along the way.

Cipollino is young, brave, clever, and determined—exactly the kind of valiant hero that’s bound to triumph in fairy tales. In this colorful, episodic adventure story, in which nearly everyone is animal, vegetable, or fruit, Cipollino leaves home and sets off into the world to free his wrongfully imprisoned father. In the process, he faces off against scoundrels of all kinds with wit and humor, while winning both allies and friends. What hangs in the balance is the freedom of an entire kingdom from the ridiculous rules of the all-powerful Prince Lemon and the dignity of each blueberry, string bean, and spider! This is a charming, comic, highly-readable work of fiction for readers 9 and up, which also has the distinction of being one of Hayao Miyazaki’s 
"50 Favorite Children’s Books" of all time.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-416-3 • 6.25” (W) x 9.5” (H) • 248 pages • HCJ

Written by Kate Finney

Illustrated by Esmé Shapiro

From award-winning illustrator Esmé Shapiro and debut talent Kate Finney comes the unforgettable story of Belladonna, a spunky, beautiful plant who must learn to survive—even though she can’t flee from those who want to devour her!

One of New York Magazine / The Strategist's Best New Books for Kids Published in 2025! 
One of Betsy Bird's Top Funny Picture Books of 2025!

Everyone in the forest knows about Belladonna—that tall, beautiful plant whose berries are so delicious that they’re forever being gobbled up. Day after day, poor Belladonna is nibbled at until there’s almost nothing left of her. But unlike the animals who can leap, climb, or fly away, Belladonna, being a plant, is firmly rooted in place. So what’s a plant to do to survive?

This is the story of how Belladonna learns to harness her own chemical powers to protect herself and her descendants… and how she learns from a great cast of plant and animal characters—culminating in a dandy pheasant—that no one ever survives alone.

This one-of-a-kind picture book is gorgeously illustrated by Esmé Shapiro with wit and humor, and has an astonishingly epic framing that carries Belladonna across eons into her final, powerful form!

ISBN: 978-1-59270-434-7 • 8” (W) x 11.75” (H) • 56 pages • HCJ

Click HERE for an activity guide inspired by Don’t Eat Me! The Almost True Story of Belladonna prepared by author Kate Finney!

For copies signed by the illustrator, click HERE to order Don’t Eat Me! The Almost True Story of Belladonna through Oblong Books!

Written by Brian Isett

Illustrated by Claudia Biçen

STARRED REVIEW! ★ “A luminous and lyrical blend of science, spirituality, and environmental advocacy, this visually stunning title invites readers to reconsider nature as a source of profound wisdom.” —School Library Journal

Interweaving science and storytelling, spirituality and art, a neuroscientist and an artist guide us toward a deeper understanding of how radically interconnected all of life is.

A Kirkus Reviews Fall Preview selection!
Selected for The New Yorker’s Holiday Gift Guide!

Starting from science, while reaching for spiritual truth, The Forgotten Teachers charts the evolution of life on Earth under the mentorship of six teachers: Ocean, Air, Theia (through collision with this planet, Earth was set on its tilt), Sun, Plants, and Symbionts. Ideas from the field of evolutionary biology, accompanied by watercolor illustrations, guide this factual yet mytho-poetic exploration of life.

Motivated by their shared concern over the severance of science from the sacred, and humans from their place within nature, Isett and Biçen set out to write a scientific wonder story for our times—to enchant readers with the strangeness and beauty of evolutionary biology, while reintegrating us into the natural world.

As Rachel Carson did in her time and as Wendell Berry has done as a poet and essayist across the years, Isett writes with precision and urgency to remind us that we participate in a story that is far larger than ourselves, and that to see ourselves more truly would be to see the many ways in which we belong to the molecules and mysteries of the living world.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-411-8 • 8” (W) x 11” (H) • 104 pages • HC with fabric spine

Written & illustrated by Nahid Kazemi

In this picture book inspired by the meditations of the Persian poet Rumi, an adventurous frog leaves her familiar pond, goes beyond the rocks, and returns home—changed.

From the moment Froggy was born, she’s lived in a familiar world of frogs and fish, surrounded by others who are just like her. But what lies beyond the pond she calls home? Encouraged by her conversations with a wise fish, she decides to take the leap into the unknown.

There, she discovers another universe, making friends with creatures she hadn’t known before, as well as some that remind her of home. Time passes, and Froggy learns more than she could ever have imagined. And then one day, just as she once felt the call of the unknown, she hears the call of home—to which she returns, but not quite the same frog as when she left.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-458-3 • 8.25” (W) x 11” (H) • 64 pages • HCJ

Written & illustrated by Giselle Potter

“Written and illustrated with characteristic sublimity by Giselle Potter, here is a tender account of a child’s connection with a grandparent.” —Meghan Cox Gurdon, The Wall Street Journal

From celebrated illustrator Giselle Potter, a beautiful and memorable story about the special bond between a grandparent and a grandchild.

Whenever I visit my grandmother Alice, we love sitting together and telling each other stories. My favorite part is when she takes out her box of special things and we pass them back and forth. Each object—a doll, a sketchbook, shells and stones, and more—is a clue to a bigger story: the story of her life before she was my grandmother.

Before she was my grandmother, she too was a young girl, with a life very different from my own. Little by little, the stories she tells and the objects she shares from her memory box reveal the many facets of her life, along with her great spirit, with its many colors and tones.

Written and illustrated by the award-winning picture book maker Giselle Potter, Before She Was My Grandmother celebrates strong and loving family connections, as well as the little moments and mementos of childhood that we carry with us all our lives—and pass on to the next generation. It’s also a touching reminder of how every life is so much richer and more multifaceted than any single identity or role.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-431-6 • 9” (W) x 11” (H) • 52 pages • HCJ

✨✨✨For signed copies, click HERE to order Before She Was My Grandmother through Oblong Books!✨✨✨

Written by Wolverton Hill
Illustrated by Laura Carlin

“An absolute joy of a picture book — celebrating nonsense, play, art, storytelling and the life of the writer and artist Edward Lear.“ —Jon Scieszka, the first U.S. National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, for The New York Times

Written with style and heart by Wolverton Hill and illustrated with whimsical art by Laura Carlin, this love letter to Edward Lear brings him wonderfully to life for young readers.

A New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2025!
Selected for The New Yorker’s Holiday Gift Guide!
One of New York Magazine / The Strategist's Best New Books for Kids Published in 2025!
Selected for the Politics & Prose Holiday Book Guide!
Awarded a Gold Medal at the Society of Illustrators 68th Annual, Books Category!

Edward Lear popularized the limerick as we know it and invented the modern literary genre of nonsense, made famous by Lewis Carroll. But did you know that as a teenager, he was a natural history artist on par with John J. Audubon? He has a memorial in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, placing him among the UK’s most important authors. Yet even still, Lear seems underappreciated. This picture-book biography will change all of that. Not only does it tell of what Lear did, it also shows who he was by conflating the naturalistic and nonsense, as Lear himself did, and by daring to be both fanciful and playful, for the facts of a life alone can never give you the full picture of a person.

Lear liked children and children liked Lear, for they shared an innate sense of play and silliness, as well as a tolerance for the absurd and unusual. As Lear understood so well, it’s not just fun to be silly, but a sense of play is foundational to a resilient life. And of course, nonsense as practiced by Lear was a sharp weapon of satire against rigid Victorian conformity.

Whether in his keenly observed work as a natural history painter or in his nonsense verse, Lear animated the world through a deep sense of empathy, and it is in this way that author and illustrator Hill and Carlin deliver Lear to us. Rich backmatter includes some Lear poems and paintings, a chronology, and notes from the author and illustrator.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-413-2 • 9” (W) x 12” (H) • 84 pages • HCJ

Librarians & booksellers, click HERE for Edelweiss!

Written by Martine Murray
Illustrated by Anna Read

A Marginalian Favorite Book of 2025!

From award-winning author Martine Murray (dubbed Australia's Kate DiCamillo) and painter Anna Read comes a timeless and timely tale about the monstrousness of envy, and every creature's—even a monster's—need for love.

It starts with a whisper in your ear. A prickly feeling that something isn't quite right. And it builds until a sneaky, possessive thought wriggles into your mind, and an insidious want burrows into your heart. Before you know it, you're discontent, convinced that you're owed more than what you've got. This is the work of the Wanting Monster.

One day, the Wanting Monster arrives in a small village, but no one notices him, despite his antics. Feeling snubbed, he starts sowing discontent and envy of one's neighbor. So infectious is the wanting and greed awakened by the Wanting Monster that even the stars are plucked, one by one, from the sky. Covetousness and distrust reign. Will the village people ever return to their senses? Will they ever learn that it's the monster of wanting that's been poisoning their minds? The Wanting Monster almost triumphs . . . fortunately, he is finally seen for what he is, and this recognition unleashes the purifying force of collective lamentation and a coming together to reroot and rebuild.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-419-4 • 8” (W) x 11.5” (H) • 76 pages • HCJ

Written & illustrated by Romana Romanyshyn & Andriy Lesiv
Translated from Ukrainian by Oksana Luschevska

Eye-catching, informative, and offering hours of fun, On the Move is the perfect nonfiction book about motion in all its forms, from a pair of Ukraine’s leading contemporary artists.

When was the first shoe invented? What's the longest distance an animal has ever traveled? How does time travel work? All these questions—and more!—are answered in On the Move, a dazzling illustrated book that explores movement through a variety of lenses, from geography to anthropology, tourism, adventuring, physics, and everything in between.

Perfect for children and parents, teachers and librarians, and anyone curious to learn about the way things work, On the Move is brimming with fascinating facts and thought-provoking reflections about how people, animals, and the elements move around, both throughout history and to this day. It's also an excellent book for artists and designers who are interested in composition and the spatial arrangement of information—with bold graphic design and vivid Pantone colors that burst off the page!

ISBN: 978-1-59270-414-9 • 311 mm (W) x 223 mm (H) • 64 pages • HCJ

*This title will also be available on Bookshop, an organization that supports independent bookstores!

Written by Gianni Rodari
Illustrated by Matthew Forsythe
Translated from Italian by Jack Zipes

From the father of modern Italian children’s literature, this is one of the great works on the imagination and how stories get made—with radiant illustrations from Matthew Forsythe and a refreshed translation from Jack Zipes.

“Holds great value for the adults who teach kids and the adults who write for them.“ —Mac Barnett, U.S. National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, for the New York Times

“The ultimate synthesis of Rodari’s exuberant knowledge, a book of both pedagogy and poetics, poetry for teachers and pedagogy for poets.” —Italo Calvino

★ “A must-have for educators and librarians looking to inject creativity into their classrooms. Rodari provides a thoughtful, informed approach to how imagination and play can foster critical thinking.” —School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW!

Translated into English by acclaimed children’s literature historian Jack Zipes and illustrated for the first time ever by Matthew Forsythe, this edition is the ultimate guide for all teachers and creatives. “I hope this small book,” writes Rodari, “can be useful for all those people who believe it is necessary for the imagination to have a place in education; for all those who trust in the creativity of children; and for all those who know the liberating value of the word.”

Librarians & booksellers, click HERE for Edelweiss!

ISBN: 978-1-59270-305-0
6” (W) x 9” (H) • 316 Pages • HCJ

Written & illustrated by Yuki Ainoya
Translated from Japanese by Michael Blaskowsky

A Wall Street Journal Best Children's Book of 2025!
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Picture Book of 2025!

Follow along on Sato the Rabbit’s wondrous adventures with light, in this fourth installment of the popular series from Japan!

Every morning, Sato the Rabbit opens his eyes to the soft light of day, ready to embrace all that the universe has in store for him. One day, the bright morning light that peeks out from his curtains becomes a bar that transports him to a forest, where he gathers dappled sunlight into a warm fire and sets the night dew aglow. Another day, Sato wakes up to find his room transformed into a lighthouse floating on the big, wide ocean, where he scoops up the light that comes through the colorful glass windows to create a special signal that ushers in fish and seabirds bearing wonderful treats.

The fourth in the Sato the Rabbit series, this is a charming picture book for all those who imagine and play and dream, who find magic in the everyday, and who open themselves up to wonder.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-439-2 • 7” (W) x 8” (H) • 48 pages • HCJ

By Ed Valfre

In this place where we live, something magical happens everyday… LA photographer Ed Valfre imagines stories from snapshots of ordinary life, inviting readers to discover the magical in the everyday.
 
“Through the lens of Ed Valfre’s mind, the everyday becomes the ethereal.  His images spark the imagination and take us to a place just beyond reach. Or perhaps the dream already exists and Valfre shows us the proof.” —TV producer Michael Feldman

A cup of coffee with a swirl of cream. Clouds reflected on a tabletop. A shopping cart abandoned on the sidewalk. Photographer Ed Valfre captures these little moments of everyday life in his pictures and subsequently imagines the extraordinary universes, striking feelings, and unexpected narratives each moment might contain.

By turns surreal, humorous, and profound, Valfre reveals the magic to be discovered in the everyday with this collection of photographs and accompanying short stories.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-377-7 • 8.25” (W) x 8.25” (H) • 92 pages • HCJ

Written by Sylvaine Jaoui
Illustrated by Anne Crahay
Translated from French by Claudia Zoe Bedrick

A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of 2025!

The growth of a tree and of a child parallel each other in this exquisitely constructed die-cut picture book about our nestedness in the natural world.

I am a seed.
I grow bigger and bigger each day.
I’m starting to become who I am.

So begins this story, which is also how a child’s life begins… as does a tree’s. With an affirming, poetic text and gorgeous, delicate art as revealed through die-cuts on almost every spread, I’m Like a Tree and a Tree’s Like Me is a beautiful picture book about how we begin, how we grow, how we’re nourished, and how we live. By drawing parallels between a growing child and a growing tree, author Sylvaine Jaoui and illustrator Anne Crahay remind us of the myriad ways that humans and plants are connected as living beings.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-424-8 • 8.5” (W) x 11” (H) • 44 pages • HCJ

Written by Gianni Rodari
Illustrated by Roman Muradov
Translated from Italian by Antony Shugaar

One of Betsy Bird's Top Unconventional Children's Books of 2025!
One of Betsy Bird's Top Translated Children's Books for Older and Younger Readers of 2025!

From Gianni Rodari, the father of modern Italian children’s literature, comes a pithy, humorous tale about life and death, health and wealth . . . and bandits and balloons! A refreshed translation from Batchelder Award–winner Antony Shugaar, illustrated with all-new art from Roman Muradov.

“Gianni Rodari gave free rein to his imagination, with inspired panache and gleeful lightness. At the same time, he had a precise and meticulous love for detail, for rich and exact language, and so all of his inventions are set in a very concrete world with real form and action.” —Italo Calvino

Baron Lamberto is very old, very rich, and very sick. He lives in a villa on a private island in the middle of Lake Orta, tended to by his trusty butler, Anselmo, who keeps track of the baron’s 24 maladies, 24 banks, and endless eccentricities. After a mysterious trip to Egypt, the baron hires six people to take up residence in the attic of his villa. Their only task? To repeat his name, “Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto,” throughout the day. Why? It’s anyone’s guess, but—wonder of wonders—Baron Lamberto does appear to be getting better and better, little by little, day by day. But trouble looms when Lamberto’s nefarious nephew Ottavio enters the scene, scheming up a way to get his hands on the baron’s fortune. And things go from bad to worse when a band of 24 bandits (all named Lamberto, too, by the way) lays siege to the baron’s villa and attempt to hold him for ransom.

In typical Rodarian fashion, Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto is a thoroughly enjoyable, deeply thought-provoking read. While it playfully skewers the absurdities of the rich, the bureaucracy, the media, and more, it also encourages readers to liberate their imaginations, to expect the unexpected, and to embrace the kind of possibilities that normally only happen in fairy tales.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-415-6 • 6.25” (W) x 9.5” (H) • 136 pages • HCJ

By Alessandro Sanna
With an introduction by Ammiel Alcalay
Translated from Italian by Ammiel Alcalay

A Kirkus Reviews Best YA Book of 2025!
Selected for USBBY’s Outstanding International Books List, 2026!

From acclaimed Italian artist Alessandro Sanna, an astonishing wordless series of paintings about humans, inhumanity, and war that also contemplates the creative and destructive power of our hands.

A stone falls to the Earth. It picks up speed, rolling down the steep side of a mountain until it comes to rest in an empty plain. But the plain won’t remain empty for long: out of the shadows emerge two figures, who immediately start to grapple, using that very stone as a weapon to kill.

But those same hands, our human hands, holding the same weight of stone, also shape and forge, chisel and build, creating as they destroy, rendering beauty and violence alike. What is the relationship of those twin impulses? In these pages, artist Alessandaro Sanna uses the shaping force of his hands to explore the seemingly endless, perversely steadfast human capacity for destruction. Unflinchingly tracing humanity’s long history of war, from the havoc of armies on horseback, to the violence of the conquistadores, to the carnage of the First World War, to the ghastly terror of the atomic bomb, and the cruel, shockingly intentional attack on the Twin Towers, Sanna records our compulsion to destroy. The hands mold clay, streak color across a sky, define a world, give beauty to the eye; and yet fires burn, an acrid smell arises, smoke blots out the sun. For what and why?

Includes an introduction from esteemed poet and scholar Ammiel Alcalay, as well as an artist’s note.

ISBN: 978-1-59270-421-7 • 7.9” (W) x 10.9” (H) • 188 pages • HCJ