Catfish Rolling by Clara Kumagai (YA)
Passage to Tokyo by Poppy Kuroki
Palaver by Bryan Washington
The Night of Baba Yaga by Akiro Otani
Solo Dance by Li Kotomi
Tag Archives: Palaver
Happy Black History Month 2026!
It’s Black History Month, and we’re celebrating as we do with books by Black authors (almost entirely) starring Black characters! For even more titles, check out past years’ posts.
Picture Books
Dancing with Water by Gwendolyn Wallace and Tonya Engel
An intergenerational story about a nonbinary child who learns the tradition of well digging in this picture book about community, hope, and protecting the Earth’s water.
As soon as Kit’s old enough to ride in Grandpa’s truck, they begin joining him to dig wells for their community. Grandpa is magic. He can feel the weather in his bones, and he’s able to dance with water. With just a tree branch in his hand, Grandpa sways and spins over the land until he finds a spot to dig a hole into the waiting earth. When the water springs up, Grandpa and Kit jump for joy.
As new hotels and factories pop up across town, clean water becomes harder to find. Sometimes, no water flows at all. Kit is sad for Grandpa—and for Earth. But one day, Grandpa senses that Kit is ready to dance with water too. Grandpa reminds Kit that the energy and strength of their people flows through the water. As they wait and watch for fresh, clear water to flow up from the ground again, Kit recognizes the power shared between themself and Earth.
New Releases: November 2025
Chris Makes a Friend by Alex Gino (4th)
This is not the summer Chris has planned…
Chris does not want to be spending the summer with her grandparents and her little sister. Her grandparents aren’t bad — they just don’t let Chris do what she wants to do, which is sit around and read all day. And her sister, Becca, is the opposite, never sitting still and never being quiet.
The good part is that Chris’s grandparents are always telling her to go outside and “get some air” — so she can escape into the woods with a book and get some alone time. Or at least it’s alone time until Mia comes along. Mia is also in town for the summer, and she understands Chris in a way that Chris’s family just can’t.
Soon Chris is sneaking off to spend as much time with her friend as possible. But is there more to Mia than Mia is saying?