Congratulations to Alan Barillaro and Briony May Smith on BUNNS RABBIT and HOGBERT being named to the shortlist of Barnes & Noble’s 2026 Children’s and YA Book Awards! Final winners will be announced later this month, but in the meantime, please join us in celebrating our talented authors!
Here are 36 books for toddlers, independent readers, and tweens to kick off your TBR for Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month! From celebrations of delicious dumplings and Bollywood dances to bedtimes with the Zodiac and gripping biographies of real-life heroes, these stories will be enjoyed again and again. (And, as anyone with children knows, again and again and again and... 😂)
Next time your invited to a baby shower and wonder what to get the soon-to-be parents, don't think twice! You can help build their baby's first library with adorable, colorful, sweet books that everyone is going to love! 🍼🌈👼❤️
What happens when the Chosen One decides to go on strike?
Tessie and her epic quest is perfect for readers who enjoy reading about unlikely heroes, hilarious fantasy adventures, and magical prophecies upside down! ✨️🐲
📚️THE UNCHOSEN ONE-available wherever books are sold📚️
It's @_anandaditi again with the final post of my takeover. The Fabric of Us is a tender picture book about grief and remembrance, as a little girl copes with the death of her Papa, who was a tailor. It is about how she and her other father, Dad, find a way to always remember him.
The story was inspired by my Nani - by the crafts she practiced and the things she made with love. I hope this book is shared by both adults and children, and help them remember lost loved ones.
The Fabric of Us will be available in hardback across the US on May 26, 2026.
It's @_anandaditi again! The Fabric of Us came together over three years through observational drawings, sketchbooks, dummy books, and lots of colour experiments.
I wanted to portray a family of two fathers and their child in an Indian setting. At its heart, the story is about their bond, woven together through the craft of sewing.
I made sure the text and illustrations worked together to tell the story, instead of repeating each other. Colour was an important part of the book, as the palette shifts after the child loses her father. The sound of the sewing machine also runs throughout the book - from a busy, cheerful home to silence after Papa passes away - and the change in color helped deepen that feeling of silence.
The Fabric of Us will be available in hardback across the US on May 26, 2026.
Hello! I am Aditi Anand ( @_anandaditi ), taking over Candlewick’s Instagram today to share my debut picture book as an author-illustrator, The Fabric of Us - a story about family, love, loss, and sewing, set in India.
Every morning, the sound of Papa's sewing machine fills their home: Snip! Whirr! Clank! Click! Click! Click! But one day, everything changes and the house is silent.
The Fabric of Us will be available in hardback across the US on May 26, 2026.
Banish "I'm booooooored" with 37 new and upcoming books for upper elementary and middle school readers—and EVEN MORE in our link in bio, because we're nice like that. ☺️
Don't see what you're looking for? Drop a comment with your tween's current interest or recent favorite book, and we'll give a suggestion!
For my final post of this Candlewick Instagram takeover, I wanted to share one of my favorite things about this book, and about the Honor Flight Network…
During every Honor Flight, there is something called “mail call”, when each veteran is handed a large envelope filled with letters and cards. Some are from friends and family, but many of the cards are from children. I got to see first-hard how much these letters mean to the veterans who receive them.
Jeff Gottesfeld (@jeffgottesfeldwriter ) told me early on that one of his greatest hopes for Honor Flight is that after reading the book, kids will write letters to veterans, to be used during mail call. And we’ve already seen it happening. Jeff sent me this picture from a recent school visit, where the school sent over 1,000 letters to their local honor flight chapter. Incredible! What an awesome way for kids to get involved and know that they are making a difference.
