If you’re not ready yet to let go of lovely holiday feelings, let me recommend a charming Christmas romance collection. Let Your Heart Be Light by J.R. Lawrie (published by Carnation Books) is a set of three M/M holiday love stories about two couples. The first is a goofy blue-haired stand-up comic who finds the love of his life in an older civil servant. The second features two neighbors who finally get a chance to meet after one is treated […]

If you’re a fan of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag — and if you’ve seen it, I’m assuming you’re a fan, because it’s fabulous — you may want to check out this time capsule book. Fleabag is a TV show, available in the US on Amazon Prime Video, that’s funny and true and raw and insightful and uncompromising. The first season (2016) is about the title character, otherwise unnamed and played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (who also wrote it), coping with the loss […]

Kahlo’s Koalas by Grace Helmer is a fun introduction to some artists with popular styles able to be easily evoked. As this small board book counts from one to ten, we see the same number of creatures in two-page spreads, from “1 Picasso Panda” to “10 Monet Mice”. Other artists include Matisse, Pollock, and Van Gogh. (The only woman is the titular Kahlo.) The book concludes with a couple of sentences about each artist, summing up the most obvious elements […]

The Karate Kid: The Classic Illustrated Storybook is the newest in the Pop Classics line from Quirk Books. I previously talked about Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Picture Book, from the same line. That book was an original story, but this one retells the 1984 movie. It’s based on the film written by Robert Mark Kamen and directed by John G. Avildsen, and this book is adapted by Rebecca Gyllenhaal and illustrated by Kim Smith, who has done all the […]

The Little Guys has an odd topic and message for a children’s book. When I first heard of the concept, that tiny little creatures — they look rather like beards with acorn caps and stick arms and legs, so they have no analogue in the real world — teamed up together, could do anything, I thought that that sounded like a typical, encouraging read about teamwork. That is not this book. As the promotion asks, But as they begin to […]

It’s becoming the thing to do for comic artists to expand into children’s picture books. The differences are minimal but significant in terms of publishing audiences and format. A children’s book is usually a larger hardcover (easier for little hands to manipulate), with captioned images instead of word balloons, and fewer but larger pictures. Kate Beaton has released a couple, and so has Vera Brosgol. (She also illustrated someone else’s story to hilarious effect.) My favorite artist, Lucy Knisley, illustrated […]

As someone who’s never been able to successfully go camping — I’m allergic to the outdoors, and the one time I tried, I managed to develop bronchitis — I found this beautifully illustrated oversized hardcover a wonderful, escapist read, like paging through a catalog of gorgeous things I can’t afford. National Parks of the USA is written by Kate Siber, illustrated by Chris Turnham, and covers 21 of the 59 national parks, arranged by region. Each is introduced with an […]

If you enjoy Where’s Waldo but would rather look for cute animals instead of a dopey guy in a striped shirt, Where’s the Llama?: An Around-the-World Adventure is the book for you. It’s written by Frances Evans and illustrated by Paul Moran. A group of ten llamas have decided to travel the world, so the goal is to find all of them in 17 colorful scenes that range from street festivals and famous tourist sites to art galleries, fashion shows, […]