bookshelf

GATHERING THE LIGHT

Name: GATHERING THE LIGHT
Author: Joy Harjo
ISBN: 9780593901557

by Joy Harjo ; illustrated by Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 29, 2026

Illuminating.

bookshelf

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Harjo (Mvskoke Nation) and Anishinaabe illustrator Pawis-Steckley shine light on the continuous cycles of life and nature.

Telling folks to touch grass can sound rude; next time, suggest they gather the light instead. Through a series of guiding commands—“stop and listen,” “breathe and let go”—an unseen narrator entreats a child “to greet the day, / To respect, to honor” it and to appreciate celestial light “as it feeds and inspires all the beings of Earth.” Over the course of a day, a brown-skinned, long-haired child encounters countless new opportunities for interconnection, gently registering daily gratitudes before evening’s peaceful closure. Luminous full-bleed digital illustrations emphasize light’s shifting interaction with nature, dawn’s rays shining through bare branches, dappled spots popping through deep woods midday, and that particular hazy brightness that brings forth rainbows in an afternoon storm shower. Harjo riffs on the title of her adult biography Catching the Light (2022); the judicious and lyrical qualities of her verse will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with her work. Pair with Bruce Handy and Lisk Feng’s wondrous There Was a Shadow (2024) to build on the day-to-dusk concept, or with Julie Flett’s Birdsong (2019) to continue celebrating relationships between people and our natural world.

Illuminating. (author’s and illustrator’s notes) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026

ISBN: 9780593901557

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House Studio

Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: tomorrow

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
FOR A GIRL BECOMING
by Joy Harjo ; illustrated by Adriana M. Garcia

- BOOK REVIEW
REMEMBER
by Joy Harjo ; illustrated by Michaela Goade

- BOOK REVIEW
FOR A GIRL BECOMING
by Joy Harjo & illustrated by Mercedes McDonald

bookshelf

SPAGHETTI HEAD & CHICKEN FINGERS

by Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal ; illustrated by Erica Salcedo ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2026

Wild and wacky.

bookshelf

A picture book from the comedy duo known as Rhett & Link, creators of the online juggernaut Good Mythical Morning.

Lumo is obsessed with chicken fingers; Saffy, who is new to town and anxious about starting school, finds comfort in the only food she likes: buttered spaghetti. The night before the first day of school, a thunderstorm rages, and each kid makes a wish—“to have chicken fingers at school,” in Lumo’s case; Saffy wishes for “the first thing off the top of her head: buttered spaghetti.” File under “Be careful what you wish for.” Lumo’s and Saffy’s respective physical changes (chicken fingers for fingers, spaghetti for hair) make navigating school a challenge but bring them together in the cafeteria, where they enjoy some new foods—and their new friendship. The plotting could have been sharper: Why do the kids’ bodies suddenly return to normal? And couldn’t the authors have thought up a less old-hat story-ending punch line? Nevertheless, McLaughlin and Neal get by on their charm, and the plot sets up some funny visuals. Salcedo’s cartoony Photoshop art features well-chosen artifacts from a typical kid’s life and captures the mortification of not fitting in, which will be familiar even to readers who have never experienced breaded fingers or noodle hair. Lumo is brown-skinned and dark-haired; Saffy is pale-skinned with disheveled reddish-brown hair.

Wild and wacky. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: June 16, 2026

ISBN: 9780063474154

Page Count: 32

Publisher: HarperPop/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

bookshelf

ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

bookshelf

Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)