Ibi Zoboi discusses ‘First Day Around the World’ on our Best June Books episode.

On this episode of Fully Booked, we’re celebrating the best books of June. First, in a special editors’ segment, Laurie Muchnick, John McMurtrie, Mahnaz Dar, and Laura Simeon recommend some of the month’s most anticipated titles. Then, I’m joined in conversation by Ibi Zoboi, the author of one of June’s best books: First Day Around the World, a sophisticated picture book illustrated by Juanita Londoño (Versify, June 3). The title refers to the first day of school, and Zoboi compassionately shows how experiences across cultures vary and converge.

Zoboi is the New York Times bestselling author of books for children and teens, including American Street, Pride, and Punching the Air, co-written with Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five. She is a 2024 Coretta Scott King Award winner for the YA novel Nigeria Jones, and a CSK honoree for her picture books The People Remember and Star Child. She was born in Haiti and immigrated to New York with her mother when she was 4 years old.

Here’s a bit from our review of First Day Around the World: “Mirroring the school day, this ambitious book begins at dawn, with a description of African kids eating their breakfasts and donning fresh uniforms, before transitioning to a discussion of the many ways students travel to school. Then it’s off to the Middle East and Asia to explore first-day rituals before journeying to Europe for lunch. As the day winds down, South and North American students head home through bustling communities to rest and reflect. Every continent is represented…making for a satisfyingly thorough global tour. Though the author devotes just a few sentences to each place, the book contains enough specificity that children from those cultures will surely feel seen.…[A story] both monumental in scope and tightly focused, with an emotionally resonant core.”

Zoboi and I expound on the impact and importance of the first day of school. She shares personal anecdotes about her own first days, in both Haiti and New York, and her appreciation of Londoño’s illustrations. We talk about the importance of representation, the emotional impact of moving to a new country, and much more.

BEST BOOKS OF JUNE 2025:

Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin (Summit)

Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church by Kevin Sack (Crown)

The Music Inside Us: Yo-Yo Ma and His Gifts to the World by James Howe, illus. by Jack Wong (Abrams)

A Most Perilous World: The True Story of the Young Abolitionists and Their Crusade Against Slavery by Kristina R. Gaddy (Dutton)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Standing Up by Mary L. Devine

Beyond the Gates by Cynthia Bardes

Not in This World by Jane Scott Stuart with Elaine Flowers

Concrete Leprechaun by Steve Walsh

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.