World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 13-18: The Americas

  

Amazona.

Written and illustrated by Canizales.

Translated from Spanish by Sofía Huitrón Martínez.

Graphic Universe, 2022.

Andrea, a young Indigenous Colombian woman, has returned to the land she calls home. Only nineteen years old, she comes to mourn her lost child, carrying a box in her arms. And she comes with another mission. Andrea has hidden a camera upon herself. If she can capture evidence of the illegal mining that displaced her family, it will mark the first step toward reclaiming their land.

War, grief, protest, Indigenous rights, sexual assault, displacement – so much going on in such a slim volume – but one that packs a bunch.

World Kid Lit Month 2023: CBCA Book of the Year

Bonus: Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year: Picture Book winner

My strange shrinking parents: being: a picture story told in 38 pages
Written & drawn by Zeno Sworder.

Thames and Hudson, 2022.

Sorry for the bad photos - trying to get them while I could. 

Oh my word. This is heart-breaking. 

The metaphor of shrinking yourself to fit is blown apart in this. 

The giving and giving and giving and giving of yourself.

World Kid Lit Month 2023: A book from the Middle East / West Asia

A book from the Middle East / West Asia: 

The Arabic quilt: an immigrant story. 
Written by Aya Khalil; illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan. 

Tilbury House Publishers, 2020. 

I love how supportive the teacher is, and how she educates her class, while celebrating Kanzi's heritage. 

Kanzi's uncertainty about being visibly different is something common for many immigrants. There are many children's picture books about this experience. 

Have a look for Lunch from Home by Joshua David Stein, which has a similar theme. 

World Kid Lit Month 2022: day 22: A book from South America

Bingo: A book from South America:

Antonia: a journey to a new home 

By Dipacho.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: SYRIA

SYRIA: 

Boy, everywhere. 

By A. M. Dassu; cover illustration by Zainab Daby Faidhi. 

Forced to sell all their belongings and leave their friends and beloved grandmother behind, Sami and his family travel across the Middle East to Turkey, where they end up in a smuggler's den. From there, they cross the treacherous waters of the Mediterranean and manage to fly to England, only to be separated and detained in an immigration prison for the crime of seeking asylum. Yet the transition from refugee to immigrant in a new life will be the greatest challenge Sami has ever faced.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: PALESTINE

PALESTINE: 

Sitti's secrets. 

By Naomi Shihab Nye; illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. 

When Sitti, an American girl, goes to visit her grandmother in her small Middle Eastern village on the other side of the world, they don't need words to understand each other's heart.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: OMAN

OMAN: 

The turtle of Oman. 

By Naomi Shihab Nye; illustrations by Betsy Peterschmidt. 

When Aref, a third-grader who lives in Muscat, Oman, refuses to pack his suitcase and prepare to move to Michigan, his mother asks for help from his grandfather, his Siddi, who takes Aref around the country, storing up memories he can carry with him to a new home. 

World Kid Lit Month 2021: IRAN

IRAN: 

My favorite memories. 

By Sepideh Sarihi; Julie Völk; translation by Elisabeth Lauffer. 

A beautifully simple story about moving to a new home, exploring themes of change and permanence and told with warm illustrations from an award-winning illustrator.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: INDIA

INDIA: 

Where three oceans meet. 

By Rajani LaRocca; illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan. 

Travelling to the southern tip of India, Sejal, Mommy, and Pati find their way to Kanyakumari, where three oceans meet, and delight in making it to the end of the earth together.