I read seven picture books in July. I’ve reviewed my three favorites below.

Navigating the Night

On WorldCat

Published in 2026

by Julie Leung and Illustrated by Angie Kang

Art: gouache, crayon, colored pencil, pastel on water color paper

Includes author and illustrator note

Leung and Kang’s Navigating the Night is a story of a girl helping her dad make deliveries from their Chinese food restaurant on a rainy night. Leung’s story tackles questions of identity, as the girl struggles with wanting to just be “normal.” Kang’s illustrations accentuate the story, using windows, doorways, and reflections (in mirrors, puddles, glass) to convey the inside/outside feelings. With the rain outside and the conversation from Baba and the girl inside the car, the story and illustrations resolve into a cozy feeling of being inside a family.

The Three-Year Tumble

On WorldCat

by Dayeon Auh, Translated by Tim Mohr

Winner of the Aesop Award

Troubled Waters

On WorldCat

by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Bryan Collier

Multiple Starred Reviews

I’m Trying to Love Spiders

On WorldCat

by Bethany Barton

Published 2015

Art: ink, paper, computer

Barton’s clever informational picture book features a narrator who cannot stop squishing spiders, but is trying to love them. They decide that learning facts about spiders will help. The cartoon style drawings pair well with the humorous tone of the book. Barton has made the book interactive, inviting the reader to “pet” spiders with an outline of a handprint. This inevitably leads to more squishing. Giggles and learning abound, with even the frontmatter pages packed with info and laughs.

WildSpeak

On WorldCat

by Sangma Francis and illustrated by Lexi Vangsnes

If You Are Lost

On WorldCat

by Nikki Loftin and illustrated by Deborah Marcero

Tiny Hiker

On WoldCat

by Natasha Zimmers and illustrated by Jaimie MacGibbon

Published 2026

Zimmers and MacGibbon’s picture book will be a comfort read to anyone who hikes. The rhyming story’s rhythm, plot, and illustrations convey the enthusiasm of young hikers at the start, how their curious wonder slows their pace, the depths of despair in the hard parts, and the embrace of challenge to push to the end. A bonus comic at the end (Tiny Hiker Packs) works as an informational text, teaching what to pack for a hike. This book works would work well to either prepare young hikers or to reminisce with them.