This summer, falling into (and in love with) a new world is easy when you find a great book. Parenting Times Magazine rounds up some new reads featuring Canadian authors and illustrators
Books for Babies and Toddlers
The Rainbow Sheep
By David Hayward
Publisher: Beaming Books, May 2025
About the book: A humorous picture book about inclusion, self-acceptance, and the joy of being different, The Rainbow Sheep centres around Ricky, who lives with a flock of sheep that prizes conformity. When a rainbow sheep joins the flock and befriends Ricky, everything changes.
About the Canadian author and illustrator: Saint John, N.B.-area based David Hayward draws and writes as @NakedPastor. He reaches audiences around the world with his fanciful and hard-hitting cartoons about spiritual abuse, the church’s exclusion of LGBTQ+ people, feminism, and faith and doubt. With degrees from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and McGill University in Montreal, Hayward served as a pastor for most of his career, but in 2010 left the professional paid clergy to pursue his passion for spirituality, community, and art.
If You Want to Make a Wish
By Jennifer Adams, illustrated by Sara Gillingham
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers, May 2025
About the book: Some wishes are hard – like wishing people would be kind to each other or that a grandparent isn’t sick – but by taking action, some of the harder wishes can come true. This lyrical and empowering picture book is about the many ways children can make a wish and how they can make their wishes – even the tough ones — come true.
About the Canadian illustrator: Vancouver resident Sara Gillingham is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator, art director, and designer who has helped publish many bestselling books. She is the illustrator of more than 25 titles for children, including Snuggle the Baby, All Better Baby!, Love Is a Truck, Love Is a Tutu, Love Is a Ball, and the Empowerment series.
Every Peach Is a Story
By David Mas Masumoto and Nikiko Masumoto and illustrated by Lauren Tamaki
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers, March 2025
About the book: In this poignant debut picture book, Midori discovers that every peach on her family’s farm is a sweet reminder of those who’ve come before. Poetic and powerful, Every Peach Is a Story is a journey of discovery through all of life’s seasons.
About the Canadian illustrator: Toronto and New York-based Lauren Tamaki is an award-winning illustrator and designer whose work includes the book Seen and Unseen, written by Elizabeth Partridge, which garnered numerous starred reviews and accolades, including the Robert F. Sibert Medal and the Bologna Ragazzi Award.
Little Witch’s To-Do List
By Helen Kemp Zax, illustrated by Kiersten Eve Eagan
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed, July 2025
About the book: Just in time for Halloween! From training her stubborn owl to taking flying lessons, Little Witch will get through her daily to-do list one item at a time in this picture book that gently teaches time management and the importance of organization.
About the Canadian illustrator: Vancouver-based Kiersten Eagan is an illustrator working in children’s publishing as well as design for television and film. Eagan is passionate about storytelling and loves using design to help bring stories to life. She studied illustration at the Academy of Art in San Francisco.
Colette: The Solitary Bee
By Jean-François Sénéchal, illustrated by Pascale Bonenfant
Publisher: Milky Way Picture Books, May 2025
About the book: Colette is a solitary bee who enjoys her own company more than anyone else’s and thrives on her independence. Colette can do just about anything by herself: day-to-day tasks, cleverly navigating the elements, and even setting out on solo adventures. But sometimes, even the most solitary bees need other insects around – like when things don’t go as planned, or when they’ve simply got a good story to tell. This heartwarming tale that shows us we can be proud to do things by ourselves, but it’s also pretty great to share our lived experiences with those around us.
About the Canadian author: The son of two teachers, Jean-François Sénéchal grew up around books. His stories – exploring societal issues such as exclusion and inequality for audiences of children and adolescents – have garnered him various honours, including the 2017 Joseph S. Stauffer Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, and a Governor General’s Award for children’s literature.
About the Canadian illustrator: Québec City-based Pascale Bonenfant uses drawing, collage, watercolor, and screen printing to bring her playful works of art to life. After studying design and visual arts at Laval University, she deepened her love for illustration by becoming a professor of graphic design. In recent years, her work has appeared in a wide range of exhibitions and publications, including more than a dozen books.
Books for Young Children
The Music Inside Us: Yo-Yo Ma and His Gifts to the World
By James Howe, illustrated by Jack Wong
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers, June 2025
About the book: From a bestselling and award-winning team comes a moving illustrated picture-book biography of world-class cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and his lifelong passion for using music to unite people in harmony and joy.
At a young age, Yo-Yo Ma discovered a remarkable gift for the cello. He studied at Juilliard, performed at Carnegie Hall at a young age and played on television before the president of the United States but wanted to use his gift for something deeper, something bigger.
Ma decided that he would spend his life not only performing for others, but learning from other cultures’ musical traditions and finding ways to unite people. Even as he dedicated himself to humanitarian work around the world, Ma also taught a new generation of young cellists to play with their whole hearts, bodies, and souls.
About the Canadian illustrator: Hong Kong-born, Vancouver-raised Halifax resident Jack Wong’s debut picture book, When You Can Swim, received the 2023 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award in Picture Books and the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award in Young People’s Literature, Illustrated Books. Wong holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, where he now lives with his wife and two cats.
Books for Junior Readers
Super Fun Slime Projects: DIY Tutorials, Recipes, and Projects–Totally Borax Free!
By Alyssa Jagan
Publisher: New Shoe Press, June 2025
About the book: Make DIY borax-free kid-safe slime of all kinds with Super Fun Slime Projects. Kids will love this new spin on the classic science project.
Scientific studies have found that playing with slime can dramatically decrease stress levels. Whether the reader is a beginner or advanced crafter, there’s a slime for for everyone, including crunchy, metallic, confetti, jiggly, fluffy, kinetic, avalanche, bubbly and clear slimes.
About the Canadian author: Alyssa Jagan of @CraftySlimeCreator (named one of the best slime accounts on Instagram) is also the author of Ultimate Slime, which has been published in eleven languages, and the co-author of Study with Me, on how to use bullet journaling and time management techniques for successful studying, both published by Quarry Books. The popular Instagram slimer, who hails from the Greater Toronto Area, posts videos to her accounts every day, co-hosts the Slimey Sundays live podcast on Instagram with Erin Murphy of @SlimeonadeStand, and sells her products on her Etsy site, craftedbyalyssaj.
The Land Knows Me: A Nature Walk Exploring Indigenous Wisdom
By Leigh Joseph, illustrated by Natalie Schnitter
Publisher: becker&mayer! Kids, March 2025
About the book: The Land Knows Me teaches readers how to ground themselves on the land. This essential and colourful introduction to Indigenous plant knowledge includes informative sidebars, reflection questions, and plant names in both Squamish and English so children can learn a new language.
About the Canadian author: Leigh Joseph is an ethnobotanist, researcher, and community activist whose aim is to contribute to cultural knowledge renewal in connection to Indigenous plant foods and medicines. As part of this mission, she founded B.C.-based Sḵwálwen Botanicals, an Indigenous business creating small-batch botanical skincare products. She is a member of the Squamish Nation.
About the Canadian illustrator: Vancouver Island-raised Natalie Schnitter is an illustrator and artist living on the unceded traditional territories of the Squamish Nation. Having graduated with a major in illustration from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2016, Natalie now enjoys using digital, oil paint, acrylic, watercolor, pencil crayon, and ink professionally. A lover of storytelling, Natalie’s work has been featured in films and tv shows – like Goosebumps, Fresh, The Imperfects, and more – across North America.
Books for Teens
Into the Deep Blue
By Jennifer E. Archer
Publisher: Marble Press, September 2025
About the book: Nick and Fiona were meant to be friends – best friends – and they wouldn’t change that for the world. At least, that’s what they tell themselves. Because they can’t be an us. Nick doesn’t believe in happy endings ever since they both lost their moms unexpectedly senior year. And Fiona often wonders if all they have in common is their numb hearts. Still, they’re content to share everything else with each other. But when Fiona accidentally lets her guard down more than she intended to with Nick, it threatens to ruin their fragile balancing act. Luckily, Nick isn’t about to let a little misunderstanding get in the way of the weekend trip they’ve been planning for months. Fiona is just hoping for some closure on the first anniversary of her mom’s death – except grief isn’t that simple, and choosing to love again isn’t, either. Now the only thing standing between Fiona and Nick is the truth. They just need the courage to reach for it.
Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon’s The Sun is Also a Star and John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Into the Deep Blue is Fiona and Nick’s achingly moving, wry, and hopeful tale about falling apart and coming together, told from two unforgettable points of view.
About the author: Toronto-based author and screenwriter Jennifer E. Archer won the 2022 Academy Nicholl Fellowship Award in screenwriting for her screenplay, Into the Deep Blue, based on her debut novel. Filming begins next spring with Maxton Hall’s Damian Hardung set to star.
-30-