(2) K-3 Illustrated by Brooke Smart. The main table in a home is often where memories are made. Killian's debut picture book explores this table's many roles in one family's life. The easy-to-read story starts where a wooden table begins: "as a seed that grew into a great strong tree." The tree is felled, taken to a workshop, and carefully crafted. The top is sanded, legs attached. The wood is stained, sealed, and set to dry. The family places the table "in the middle of a house, and life grew up around it." Smart's watercolor illustrations add to the story with playful and inventive scenes. The number of people grows and shrinks, and scenes evolve from the quiet act of arranging flowers to a birthday party spilling over with family and friends. Their table is filled to overflowing with the chaos of an unfolded map, children's drawings, and more. A clean, empty table shown near the end prompts discussion about readers' own experiences around family tables. The story concludes where it started: "This table began as a seed and became the heart of someone's home."

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. Two renowned picture-book creators trace the journey of a wooden rocking chair in this affecting immigration story based in part on Wells's family lore. Wells begins with Sam, her great-great-grandfather. Born in Bavaria, Sam has a gift for carpentry. Discouraged in this pursuit by his rabbi father, he leaves home for New York City, finding work as a bookkeeper for a German family. When that family's son is born, Sam builds a wooden rocking chair with the word willkommen inscribed on the back. To honor the birth of his own son born a few years later, Sam adds the phrase for welcome in Hebrew, later also adding it in English. Next, the chair is a wedding gift for an Irish seamstress, so the word fáílte, Irish for welcome, is added in brass letters. Then, it providentially lands in the possession of others (two Dominican nuns, a Haitian doctor, and a young Somali girl) who have fled their homelands and found America to be a safe refuge. Each new owner has the word for welcome added in their language, connecting the families' experiences and creating a powerful narrative thread. The late Pinkney's jewel-hued watercolor, pencil, and pastel illustrations capture this atmosphere of acceptance and warmth, bringing readers even closer into the story. The immigrants' feelings are evident through their body language as they gather with loved ones around the chair, itself beautifully replicated in the art. An author's note further explains Wells's inspiration and provides more historical context; an illustrator's note describes Pinkney's artistic process and influences.

Reviewer: Emmie Stuart | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Maryann Kovalski. Impressionistic gouache paintings rendered in warm tones give an appropriately historic feel to this account of seven chairs, all made by the same man at different stages in his life. The spare, periodically confusing text, which traces the separate journeys the chairs travel from their maker's hands through the centuries, shifts back and forth in time without always giving adequate clues.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann