Author: Gene Ambaum

Fly, Mama, Fly! by Anna McGregor. Scribble US, 2025. 9781964992143. Guest review by Julie Strange This absolutely gorgeous board book will make snuggling up with your toddler or preschooler all the more dreamy and wonderful. Printed with special neon ink, you’re […]
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The Girl Who Raised The Dead by Kawashima Norikazu. English Translation by Ryan Holmberg. Smudge / Living the Line, 2028. (Original © 1987). 9781961581134. 204pp. Contains an essay titled “Magical Girls and the Occult in Postwar Japan” by Tanaka Hirokazu, […]
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Last Day Pool Party by Emma Steinkellner. Labyrinth Road / Random House Children’s Books, 2026. 9798217031429.  176pp.   I fell in love with Steinkellner’s art when reading her The Okay Witch series. Her art plus the expert way she was […]
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The Endless Game by J.D. Amato, art by Sophie Morse. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2026. 9781665927154. 248pp.  Fred moves a lot, and now he’s the new kid in Lakeside, Illinois, where most of the kids take part […]
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Buff Soul by Moa Romanova. Translator: Melissa Bowers. Fantagraphics, 2025. 9798875000683. 240pp. A bookseller at Third Place Books told me about their obsession with this book and Romanova’s drawing style. It was such a passionate, slam-dunk of a booktalk that […]
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Save It For Later: Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest by Nate Powell. Abrams Comicarts, 2021. 9781419749124. 160pp.  Powell (March, Swallow Me Whole, Any Empire, more) makes beautiful graphic novels. Every aspect of his work is amazing, but for […]
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After the Public Library Association’s 2026 conference, I had to stay in Minneapolis an extra day because of a blizzard sweeping across North Dakota. And after visiting the art museum to see the amazing Christine Sun Kim exhibit I hit […]
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Go Bananas! story by A.B. Peele, art by Lala Watkins. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2026. 9781665953566.  Bananas of all (and unexpected) varieties unite, dance, and when things go wrong. It’s the kind of insanity that would be […]
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Montreal is my favorite place in the world to visit. It’s a phenomenal walking city, plus I get to buy French comics, enjoy fresh wood-fired bagels, and eat at Damas. This year my wife and I visited during the Montreal […]
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Clock Hands by Marieke Nijkamp and Sylvia Bi. Greenwillow, 2026. 9780063027138. 282 pp. including an author’s note on guilds and strikes at the end. In the port city of Siannera, it’s hard to get decent work if you’re not a […]
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