The Book Faire: Children's Literature for Grownups
Nov 4, 2026 · 18 min · 11 segments
In this episode of ***The Book Faire Podcast***, host Anthony exposes how school boards are actively weakening public transparency to advance controversial display and library policies. We lead with…
But first, let's get started this week by looking at new releases, starting with Good Bear, Bad Bear by Hyeyuan Yum.
Positioning a stuffed bear as the screen for a young child's projections, this emotionally astute picture book from Yum! reframes the labels kids sometimes pin on themselves.
As the book opens, its narrator, the smaller of two pale-skinned, dark-haired siblings, explains, "...my sister can read, I can't, and I never will." Moreover, they report the bigger child has tidier habits— tights without holes, and never loses anything.
With the child's ironclad logic, the protagonist determines that their sister is the good girl and internalizes being the bad one.
When the two receive identical stuffies and the narrator's sister dubs her own good bear, quote, I know exactly what to name mine, and indeed, quote, good bear sips the tea, bad bear gobbles up cookies.
and even ends up wearing a scowl.
Rendered with colored pencil, crayon, and watercolor, the empathetic and observant artwork deals in round-cheeked figures and buttery yellows.
When Bad Bear emerges from the washing machine without one eye, it takes the bigger sister's love to gently dismantle her sibling's premise about the bears and the children, too.
Good bear may be calm and kind, but bad bear is funny, brave, and interesting, she argues.
And who wants to be only good or bad your entire life anyway? Moving from certainty to subtlety, it's a wise celebration of the multifaceted self.
This book is recommended for ages 4 to 8.
Next is Lully Lullaby by Olga Patsuchev.
Mistily rubbed multimedia artwork that incorporates colored pencils, acrylic watercolors, stencils, and stamp techniques traces the arrival of sleep for a pale-skinned child and their calico cat.
Dressed in traditional attire, figures Slumber and Dreamda locate a home where Baby meets a lullaby.
As Dreamda picks up the child, a jumble of events occur.
Jays swoop in wearing boots, bearing fruits, and then stars begin to fuss and fall inside the home.
Dreamda takes charge, instructing the avian figures to remove their red boots and spirit the stars skyward, leaving the child and dreamy visitors to sweep the fruits, keep the boots.
Donning the footwear, the child finally drifts off to a lullaby.
dotted with brightening elements, including fireflies, sunflowers, and an expressive moon.
It's a meandering bedtime book with nonsense verse cadences.
An author's note concludes, and this book is recommended for ages 4 to 8.
Broyles, an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, pulls from extensive research to deliver a riveting novel about the Trail of Tears that chronicles an indigenous teen's forced removal from her Tennessee home in 1838.
Eight years after the United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, 14-year-old Jane Bushyhead grows increasingly alarmed as signs of imminent displacement become impossible to ignore.
But first, let's get started this week by looking at new releases, starting with Good Bear, Bad Bear by Hyeyuan Yum.
Positioning a stuffed bear as the screen for a young child's projections, this emotionally astute picture book from Yum! reframes the labels kids sometimes pin on themselves.
As the book opens, its narrator, the smaller of two pale-skinned, dark-haired siblings, explains, "...my sister can read, I can't, and I never will." Moreover, they report the bigger child has tidier habits— tights without holes, and never loses anything.
With the child's ironclad logic, the protagonist determines that their sister is the good girl and internalizes being the bad one.
When the two receive identical stuffies and the narrator's sister dubs her own good bear, quote, I know exactly what to name mine, and indeed, quote, good bear sips the tea, bad bear gobbles up cookies.
and even ends up wearing a scowl.
Rendered with colored pencil, crayon, and watercolor, the empathetic and observant artwork deals in round-cheeked figures and buttery yellows.
When Bad Bear emerges from the washing machine without one eye, it takes the bigger sister's love to gently dismantle her sibling's premise about the bears and the children, too.
Good bear may be calm and kind, but bad bear is funny, brave, and interesting, she argues.
And who wants to be only good or bad your entire life anyway? Moving from certainty to subtlety, it's a wise celebration of the multifaceted self.
This book is recommended for ages 4 to 8.
Next is Lully Lullaby by Olga Patsuchev.
Mistily rubbed multimedia artwork that incorporates colored pencils, acrylic watercolors, stencils, and stamp techniques traces the arrival of sleep for a pale-skinned child and their calico cat.
Dressed in traditional attire, figures Slumber and Dreamda locate a home where Baby meets a lullaby.
As Dreamda picks up the child, a jumble of events occur.
Jays swoop in wearing boots, bearing fruits, and then stars begin to fuss and fall inside the home.
Dreamda takes charge, instructing the avian figures to remove their red boots and spirit the stars skyward, leaving the child and dreamy visitors to sweep the fruits, keep the boots.
Donning the footwear, the child finally drifts off to a lullaby.
dotted with brightening elements, including fireflies, sunflowers, and an expressive moon.
It's a meandering bedtime book with nonsense verse cadences.
An author's note concludes, and this book is recommended for ages 4 to 8.
Broyles, an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, pulls from extensive research to deliver a riveting novel about the Trail of Tears that chronicles an indigenous teen's forced removal from her Tennessee home in 1838.
Eight years after the United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, 14-year-old Jane Bushyhead grows increasingly alarmed as signs of imminent displacement become impossible to ignore.
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