An intrepid girl discovers the value of the tangled, knotty side of life in Loose Threads, a picture book inspired by a Palestinian scarf, from Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winner Isol.
Translated from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel
Selected for the USBBY Outstanding International Book List, 2025!
A Bookstagang Best of 2024 Picture Book Selection, Future Classic!
One of Evanston Public Library's 101 Great Books for Kids List of 2024!
Leilah is constantly losing things, and when her mom demands an explanation, Leilah decides that her lost possessions must be falling down into the Other Side. And so, she declares that all she has to do to fix things is mend the holes between her world and the Other Side. It's a genius idea--nothing will ever go missing again! But as Leilah soon learns, some holes don't need sewing up, and mending can also mean a suffocating shutting out...
Inspired by one of her favorite scarves, here Isol spins a tale that celebrates the different worlds that are all part of life's rich tapestry.
Nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Prize
Nocturne: Dream Recipes is a unique bedtime book that hints at the magic inherent in dreaming.
Twelve glow-in-the-dark pictures present possible inspirations for a night in which the hidden world becomes visible. Just choose a dream from among the pictures and descriptions in the book, and then turn off the light to see a surprising glow-in-the-dark image. Included are dreams such as the dream of going far away, the boring book dream, the dream of the cat who smelled the tuna casserole, and even the drawn dream (which children can create themselves).
Once again Isol's extraordinary creativity and humor have produced a truly wonderful, very original book.
A funny story about a seemingly impossible child and his desperate parents, who enlist the help of a specialist with unexpected results ...
Toribio is two years old and his parents love him very much, but some days, taking care of him feels like an impossible task. He won't sleep, makes a fuss when eating, splashes his bath water everywhere, and refuses to use his potty. At the end of the day, Toribio's parents are exhausted. So when they see an ad for a specialist who can solve any type of problem, his desperate parents make an appointment right away. Mrs. Meridien's methods deliver overnight results, but her solution isn't quite what they had in mind ...
Impossible is a funny story with a surprise ending that will delight young children and exhausted parents alike.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2
Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.3
Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
A book for babies and their parents about the whole new world that they both encounter when the baby arrives.
When the new baby arrives, both the baby and the parents are in for a steep learning curve. In this book, born out of personal experience, internationally renowned author/illustrator Isol brings us a dual narrative and guide. For babies, there's a rich range of images of babies and all their functions to look at. From crying, to nursing, to peeing and pooing, to looking, to hearing, to deciding that this weird new world they've entered is worth staying in (because they finally recognize that in every grown-up they see a former baby), there are hours of fun and amusement, since babies love nothing better than looking at and talking about themselves.
=For parents, this is a wonderful exploration of the new world this stranger-baby brings with them. Amusingly written, the text presents in a humorous, wry way all the facets of the new baby's reality. A great gift for new parents both before and after baby is born.
A many-layered alphabet book from an international star of the children's book world, Daytime Visions is graphically strong and intelligent in its exploration of words and situations. Whether it's a kiwi who returns to a boy's shoulder or a little duck who can't sleep, the visions here are relatable to children and rich with possibility.
Isol is an illustrator, cartoonist, graphic artist, writer, singer, and composer. She was born in 1972 in Buenos Aires, Argentina and lives and works in Argentina. For her contributions to children's and young adult literature she won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2013. In her acceptance speech, Isol declared, What reader could be more demanding than a child? Children have a lot of things to discover and I'd better be on their high level in order to satisfy their huge capacity for curiosity. I get my inspiration from what's wild, from what's ridiculous, from that independence of culture that children enjoy.