WORLD’s Picture Book of the Year is Home in the Woods by Eliza Wheeler (Nancy Paulsen Books, ages 5-8), a hope-filled, true story of a family that survives and prospers despite tragedy. Adults will appreciate the enormity of the challenges the mother faces. Children will appreciate the simple story and luminous illustrations that show a family facing difficult circumstances with resourcefulness, tenacity, love—and fun.

“This book started with an image: a very formal butler standing on a stoop of a normal suburban house, on the first day of the oldest kid’s sixth-grade year, in the rain,” explained Gary D. Schmidt, author of Pay Attention, Carter Jones (Clarion Books, ages 10-12). “That whole image was there before anything else, and obviously, the question is: Why is he there?”

“Rebeka traced the shape of her curled feet through the blanket that covered her and her little sister, ­Medatrece. Everybody was asleep and she needed to go to the bathroom. She wanted to go by herself, without bothering anybody, but she was also afraid. Wild dogs roamed the Rwandan countryside after dark and could easily get into her yard.”

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

In his poem “Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes set one of his most vivid images. It might also describe the early life of another poet whose climb out of childhood was similarly studded with tacks, splinters, and “boards torn up.” In her teens a friend asked Nikki Grimes how she could still believe in God. “What kind of question is that? How could I not? If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t even be here. I’d either be in prison, or the grave” (Ordinary Hazards).

Lovely War

by Julie Berry

Foundations by Ruth Chou Simons and Troy Simons: Ruth and Troy Simons write passionately in Foundations (which releases March 3) about the importance of cultivating family worship in the home: “Everything we desire for our families … begins with heeding the instruction given to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6 to remember and declare the faithful works of God.” With Ruth’s nature-inspired watercolor artwork as the backdrop, Ruth and Troy lead readers through 12 Biblical foundations that they say anchor their family.

Collision of Lies by Tom Threadgill: A busload of schoolchildren collides with a freight train, leaving no survivors. Three years later—long after the investigation is closed—the mother of one of those children receives a text that reads, “Help me, Mom.” Is her son still alive? Where has he been? Most everyone discounts the message as a prank except for spunky San Antonio detective Amara Alvarez. She’s compelled to unravel the mystery no matter how far she has to go to find the truth.