Editor’s Pick: New Picture Books (spring 2025)

It’s springtime again in the Southeastern United States, so I’ve been watering my hyacinths, spraying pollen off the porch, and listening to Skye Peterson’s song “Resurrection in You”:

You can hear it like a prayer
There’s an anthem in this April air . . .
I know it’s hard to grasp
When the good things never seem to last . . .
But everywhere the winter was
He’s making all things new.

In spring, resurrection is all around us, reminding us that winter isn’t the end of the story, and as surely as the new leaves are coming, we have hope because of Christ’s victory over death in the past and his promise to end death forever in the future.

Here’s a fresh batch of beautiful new picture books that remind us in different ways that “everywhere the winter was,” in this broken world where even spring comes with both sweet-smelling flowers and runny noses, Christ is still making all things new.

1. Sonia and the Biggest Block Tower Ever by Kathryn Butler, illustrated by Samara Hardy (TGC/Crossway)

Sonia looks around at all the wonderful things the other kids in her class can do, like drawing pictures or making bracelets, and she doesn’t feel very wonderful. She dreams of building a block tower that will impress everyone, a tower that stretches right out of the school and up into the sky.

This new book from TGC Kids is about how we try to build our identity through our accomplishments and so often find they make a wobbly foundation. With building blocks, a mountain of sock puppets, and a very cute caterpillar, Sonia tells a story about the rest and joy we have in remembering our true identity as image-bearers of God, loved deeply by Christ and commissioned by him to show his love to the people around us.

2. Painting Wonder: How Pauline Baynes Illustrated the Worlds of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, written and illustrated by Katie Wray Schon (Waxwing)

Pauline Baynes spent her early childhood in India but was sent away to boarding school in England while she was only in the modern equivalent of first or second grade. This new picture book from Waxwing Books shows how stories came alive for her because she looked for comfort and companionship on printed pages during the long, lonely stretches far from her family. When Baynes became an adult, she had the opportunity to bring stories to life for other children by providing the illustrations for the Narnia books.

In fourth grade, I’d never heard of Baynes, but I carried on long, silent conversations with her picture of Eustace the dragon and dreamed of taking flight on Fledge’s back with her illustrations of Polly and Digory. While Painting Wonder isn’t an explicitly Christian book, it’s fascinating to read how God used Baynes’s varied experiences to shape how she contributed to some of the world’s most popular works of Christian fiction. It’s a good reminder that we can trust God with our stories too.

3. Spring Sings by Ellie Holcomb, illustrated by Laura Ramos (B&H Kids)

A frog on a hat. A butterfly on a nose. At least five hedgehogs. The illustrations in this beautiful board book are colorful and packed with animals and dancing children celebrating springtime. What makes this book exceptional, though, is that in just a few rhyming lines on each page, singer-songwriter Ellie Holcomb draws out metaphors from spring to illustrate the gospel of Christ.

Its premise is that “spring retells the story of God’s Son.” God’s love is bringing life—to his Son, in spiritual rebirth, and even after physical death—as surely as spring follows winter. As Holcomb writes, “Christ died, but He’s risen! He’s risen indeed! And the Spring sings about it, every flower and seed.”

4. Pippa and the Singing Tree by Kristyn Getty, illustrated by P. J. Lynch (Crossway)

P. J. Lynch, the illustrator of this new book by Kristyn Getty, has won the Carnegie Medal (formerly the Kate Greenaway Medal) twice for his illustrations in children’s books. You can see why on the pages of Pippa and the Singing Tree.

Lynch and Getty are both from Northern Ireland, and the book has a lilting Irish flavor (“wee Pippa swings high” on the first page). Getty is a singer-songwriter, so it isn’t surprising that the text has a lyrical, musical quality. Getty’s deep, orthodox faith comes through as her book praises God with and for springtime. She encourages readers to join with the rest of creation in singing as the world “breaks through its thick winter coat, repeating the song that our Savior wrote.”

5. Something Sad Happened: Helping Children with Grief by Darby Strickland, illustrated by Thaís Mesquita (New Growth Press)

A little bluebird named Sunny cannot sing any longer because of the loss of her friend Wren. That’s the story of Something Sad Happened, a resource for adults ministering to grieving children from Darby Strickland, a faculty member and counselor at the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation.

The narrative provides opportunities to discuss how a child might be feeling, physically and emotionally, after a loss. It provides ideas for remembering someone who can longer be part of a child’s life, looking back at good memories in the past and looking forward to good things in the future.

Using the biblical idea of lament, the book contains numerous Scriptures about finding comfort in grief, resting in God’s love, and finding hope in heaven and in God’s promises of redemption. The parade of bright illustrations of animals ends with a picture of little Sunny singing again, praising the Lord for his comfort in sorrow and for the hope we have for the future in him.