Martina Peluso

Kate DePalma

festivals

multicultural

holidays

Lyrical, sensory nonfiction text and vibrant illustrations invite readers to experience a child’s-eye view of 13 special days around the world, such as the Spring Festival, Inti Raymi, Eid al-Fitr, Día de Muertos and the New Yam Festival. Includes a global festival calendar and educational notes about why we celebrate.

Let's Celebrate!: Special Days Around the World

Samantha Berger

Kristyna Litten

Bedtime story meets Coachella in this adorable book about a sloth who packs up his pajamas to attends an arena festival for nappers, dozers, and the very best sleepyheads. Snuggleford Cuddlebun is a champion sleeper. In fact, she’s such a good sleeper that she decides to go to Snoozefest, an arena festival that celebrates sleep. There, she lounges in her hammock while bands like the Nocturnal Nesters and the Quiet Quartet serenade the audience with lullabies. There’s warm milk and honey to be had, designer pajamas from Diane von Firstinbed, and no one dares be seen without a baby blanket. But before she knows it, the nuzzling, snuggling, and dreaming are over–and Snuggleford has slept through it all. This hilariously endearing bedtime story is perfect for anyone who loves sloths, music festivals, and/or cuddles.

Snoozefest

Kabir Sehgal

Surishtha Sehgal

Zara González Hoang

Three siblings enjoy the Indian festival of Raksha Bandhan—a celebration of the special relationship between brothers and sisters—in this vibrant reinterpretation of the classic song Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping) from New York Times bestselling mother/son duo Surishtha Sehgal and Kabir Sehgal. It’s time for the Indian festival of Raksha Bandhan, the celebration of the special lifelong relationship shared by brothers and sisters everywhere. Join two sisters as they lovingly make rakhi—thread bracelets adorned with beads, sequins, sparkles, and tassels—for their brother. And then see their brother present them with toys and sweets and special gifts! New York Times bestselling authors Surishtha and Kabir Sehgals’ irresistible text, set to the tune of the classic song Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping), will have little ones singing along while they learn about Indian culture. And the vibrant illustrations by Zara Gonzalez Hoang will have readers wishing they could step right into the characters’ colorful crafting world. This enchanting picture book includes instructions for making rakhi!

Thread of Love

Alexandra Penfold

Mike Dutton

A colorful, whimsical picture book about everyone’s favorite kitchens-on-wheels: food trucks! Join the members of one family as they head to the Food Truck Fest! They gather their things, cross the bridge, and prepare for a fun-filled day. And as they get ready, the workers on the food trucks get ready, too—preparing, tasting, and traveling across the bridge to join all the other kitchens-on-wheels. With delicious free samples and cuisines from around the world, it’s a day of trying new things and having fun together!

Food  Truck  Fest!

Jennifer Oxley

Billy Aronson

While visiting their friends Yasmina and Amir, Peg and Cat learn about the Eid al-Adha holiday where families celebrate with presents and food and by giving to others.

Peg + Cat: the Eid Al-Adha Adventure

Katy Halford

It’s time to celebrate! From Christmas and Thanksgiving, to Diwali and Halloween, kids won’t want to miss out on all the festivities.  Embark on an exciting journey through the most interesting and important festivals, celebrations, and holidays enjoyed by people around the world. Stunning original illustrations and fascinating facts will inspire and inform children about cultures and religions from the countries of the world. Witness a camel marathon in a celebration of the Sahara Desert, and devour some delicious dumplings to celebrate Chinese New Year. Discover why skeletons dance at the Day of the Dead in Mexico, and get messy at Holi, the Hindu Festival of Colors. Children will love poring over artist Katy Halford’s beautiful illustrations, which showcase every celebration in absorbing detail. Engaging factual writing introduce young readers to the most interesting aspects of each celebration, from the costumes worn to the food eaten, and encourage an understanding of other cultures and religions.

Celebrations Around the World: The Fabulous Celebrations You Won't Want to Miss

Sydney Hanson

Welcome to an enchanted land ruled by unicorn princesses! Cressida Jenkins, a unicorn-obsessed girl who is sure that unicorns are real, is invited to visit, and readers will be thrilled to journey to the Rainbow Realm along with her! In each story, Cressida is called to help a unicorn princess and her sisters in a magical adventure. Princess Breeze invites Cressida to the Blast–a special day where all the unicorn princesses ride huge kites into the clouds for a fantastic feast in the sky. But Ernest, the blundering wizard-lizard, once again casts an errant spell that might ruin everything! Will Cressida be able to find a way to save the Blast? This magical series is full of sparkle, fun, and friendship.

Breeze's Blast

Rebecca Elliott

This adorable early chapter book series is perfect for young girls who love friendship stories starring animal characters!This series is part of Scholastic’s early chapter book line called Branches, which is aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow! Eva Wingdale gets in over her head when she offers to organize a spring festival at school. Even with her best friend Lucy’s help, there is NO way she will get everything done in time. Will Eva have to ask Sue (a.k.a. Meanie McMeanerson) for help? Or will the festival have to be cancelled? This book is written as Eva’s diary – with Rebecca Elliott’s owl-dorable full-color illustrations throughout!

Eva's Treetop Festival

Angela McAllister

Christopher Corr

This treasury of 52 stories collects together a rich resource of myths, fairy tales and legends from around the world, with a story for every week of the year. The book is broken into 12 chapters, for each of the 12 months of the year, and throughout, stories are matched to internationally celebrated dates, including Valentines Day and the International Day of Friendship, as well as seasonal events and festivals. Collected and retold by award-winning author Angela McAllister, and illustrated by internally recognised artist Christopher Corr, this is a book that will be treasured by families and appeal to teachers and librarians around the world.

A Year Full of Stories

Natasha Yim

Sophie Li

It’s the Lunar New Year, and it happens to be Mulan’s favorite festival! There is a lot to do to prepare for this important celebration, and for the first time, Mulan is old enough to help out. But everything Mulan does seems to turn out wrong. . . . Follow along with Mulan in this special Lunar New Year story that captures the unique sense of magic, imagination, and possibility that surrounds the holiday!

Mulan's Lunar New Year

Nnedi Okorafor

Mehrdokht Amini

What would you do if you woke up one night to find the shadow of a giant chicken passing your bedroom door? Go and investigate, of course! When Anyaugo follows a giant chicken into her kitchen one warm night in Nigeria, she embarks on a fun-filled adventure where nothing is quite as it seems. Is the mischievous giant chicken a friend or a foe? More importantly, will Anyaugo be able to save the food for the New Yam Festival the next day?

Chicken in the Kitchen

Rina Singh

Every year in October or November people come together to celebrate Diwali. It is the biggest and the brightest of all Hindu festivals. The stories woven into the festival of Diwali celebrate the victory of good over evil and light over darkness, and people celebrate this festival of lights by lighting clay lamps and candles, sharing sweets, exchanging gifts, offering prayers to gods and goddesses and watching fireworks. Introduce your little one to the awe of this brilliant festival through dazzling photographs and Singh’s lyrical prose.

Diwali Lights

Experience Holi with every color of the rainbow! This Hindu celebration known as the festival of colors and the festival of love signifies the end of winter, the arrival of spring and the victory of good over evil. A time to laugh, play, visit friends and get messy! Little ones will love exploring the colors of Holi through the vibrant photographs and Singh’s playful rhymes in this brilliant concept book.

Holi Colors

Whitney Stewart

Christiane Engel

Discover a world of celebrations! This entertaining book introduces kids to 14 holidays, from Brazilian carnival, Chinese New Year, Bastille Day, and the Cherry Blossom Festival to Purim, Holi, Eid al-Fitr, Day of the Dead, and Halloween. As in the popular What’s On Your Plate?, each spread showcases a different holiday, offering background, cultural context, vocabulary words, photographs, and instructions for festive projects.

What Do You Celebrate?

Mo O'Hara

Marek Jagucki

In the first of two stories, zombie goldfish Frankie is good at saving the day, but the medieval day reenactment joust may be too much, and in the second story, Tom’s evil brother clones a Jurassic carp, putting the school in danger.

Jurassic Carp: My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish

Victoria Jamieson

Calling all Raina Telgemeier fans! The Newbery Honor-winning author of Roller Girl is back with a heartwarming graphic novel about starting middle school, surviving your embarrassing family, and the Renaissance Faire.

Eleven-year-old Imogene (Impy) has grown up with two parents working at the Renaissance Faire, and she’s eager to begin her own training as a squire. First, though, she’ll need to prove her bravery. Luckily Impy has just the quest in mind—she’ll go to public school after a life of being homeschooled! But it’s not easy to act like a noble knight-in-training in middle school. Impy falls in with a group of girls who seem really nice (until they don’t) and starts to be embarrassed of her thrift shop apparel, her family’s unusual lifestyle, and their small, messy apartment. Impy has always thought of herself as a heroic knight, but when she does something really mean in order to fit in, she begins to wonder whether she might be more of a dragon after all.  

As she did in Roller Girl, Victoria Jamieson perfectly—and authentically—captures the bittersweetness of middle school life with humor, warmth, and understanding.

All's Faire in Middle School

V. T. Bidania

Dara Lashia Lee

At the Hmong July Fourth Soccer Festival, Astrid and Apollo are excited to join their dad as he watches his favorite soccer team compete. But when they have to babysit their little sister, Eliana, too, they don’t know what snack she keeps asking for. To keep her from crying, they buy almost everything they see at the festival. Will they end up with a whole stroller full of yummy food?

Astrid and Apollo and the Soccer Celebration

Chris Riddell

There are musical goings-on at Ghastly-Gorm Hall and another spooky mystery for Ada Goth to solve in Goth Girl and the Sinister Symphony, the fourth book in this bestselling series.Lord Goth is throwing a music festival at Ghastly-Gorm Hall, with performances from the finest composers in the land. Ada can’t wait, but it’s quite distracting when her grandmother is trying to find her father a fashionable new wife, there’s a faun living in her wardrobe, and Maltravers is up to his old tricks! Ada must make sure everything goes to plan, and luckily help is at hand from a very interesting house guest.Previous books in the series include: Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse, Goth Girl and the Fete Worse Than Death, and Goth Girl and the Wuthering Fright.

Goth Girl and the Sinister Symphony

Dressed in their traditional New Year clothes, Astrid and Apollo attend the Hmong New Year Festival. While at the noisy and jam-packed celebration, they accidentally become separated from their family and end up lost in the crowds. Follow along on their adventure as they try to find their way back to their mom, dad, and little sister, Eliana.

Astrid and Apollo and the Happy New Year

Ryan Andrews

A 2019 Booklist Editor’s ChoiceA 2019 Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the YearA 2019 Parents Magazine Best Children’s Books of the Year Ryan Andrews’s This Was Our Pact is an astonishing, magical-realist adventure story for middle-grade readers. It’s the night of the annual Autumn Equinox Festival, when the town gathers to float paper lanterns down the river. Legend has it that after drifting out of sight, they’ll soar off to the Milky Way and turn into brilliant stars, but could that actually be true? This year, Ben and his classmates are determined to find out where those lanterns really go, and to ensure success in their mission, they’ve made a pact with two simple rules: No one turns for home. No one looks back. The plan is to follow the river on their bikes for as long as it takes to learn the truth, but it isn’t long before the pact is broken by all except for Ben and (much to Ben’s disappointment) Nathaniel, the one kid who just doesn’t seem to fit in. Together, Nathaniel and Ben will travel farther than anyone has ever gone, down a winding road full of magic, wonder, and unexpected friendship. And a talking bear.

This Was Our Pact

Doreen Cronin

Betsy Lewin

It’s time for the annual Corn Maze Festival.  The farm is bursting with activity.  Cluck Whack!  The chickens build a fence around the cornfield.  Moo Thwack!  The cows give the barn a fresh coat of paint.  Thump. Quack!  Duck builds the ticket booth for the hot-air balloon ride.  Everyone is excited. Well, Duck is not excited exactly. But he has a plan. As Farmer Brown designs the corn maze for the festival, Duck does some designing of his own. Guess who’s in for a big surprise?  The always-creative, always-hilarious, always-champions-of-corn-mazes pair who brought you Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type; Giggle, Giggle, Quack; and Duck for President have planned a terrific event. Step right up, folks.

Thump, Quack, Moo: A Whacky Adventure

Wanda Coven

Priscilla Burris

Everyone’s favorite witch has the sniffles! Will she be able to sneeze out a spell to cure herself in time for the fall harvest festival? Heidi Heckelbeck is all excited about Brewster’s fall festival. She can’t wait to go through the haunted barn with her friend Lucy. But when Heidi starts to sniffle, and then sneeze, and then ache all over, it looks like she’s going to miss out on all the fun. Will a spell do the trick and get her back on her feet again? With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Heidi Heckelbeck chapter books are perfect for beginning readers.

Top 10 Festivals Books

Festivals