Kitty Flynn

Kestrel Takes Flight by Joy McCullough Intermediate, Middle School    Atheneum    304 pp. 5/26    9781665972659    $17.99 Eleven-year-old Kestrel is used to being vigilant; she’s careful to follow her strict pastor grandfather’s rigid rules, including avoiding life outside their small, isolated church community in San Diego. When her mother abruptly sneaks away with her to the Rocky Mountain Bear Institute in Montana for the summer—“without telling Grandpa / without asking me”—Kestrel is furious.

The Future Book by Mac Barnett; illus. by Shawn Harris Preschool, Primary    Knopf    40 pp. 3/26    9798217033171    $19.99 Frequent collaborators Barnett and Harris (The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza, rev. 7/22, and sequels) here report from the future—and it’s quite a trip.

Not only is Island Storm, written by Brian Floca and illustrated by Sydney Smith, my favorite picture book of the year, it’s one of my all-time favorite picture books. This is the book I would be an advocate for if I were on the actual Caldecott committee this year, except that it wouldn’t be on the table; it’s not eligible. Sydney Smith is Canadian. So, it’s one of those CaldeNott books — worthy of the big prize, but it won’t get the sticker.