From award-winning illustrator Esmé Shapiro and debut talent Kate Finney comes the unforgettable story of Belladonna, a spunky, beautiful plant who must learn to survive—even though she can’t flee from those who want to devour her! One of New York Magazine / The Strategist's Best New Books for Kids Published in 2025! One of Betsy Bird's Top Funny Picture Books of 2025! Everyone in the forest knows about Belladonna—that tall, beautiful plant whose berries are so delicious that they’re forever being gobbled up. Day after day, poor Belladonna is nibbled at until there’s almost nothing left of her. But unlike the animals who can leap, climb, or fly away, Belladonna, being a plant, is firmly rooted in place. So what’s a plant to do to survive?This is the story of how Belladonna learns to harness her own chemical powers to protect herself and her descendants . . . and how she learns from a great cast of plant and animal characters—culminating in a dandy pheasant—that no one ever survives alone.This one-of-a-kind picture book is gorgeously illustrated by Esmé Shapiro with wit and humor, and has an astonishingly epic framing that carries Belladonna across eons into her final, powerful form!
Friends Yak and Dove are complete opposites. Yak is large and Dove is small. Yak has fur and Dove has feathers. Yak is polite. Dove is ill-mannered. Yak likes quiet. Dove likes noise. One day as Yak and Dove list their differences they come to the conclusion that maybe they aren't meant to be friends. In the hope of finding a new best friend, Yak holds auditions. But when a small feathered contestant sings Yak's favorite song, the two begin to think that maybe they are alike after all...
