Guest Post: Caribbean Books for Storytime Themes

A note from Ms. Kate (The Lavender Librarian)

I want to thank Jessica again for sharing her expertise with us at Storytime Solidarity. Way back in December 2021, her piece, about picture books celebrating Caribbean Christmas, opened up a beautiful world of picture books. We’re so lucky that she’s once again sharing a book list to help us all diversify our Storytime reads. Thank you, Jessica, for the beautiful work that you do.

Guest Post: Five Books Celebrating Caribbean Christmas

This is a long, chatty, and informative alphabet book. For story time, I recommend using one page at a time as a “letter of the day”. I love that this alphabet book includes the names of so many islands and countries.

Read my full review for more details.

• This book is an #OwnVoices title, written by someone born and raised in the Caribbean.
• Author: Mario Picayo, whose background includes Cuba, Puerto Rico and S. Virgin Islands.
• Illustrator: Earleen Griswold, who lived in the S. Virgin Islands.

This book features a cat, a dog, a mosquito, and a frog! The cumulative story tells about a wild chase, set into motion when a fisherman blows a horn made from a conch. (Using the conch shell as a trumpet is a traditional way for a fisherman to show that he is coming into harbor with his catch. For more information, watch this video.)

Read my full review for more details.

• Author: Phillis and David Gershator have a connection to Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
• Illustrator: Mim Green and Phillis Gershator
• Find more information on the author’s website.

Need another good animal story?

The collection of fables, THE SHARK AND THE PARROTFISH by Mario Picayo, is perfect for slightly older children. It retells Aesop’s fables, like the tortoise and the hare, using Caribbean animals and plants.

Perfect for a pajama story time, this this peaceful story shows the patient babysitter singing lullabies to soothe a crying baby. Read my full review here.

• Author: Phillis Gershator has a connection to Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
• Illustrator: Melisande Potter. The illustrator has a connection to Jamaica.
• Find it in the library.

I love this clever, funny Cuban folk tale about a beautiful cockroach and her suitors. Martina nervously follows her grandmother’s advice — to spill coffee on the shoes of her suitors — and see what their true colors are when they are angry. Will she find true love?

Read my full review for details and links to more educator materials.

• This book is an #OwnVoices title, written by an author born in Cuba.
• Island: Cuba
• Author: Carmen Agra Deedy | see all my reviews of this author’s books.
• Illustrator: Michael Austin
• Language: The English edition includes a sprinkling of phrases in Spanish; also available in a Spanish language edition.
• Find it in a public library.

A road-trip through Cuba in a noisy car will delight car-lovers of all ages. A family, ready with a cake and a gift, drives visit their new baby cousin in Havana. There are so many rich details, from car repairs, to car pooling, to the views on the long drive from the country to the city. The writing is also full of sound effects that are fun to read aloud!

Read my full review here for more details.

• Although the author was not born in the Caribbean, I have tagged this #OwnVoices since it draws on her experiences of growing up Cuban American.
• Island: Cuba
• Author: Margarita Engle is Cuban
• Illustrator: Mike Curato
• Language: English | Spanish language edition
• Recommended for: younger children (3-6), older children(6+).
• Find it in a in English in a public library and in Spanish in a public library

Looking for another story about cars?

You could try TIA ISA WANTS A CAR by Meg Medina, a great story of saving up for something you want. It comes in a Spanish language edition, too.

Ramsey to the rescue! Grandma sets out to cook octopus stew, but soon she needs a superhero’s help to escape Señor Pulpo’s tentacles. This larger-than-life tale, full of imagination, exaggeration, and humor, was inspired by the author’s real childhood experience with “an overflowing octopus”.

Read my full review for more details (and a video of the author/illustrator).

• This book is an #OwnVoices title, based on the author’s childhood in an Afro-Puerto Rican family living in the mainland U.S.
• Author/Illustrator: Eric Velasquez
• Language: English with a sprinkling of phrases in Spanish
• Find it in a public library.

Looking for another story about cooking?

You could try FREEDOM SOUP by Tami Charles (about a family recipe and Haitian independence) or KALLALOO! by David and Phillis Gershator (STONE SOUP, retold set in the U.S. Virgin Islands).

Count from 1-10 with rhyming text and colorful illustrations of market ladies, donkeys, chickens, and cats, Caribbean houses, sugar mills, and beaches, steel pan music, cricket, and jump up or carnival.

Read my full review here for more details.

• Author/illustrator: Frané Lessac, who lived in Montserrat.
• Available in board book and picture book formats.
• Find it in a library.

Looking for another story about counting?

You could try FUN, FUN, ONE CRAB ON THE RUN by Mario Picayo, another board book that counts up through the numbers.

From sunrise to bedtime, this simple story follows a child’s routine. In a Caribbean setting, a boy and girl wake, get dressed, eat breakfast, walk to preschool, have a family meal, and go to bed.

Read my full review here.

• Author: Phillis and David Gershator, who lived on Thomas, U.S.Virgin Islands.
• Illustrator: Synthia Saint James
• Find in your library.

This gorgeous picture book biography celebrates bravery, music, and following your dreams. The “Drum Dream Girl” was Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, a “Chinese-African-Cuban girl who broke Cuba’s traditional taboo against female drummers” (Author’s Note, DRUM DREAM GIRL). This story focuses on her dreaming and practicing before she became a famous performer. The surreal illustrations and rhythmic poetry are appealing for a wide range of ages, and I was surprised how much this book captivated my younger story time crowd.

Read my full review for more details and links to video, music, and further reading.

• Although the author was not born in the Caribbean, I have tagged this #OwnVoices since it draws on her experiences of growing up Cuban American.
• Island: Cuba
• Author: Margarita Engle | see all my books reviews for this author
• Illustrator: Rafael López
• Languages: English, Spanish language edition, Mandarin language edition
• Find it in a public library | Find it in Spanish in a public library | Find it in Mandarin in a public library
• The full text, written out as a poem, is available here as well. Full-text translations in Spanish and Mandarin are available via Social Justice Books.
• Award winner: 2016 Pura Belpré award for illustration

In Caribbean stories, instead of ghosts, monsters, or trolls, you might hear about jumbies. This lively picture book shows a young girl naming, describing, and finding a number of the jumbies found in traditional stories. The illustrations are friendly, and the overall effect is no more frightening than THE GRUFFALO.

I haven’t written a full review yet, but stay tuned!

• Author: Tracey Baptiste grew up in Trinidad.
• Illustrator: Amber Ren
• This book is an #OwnVoices title,, by an author who was born and raised in the Caribbean.

Looking for more spooky stories?

Another picture book that is a bit spooky is GRANNIE AND THE JUMBIE by Margaret M. Hurst, which features a protective Mocko Jumbie (traditional stilt dancers that are said to guard their communities). LOOK! A MOKO JUMBIE! by Opal Palmer Adisa also celebrates these guardian figures.

For older readers, Tracey Baptiste (author of the Looking for a Jumbie, pictured above) also wrote a middle grade Jumbies series based on Caribbean folklore. Another option for older readers –  who can handle some genuine chills – is A WAVE IN HER POCKET by Lynn Joseph. It includes traditional tales of the same supernatural figures from Trinidad’s folklore.

This story is “inspired by a true migration story.” Whimbrels are birds that start their lives in nests in the arctic, and every fall, they migrate to places in the Caribbean like St. Croix and Guadeloupe. Scientists have tracked individual whimbrels on their migration routes. They tracked one bird as she collided with tropical storm Gert, and survived.

I’ve had a hard time finding books that talk about hurricanes for Caribbean children experiencing them — (here’s one good one) — but there’s certainly something relatable in Numenia’s journey and survival.

Read my full review for more details, some further information, and another book on the same topic.

• Island: Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands (named only in author’s note, no specific island in text).
• Author/Illustrator: Fiona Halliday
• Find it in a public library

If you have a yoga story time, this story of a young butterfly helps illustrate concepts like meditation and mindfulness. Mari Posa the butterfly lives in a busy, hurried blur, flitting from flower to flower.  She wishes for the simple, peaceful life she had inside her chrysalis. Then, a flower bud speaks to her, and gently guides her to breathe, and tells her a beautiful story or guided meditation, visualizing herself peacefully in her chrysalis and all her growth since then. As Mari begins to feel peaceful, the bud blooms into a flower.

Read my full review, including some resources for educators, here.

• This book is an #OwnVoices
• Author: Julia Alvarez is from the Dominican Republic and lives in the US.
• Illustrator: Raúl Colón is Puerto Rican and lives in New York City.
• Published in 2020. Find it in a library.

A note from Jessica:

Want more Caribbean book recommendations? I’d love to have you visit my blog, caribbeanchildrensbooks.wordpress.com, for more book ideas! I’ve tagged all my book reviews by topic, so if you’re looking for something that isn’t listed here, you can find a book that mentions, for example, a guitar or a mangrove. You can also find out which places are connected to each book.

These books might hold up a mirror to a your library patrons, whether you’re on an island or working with patrons in the Caribbean diaspora. Or, these books could also open a wider window to your patrons whose image of the Caribbean might not extend beyond a beach postcard. I hope you feel inspired to use them in story time!