Welcome to another edition of Must Read Monday!

This feature is where I spotlight older, recent, or upcoming releases I am looking forward to. The lists will include all genres I like to read, everything from picture books to comics, children’s lit to adult fiction!

This week is all about picture books. From favourite authors and illustrators, to award-winners, to some new terrific looking and sounding titles, these are picture books I cannot wait to take a look at:

Leaping Lemmings! by John Briggs, illus. Nicola Slater
Publication: September 6th 2016 by Sterling Children’s Books

Think before you leap! Lemmings look alike, they sound alike, and they act alike. So if one jumps off a cliff, the others will jump right after him . . . except Larry. Larry’s very independent-minded and he won’t follow his fellow lemmings blindly to their doom. But can he teach them to use their brains and stop making terrible group decisions? John Briggs has created a wonderfully funny, quirky tale about staying true to yourself, while Nicola Slater’s witty illustrations capture all the humor and pathos of Larry’s situation.

I Will Not Eat You by Adam Lehrhaupt, illus. Scott Magoon
Publication: September 6, 2016 by Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books

From the award-winning author of Warning: Do Not Open This Book! and beloved illustrator Scott Magoon comes a suspenseful and darkly funny new picture book about a creature who resists the urge to eat the animals that wander into his cave…at least for now!

Theodore thinks everything is a potential meal. Lucky for the bird, wolf, and tiger, who pass by his cave, Theodore isn’t hungry…yet. But then something new approaches. A boy. Has Theodore found a new favorite food? Or something more?

Peep and Egg: I’m Not Trick-or-Treating by Laura Gehl, illus. Joyce Wan
Publication: August 9, 2016 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Peep is so excited to go trick-or-treating with her friend Egg. She wants to visit the duck pond and the cow pasture to get treats. But Egg thinks Halloween is too scary, with frightening monsters possibly lurking everywhere! Peep tells her jokes because laughing helps you feel less scared. Egg is still not cracking. But soon Egg learns that maybe trick-or-treating is not so scary after all when you have a friend to hold on to.

Samson in the Snow by Philip C. Stead
Publication: September 27, 2016 by Roaring Brook Press

One sunny day Samson, a large and friendly woolly mammoth, encounters a little red bird who is looking for yellow flowers for her mouse friend (whose favorite color is yellow). As she flies off with the flowers, Samson wonders what it must be like to have a friend. He wonders this for so long, in fact, that he falls asleep and wakes up to a world covered in snow. In the midst of a blizzard, Samson finds and shelters the little red bird and flower-loving mouse in a tender tale of kindness and unexpected friendship.

Henry & Leo by Pamela Zagarenski
Publication: October 4, 2016 by HMH Books for Young Readers

Leo isn’t just a stuffed toy, he is Henry’s best friend and brother. He is as real as a tree, a cloud, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the wind. But when the two are accidentally separated, no one in Henry’s family believes Leo is real enough to find his way home.

With beautiful mixed-media paintings, the Caldecott Honor–winning artist Pamela Zagarenski explores the transcendent nature of friendship and love.