I just remembered Taro Gomi.* He is Japanese and has lots of beautiful, watercolored board books and the people are all east Asian. Sometimes the books are about trucks and boats and other times they’re about people.
*if the name sounds familiar, he is probably most known for Everyone Poops
I like the Sumo series- Sumo Colors, Sumo Shapes, etc. The author is of Japanese descent and they seem culturally specific. There is also a nice board book series of concept books with cats by Airlie Anderson.
This is a good list that has a lot of diversity but unfortunately not so much on the non-Chinese-New-Year-East-Asian front.
https://www.denverlibrary.org/kids/list/core-collection/concept-books-kids-core-collection
I haven’t seen these IRL yet but they look so neat, esp the early reader series
They are super cute. Can confirm, they are good.
I don’t know if anyone has read the “what should Danny Do?” Books but they have been a huge hit for us.
There are decision points along the way and your kid chooses what happens (like “throw my plate and yell” or “eat the pancakes from my plate”) and depending on your answer you go to a different page. My kid loves reading them and I also love teaching consequences and that we can always go back and make a different choice.
OMG and it looks like kid ninja! (well the hair. lol)
I so wish I got a ginger kiddo 
dang Mr. Ninja and his dominant brown hair and brown eyes!!
There are a lot of sibling moments too that have been helpful for real life. Danny has a little brother named Charlie.
We got the three pack so we have the normal, on vacation, and school versions.
Because the story changes when they make a decision there is a lot of novelty and you can read it a bunch of times with different results. Also, the “consequences” are all really appropriate. For example, the consequence for yelling and throwing his plate was that his muscles were too strong and he knocked over the orange juice and it got everywhere and he had to clean it up and it ruined his pancakes so he had to eat cereal instead which he didn’t like as much. <-that was such a terrible sentence I’m sorry lol
My almost 6-year-old is really enjoying this book, All About Us. Each page is a profile of a different kid (mostly 7-12 years old) in a different state. It’s very un-editorialized and I like this exposure to different people and rhythms and families.
He also is really into Honest History and Spark magazines. Spark is fun pre-reading, Honest History works better if they can read.
He might also enjoy “this is how we do it” by Matt Lamothe
On a completely different note, here’s a Swedish children’s book from a recent visit to a library there.
First the kids get wrestled into their outdoor gear. Then they’re sliding in the mud. Then they’re stripping off their clothes and peeing and dancing naked in a gale force wind with sticks. Their grownups come, bundle them up in blankets, and dunk them in the bath with a bowl of macaroni. Explains a lot, huh?
My toddler searched high and low for books with cars and trucks, and couldn’t find any! But so many books about forest creatures and animals.
This book was enjoyable. We didn’t do the experiments after each story but we could still talk about the concepts.
My almost 6 year old likes the podcast “Anytime Now” by honest history for a non-reader option. We do curate which episodes to play since some of them are too scary but many are great.
That is too bad.
If your library is of any size, it would very likely have these books, but they may not have enough of a supply to be on the shelves when you’re looking for them. I mean many may be checked out.
Books about cars, trucks and things with wheels are perpetual favorites with the toddler crowd, usually males, but not always.
That was a cultural observation – he was totally fine with it and I don’t expect libraries in another country to cater to my American car-brained child. They had many other delightful things, like costumes and climbing nooks and great books about other topics.
Though ironically he hates riding in cars because ours smells like a wet dog. He just loves counting them and playing with them and sleeping with them in his bed in lieu of stuffed anyimals.
Toddlers are weird.
Anyone have a recommendation for early reader resources in Spanish? We are in a dual language class. I am thinking phonics songs like what Letter Factory has or early readers like Bob books but in Spanish.
Most of our library branches have a Spanish section within the kid area (I’m in LA so not sure if you would find the same in your area?). We grab easy picture books and board books from there to sprinkle in with our regular reading rotation.
