By Cyrisse Jaffee

In a time when qualities such as empathy and caring for others are more important than ever, these books can help children better understand the lives of others.

The Table by Winsome Bingham and Wiley Blevins. Artwork by Jason Griffin. Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, 2024.

I Know How to Draw an Owl by Hilary Horder Hippely. Illustrated by Matt James. Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, 2024.

In The Table, the everyday life of a mining family is seen through the activities around the table. It’s where they eat “freshly baked buttery biscuits” in the morning and paint Easter eggs “for Sunday fun.” At the table, Mama sews “Sis’s matching dress for church” and figures out what bills she can and cannot pay each month. The child narrator struggles to finish her peas and confides, “But all I want is more cornbread and pork-fat pinto beans.” We also meet Meemaw, who can’t read but runs the household; Papa, who is “too tired to wash the coal dust off his face,” but still gives his wife a smooch; and Grandaddy, who can no longer work in the mines due to black lung disease.

What could be a depressing portrait is instead infused with kindness, love, and warmth. No matter how tough their lives, the family’s table also holds “A stack of canned peaches and a basket of cucumbers … ready to give to the needy.” When Papa loses his job, the family must move and there’s no room for the table. A new family discovers the table on the side of the road, and it becomes their centerpiece “for Momma’s coffee and Daddy’s crossword, for math homework and family game night.” There are connections to the first owners of the table, too — the “new” family has biscuits for dinner and says grace before eating. There’s even a child who has to eat something she doesn’t like. The child imagines others who have eaten at the sturdy table — the stories “only a table could tell.”

The poetic and evocative text, paired with appealing, collage-style graphics and soft, mellow, impressionistic illustrations, give this story even greater depth and resonance. In an afterword, “Letters from the Creators,” the authors offer more insights into the story. Winsome Bingham, whose African-American family is represented by the second clan, says, “I always feel like, as people, we are more alike than we’re different.…We created a project that will allow families from different backgrounds to see themselves side by side with families that may not look like them.” Wiley Blevins, whose white West Virginia family is the model for the mining family, was initially embarrassed by his family’s Appalachian roots. He then discovered his pride in the “beauty and decency and dignity in the way they live their lives.”

This is a beautiful story to share in all settings — urban, suburban, rural — especially with a group (first grade and up) who might be inspired to reflect on the bonds that connect them with each other and the wider world.

Belle, in I Know How to Draw an Owl, lives with her mother in “our old blue car,” but she is ashamed to let her teacher and classmates know that she is unhoused. At night, she finds a comfy spot next to her mom in the car, which is parked in a shady grove. An owl hoots nearby. After many nights, she actually gets to see the owl, who comes “so near I could almost touch his wings.” When the class assignment is to draw an owl, Belle’s rendition is especially good.

Soon a new boy arrives at school, waving goodbye “from an old blue car that looks like mine.” Belle decides that she will welcome him and look after him, just as she feels the owl did for her.

The spare but provocative text, multicultural classroom, and the rich, nighttime illustrations invite the reader in. The school setting makes it a natural for an elementary school read-aloud, but it would also be good one-on-one. It just might help readers understand the different circumstances kids find themselves in, sometimes in ways that may not be obvious.

Cyrisse Jaffee is a former children’s and YA librarian, children’s book editor, and a creator of educational materials for WGBH. She holds a master’s degree in Library Science from Simmons College and lives in Newton, MA.