By Cyrisse Jaffee

Two lively picture books invite children to discover the creativity, collaboration, and wonder behind the books they love.

Here Is a Book by Elisha Cooper. Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025.

How a Bear Became a Book by Annette Bay Pimentel. Pictures by Faith Pray. Henry Holt and Company, 2026.

In Here Is a Book, Elisha Cooper takes us through the genesis of a book, beginning with the writer-illustrator looking out to the sea, sketchbook on her lap. We are introduced to the artist’s garden, then her house, and then her kitchen, “filled with an oven, bread, raspberry jam, family, a cat, and warmth.” Next, we visit the artist’s studio, shown in a double spread filled with an array of the artist’s tools: pencils, watercolors, a wastebasket, a chair, tea, and so on.

Then the manuscript begins its voyage, first by bicycle in the artist’s backpack to a publisher’s offices in town. From that office, “humming with editors, designers, assistants, computers, layouts, coffee, and teamwork,” the text goes to the printer, then onto a truck that travels across the country to a bustling, high-rise city. It’s delivered to a school, where a girl discovers the book in the school library. And finally, the volume reaches its ultimate destination: through the family’s kitchen, “filled with a stove, vegetable soup, family, two cats, and humor,” to the girl’s bedroom, which in some ways resembles the artist’s workshop.

The lovely, lyrical narrative packs in details seamlessly, accompanied and brought to life by Cooper’s wonderfully impressionist drawings. Some pages fill the pages in full color; others have scattered, charming drawings surrounded by lots of white space. Each list of realistic items ends with something less tangible: warmth, rhythm, wonder, teamwork, and so on. What a delightful evocation of the creative process!

Not only does Cooper cleverly construct the story so that the girl’s surroundings echo the artist’s; she also conveys the power of books to inspire. The final picture shows the girl looking outward, with paper and pen in her lap. This Caldecott Honor Book deserves its accolades, from beginning to end.

From the general to the specific, How a Bear Became a Book by Annette Bay Pimentel tells the story of how A. A. Milne, his editors Edward Verrall Lucas and Frederick Muller, and illustrator Ernest Howard Shepard collaborated to create the beloved Winnie-the-Pooh books.

Cleverly, the narrative interweaves details about how books are created and produced as it tells the specific story of Winnie-the-Pooh. From the inception of making up a story (“…stories are about things that happen, and things have to happen to someone. So we’ll need someone—a character”); to writing it down; to an editor taking on the project and finding the right illustrator, this is a mini-tutorial. Pooh himself is first a vague, shadowy bear who helps tell the story, in appropriate Pooh-ish lingo, until Shepard’s drawings bring him to life. The text explains, “Sometimes words need pictures, and pictures need words. When they find each other, characters spring to life.”

The story moves along briskly, with Pooh’s questions and declarations adding humor and charm (“Ah yes! Tubbiness is just the thing”). Christopher Robin is there on the page, too, as appealing as ever. The illustrations by Faith Pray are just right, echoing Shepard’s style. A series of notes at the end provides more details about Milne, Lucas, Muller, and Shepard, as well as the innovative style they designed—revolutionary for 1926—in which “they made the text hop like Kanga or stand tall like a tree in the Hundred Acre Wood.” We then get to meet the folks who created How a Bear Became a Book—author, illustrator, art director, and the rest of the publishing team.

This is a lively, engaging, and ingenious book that will entertain children as they learn. It may empower them to become author-illustrators of their own creations. And of course, librarians and teachers will also love it, as will anyone who has fond memories of this childhood favorite.

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.