We are opening the year with three books for our youngest readers. Sope Martins’s Hairstory, Aya Khalil’s Ramadan for Everyone, and Shugri Salh’s Suuban’s First Day, published this January, come from different cultures but focus on the rituals of becoming, in childhood: hair braiding, a child learning the limits of her body during Ramadan, and a girl waiting for permission to herd goats alone in the desert. Parents and caregivers will appreciate how these books treat children as aware of their worlds and able to understand themselves within them.

Hairstory (ages 4–8) makes note of an intimate, familiar scene: a young girl sitting between knees as her hair is styled. But hair is also a way of entering history. Martins looks at how beads, cowries, cornrows, and braids have been used to communicate ideas across African cultures for centuries in relation to power, spirituality, age, and even serving as coded maps of survival during enslavement. Hair is art and memory.

If Hairstory teaches children that the body can communicate history, Ramadan for Everyone (ages 4–8) shows how ritual teaches us how to find our place in the world. The book follows Habeeba, who wants to observe Ramadan as fully as her older sister but struggles with hunger and frustration. Khalil, an educator and longtime advocate for inclusive children’s literature, understands the importance of those acts of faith and service that bring us into community.

Suuban’s First Day (ages 3–6) completes this grouping with a lesson in earned independence. Suuban wants to herd goats alone, but her grandmother says she has to wait until her two front teeth fall out. When Suuban finally steps into responsibility, she meets circumstances that demand courage. Salh, who spent her early childhood living as a nomad in the Somali desert, crafts Suuban’s story from a very personal place.

These books go well together. We encourage parents to buy them as a trio. They’re a pleasure to read with children.

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