What promises to be a great new series for beginning readers debuts with Lily’s New Home, in which African American Lily has just moved to a New York City apartment building from a home that had a yard with flowers. She’s uncertain about big-city life but her parents show her parts of her new neighborhood that remind her of home and introduce her to some of the rich multicultural elements a big city offers. And at the public library, Lily finds many familiar books. She also meets Pablo, a boy who also loves to read. In the second volume, Want to Play?, Pablo takes center stage, leaving his book behind to venture out and play with Lily and introduce her to other friends. They meet Mei and Padma on the swings and join Henry for a game of basketball. Both books have the simple, episodic storylines that are the hallmark of good easy readers, as well as short sentences, large font, and plenty of white space. The watercolor illustrations offer both context clues and cultural specificity. Yoo and Ng-Benitez have created truly engaging child characters living in a vivid, realistic world with just a few masterful lines of text and ink. (Ages 5–7)

In this early chapter book in the popular Confetti Kids series, Lily and her parents move from their suburban neighborhood to New York City and Lily must adapt to her new life.

Lily and her parents move from their suburban neighborhood to New York City. Lily is used to living in a house on a quiet street. When they arrive at their new apartment, Lily notices the amount of activity all around. Kids play jump rope on one corner. Buses and taxis zoom by. Lily feels like a small ant on such a busy block and worries that she'll never feel at home. As she and her parents explore their new, multicultural neighborhood, Lily discovers that sometimes change can be a good thing.