January 2026 Prime Picks
Reviewer's Choice
Reviewer's Choice
The Apothecary Chef
Natasha Macaller
Kyle Books
9781804192801 $34.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
The Apothecary Chef: Recipes with Beneficial Herbs & Plants for a Long and Healthy Life features 80 recipes, including those from award-winning international chefs, that support healthier eating, focusing on plants that promote health and longevity. This requires some harvesting ability (which can translate to a farmer’s market or a home garden, as well as a field) for fresh ingredients and an interest in foods that are actively linked to health.
Recipes backed by full-page color photos include Four Fish and Herb Stew, pairing fish with loveage sprigs, dill fronds, onion, lemon, and carrot; Vegetable Garden Tea Cakes made with ginger, apple, carrots, spices, and maple syrup; and Baby New Potato, Egg & Herb Salad with fennel, loveage, new potatoes, and a herb cream sauce packed with basil, tarragon, and mint.
The Apothecary Chef is highly recommended for its original recipes, health-oriented focus, and broader applications of fresh herbs than most cookbooks offer.
Food Noise
Dr. Jack Mosley
Short
Books/Octopus Publishing
9781804193341
$19.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
Food Noise makes the case for a combined approach to losing weight that pairs smarter nutritional choices with weight loss medications. It teaches how to use the latest weight loss drugs safely and in conjunction with better eating habits, identifying “food noise” as the inner voice of hunger that too often causes people to eat too much.
Filled with a blend of science, lively applications, and considerations of how weight is gained, lost, or managed, Food Noise’s holistic and inclusive approach to diet provides not just ideals, but specifics on using FLP-1s to help achieve diet goals. The inclusion of 50 recipes and a 7-day meal plan supports the effort with invaluable tips.
The Power of
Moving On
John Purkiss
Monoray
9781800963603
$18.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
The Power of Moving On: How to Let Go and Live the Life You Want is a study in empowerment and action that will especially appeal to self-help readers willing to do the work to define the requirements and elements of their own transformation.
It offers exercises to help categorize desires, tools for identifying and addressing negative beliefs that thwart the ambition to change, and insights on how to enact changes to support choice and change in the outer world.
From manifesting happy, harmonious relationships to learning how to listen to oneself and get rid of patterns of pain, The Power of Moving On outlines routines and life approaches that can be changed with the help of this book’s admonitions and insights. It’s a top pick for self-help collections and readers interested in transformative approaches to life.
The Traveling Tree
Michio Hoshino
Gaia/Octopus
Publishing
9781856755900
$19.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
The Traveling Tree: Lessons from a Nomadic Life is translated by Eli K.P. William and explores Michio Hoshino’s travels through wildlife and nature. If the book sounds familiar, that’s because it was first published in 1994, reprinted 57 times since, and now provides new generations of naturalists and adventurers a powerful survey about Hoshino’s love of photography and nature.
Though Hoshino’s photos have received worldwide acclaim, with The Traveling Tree only expanding his reach in the 20 years since his death, no prior familiarity with him or Japanese culture is needed in order to appreciate this book’s exquisite focus.
The Traveling Tree’s reappearance in a format that will lend to gift-giving is to be celebrated.
Young Adult/Children
Look Up
Azul López
Transit Children’s
Editions
9798893380286
$19.95
www.transitchildrenseditions.org
Look Up is translated by Shook and gives young picture book readers a lovely, simple story about a man who is curious about the sky, always “contemplating things above his head.” Seeing wonders there, the man then muses on how he can get others around him to see the same things, even though most seem largely indifferent.
Kids and read-aloud adults receive a thought-provoking, gentle story about perspective, wonder, sharing, and discovery in an outstanding survey suitable for adult/child discussion over revised attitudes about life.
Mega: The Most
Enormous Animals Ever
Jules Howard
Nosy Crow
9798887772004
$29.99
www.nosycrow.us
Mega: The Most Enormous Animals Ever is illustrated by Gavin Scott and presented in an oversized book that includes a mammoth poster. This reflection of size makes for an inviting survey for leisure readers fascinated by strange, large animals and their natural history.
From captivating crocodiles and the biggest extinct ratites to modern big marsupials in Australia, Mega: The Most Enormous Animals Ever contrasts animals past and present with an eye to exploring how these large creatures live, survive, and make best use of their size. Kids who love odd animals will be enchanted by the book’s oversize presentation, attractive drawings, and interesting “large animal” facts and features.
Omnibird
Giselle Clarkson
Gecko Press
9798765670514
$24.99
www.geckopress.com
Omnibird: An Avian Investigator’s Handbook is a delightful foray into the art and science of ‘omnibirding,’ which involves examining some remarkable bird attributes and uncovering contrasts between eggs, physiology, and bird behavior.
Kids are invited to approach the avian world in a different way, from understanding differences between a beak and a bill to embracing a wider view of, say, penguins than their usual association with winter and ice.
From why some birds have stinky legs to how to usher a bird outdoors that has somehow flown inside, young investigators are encouraged to both learn natural history and employ critical thinking skills to alter and reflect their concept of birds in delightfully novel ways.
Our Love
Fatima Ordinola
Post Wave
9798895090367
$18.99
www.postwavepublishing.us
Our Love is a picture book exploration of the concept of unconditional love, portraying a series of animals reflecting love between parents and children. Koalas, kangaroos, penguins, and other animals are illustrations for simple one-line phrases about what love and connection mean. The intimate descriptions encourage kids to place love in a more personal framework than most picture books encourage:
“Our love is sweeter than any breakfast and blooms brighter than any flower.”
The result is a lovely celebration of affection, connection, and self-examination that read-aloud adults can use to spark discussions with the very young about the feelings and basics of love.
Penguin Books
www.penguin.com/kids
Three new arrivals provide picture book readers with fine stories suitable for library acquisition and read-aloud enjoyment.
TimeKids: Planets by Sarah Jospitre (9798217051816, $16.98) is a Level 3 reader for transitional young readers that features more dialogue, multisyllable and compound words, and bright color photos that bring to life its survey of the solar system.
Mars, Venus, and all the planets receive lively overviews, contrasting planetary sizes and environments in a manner kids will be interested in not just for study, but leisure reading.
Where There Is Love by Shauntay Grant (9780593659939, $18.99) presents a story in African proverbs, following a young girl and her family who gather at her grandmother’s home for a rich encounter.
Leticia Moreno creates attractive illustrations as the inspirational proverbs are paired with lessons (“Today at Nana’s house, I learn that Patience Is the Key That Solves All Problems.”)
Sylvia Chen’s Sparkles for Sunny: A Lunar New Year Story (9780593694626, $18.99) is illustrated by Thai My Phuong and is a lovely story of the Lao family and a young daughter who longs to wear something other than hand-me-downs from her sisters.
The family’s rules about sharing and waste seem to prevent Sunny from splurging on something new, so how can she assert her originality by wearing clothing that is unique to her personality?
Some creative effort and family participation results in a different Lunar New Year that better reflects Sunny’s personality in this engaging picture book story of creative problem-solving and family togetherness.
All are fine picks for libraries and read-aloud adults.