Thank You, Everything by Icinori (author) and Emilie Robert Wong (translator) (Enchanted Lion). “Thank you alarm clock…Thank you bed…Thank you sink…Thank you glass.” What does it mean to be grateful, and which objects deserve our appreciation? In this deceptively simple tale, a child give thanks to the everyday things we take for granted. Amid these straightforward utterances, a soft, clever narrative emerges. “Thank you parachute…Thank you silence…Thank you caution…”

The Midnight Panther by Poonam Mistry (Candlewick Studio). “In the depths of the forest filled with life and wonder, there once was a panther…While the forest filled his heart with joy, Panther wasn’t like the other big cats, and he felt alone.” Fearing he’s not as mighty as the truly great beasts, Panther sets off — across a dazzlingly rendered landscape — to figure out what makes him special. There must be something, right?   

Evolution: A Celebration of Beautiful Animals by William Spring (Big Picture Press). “The natural world, and an appreciation of it, is the greatest gift humans can experience — from the tiniest insect or pollen grain to the largest mammal or the tallest tree.” So opens this sweeping, oversized ode to fauna familiar and obscure, from the American bison and the Andean condor to the southern cassowary and the Portuguese man-of-war.