Publisher: Lantana Publishing

Lantana Publishing is an award-winning children’s book publisher and social enterprise with a mission to publish inclusive books by authors from under-represented groups and from around the world.

Alice Curry founded Lantana when only one per cent of the children’s books published in the UK featured a character of colour as a protagonist. She wanted her biracial niece and nephews, and others like them, to be able to grow up seeing themselves in the books they read.

Each year, Lantana publishes a select list of exceptional titles promoting diversity and inclusion, social and racial justice, gender equality, pride, empathy, mindfulness and wellbeing, with beautifully illustrated stories that help happy little minds to flourish. Visit the Lantana Publishing website to find out more.

See all of the Lantana Publishing books featured on BooksForTopics below.

The Brighter I Shine

Kamee Abrahamian & Lusine Ghukasyan

Picturebook

The Brighter I Shine is a wonderfully written and illustrated book that helps evoke conversations about family history and the importance of keeping memories alive. Intricately drawn pictures help bring the story together, with something different to look at each time you read the story.

Following a young girl, we learn about her ancestors through the stories she has been told, as all the things she discovers come to life through her birthday celebration.

This is a beautifully written story and the fact there are Armenian words intertwined within the text add to the depth of the story. The Brighter I Shine, would be a great book to use when exploring family trees or helping link to a topic about finding out more about a child’s own heritage. This book would be a wonderful introduction to exploring different cultures within a class. The note from the author at the end of the story featuring questions to help you explore your own ancestors really helps encapsulate and conclude the ideas of the book.

The Language of Flowers

Aaron Asis & Shyala Smith

Picturebook

Juhi helps her Appa in the flower shop. She understands the language of love and the messages that flowers can share e.g. affection, sorrow or an embrace. She knows how flowers can be offered as a language of faith such as offerings at a temple. But Juhi does not understand the language of grief.

In this evocative picturebook, Smith’s graceful writing is complimented beautifully by Asis’ illustrations. We learn with Juhi what grief looks like and how beauty can offer comfort in times of loss.

A heartfelt story about navigating grief, embracing self-expression, and discovering reasons to celebrate even in life’s most challenging times. Great for children who are curious about the loss of their loved ones.

My Momo-La is a Museum

Mamta Nainy & Violet Kim

Picturebook

This book has such an intriguing title to explore with children – what or who is a momo-la and how can they be a museum? A moma-la, we soon infer, is the Tibetan name for a grandmother and the grandmother in this story takes her granddaughter on a day trip to lots of museums to show her where stories come from.

For many children, a visit from a grandparent is a special event and this story can encourage children to share some of their own stories about their grandparents and perhaps also inspire a renewed curiosity about the life of their grandparent. The Moma-la in this story reveals various aspects of her life through the objects and wonders found in the different museums, art galleries and craft centres that the pair visit. There is ample opportunity to explore the Tibetan culture through the traditional dress that is highlighted and through glimpses of the history of these people.

The clear and vibrant illustrations very effectively support the meaning of the words. The end note is a direct letter to the reader and is as important to read as the story, as it helps children begin to think about the stories that all families have in their histories. This is a powerful story and one that children will relate to.

A Hat Full of Sea

Jen Khatun & Maudie Smith

Picturebook

When Grandpa is ill, Cora wants to make the right impression during her visit. Thoughtfully, she wears a hat that he once bought for her. At the hospital, Cora realises how frustrating it must be for Grandpa to only have a small square of sky to look at. This sets Cora to thinking about how to bring the outside in.

Using her special hat, Cora scoops up the features of the sea – ‘the softness of the sand and the seagull cries all wrapped up in the wind.’ Next, she uses her hat to bring the countryside and all its sounds and colours to Grandpa’s hospital bed. Into the hat goes the fun of the fair, the marketplace and the night sky. When the wind blows Cora’s hat away, she is perplexed. How can she continue to bring Grandpa his adventures and taste of the outside if she no longer has her hat?

Cora doesn’t need to worry, though – Grandpa is feeling much better, and he explains that it wasn’t the hat that aided his recovery, it was Cora, her kindness and her imagination. This is a heartwarming story of the love between generations. Beautiful descriptions awaken the senses and the bright, bold, slightly scribbly illustrations add to the charm.

One Extra Sparkle: Ellie and the Marriage List

Lucy Rogers & Tricia Seabolt

Chapter book

How would you feel if your brother was about to get married and become a Hawaii husband? Well, that is what Ling-her BFF (Best Friend Forever) and next-door neighbour explains to Ellie is going to happen according to the top-secret marriage list (made and given to them by Ling’s BBF- Best Ballerina Friend). Ellie panics when her brother (who is fifteen) and Sara (his new girlfriend) nearly reach the kissing stage-what comes next involves orange paint, a missing gift, Banana the fox, a ballerina ghost and the fight to save a weeping willow in Ellie’s back yard.

Most pages contain illustrations that reflect the storyline, represent Ellie’s love for drawing and play an important part in helping set the scene which is great for helping children’s imagination and encouraging reluctant readers.

The book is ideal for LKS2 and from age 6+. Ellie has Down’s Syndrome which is explained so sensitively in the book and is brilliant at bringing an awareness to children about this. There is also some further, well-thought-out information at the back of the book on Down’s Syndrome from the author. The book shines a light on the awesomeness of having the extra chromosome – represented as an extra sparkle.

The Invisible Story

Jaime Gamboa & Wen Hsu Chen

Picturebook

As this story unfolds – of a girl who visits the library and finds a book nobody notices, the ghost of a book with blank pages – our minds conceive of new possibilities: that raised dots on paper can open up a world of imagination and learning. Fingers are as capable of reading as eyes. The vulnerability of the book itself (scared that it’s story will end, ashamed of its white pages) reflects the vulnerability of those who are visually impaired, although the blind girl in this story strikes as confident as well as kind, as she offers the reassurance: “stories don’t really end – they can be read as many times as you want.” There is so much to explore here; so much to delight in (including the intricate paper-cut imagery). It could be enjoyed by individual children, or in small group settings as a way into talking about ‘disability’ and inclusion

“What did you think of it?” I asked the Year 5 girl with whom I shared this beautiful book. “Interesting,” she said. A simple response which belies just how captivated she was by it. She felt the pages, she drew from it her own conclusions (“we should not be so arrogant and be kind to each other”), she asked questions about braille, having not encountered it before, and said she wants to have braille books in the school library – a request I am keen to fulfil.

The Great Henna Party

Humera Malik & Sonali Zohra

Picturebook

The arrival on this book in the school library or at home is likely to excite many children especially if it happens when Eid is being celebrated, as it did here. No wonder the child, whose own hands had just been decorated, looked so delighted when she heard the story of Noor’s family wedding. She could see herself in it, feel proud of her heritage and could identify with the joy shared; a joy communicated also in the swirls and tones and colours of the illustrations.

Those who don’t have personal experience of such celebrations can learn respect for traditions other than their own, as well as facts about the art of henna painting in the author’s final note. They too will identify with having relatives – their own mama/mum, baba/dad, nani/gran or dada/grandad – to whom they want to show love. As Noor realises, demonstrations of that love are unlimited… there is room for all our dear ones on our hands, yes, but in our hearts too. This is an enchanting story that is highly recommended for individual and communal reading.

Watch Me Bloom

Krina Patel-Sage

Poetry

An eye-catching ‘bouquet’ of haiku poems. This hardback book instantly engages with the beauty of nature with vibrant colours, where each page has people engaging with flowers or each other. The twenty-four haikus, each about a different flower, some well-known and others less so, are written where you can dip into and read a few or read the whole book in one sitting.

Every beautiful poem has a focus on at least one of the ‘five ways to wellbeing’: connect, be active, take notice, keep learning and give. The overarching theme of nature and treating it and ourselves mindfully is present throughout. I adore the floral fun facts at the end of the book, where the reader finds out interesting information about the flowers, whether it is where the name originates from or links to countries all around the world.

Perfect for all ages, it is a book to add to any collection on poetry, nature or well-being.

Through the Forest

Yijing Li

Picturebook

Walking through a dark forest, a young boy learns to treasure his memories and find his true path.

Lost and alone, a young boy enters the forest not knowing the path that lies before him. He meets a figure called Emptiness who guides him on his way. Together they find keepsakes deep in the forest that trigger memories, both good and bad. As he moves closer to the sun-filled meadow on the other side of the forest, the boy learns that to be truly happy, he must embrace his past.

A powerful tale about the importance of memories in the winding journey of life.