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Hippo Park (Fall 2026)

As ever, I’m just so consistently intrigued by what small publishers get up to in an era of big honkin’ conglomerates. Not that Hippo Park isn’t itself an imprint of the larger Astra Publishing House, of course, but today Jill Davis took the time to show me only four books coming out this fall season. Each one is a picture book or graphic novel. Each one utterly unique. Let’s start!

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The Very Unusual Pumpkin by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Maya Shleifer

Publication Date: September 15, 2026

ISBN: 978-166264-101-5

I think you may have heard the objections often voiced by the current crop of grandmothers about how they get portrayed in picture books. Often grandparents are seen as ancient and doddering, so a slew of books with peppy grandpas and grandmas have come out in recent years to combat the stereotype. But, see, author Marilyn Singer had a vastly different take on how grandparental units are portrayed. Time and time, grandparents in books for kids are seen as completely perfect. Without flaw. An idealized alternative to a child’s parents. And, as I am sure you know, idealization contains its own dangers. That’s why Singer decided to do the brave thing and write a picture book where the grandmother on the page is bad at something. That something? Telling stories.

At first glance you might think that this is a companion title to Grace Lin’s The Ugly Vegetables, and while that’s not entirely accurate, it’s also not the worst idea in the world. However, at its heart this is a book about telling better stories. In it, a young girl is disappointed that her grandmother tells fairly dull tales. One night, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Think Interrupting Chicken, but with drive and purpose. The art is by Maya Shleifer who is definitely an illustrator to watch (you may have seen her work when she illustrated Jane Yolen’s Too Many Golems). Under her guiding hand, everything in the fantasy world has a black background, and everything in the real world is set against white. When Grandma tells her story, her words are done with the illustrator’s hand lettering. But best of all? This is a book where any time someone is knitting, the knitting needle placement is excellent. Well done there!

Read on to get a glimpse of fearful rodentia, cool cats that only love themselves, and dogs with dark nights of the soul right here.