While the official Architecture Day comes only once a year, everyone in the world makes use of architecture every day. Unlike other everyday things like food and clothing, we sometimes forget that shelters and other buildings don’t just “happen”: they are designed and built and even as we use them, we change them.
Whether we are inside a building or outside and experiencing them from a sidewalk, street, or landing airplane, there’s a lot to discover and there are great books to help us uncover the art of architecture.
New from Cicada Books, let’s start by dipping into Atlas of Amazing Architecture: The most incredible buildings you’ve (probably) never heard of, written and illustrated by Peter Allan. International in scope and containing buildings designed and used for an equally amazing range of purposes, this guide also explores architectural works—and construction methods—across different eras. Imagine an apartment building designed and built with no straight lines! Or a 1600-year-old Chinese temple built more than 100 feet off the ground and tied to the side of a cliff! Ever hear of monolithic architecture? That means that the entire building is created from a single piece of material, such as a carved rock. After touring the architectural works in this book, explore your own home, school, and other buildings you visit to discover how they show evidence of architectural reasons and decisions.
Sometimes a beautifully designed building gains aspects of its visual beauty from architectural 
choices made for practical reasons. Tilbury House Publishers’ Immigrant Architect, by Berta de Miguel and Kent Diebolt, with award-winning illustrations by Virginia Lorente, introduces us to Rafael Gustavino, Sr., and his son, Rafael Gustavino, Jr. Bringing knowledge of the fireproofing capacity of bricks and tiles from Spain to America, they designed gorgeous buildings in many cities, with their hallmark colorfully tiled vaulted ceilings lending an air of space and a practical insulation againt the spread of fire and disaster.
For a broader perspective of architecture in action and mysteriously complex building methods from history, check out this pair of 360 Degree-imprint books from Tiger Tales Books. In Focus: Cities, created by Libby Walden, is a giant-sized volume depicting all aspects of life in 10 of the world’s best recognized cities, including the architectural styles that support that recognition. Find out how the cultures in each of these cities developed and interact with their built environment. Then explore some of the architectural monuments of the ancient world in Wonders of the World, written by Isabel 
Otter with illustrations by Margaux Carpenter of such amazing buildings as the Egyptian Pyramids and the more recently constructed, and still quite old, Taj Mahal.
Want to find out more about the building techniques used to make the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? Each of these wonders is a different kind of architecture, including monuments, temples, and even gardens. Right now you can download an e-galley of Albatros Media’s How the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Were Built. Author and illustrator Ludmila Henkova provides detailed information that is STEM-ready.
Want to explore architecture with some activities? Download our Activity Guide – Immigrant Architect and get busy!
This month 
approach to fiction. That being said, I didn’t immediately gravitate to the idea of writing my own King Arthur story. So much has already been said, with many incredible works out there, I didn’t want to just rehash that material. Then one day, a scene just entered my head. A boy returning home after his training, but he’s too late. His home is destroyed, and everyone he knows is gone. That was my way in.
TYLER: Funny you should mention my publishing company, A Wave Blue World, because the very first title we published was called Adrenaline and James was the artist. We were both right out of art school and I really liked his style. Working on that project was a huge learning curve, but we made it through to a produced a really worthwhile book, even if it was a little rough around the edges. We had been working on separate projects for a little while after that, but as soon as that scene that I mentioned earlier entered my head, I knew James was the perfect artist for an Arthurian-type adventure. I reached out to him and he was really into it.
From Gecko Press, let’s start with Ole Könnecke’s picture book 
The Olympic Games often are settings for new records of speed, distance, height, and other measures of physical agility and prowess. What would athletes have to achieve to compete with the speeds, sizes, and other capabilities of other animals? 
If your child’s chosen sport involves a bicycle, Cicada Books has an essential title: 
Has all this talk about athletics made you a bit hungry? Thanks to Readers to Eaters, there’s the perfect sports-aware book for that, too! 
Earth Is Big, coming from 
New just last month from Inhabit Media (Nunavut, Canada) is I Am Loved, a picture book by Mary and Kevin Qamaniq-Mason, with illustrations by Hwei Lim. This one provides a story of foster care and a child’s need to recognize that love comes from both his beloved and absent grandmother and his caring foster parents. While culturally specific to Inuit values, the concepts of fostering and learning to recognize both present and absent care providers directly addresses the intent of Parents Day’s honoring of those with children. Inhabit Media provides a 
recalling for her how the judge made them real sisters. Beautifully evocative illustrations by Nicole Tadgell show the sisters in imaginative play as well as real world memories. This book is available in both hardcover and paperback and has won numerous awards and critical praise.
A parent’s many nurturing jobs include creating healthy ways to handle emotional development difficulties. From Blair Publishing (North Carolina, USA) and hot off the press 
Anne Booth’s 
There are new editions of a couple of classic favorites available this May, too. From Gerda Muller, 
published as a picture book in 2018. In a new edition, it’s also available as a board book, allowing the very youngest readers to explore all the colorful blossoms that appear in spring, from those that poke through the snow to those that bloom as spring edges toward warmer days of summer.
Let’s start with Ivan Brunetti’s beginning reader book 
The California Reading Association’s Eureka Award Honor title 
This time, however, we discover where and how the title idiom is phrased in other places. Each such phrase is provided in its English translation; the point here is how different languages, and cultures, rely on specific reference points even when speaking imaginatively. Idiomatic phrases can paint engaging and intriguing images in our minds’ eyes, as does the artwork here.
Finally (just for now) we’ll end with a picture book told from the perspective of…a dictionary! 
A new board book series for English (and also for Spanish) readers from NubeOcho Books includes a pair of lift-the-flaps fun from author and illustrator 
Did you know Inhabit Media has published a kids’ cookbook? 
This year’s Thanksgiving holiday will be marked differently from other years in many American households. It also coincides with the 400th anniversary of the colonial founding of Plymouth, in the 17th century Bay Colony of Massachusetts, credited traditionally as the site of “America’s first Thanksgiving.”
Last week we were lucky enough to catch up with the always delightful and engaging Joseph D. Carriker to talk about his latest publication. Joe has been working for years in the fields of game development and role-playing game books. He’s a leader in helping the gaming world become a more accepting realm for queer gamers. In October, his non-RPG novel Sacred Band was published in a new edition by Green Ronin Publishing. And yes, as you’ll hear in the interview here, there have been some changes since the original publication in 2017. So, come meet Joe and then get yourself his starred review-earning fantasy that offers a band of queer superheroes for both gaming and non-gaming readers! As