Award-winning author-illustrator KARI PERCIVAL’s digital illustration style is rooted in the woodcuts she’s been carving and printing for more than two decades. Kari earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Master’s in Education and Environmental Science from Antioch University. Ecology has always been her favorite topic to teach, whether in the classroom or in the community garden. Kari lives with her husband and two children just outside Boston near a magical waterfall. On rainy days, she can be found rescuing earth worms out of puddles (because she just can’t walk by when they are wiggling for help.)
Visit Kari online at: www.karipercival.com
and www.instagram.com/karipercival
Kari’s Bookshelf:
Untitled
by Kari Percival
Rise X | 2027
FALL DAY, ALL DAY
by Kari Percival
Rise X | 2026
Safe Crossing
by Kari Percival
Chronicle | 2025
• A Junior Library Guild (JLG) Gold Standard Selection
• a Book Page’s top ten books for January
• a Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best Books of 2025, Best Informational Books for Younger Readers of 2025
• a Kirkus Best Book of 2025 in the picture book category
• a 2026-Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee
• a New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2025
• aBook Page Best Picture Book of 2025 selection
★ “Readers will practically feel the spring rain on their shoulders as the team shines flashlights in search of amphibians that need help. . . . Safe Crossing is an exciting, informative call to action for budding scientists and environmental activists.”—Bookpage, starred review
★ “Sumptuous in text and image… Percival celebrates the wonder of biodiversity―every pictured creature is marquee-worthy―alongside the passion and hard work that animate conservation efforts.” ― Publishers Weekly, starred review
★ “Informative and beautiful.” ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review
★ “Gorgeous woodcut-like digital artwork perfectly sets the scene of a wet spring, with white streaks that look like etching lines as the ever-present rain. . . . Plenty of informational back matter enhances learning and on the endpapers there are lists of items to find in the text.” —Youth Services Book Review, starred review
Translation Rights:
Chinese, Traditional | Goetz Books, an imprint of Walkers Cultura
How To Say Hello To A Worm
PRH Rise | 2022
by Kari Percival
• Winner of the EZRA JACK KEATS WRITER AWARD
• A Dolly Parton Imagination Library selection
• an ALA Notable Children’s Book, 2023
• School Library Journal, 31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022 Science and Nature Books for Kids : “Earliest readers will love this deep dive (sometimes literally!) into gardening, growing, and learning.”
• a 2023 CLEL Bell Picture Book Awards for Early Literacy “Talk” category award winner: “The book asks questions, provides practical guidance, and prompts conversations about the living creatures and plants all around us.”
• a Best Book of 2022, Children’s Book Committee of Bank Street College
• a Kentucky Bluegrass selection
• a Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best Books of 2025, Best Informational Books for Younger Readers of 2025 (Spanish Edition)
★”In this deceptively simple, sparkling debut, a group of young children plant a garden in raised beds and watch it grow. Percival shows rather than tells, deploying a q&a format that involves the children’s exclamations as well as conversational instructions based in noticing. (“Look! Pea plants! See how they curl around your finger?” leads to a simple tutorial on building a support structure.) Digitally manipulated silkscreen images retain their handmade feel, showing successive views of children with varying abilities and skin tones, whose expressions reveal their absorption from the first spread: “How do you plant lettuce seeds?” Responding to the question via action, one child is shown sowing the seeds (“Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle”), another covers them with soil (“Pat, pat, pat”), and a third waters (“Now make some rain!”). Through action, the children learn to touch the insects they encounter (“gently, very gently”) and to judge a strawberry’s ripeness (“This one? Not yet. Too green”). Without picturing a single adult, Percival conveys the joy children can feel in working together, being outdoors, and eating food they’ve grown themselves—all with a fizzy immediacy. Back matter offers gardening tips and notes for adults on gardening with toddlers.”
—Publisher’s Weekly, starred review
“A great guide for growing young gardeners . . . . Eye-catching art and simple, clear text plant the seeds for a young gardener. ”— Kirkus Review
“This gentle and engaging book for very young children captures the joy of connecting with nature and making things grow together.” —The Boston Globe
Bookmark Literary 