Sarabeth’s Garage
by Melanie Florence
illustrated by Nadia Alam
Tundra Books, 2026
ISBN 9781774885956 $24.99 (hc), 40 pp, ages 3 – 7
penguinrandomhouse.ca
Sarabeth loves cars of all types and enjoys helping her dad at his garage on Saturdays. Her parents are proud of her, but her grandmother does not approve. She thinks that little girls should play with dolls and have clean hands. But when grandmother’s car starts to grumble like a walrus, it is Sarabeth who steps up and fixes the problem.
Classroom Connections: This colourful picture book would make a great read-aloud for primary students and provides an opportunity to model and practise comprehension strategies: asking questions, making inferences, making connections, and making predictions. The central theme of the book—staying true to yourself in spite of society’s expectations—is well defined in both the text and the finely detailed illustrations. Sarabeth’s Garage would be a great addition to a classroom collection of books that focuses on social-emotional learning.
Review by Brenda Boreham.
This review is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Spring 2026 issue.
