Archive for the 'Picture Book Spotlight' Category
Seurat and La Grande Jatte: Connecting the Dots
by Robert Burleigh. Scott picked this up at the library and Beanie has been glued to it ever since. (When not standing nose-to-the-plastic in front of our butterfly house of horrors.) It’s a picture book about the famous Georges Seurat painting, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884 (best known to people of my generation as the painting that so affected Cameron in the best high school movie ever
).
“What do we notice first?” Burleigh asks, serving as our tour guide as we get up close and personal with the painting. He shares with us the history of La Grande Jatte and, in an engaging I-Spy-inspired manner, helps us notice every tiny detail. “How many of the following people, animals, and objects can you find?” Monkey on leash, check. Woman knitting, check. Beanie will pore over the pages for half an hour at a stretch. She knows this painting intimately now, and she will never forget it. Burleigh takes us beyond the painting into discussions of pointillism and Impressionism, of Seurat’s work process, of the use of color and light in art: discussions my older girls and I found fascinating. But for my five-year-old, the attraction of this book is in finding the treasures in the dots.
I have to make a concerted effort to read picture books to Beanie. We have entire bookcases full of good ones; I just don’t always remember to fit them into our day the way I did when her sisters were her age. Bean listens in on pretty much everything I’m reading to the older girls—I think it’s possible she is enjoying Great Expectations more than Jane is, at this point—but she deserves the chance to meet Frances the badger and Chrysanthemum the mouse every bit as much as Jane and Rose did. I just have to make a point of pulling out the books.
Today we had an overdue library book we hadn’t read yet, and I knew Scott would be making a library run later on. So I hollered for Beanie: quick, let’s read it before Daddy has to leave! We only got halfway through. And she was loving it, LOVING it. Scott said he’d try to renew it (late though it was), and sure enough, our obliging librarians let him bring it back home. Hooray. We have since read it twice more (all the way through, this time). She claims it is now her favorite book “and we need to renew it a hundred more times, Mommy.”
The book in question is Crictor
by Tomi Ungerer, the tale of an elderly French- woman who adopts a very large boa constrictor. She feeds him milk from a bottle, teaches him his ABCs, and takes him to the park to play jump rope with the children. (He serves as the rope, of course.) Her tender treatment of the enormous reptile sparks an affection and protectiveness that comes in quite handy when a burglar breaks into her apartment one night. Beanie was mesmerized by the marvel of a Giant! Snake! Who loves you! And can spell! She pored over the comical black-white-and-of-course-green illustrations, simple yet rich in detail. This is a book with charm, not complexity, which can be very appealing to a child Bean’s age.
And it reminded Beanie and Rose of a number of other books they like. We had to go hunt them up, as many as we could find. The wild-animal-houseguest-foils-robbery-attempt plotline naturally called to mind Thomas McKean’s quirky book, Hooray for Grandma Jo
, in which a nearsighted old woman mistakes an escaped zoo lion for her young nephew, Lloyd. (That’s some fur coat the boy has got!) Grandma is none too impressed with “Lloyd’s” manners—he growls and snarls and devours all the ice cream—but her ebullient nature (and a little dance music) eventually soothe his savage breast, and lady and lion are thick as thieves by the time the REAL thief breaks in. Like Crictor, Lloyd repays an old woman’s kindness with heroism. (And Grandma Jo finds her glasses in the end.)
Rose went up to look for this old favorite, but she couldn’t find it. Instead, she came back with a book I hadn’t seen before. (I still don’t know where it came from. Kind Friend Who Gave It to Us, Whoever You Are, thank you, and forgive me.) The Tiger Who Came to Tea
by Judith Kerr is as matter-of-fact about its improbable storyline as Crictor is. A girl and her mummy (this is a British book, originally published in 1968) are just sitting down to tea when there’s a knock at the door. It turns out to be a “big, furry, stripy tiger.” (Injerjects Rose: “What did you expect? Polka dots?”) Naturally, Sophie’s mother invites him to tea, and he goodnaturedly eats up everything in the house before departing with an amiable “I’d better go now.” Sophie and her parents are forced to go out to a cafe for supper, and the next day they wisely stock up on tiger food in case the beast ever returns. This is not a sophisticated book; it reads like a spur-of-the-moment bedtime story—exactly the kind of story a preschooler finds immensely reassuring and satisfying. It’s funny, farfetched, and tidy, all in one nice furry, stripy package: a stuffed-animal version of a picture book.
The drawing of Sophie’s mummy staring at the ransacked kitchen in the tiger’s aftermath reminded both my girls of—what else—If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
. This is one of those books which has become so familiar and has inspired so many spinoffs that it is sometimes easy to forget what a perfect picture book it is. Felicia Bond is one of my favorite illustrators; her drawings are so crisp and sunny. And Laura Numeroff’s text hits every note just right. I always secretly enjoy the boy’s exhaustion at the end of the book. You just know he has run his mother through the same kind of wringer a thousand times.
Once we started looking for connections between Crictor and other books, the girls were finding them everywhere. Reptile moves into city apartment: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
. Relative sends reptile as gift: Zack’s Alligator
, an I Can Read by Shirley Mozelle, about a boy whose uncle (I think; I couldn’t find it on the shelf today) send him an alligator keychain which, when soaked in water, swells into a real live alligator with a toothy grin. That book brought to mind Anne Mazer’s lyrical The Salamander Room
, a boy’s daydream of the home he’ll make for the salamander he brought home, if only mom will let him: it’s a sylvan bedroom makeover, with the sky for a roof and “moss like little green stars” for a carpet. “Is it just a dream?” Bean asked this afternoon, near the end of the book. She didn’t wait for an answer. “No, I think it’s real. Yes.” She nodded, her furrowed brow smoothing. “Yes. It’s really real.”
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More More More Said the Baby
by Vera B. Williams. In this Caldecott winner, a trio of toddlers get loved to pieces by the adults in their lives. A friend gave us this delightful picture book when Rose was born, and we literally read it to pieces. Even with the cover half gone and the pages in tatters, it’s a book that calls to us from the shelf…we can’t resist the fun of seeing these little ones get tickled, twirled, and smothered with kisses. “More, more, more!” shout the babies, and “Again!” cries Beanie. Be prepared to pounce on your own little one after you close the book: some merry wrestling or tossing in the air will be expected.
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The Maggie B
by Irene Haas. One of my favorite picture books ever. When Margaret sails away on a houseboat of her very own, she knows no adventure would be complete without her baby brother. They sail through sun and storm, and efficient Margaret whips up a sea stew so tantalizingly described you can almost smell it simmering on the page. This is a warm, merry book that celebrates the quiet joys I treasure, most especially that bond between the capable big sister and the baby she adores.
(More books with babies here.)
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This is a week for piling on my bed with a snoozing bairn in the midst of us all, and these are the books we’re in the mood for…
How a Baby Grows
by Nola Buck. This little board book has been Wonderboy’s favorite for months. “These are the things that babies do: cry, wet, sleep, and coo. These are the things a baby sees: Mommy, Daddy, window, trees.” How well he relates to the key objects and events in these babies’ lives! He loves to snuggle in my lap and talk about all the small details on the page: the butterfly, the dandelion, the Cheerios on the floor beneath the highchair. And now, suddenly, he has a whole new connection to the book, with a real live crying, wetting, sleeping, cooing baby sharing my lap with him. I bet he has brought me this book ten times a day since his baby sister came home.
Daisy Thinks She’s a Baby
by Lisa Kopper. A sweet and simple picture book about Daisy the dog’s penchant for playing baby: she likes to ride in the stroller, sleep in the crib, and sit in the highchair. Her disgruntled toddler companion does not find this amusing. But one day something changes, and Daisy can’t be a baby anymore, much to everyone’s delight. I hope your library has a copy of this charming book, which is, alas, no longer in print. The spare, repetitive text and funny colored-pencil illustrations make it a perfect choice for a toddler read-aloud, and my beginning-reader finds it just right for her emerging sounding-out skills.
101 Things to Do with a Baby
by Jan Ormerod. A friend gave us this unique book when Rose was born. It follows a young girl, perhaps five or six years old, through the course of a day with her baby brother, listing all the many things there are to do together. From sharing a bit of egg to frothing up the soap bubbles in baby’s bath, the moments chronicled here are familiar, funny, and enchantingly real. Amazing illustrations. Every time we have a baby, the big sisters around here remember how much they love this book. (They are especially fond of the daddy’s red face during a family floor-time exercise session.)
These are just a few from the pile beside my bed…I’ll share more in the days ahead. For now, I’m off to bed (early!) with the bairnie snuggled beside me. Is there anything sweeter than those little sighs newborns make in their sleep?
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Aspiring artists and picture book fans alike will enjoy Art and Soul, the blog of illustrator Janee Trasler. Right now she is sharing a behind-the-scenes look at her first book sale. Fun!
The Three Pigs
by David Wiesner, author and illustrator of the enchanting Tuesday
. In this fresh take on the old tale, the wolf’s huffing and puffing blows the pigs right out of their book. They wander among rows of storybook pages, popping in and out of selected tales and gathering friends as they go. The stunning art (no surprise, since this is Wiesner, winner of multiple Caldecott Medals, including one for this book) is filled with intriguing details that kept my younguns poring over the page.
Are You a Butterfly? by Judy Allen, illustrated by Tudor Humphries.
“Are you a butterfly? If you are, then your parents look like this.” Beanie bursts out laughing. Her parents don’t look like butterflies! This sweet, simple book takes the reader through the life cycle of a butterfly. Although this is far from new territory for my five-year-old (her oldest sister, after all, is an enthusiastic lepidopterist who has been enthusiastically indoctrinating her sisters in the wonders of butterflies for years), Beanie greatly enjoyed this fresh look at the subject. The clean, crisp, detailed artwork gave us lots to pore over, and the engaging text sparked much conversation—especially the part about the caterpillar splitting its skin.
Also in the series:
Are You A Ladybug?
Are You an Ant?
Are You a Bee?
Are You A Snail?
Are You a Spider?
Are You a Grasshopper?
…on the feast of St. Lucy.
Hanna’s Christmas
. My kids are 1/8 Swedish, which I figure qualifies us to observe the old Swedish St. Lucia day custom where the oldest daughter dresses all in white and serves sweet rolls to her parents in bed. Not that a total lack of Swedish blood would deter us from keeping this lovely tradition…over the years it has become one of the sweetest parts of our Advent celebration. All three girls dress up here, of course, raiding my drawers the night before for long white slips and such. They make construction paper candle-crowns just like the little girl in the story—without the help (much to their disappointment) of a crotchety stowaway tomten. Hanna’s Christmas is the story of a girl whose family moves from Sweden to America right before the holidays. The intensity of her homesickness is surpassed only by that of a tomten who inadvertantly stows away in a packing crate and, in his indignation and misery, causes no end of mischief in the new house (for which Hanna gets blamed, of course). The St. Lucy day tradition becomes the catalyst to a new outlook for both reluctant immigrants. This is one of my kids’ favorite Christmas books. Not that they’re biased or anything….(she says mysteriously).
Well, doggone it. I was all set to begin today with a recommendation of Kate Banks’s Peter and the Talking Shoes
, but it seems to be out of print. You can find a used copy, but that’s not so great for gift-giving, which was supposed to be the point of this series of posts. Well, track down a copy at your library for your own enjoyment. This is a really charming twist on the cumulative or round-robin tale like the old story about the old woman and the pig. Peter sets off in his new shoes to buy a loaf of bread, but he loses the money on the way to the bakery. Turns out the baker has lost the feather he uses to make his loaves light as a feather, and if Peter can replace the lost feather, the baker will give him the bread. Fortunately, Peter’s shoes used to belong to a farmer, so they know exactly where to go for a feather. But the farmer needs a button…and so it goes. Come to think of it, maybe this exactly the sort of book you ought to buy a used copy of…if your copy could talk, what marvels could it share about its previous owners?
*Note: some used copies are going for over a hundred bucks. Don’t do it! There are $3.95 copies out there too. Also, for the record, I would like to state that as a general rule I do not buy used copies of books by authors who are still living. I try to make sure those hardworking folks get the little bit of royalty they earn on the sale of a new copy. In this case, of course, this principle doesn’t apply, since the book is (stupidly) out of print. C’mon, Knopf, bring it back! And while you’re at it, I want It’s Not My Turn to Look for Grandma back in print too!
OK. Back to my list. Except I’ve spent so long ranting about out-of-print Peter this morning that my time is running out. So here’s a quick list, no commentary. (Oh just cool it on the sighs of relief!)
When Moon Fell Down
by Linda Smith. A perfect picture book. I know, I know, I said no commentary. Humph.
Little Bird and the Moon Sandwich
by Linda Berkowitz. Ooh, a moon theme, looky there. While I’m at it, then, I must certainly mention Jane Yolen’s lyrical and haunting Owl Moon
.
But back to Little Bird—OH DRAT! I just discovered that this title too is out of print! Come on! Well, so much for the “what to buy your nephews and nieces for Christmas” theme. This has become a list of library treasures. Which is not a bad thing, just not what I was intending and also it’s really disappointing to see a good book go out of print. What I was going to say about Little Bird is that there’s a sequel, but the author’s name is different. Perhaps she got married between books. Anyway, my children have all adored this gentle hide-and-seek story. 
It’s Alfonse, Where Are You?
by Linda Wikler. And (sigh) I see that it, too, is out of print. Hmm, I think these were all Dragonfly Books (a Knopf picture book imprint). I wonder if the imprint was scrapped after its editorial director moved to another publishing house. I’ll have to ask my pals at Knopf. JS, NH, are you reading?
Leaving picture books behind, here’s a beginning reader we are screamingly huge fans of: Newt
, an I Can Read by Matt Novak. If it’s out of print too I really will scream. Except then I’ll wake up the rest of the house and since the bird clock is just now orioling six, that would be a really bad idea. Here goes, let’s pop over to Amazon to check…AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH! I don’t believe it. HarperCollins, seriously, what were you thinking? Beginning readers don’t get any better than Newt. It’s of Frog and Toad
caliber, no kidding! Better art, in fact. Scott, who (with seven years of hiring and firing artists under his belt) knows a thing or two about illustrations, considers Matt Novak a storytelling genius. The expressions, the delicacy of detail so difficult to pull off in a comical, cartoonish style—and then to pair this charming art with text that manages to be both simple and nuanced at once, fresh and funny and lyrical without being heavy-handed—do you know how hard it is to pull that off? Beginning readers are reeeaaaalllly hard to write—even harder to write well—because the text is so spare, there’s no room for a single weak syllable. Well, I’ve said my piece. Snatch up a used copy of Newt while you can—too bad, small cousins, you’re getting something else for Christmas—and enjoy the gentle misadventures of this amiable salamander and the ugly bug he adopts.
Seurat and La Grande Jatte: Connecting the Dots
The book in question is Crictor
More More More Said the Baby
The Maggie B
How a Baby Grows
The Three Pigs
Are You a Butterfly? by Judy Allen, illustrated by Tudor Humphries.
. My kids are 1/8 Swedish, which I figure qualifies us to observe the old Swedish St. Lucia day custom where the oldest daughter dresses all in white and serves sweet rolls to her parents in bed. Not that a total lack of Swedish blood would deter us from keeping this lovely tradition…over the years it has become one of the sweetest parts of our Advent celebration. All three girls dress up here, of course, raiding my drawers the night before for long white slips and such. They make construction paper candle-crowns just like the little girl in the story—without the help (much to their disappointment) of a crotchety stowaway tomten. Hanna’s Christmas is the story of a girl whose family moves from Sweden to America right before the holidays. The intensity of her homesickness is surpassed only by that of a tomten who inadvertantly stows away in a packing crate and, in his indignation and misery, causes no end of mischief in the new house (for which Hanna gets blamed, of course). The St. Lucy day tradition becomes the catalyst to a new outlook for both reluctant immigrants. This is one of my kids’ favorite Christmas books. Not that they’re biased or anything….(she says mysteriously).
Well, doggone it. I was all set to begin today with a recommendation of Kate Banks’s Peter and the Talking Shoes
When Moon Fell Down
Little Bird and the Moon Sandwich
It’s Alfonse, Where Are You?
Leaving picture books behind, here’s a beginning reader we are screamingly huge fans of: Newt
