I will go out on a limb and say that if you read only one picture book this year, it should be this one. Okay, the limb is creaking because there are so many wonderful picture books, but this one should truly be at the top of your list. Watercress is about memory. It's about … Continue reading Watercress – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Have your tissues ready.....but, spoiler alert! The old dog doesn't die. This is not a book about grief. Instead, what we get is an ode to a tiny human breathing life into an old dog. They wander through the world, a world filled with slow delights and ample time to appreciate them. Stopping and smelling … Continue reading This Old Dog – Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF
Once a farm girl, always a farm girl. So it's especially lovely to go back to my roots via the prose of the fabulous Patricia MacLachlan. The hundred-year barn was built one summer in our meadow with a small stream running through. It was built by townspeople: fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, grandmothers and … Continue reading The Hundred-Year Barn – Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF
Although Mitali Perkins has won many awards for her middle grade and YA novels, Between Us and Abuela is her first picture book. And what a debut! She enters the illustrated world with a heart-stopping story about a family separated by more than distance. Abuela lives in Mexico, and her daughter and grandchildren, María and … Continue reading Between Us and Abuela – Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF
I confess, I fell in love with an "ancient" picture book from 2003. And for good reason: it's dry, understated humor. And its fah-bu-lous illustrations. I'll tell you right up front. Andy Warhol's brother was a junk man. Such fertile ground for creativity! "Looking back on those days, the one thing I remember most is … Continue reading Uncle Andy’s – Perfect Picture Book Friday
I'd like to introduce you to the Kallin family, my husband's cousins who live in rural Maine. The father (trail name: All In) is an environmental lawyer and their mother (trail name: Mama Bear) is a biologist and farmer extraordinaire. They pulled their two kids, ages 7 (trail name: Cartwheel) and 9 (trail name: Robin … Continue reading Moby Dick, Robert Frost, and Einstein on the Appalachian Trail
Jilanne Hoffmann 