I missed seeing this book in 2021, so I'm here to give it some love right now. The end papers show the "before time." Illustration ©Harry Woodgate And then the first spread returns us to the present. Text/Illustration ©Harry Woodgate A child visits a grandparent who's lost his spouse. The child and grandparent play and … Continue reading Grandad’s Camper – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Mirelle Ortega, one of our featured authors at Kidquake this year, is also an illustrator whose debut picture book mirrors its title. It's magic! Let me tell you about the place I'm from, a faraway land brimming with magia. Powerful magic that twists and turns and touches everything around you. Text/Illustration ©Mirelle Ortega With those … Continue reading Magic: Once Upon a Faraway Land – Perfect Picture Book Friday
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
Occasionally, I read a picture book that makes me wonder how so few words can contain such depth. The answer is often a pesky critter that taps at a dark window, only to disappear when I turn to look. One thing I've noticed is that these kinds of picture books usually come from an author … Continue reading My Bison – Perfect Picture Book Friday
I was leafing through a pile of picture books (imagine that!), and found this gem. Daniel Minter's acrylic wash illustrations are vibrant and luminous in this 2019 Caldecott Honor book. They make me feel like I am peering through the translucent glass of time at a memory. Pure magic. On reunion morning, we rise before … Continue reading Going Down Home With Daddy – 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
Sometimes a book shows up in my hold stack, and I can't remember where I heard about it. But I'm always grateful for the surprise. The book that arrived, NOBODY HUGS A CACTUS, took me down memory lane, and my university years in Tucson, Arizona, where I earned a degree in Industrial Engineering. It took … Continue reading Nobody Hugs a Cactus – Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF
Is there a house, a house somewhere in your memory, that you recall as being haunted? One off a dirt road that wound through the woods? One where the windows may or may not have been broken by a stray stone? The roof sagging, but still intact? Did you find this house in the woods … Continue reading a house that once was – Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF
First, I've got to show you where a spent a few hours this past week during spring break in Los Angeles. Yes, it's THE LAST BOOKSTORE housed in an old bank in downtown LA! And what did I find in THE LAST BOOKSTORE? Well, an unusual picture book written by Swedish author, Martin Widmark. The … Continue reading THE LAST BOOKSTORE + The House of Lost and Found – Perfect Picture Book Friday
It's official! I'll be performing at the Listen to Your Mother show in San Francisco on May 6th! I had submitted a humorous essay last year but was too ill to audition for the show after the piece was selected. Not content to submit the same piece this year, I wrote a new 800-word essay … Continue reading Listen to Your Mother – San Francisco
Jilanne Hoffmann 