Anyone out there know/have children who dig in their heels at the thought of interrupting their day with a nap? This book should become part of your persuasive repertoire: Notice the front end paper: the wail that continues across the title page (not shown) and on to the first spread: Annalise Devine McFleece did not … Continue reading No More Naps! – Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF
When you can't sleep at night, do you lie awake in the dark, wondering what kind of equation would describe the rotation of a wobbling top? If your answer is yes, you're in good company. Meet Sophie Kowalevski, a Russian mathematician born in 1850, who spent years pondering this question. But because she was a … Continue reading Numbers in Motion: Sophie Kowalevski, Queen of Mathematics #PPBF
As school winds down during spring's last gasp, children everywhere are looking forward to the long, lazy days of summer. But not just the days, the crepuscular hour that signals day's end. For many, it's the time to get outside after the heat of the day (sorry, San Francisco kids, summer is really winter, here) … Continue reading Dusk Explorers – Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF
When Shannon Bramer began work as a lunchroom supervisor in a kindergarten classroom in Toronto, her job unexpectedly flowered into sharing her passion for writing poetry "during the tiny window of time they had before going outside." She introduced children to the work of many writers, including Gwendolyn Brooks, Emily Dickinson, Frederico García Lorca, Dennis … Continue reading Climbing Shadows – Perfect Picture Book Friday – #PPBF
The folks at Wordsong, an imprint of Highlights, remain at the forefront of picture book poetry. Take this fabulous bedtime book by Laura Purdie Salas, for example: What do toys, boring old kleenexes, clothing, overdue books, toothpaste, toilets, pencils, kitchen utensils, foods, and yard implements do while you're asleep? These poems provide answers: toys stage … Continue reading Middle of the Night – Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF
Two weeks into self-isolation, and I'm appreciating my daily outing to walk the dog. The sun, the wind, the bird calls, all serve to lift my spirits. So for my last selection for Women's History Month, I'm giving a nod to Mother Earth, our greatest female icon, by featuring Patricia MacLachlan's stunning new ode to … Continue reading My Friend Earth – 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
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
Instead of chocolate, I'm nibbling a piece of cheese for Susanna Leonard Hill's Perfect Picture Book Friday. But it's not my cheese because "RAT LAW says that if you're a rat, cheese belongs to you." Unless— "a BIG rat wants it. Then cheese belongs to him. Unless a BIGGER rate wants it. Then cheese … Continue reading Cheese Belongs to You! — Perfect Picture Book Friday
Jilanne Hoffmann 