My son went to an elementary school where they enjoyed a week of "farm" school camping, or outdoor education, every year. Each week featured hiking, sitting outside, and taking a close look (using other senses, too) at nature. As part of the program, kids wrote poems about what they observed through their senses, how it … Continue reading Animals in Surprising Shades – Perfect Picture Book Friday
A pause for Perfect Picture Book Friday while I take this week to feature Susanna Hill's Halloweensie Contest! There's still time to enter. It's all good fun! THE CONTEST: write a 100 word Halloween story appropriate for children (children here defined as 12 and under) (title not included in word count) using the words slither, treat, and scare. Your … Continue reading A (little) STEM Halloween – A Halloweensie Contest Entry
If, after viewing this cover, you're not already half in love with this book and its topic, capybaras, then there may be no hope for your soul. Text ©Mike Allegra Illustration ©Jaimie Whitbread The rainforest was alive with squeaks, squawks, grunts, growls, hisses, harrumphs, and frenetic feather-and-fur-flying fury. It was quite the rumpus. No one … Continue reading Sleepy Happy Capy Cuddles – Perfect Picture Book Friday
I'm all for personification in picture books, be they lyrical or humorous, and especially when they involve a mix of STEM and social and emotional learning (SEL) topics, like this one. Acorn was a wild little thing, pointy on one end and capped on the other. Text ©Jen Arena. Illustration ©Jessica Gibson He was the … Continue reading Acorn Was a Little Wild – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Welcome to Fall! And a new batch of book reviews, starting with this engaging interaction between grandparents and grandchild: Ada loves the stars, but she lives in the city, where the night sky is ALWAYS washed out by light, so it's a treat when she finally gets to visit her grandparents, Ama and Poobah, on … Continue reading Ada and the Galaxies – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Attention musicians! Well, really anyone who wants to be inspired by a woman who created "her own story," who didn't "wait for things to happen" to her, who "made her own opportunities." Text ©Shannon Stocker Illustration ©Devon Holzwarth Here is Evelyn, enjoying life on her family's farm in Aberdeen, Scotland. This image took me back … Continue reading Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Take a cue from Gato (and Walt Whitman): "I am large, I contain multitudes." From the cover, it's clear that Gato is a breaker of molds, a defier of norms and expectations. Text ©Winter Miller Illustration ©Danica Novgorodoff I have four legs, two ears, and a long, long tail, but the thing is... Text ©Winter … Continue reading Not a Cat: a memoir – Perfect Picture Book Friday
What do you get when you cross a woolly mammoth's memoir with facts? A creative work of expository nonfiction about the Ice Age and its crazy cast of characters. Text ©Prof. Mike Benton Illustration ©Rob Hodgson This book also includes answers to your burning questions, like Why was the Ice Age so cold? How do … Continue reading Maisie Mammoth’s Memoirs – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Enchanted Lion publishes interesting and thought-provoking books, including books in translation. The title declares that this will be a story about the sky and its varied shades/colors of light. But it feels like it's about so much more: pausing, breathing, listening, taking the time to observe our glorious world. The first image fills only a … Continue reading Every Color of Light – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Let's hear it for funny, subversive picture book writers who are women!!! Especially when they're also an author-illustrator like Elise Parsley. All Roy, the warthog, wants is to enjoy his little patch of clover. Tasty clover. Isn't that what we all want? To enjoy one sweet little treat of something we love? Something that may … Continue reading How to Catch a Clover Thief – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Jilanne Hoffmann 