Striding Through

There was once a girl who loved to study the weather and make predictions. (She still does.) She was also terrified of storms.  She understood the power they unleashed.  Whenever the sky would darken, panic coursed through her body.  She was well into her middle years before she faced her fear.  By replacing this raw worry with respect, it made her stronger.

Today our climate and our weather are changing globally, creating frightening phenomena. These phenomena leave devasting results in their wake.  Children are rightfully concerned.  I Am The Storm (RISE Penguin Workshop, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, October 27, 2020) by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple with illustrations by Kristen Howdeshell and Kevin Howdeshell explores extremes in weather and our responses as families and communities.  

When the wind howled and blew,

loud as a train, . . .

During a tornado, a family with their grandmother seeks shelter in their basement.  Flashlights cast their glow on games played and books read.  When the wind calms, the daughter, after helping with clean-up, swirls around the yard, doing her own dance like a tornado.

A blizzard and a power outage provide the opportunity for food to be cooked over a fire built for warmth.  A wildfire chases a family to a nearby lake for safety.  They enjoy their natural surroundings.  Back at home, gathered flowers are given to community members hard at work cleaning and clearing.

During a hurricane, wind and water combine to create multiple dangers.  Families leave, locating higher ground and protecting themselves by moving inland.  After the hurricane passes, damage assessments are made at residences.

Readers are reminded fear is as natural as the perils they face.  It is essential for them to realize, they too have forces within themselves.  Each child is compared to the event they experience.  They understand their abilities and the range of those abilities.  This is power.

For each phenomenon, four, authors Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple supply readers with a repetitive cadence, a group of three.  It's an invitation for readers, welcoming them into the narrative.  This leads us to the strong connected conclusion.  The authors also provide vivid descriptions of each of the three portions of the four events.  These portrayals give us firsthand insights.  Here is a passage.

When the ice and snow fell,

sparkling like fairy dust on the windows,

and all the lights went out,

we made a fire

and cooked hot dogs and marshmallows.

The storm on the prairie showcased on the front, right, of the open dust jacket crosses the spine and extends to the far left on the back.  It is a dramatic depiction of dark purple and black swirls complementing the golden oranges and yellows of the countryside.  Another building on the farm, is placed on the back with a third in the far distance.  The remoteness and flatness of the plains is represented beautifully.

On the book case a hue of purple shown on the dust jacket covers both the front and the back.  White, streaking drops of rain slant slightly to the right, from the top to the bottom.  We are in the storm.  

The opening and closing endpapers are a marbleized blend of teal and yellow.  On the second set a single bird flies toward the right edge.  The bird carrying a small branch signifies the final words of the book.

The art is sketched in pencil and the finishes are rendered in Photoshop with a Wacom tablet 

by illustrators Kristen Howdeshell and Kevin Howdeshell.  The initial title page is a continuous of the canvas seen on the endpapers.  Above and below the text are branches similar to the one carried by the bird.  On the formal verso and title pages, we are in the thick of the storm.

Each page turn reveals a stunning double-page picture.  We move flawlessly from the event, to the family, and to the land and people after the tornado, blizzard, wildfire, and hurricane.  As the narrative directs us to resolutions and empowering words, the elements in each illustration reflect those changes.  The color palette shifts with the incident, season and place in which it happens.  A diverse group of people are shown in each setting.  These images connect us in a very real way to those people.  Each one is an eloquently captured moment.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is after the first storm.  We have come closer to the farmhouse shown on the front, right, of the dust jacket.  The sky is cream-colored with a rising red sun between the home and red truck.  One of the trees is toppled from the storm.  An adult is mending the fence to the right of the truck.  These portions of the scene are on the left side and to the back.  In the foreground on the right side a bird perches on the top of a fence post.  Other pieces of the fence lay on the ground.  The little girl, wearing a red dress, tights, and cowboy boots is spinning around with her arms spread out.  Her hair moves up and out.  There is a special warmth in this illustration, it is one of celebration.

This book, I Am The Storm written by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple with illustrations by Kristen Howdeshell and Kevin Howdeshell, is an important book.  It tells readers they can survive and be strong as they face their fears.  It offers courage and peace.  At the close of the book further information in the form of four paragraphs is provided about tornadoes, blizzards, wildfires, and hurricanes.  I highly recommend this title for both your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Jane Yolen, Heidi E. Y. Stemple, Kristen Howdeshell, and Kevin Howdeshell, please follow the link attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Jane Yolen has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Heidi E. Y. Stemple has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Kristen Howdeshell and Kevin Howdeshell share an account on Instagram and two accounts on Twitter (Twitter.)  At the publisher's website you can view the initial title page.

Below Where We Go

Below where we go, things grow.  Below where we go, other objects move and go.  Below where we go, there are things for us to know.  Let's search.  Let's seek.  Come along and take a peek.

There is much to investigate above the planet's surface but take away mere inches or dig down miles; secrets are revealed, seeds and roots send signals, animals of all sizes build and burrow, manmade transportation travels, and portions of the earth flow, shift and shake.  Thunder Underground (Wordsong, an imprint of Highlights, March 28, 2017) poems by Jane Yolen with illustrations by Josee Masse welcomes readers to wonder about that which is not readily seen, heard, tasted, touched or smelled.  Whether read silently or aloud these twenty-one poems take us on a joyous journey of discovery.

UNDER
---ground
Beneath our feet,
a world apart,
is found our Earth's
fast-beating heart.  ...

In this first poem we pay tribute to the life-giving forces underground.  We are also asked to gather wise words creating a foundation for us to expand our understanding.  Basements are a good place to start; sending electricity and heat to our homes and storing food and memories.

Did you know scientists have heard corn converse?  Perhaps they are talking about the noise made by beetles wishing they were as quiet as ants.  Maybe they are marveling about the earthworm casseroles made by the moles.

Stepping into cities and down the stairs to subways, we speed from place to place.  Other dark corridors here hold mechanical parts which keep the body of the city breathing.  From here we venture back to the countryside to contemplate Three Things I Know About The Roots Of Trees.

If we move dirt, we'll make holes into history; lost cities, lost treasures, lost species.  Time covered them for us to find.  Our Earth never sleeps; hot to the core, waiting for the next event.  What will it make for us to explore?


For decades her work has been a huge part of my reading life; picture, middle grade and adult books.  Her words, carefully chosen, never stay on the page but come out to surround you, pushing aside the here and now and forming a new world.  Jane Yolen uses language like a potter does clay.  She is a master.  In this title each poem stands alone but is also a part of the collective whole.

She creates beats with rhymes on every other line, she makes word lists like links in the strongest poetic chain, she fashions metaphors, and she composes onomatopoeia and alliteration.  She presents the world to us through a different lens.  Here are two portions of two poems.

OH, TO BE AN ANT
...
Their mega-city
cambered, chambered,
tied by endless highways,
byways made by workers,
hauling dirt four times
their weight.
Not architected by one will,
but thousands working,
                never
                        still. 

SUBWAY
I like the sound the subway makes
deep in its underground den.
I like the growling as it goes
from street to street,
               and then
I like the squeals its iron wheels
make coming 'round again. ...


Charming is a word which comes to mind when first looking at the opened matching dust jacket and book case.  The underground scene stretches over the spine to the far left with a fox hidden in foliage watching the children.  I already know what younger readers will do when they see the rabbits snug and cozy in their warren.  The color in the boy's pants and the girl's dress is the hue used on the opening and closing endpapers.

Rendered in mixed media Josee Masse continues her under and above ground portrayals on the title page featuring a mother fox above two pups nestled but lively below her.  With a page turn the level of the ground continues to the verso and contents pages.  Ants still crawl along the top edge and bones and stones litter the layers of dirt.  A shovel rests against the base of a hole which holds the text for the contents.  On the far right at the top, the mother fox pushes dirt into the hole with a back paw.

Josee Masse enhances the words of Jane Yolen with her attention to detail and visual storytelling skills.  Readers will enjoy watching the girl and boy as they first gather items in the basement to use in their explorations.  With every poem, stop they make, they learn and gather more.  Sometimes we are given a larger view of where they go or we move in closely with them absent from the scene as in the case of the beetles, ant and earthworm poems.  We only know they are there from the flashlight shining above one of the ant hills.  It's fun to look for them and their companions in each picture.  All of the images span two pages.

One of my favorite of several illustrations highlights two mole poems.  Half of the image shows tunnels underground housing stashes of worms with three moles moving about and babies curled in a little hole.  Off to the right a mother rabbit sleeps with two little ones.  Above ground on the left the boy is reaching down to touch one of the mole's noses with his finger.  On the far right we see the girl's red boots, legs and part of her skirt.  A little rabbit is looking up at her.  Plants and grass are growing along with top with roots reaching into the ground.  A page turn reveals how Masse continues this scenario.


Readers will be actively engaged in the poems and illustrations found in Thunder Underground written by Jane Yolen with illustrations by Josee Masse.  Creativity abounds as we venture under the ground.  At the conclusion of the book, Jane Yolen includes Notes On The Poems: Both Scientific And Personal.  You will want to add this title to your personal and professional bookshelves.  It's guaranteed to promote further research and poetic writing.

To learn more about both Jane Yolen and Josee Masse please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  You can find more information about Josee Masse here.  Jane Yolen is interviewed at Reading Rockets.

Cardboard Capers

Children and children at heart go hand in hand with boxes.  When they look at one they see more than a container, they see endless potential.  To them it's more valuable empty than full, despite the worth of possible contents.

Almost six months ago nearly everything I owned was placed into a box.  The unpacking to this day continues.  Load after load of cardboard has been taken to recycling.  Each time the tape is removed and the box is folded for ease of transport, a part of me says no.  This can certainly be used for something else.

Depending on the size and shape and with a shift in perspective and a pinch of creativity something simple can become something marvelous.  What To Do With A Box (Creative Editions, an imprint of The Creative Company, March 8, 2016) written by Jane Yolen with illustrations by Chris Sheban is an exploration of inventiveness.  It's time to imagine.

A BOX!  A BOX
IS A STRANGE 
DEVICE.

You can open it more than once.  If you seek shelter inside with something to read, it's lined with shelves.  It's a book nook within a larger whole.  If you're more than a little wealthy, possibly royalty, it's a lavish residence.

Quick!  With the right lock and key a safe haven can be accessed in the nick of time.  Hosting a time honored tradition with a bevy of beloved friends may be your preference.  Resting at the seashore and creating a flying feathered friend are all welcome wonders within the confines of a box.

If you crave the peace of a woodland glen and a gentle breeze, this can be done with ease.  If you have a need for speed, start your engines.  If you long to gaze upward at the Eiffel Tower, host your sails.

A box is where dreams can come true.  No wand is necessary to call forth enchantment.  You only need an open mind; one willing to think "outside the box."


Two words and an exclamation point reflect most people's thoughts when seeing a box.  Jane Yolen brings us together in a universally shared emotion.  Her rhyming lines come in threes, a pair or a single sentence.  It's all about placement, pacing and the use of parentheses. Here is another single sentence.  What you do think will follow?

YOU CAN PAINT
A LANDSCAPE
WITH SUN,
SAND,
AND SKY,  ...


Even though the front and back of the dust jacket are two separate images, they blend well across the spine. We are introduced to the three main characters, a boy and a girl and their dog, as they peek through the opening in a newly discovered box.  Their expressions already give hints as to their personalities.  To the left, on the back, the dog, as dogs will do, is carefully sniffing the box.  The ISBN has been strategically placed as part of the box.  The book case is a brilliant blend of two interior visuals and a third piece of a box.

A deep rich chocolate brown is used for the opening and closing endpapers perhaps to signify the interior of a closed box.  The text for the title page, verso and opening narrative page is placed on faded pieces of a box.  The first illustration is identical to that placed on the back of the dust jacket.

The layout, design and illustrations by Chris Sheban are fabulously fun.  He has rendered all the elements of his images on cardboard pieces filling each picture with texture.  You can almost smell the cardboard.  His pictures glow from a light color, perhaps white, used to highlight many of the items in his images.

Hints of humor appear in many of his illustrations.  When the girl opens the box lowering the flap, the dog is nearly covered.  He is peeking out, head and flat paws together.  As the boy rests, using a beach ball as a pillow, within the box, the girl, her head barely visible, is pouring either milk or white paint from a glass on top of him.

Sheban alters his perspective bringing us along to reside with the characters inside the box or stepping back, allowing us to see a grander view.  His illustrations sing with life; three boxes race along a track and the dog's ears flap in the wind as a box soars past clouds.  An ingenious conclusion; a fixed reality will leave readers smiling and reaching for the nearest box.

One of my many favorite images spans across two pages.  On the left is a box piece bearing only the two word text.  To the right on a continuation of the cardboard, Sheban has drawn a scene from the girl's bedroom at night.  She and the dog are cozily sitting inside the box, looking outside the window at a star studded sky.  Next to them is a small table with a lamp on top.  I can't think of a better way to end a day.

What To Do With A Box written by Jane Yolen with illustrations by Chris Sheban is a delightful rhythmic look at the blend of play and imagination.  I predict you won't even get to the end of the book before children will be calling out to you all the things they've done with boxes.  Wouldn't it be fun to have some handy to extend the story time?  And adults...release your inner child...you know you want to.

To learn more about Jane Yolen and Chris Sheban please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  If you go to The Creative Company website you can view interior pages.  Chris Sheban has illustrated many book covers.  I think you will find this interview at James Preller's site, An Interview with Chris Sheban: Illustrating Book Covers, from Rough Sketch to Final, very interesting.


You might want to pair this title with The Cardboard Box Book ( St. Martin's Press, LLC, July 15, 2014) by Roger Priddy and Sarah Powell, illustrations by Barbi Sido, crafts designed and made by Bethany Side and photography by Dan Pangbourne.  There are seventeen different creative projects along with an introduction, items needed and suggestions of what to look for in boxes.  At the end of the book is a large envelope filled with templates.  You can view eight interior illustrations at the publisher's website.

A Place To Rest

When the leaves fell from the trees, there it was.  It's no bigger than the size of a golf ball.  Through the cold, rain, thunder, lightning, sleet, snow and wind, it has endured.  It's so secure; you can almost imagine it as a part of the branches which hold it.

Out of habit, I look every single day to make sure it's still there, wondering about the parents who crafted it so well.  I think of other questions.  What kind of birds lived there?  Did all the babies fly away?  Will any of the birds come back?  You Nest Here With Me (Boyd Mills Press, an imprint of Highlights, March 3, 2015) written by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple with illustrations by Melissa Sweet is a soothing lullaby of birds and their homes.

My little nestling, time for bed.
Climb inside, you sleepyhead.

A mother snuggles next to her daughter, telling her their nest is wherever

there's you and me.

She reads to her the same story we hold in our hands.  She speaks of pigeons and catbirds living in the city, finding a space to rest on buildings or in shrubs.  Near the edge of water, small wrens weave a refuge.

In the tip-top of firs in a forest or among towering cliffs along the sea, birds safeguard their young.  Tree trunk hollows and below ground burrows are homes.  Even telephone poles provide a place to reside.

Hidden among the cattails, coots are secure.  Nestled among branches, sparrows prefer to be high and dry.  Attached to human structures, swallows shape shelters.  Sunken in sand near the water's edge, plovers place their eggs.

Eagles soar, cowbirds give up and killdeer pretend to protect.  As surely as nests are made up or down, on, in or around the best location by those winged wonders, this mother assures her child of a secure sanctuary.  This nest is her place to grow and rest.


If you seek slumber, the words of Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple are certain to supply peace.  When read aloud, they create a form of music, light and gentle.  The rhymes glide like feathers on the wind.

After each bird and their nesting place are introduced, the same refrain follows.

But you nest here with me.  

Those words hug us, surrounding the reader and listener with affection.  Here is a sample passage.

Some owls nest in oak tree boles,
Some down in abandoned holes,
Hawks may nest on telephone poles,
But you nest here with me.


As soon as I saw the front of the matching dust jacket and book case, without reading the fine print, I knew whose name I would see as illustrator.  The attention given to the smallest detail, the layering of mixed media, the use of authentic and appropriate materials, watercolor and gouache all point to the skill of Melissa Sweet.  The letters of the title made of wood pieces, a nest woven of branches, grass, and leaves framing the sleeping child holding her toy owl and the mother watching her nestlings in their nest placed on a night-sky blue background are her signature style.  To the left, on the back, a single enlarged leaf is placed on the same canvas.  On the opening and closing endpapers, the predominant green on that leaf covers them both.

A two page illustration, worthy of framing, holds the title page information.  On the left a hole in a birch tree holds a tiny bird.  Watching, the mother, a nuthatch, is perched on a branch which extends from the right edge almost to the tree.  Between this branch and a cluster of leaves at the top of the right page is the title text made with twigs.

Although our eyes are initially drawn to the focus of the image, when we look a second time all the smallest elements blend to make a superb picture.  In the child's room drawings of birds hang on the walls.  Outside her window we see birds flying, and a variety of them eating at a feeder.

All the birds and their nests are portrayed realistically.  Each habitat features other flora and fauna appropriate to the area.  Sweet chooses to alter her illustration size from single pages to double pages to enhance the pacing.  To tie the jacket and case to the interior, the central items, the large leaf and nest, are used to splendid effect in the final pages.

One of my favorite of several illustrations is a single page featuring swallows.  The mother has adhered the nest to a beam in a barn.  Five babies are peeking over the top as she looks inside at them.  Beneath this piece of wood is a window.  Outside we see a dog at rest gazing toward a flock of sheep in a pasture.  A garden is growing in front of the field near the home.  These perspectives by Sweet are tranquil and true.

I can't think of a better bedtime story which flawlessly illuminates readers and listeners about birds and their nests than You Nest Here With Me written by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple with illustrations by Melissa Sweet. Reading this book is like wrapping yourself in a cozy comforter.  You will want to add this title to your personal and professional collections.  At the close of the book is a column on the left side of two pages for an Author's Note.  Further details about the fourteen birds highlighted in the narrative appear to the right.  There are four extra pieces of information about each.

Please visit the websites of the authors and illustrator by following the links attached to their names.  They are as individual and interesting as the people themselves.  Author illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi featured Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple on her blog Inkygirl.com with lengthy three question interviews.

Under The Spell

What compels people to read fairy tales?  What brings us back to them again and again?  What makes us search out new variations?

 In response to a question Albert Einstein stated If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.  If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.  C. S. Lewis thought sometimes fairy stories say best what needs to be said. One of my favorite phrases, attributed to G. K. Chesterton, though is Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.

No matter the age of the reader or listener, fairy tales fulfill a need deep within for the connection provided by storytelling with beginnings in the oral tradition.  They provide potent possibilities for digging deeper into the personalities of the characters, changing point of view, and expanding or altering the narrative itself.  Authors Jane Yolen and Rebecca Kai Dotlich explore these ideas in Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy-Tale Voices with a Twist (WordSong, an imprint of Highlights, March 1, 2013) with artwork by Matt Mahurin.

Once
Once, oh once, there was, was not,
A girl, princess, mermaid, widow, witch, queen, wife,
A boy, king, soldier, wizard, troll, giant,
Magic
      Life. ...

With those compelling words Jane Yolen casts a net of magic over readers bringing them into a collection of poetry.  Fifteen fairy tales, two poems for each, one written by Yolen, the other by Dotlich.

A disgruntled fairy bemoans a single kiss as a voice demands the princess to snap out of it and take control, even as they are snacking on sweet treats, Gretel and Hansel know fear and false bravado, and with love strong for the Beast and the boy, musings made in the future wonder about the joys of parenthood.  Would the Gingerbread Boy have left knowing how heartbroken his makers would be?  Not surprisingly, glass slippers are not all they're cracked up to be.

Frazzled by his position the pea speaks out after years of silence.  It's a good thing sticks and stones break bones and not names because the Princess is not kind to the Frog.  It's about time Goldilocks writes an apology letter but she still is clueless about the real homeowners. On the closing page, the net still surrounding us, we read in part, Rebecca Kai Dotlich's advice, her wish,

Happily Ever After
Imagine them all
after the plotting, after the ball,
after the spelling, hopping, sweeping,
grumping, grousing, mopping, sleeping,
from small glass shoe to nuisance pea, 
so ever after, all happily be--- ...



Jane Yolen and Rebecca Kai Dotlich using words like pixie dust weave spells over readers stretching our thinking about what we believe we know about these fifteen fairy tales.  A poetic variety, free verse, couplets, cinquain, and haiku, brings us into the rhythm of the realm with and without rhyme.  As individual as the writers themselves, the poems still maintain the essence of each story plus a little more.


A golden doorway beckons readers through the darkened forest, as hints of tales told are tucked among the trees or scattered along the path on the jacket and cover; a frightened Frog Prince thrown and flying is pictured on the back.  Paintings by Matt Mahurin each covering a full two pages add dimension to the poems with shifting shades, light, then dark, then back again to light, mirroring the mood of all.  Altering perspective adds an extra effect to the illustrations; a wintry landscape with roses blooming, Beast embracing Beauty, the side of a face, mouth gaping, Gingerbread Boy balanced precariously on the teeth or the Woodsman's axe prying open the huge wolf's jaws as Red Riding Hood reaches in for her Grandmother.

Details further define the views of the voices; a broken bed, the two pieces on opposite pages of Sleeping Beauty's tale, the sly, grotesque features on the Witch's face as she stirs the pot in contrast to the innocent wholesomeness of Hansel and Gretel as they reach for the candies and one of the Bear's lifting a sleeping mask from Goldilocks face revealing an open eye.  The layout, placement of the poems, does not distract, being framed by the visuals inviting, always inviting, the reader.  One of my favorites is for Rumpelstiltskin.  A darkened background highlights his cunning face and upper body as straw from his outstretched left hand arcs over his head changing to gold coins piling into his right hand.  Directly above his head and the arc is a sleeping infant.


Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy-Tale Voices with a Twist written by Jane Yolen and Rebecca Kai Dotlich with illustrations by Matt Mahurin not only opens new doors into familiar stories but challenges readers to always look beyond the known. As an introduction to fairy tales or a reminder of the opportunities they present, this collection of poems is a welcome chorus.  Having read these over and over, silently and aloud, their magic is of the kind that lingers.

Between the last set of poems and concluding poem, two pages list the fifteen fairy tales adding a few sentences about their origin and basic storyline along with several websites with more information.  As part of the title verso which poems written by each author are designated. Please follow the links to the websites for the authors and illustrator embedded in their names above.