Harnessing A Power

Despite the order in which they are placed, forward, backward or all jumbled up, this team of twenty-six is unbeatable.  When they go against any adversary, they will emerge victorious.  They can harbor mysteries.  They can comfort, heal and save.  They can move quickly and quietly or if necessary, they can roar like a lion.  They remain steadfast but are fluid enough to function for the well-being of multitudes.  This team of twenty-six are the letters of our alphabet.

They can work individually but function superbly in certain combinations.  Anyone can weld their power.  The Magic of Letters (Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, April 23, 2019) written by Tony Johnston with art by Wendell Minor is abracadabra!

Letters

hold

magic.

When you
know
their
secrets,
they open
worlds.

We learn at an early age to form the sound for each letter.  We say them over and over, chanting their names.  Soon we arrange them to make our name.  We say this over and over, chanting it like a miracle.

Letters can be used to represent strength.  A single word can stand for a foundation on which great things are made.  These foundations are timeless and true.

Other words made with the magic of letters describe a specific movement, a noise or the way something feels when we touch it.  Still more words make us laugh, hungry or take us into another world.  It's delightful to say them out loud.  What can we create if we connect them together?

As we use letters to build words, and then more words, and then, even more words, we can make creative and crazy and compassionate connections.  We can read creative, crazy and compassionate connections written by others.  In this the magic of letters is revealed.


There is something about the word magic which causes us to pause. Sometimes without even knowing we are doing it, we hold our breaths in anticipation.  With her first three words author Tony Johnston takes us into that pause.  Unlike many magicians, she discloses the secrets of the magic of letters. 

She walks readers through learning each letter, then using those letters to make a series of single words describing anything you can imagine but she doesn't stop there.  Her narrative continues by taking those words to complete thoughts.  She shows us how the magic works with examples.  Here is a passage.

Letters hold
surprises.
If you swinkle
them sweetly,
new words
appear---
like swinkle.


If you are familiar with the artwork of Wendell Minor (Daylight Starlight Wildlife, Wild Orca: The oldest, wisest whale in the world, or Night Train, Night Train) you realize looking at the open and matching dust jacket and book case, the illustrations for this book are stunningly different.  Yet on close examination, the line work we've come to appreciate is present.  Rendered with graphite on paper and digital tools these images take readers on a journey between imagination and reality.

To begin, a rabbit and a black top hat are synonymous with magic.  In this instance the rabbit is the magician as letters spill from the black hat and scatter.  For most of the illustrations throughout the book, the crisp white canvas used on the jacket and case is continued.  It showcases the other elements with excellence.  To the left, on the back, the spectacle-clad rabbit is taking a bow as two words form from inside the hat.  Can you guess what they are?

On the opening and closing endpapers, the vivid hue in the title text is used as the color.  On the initial title page, the rabbit, in front of the hat, is looking up and holding the letter "g".  Other letters spill off the right edge and continue to scatter, left to right, across the formal title page.  With a page turn the first two sentences are placed between the ears of the rabbit as he looks eagerly and straight at the reader.  All we see is his front paws, head and ears.  (This effect is used again beautifully.)

The picture sizes vary in tandem with the pacing and narrative; spreading across two pages, full pages or partial pages.  They are whimsical, lively and as unpredictable as magic.  The rabbit drives a huge dump trunk with words spilling out the back; words like trees, heart, art, libraries, time and diversity.  Words the author calls mighty words.  For the word quesadilla, a row of smiling vegetables and fruits, bookend a portion of this delectable food which stands in place for the letter "a" in quesadilla.

One of my many favorite illustrations spans two pages.  It's for the phrase

Giggling
words
like
flibbertigibbet.

Along the bottom of the page is a grassy expanse.  Brightly-colored tulips begin on the left, cross the gutter and grow to the right edge.  Among these on the right is a jack-in-the-box with a rising sun on the front.  A happy-go-lucky clown with arms and hands extended is smiling.  His suit and hat are red-and-white polka dotted.  The word flibbertigibbet is in shades of pink, orange and red and is written across both pages.


The Magic of Letters written by Tony Johnston with art by Wendell Minor is a celebration of letters, words they make and how we say, write and read them.  It is packed with power and energy.  This book can be used in a theme on alphabets, writing, reading or creativity.  You will certainly want a copy on your professional and personal book shelves.

To learn more about Wendell Minor and his other work, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  He devotes a page to this title showing several interior images.  Wendell Minor maintains an account on Twitter.

An Expected Arrival

The empty hummingbird feeder sways in the brisk breezes, frequent flyers having left for the year.  Milkweed pods hang on slim stems ready to burst open.  Every morning fresh deer tracks pattern my gardens; hostas, ornamental cabbages, mums, hollyhocks, hydrangeas and phlox are their urban salad bar.   High and low temperatures for any given twenty-four hour period plunged by at least fifteen degrees last week; it looks like they are staying.  In eight days it will be official.

In eight days on September 23, 2014 the autumnal equinox will arrive.  It signals a significant shift in weather forecasts, animal patterns and habitat transformations paving the way for the coldest season of the year.  Winter Is Coming (A Paula Wiseman Book, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) written by Tony Johnston with illustrations by Jim LaMarche is a remarkable ode to this resplendent interval.

It is a cold September day.
Fall is still here but ice
is in the air, I feel it.
Winter is coming.

A young girl walks through the archway entrance to her farm, heading toward the neighboring woods.  Ever so quietly she makes her way to a platform in a tree, carrying a backpack and sketchbook, ready to observe and record.  Still as a stone she listens and looks; a red fox seeks the last apple on a nearby branch.  Two bears, a mother and a cub, hunt for food nearby on another day.

Skunks, woodpeckers and rabbits search and work in preparation for winter in October.  The animals are getting ready; they know and understand.  Food is scare; nothing found is wasted.

The month of silence and silver descends.  A lynx at moonrise, scampering chipmunks, speckled fawns and a doe make an appearance on different days in November.  The stillness is shattered by honking geese; their familiar V gliding overhead.

There comes a time though when no creature comes to the special place in the forest.  The very air is filled with anticipation.  Could it be there are no more lessons to be learned among the hushed trees and fields?  Snowflakes fall on a young girl and a red fox.  Winter comes.


As she calmly sits in the presence of nature's changing seasons a girl gives voice to her perceptions.  Her spoken words, given a timeless tempo by author Tony Johnston, are as gentle, quiet and patient as she and the world around her.  It's as if we are breathing with the same rhythm she is.  Repeated words,

quiet
watching
winter is coming

add to the near silent symphony.  Interspersed among her musings are shared words of wisdom from her father and mother.  Her family is clearly in touch with nature.  Here is a portion of a passage.

I can smell them before I see them.
Not a bad smell; a real smell.
My father says
animals are true
to themselves.
Skunks are skunks.


When I opened the dusk jacket of this book, I held my breath.  Readers are warmly invited to experience everything the character enjoys with her senses.  Jim LaMarche brings us near to her as she stands next to the steps leading up to the platform in her tree.  The book case beneath is identical except for the color of winter and the author's and illustrator's names.  The silver is now bright white.  On the opening endpapers a pair of binoculars, several colored pencils, a writing pencil, a small hand-held pencil sharpener, blank paper and sketchbooks are displayed.  Filled with drawings of observed animals, paper and sketchbooks along with a single colored pencil, an eraser and a collected maple leaf are spread across the closing endpapers.

No space is wasted by Jim LaMarche; his illustrative story begins with the first page turn. Rendered in acrylics, colored pencils, and opaque inks on Arches watercolor paper all the pictures cover two pages, edge to edge.  Photographic details are softened through his use of medium.  His color palette, rich and luminous, golden yellow, rustic red, soft brown, deep green and complimentary blues and purples, is absolutely stunning.  Altered viewpoints create a rare realism; you could step into any one of the visuals.

One of my favorite illustrations is on the day no animals come.  LaMarche shows the girl seated on the platform, her back to us, looking into the woods.  She is wearing her purple scarf and hat with her rosy coat.  Her backpack is hanging on a broken tree branch.  The pair of binoculars, a thermos, two sketchbooks and several pencils are on either side of her.  The overall color is of a cold, misty morning near the end of autumn.  A few reddish leaves remain on the boughs; others have fallen to the forest floor and the platform.


Run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore, to get your personal and a classroom copy of Winter Is Coming written by Tony Johnston with illustrations by Jim LaMarche.  It's an eloquent portrait of autumn moving into winter.  This title will certainly be placed on my Mock Caldecott list.