We Must Care

 If it were not for the reminder tweets by founding educators Cathy Mere and Mandy Robek, I might have been rushing to get my list ready in time for the annual event of Picture Book Ten For Ten.  Each year readers gather ten (or more) picture books they feel best define a theme.  In 2020 we will be adding links to Mandy Robek's blog.  You can access her blog by following the link embedded in her name. 

 Over the course of my participation in this celebration I've centered on themes of the alphabet, dogs, counting and number books, bedtime, sleep and sweet dreams, robots as main characters, friendship, and bees.  Last year my focus was on books featuring grandmothers and grandfathers.  Links to all the previous posts are in last year's post.

Prior to this writing I had another theme chosen, but the news this week about a portion of the Milne Ice Shelf, in Ellesmere Island, Canada falling away due to climate change makes the peril our planet is facing even more pressing.  The size of the lost ice was greater than that of Manhattan in New York City.  I have chosen titles reflecting ways to protect, preserve, and appreciate our Earth.  They are listed in order of publication date, and then alphabetical by title.  You can find more about each title by following the link attached to it.

1. It began in the most populated city on the continent of Australia thirteen years ago.  It was a single event lasting sixty minutes.  It was an act of faith in people and hope for our planet by its organizers. One year later countries on all seven continents participated.  By 2009 it broke

all records of mass participation, becoming the world's largest grassroots movement for the environment.

This year, 2020, Earth Hour will be celebrated on March 28th, 8:30 PM local time, wherever you live.  Debut picture book author Nanette Heffernan and debut picture book illustrator Bao Luu collaborate to bring readers Earth Hour: A Lights-Out Event for Our Planet (Charlesbridge, January 21, 2020).  It reflects the use of energy in places around the world, the Earth Hour event and how each individual can contribute to the conservation of energy not only on this one day, but on every day of the year.

All over the world, millions of people use energy, every day, every night.

2.  From the sun she is third, sustaining life for all.  For this she is to be cherished.  My Friend Earth (Chronicle Books, February 25, 2020) written by Patricia MacLachlan with illustrations by Francesca Sanna is a love letter to our planet.  The text and images, with flaps and die-cuts, work in marvelous unity.

My friend Earth wakes
from a winter nap.

3. On March 3, 2020 another book was released with a focus on our Blue Planet.  One EARTH (Worthy Kids) written by Eileen Spinelli with illustrations by Rogerio Coelho is a special counting book.  In a rhyming poetic intonation with sweeping cheerful images readers are reminded of the spectacular beauty of our home and how we can honor her.

One wide, sweeping sky.

Two honeybees. 

4.  With millions and millions of people around the world currently confined to their homes under a quarantine or because of isolation, the appeal of the outdoor world and being a part of it has more allure than ever.  Why is it we don't fully appreciate the value of something until it's no longer readily available?  During this time some will be able to go solo in parks or designated walkways or neighborhoods, some will dream of days when nature will envelope them again, others will recall countless adventures in the outdoors, and many can travel within the pages of a book.  HIKE (Candlewick Press, March 17, 2020) conceived and illustrated by Pete Oswald is a nearly wordless trek into the best nature has to offer.  

5.  Having lived near many different small lakes and rivers or one of the Great Lakes in Michigan for more than sixty-eight years, I have witnessed their splendor and their challenges due to the careless hands of humans.  We Are Water Protectors (Roaring Brook Press, March 17, 2020) written by Carole Lindstrom (Anishinaabe/Metis and tribally enrolled with the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe) with illustrations by Michaela Goade (of Tlingit descent and tribally enrolled with the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska) is powerful in both words and artwork.  It speaks to the fierce dedication of Indigenous Peoples to guard our water and invites everyone to stand strong against those who wish to do it harm.

Water is the first medicine, Nokomis told me.

6. From a true story comes The Bear's Garden (Imprint, a part of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC, March 24, 2020) written by Marcie Colleen with illustrations by Alison Oliver.  Through the imagination of a child a dream takes shape.  Through an accident and efforts of many, this dream becomes a reality.

IN THE BIG, BUSTLING CITY, all the people were busy. 

7. Although in northern Michigan at the moment snow is swirling in high winds, for months collective minds here and in other parts of the world have been turning to gardening. Seeds and soil have been gathered.  On warmer days, walks have revealed shoots from bulbs pushing through the dirt and perennials are starting to turn green as buds get larger.  In My Garden (Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, March 24, 2020) written by the late Charlotte Zolotow (1915-2013) with illustrations by Philip Stead is a journey through the seasons.  It is a shared trip through time and the offerings Nature bestows on all of us if we choose to notice.

IN THE SPRING what I love best in my garden

are the birds building nests. 

  

8.  In his newest brilliant artistic entry in children literature, author illustrator Henry Cole does not disappoint.  The conception and illustration of One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey (Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., April 7, 2020) is a wordless display of transformation.  It is a loving tribute to people, their lives and their love of each other and our Earth.

Prior to the title page, Henry Cole in a series of framed single-page pictures, horizontal and vertical panels and two large double-page pictures, takes us through the process of making paper from logged timber to large rolls of paper to the delivery of boxes of paper bags and to the use of a single bag at a small community market. We follow one particular tree through the use of spot color as it makes its way from the forest, to a logging truck, to the paper mill, the processes at the mill, and the packing of one paper bag among hundreds in a box.  The final two-page image before the title page is an amazing display of the interior of a small grocery store highly stocked with all kinds of items.  People walk on wooden floors with carts laden with their groceries.  At the counter is a boy and his father and the brown-colored paper bag.

9.  When we venture into the outdoors, whether at a national or state park or designated forest, we are temporarily residents with the wild.  There are detriments to this adventure but the advantages, even brief moments, can last a lifetime.  The Camping Trip (Candlewick Press, April 14, 2020) written and illustrated by Jennifer K. Mann shadows Ernestine as she goes camping for the first time. It's an experience she and readers will long remember.

MY AUNT JACKIE invited me to go camping with her and my cousin Samantha this weekend, and my dad said yes!

10.  Our rewards from Nature are proportionate to the attention we give it.  The more we look, the more we see.  Every detail is a delightful discovery.

In her newest release, A New Green Day (Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, April 14, 2020), Antoinette Portis asks us to think about alternate descriptions for that which is familiar.  Through her words and illustrations, magic happens.

"Morning lays me on your pillow, an invitation, square and warm.

Come out and play!"

Who is speaking in these first two sentences?  With a page turn we realize we have been welcomed to participate in a guessing game with elements found in Nature.  Sunlight is talking first.

10 +1.  Never has it been more apparent than the beginning of 2020 how vital the outside world is to all living things.  We humans, if not previously so appreciative, are now.  We recognize the value of embracing what has been so freely present.  The urgency of preserving and protecting it is heightened.  

In their first collaboration author Deborah Underwood and illustrator Cindy Derby work to show readers the allure of what we find beyond the four walls of our homes.  Outside In (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 14, 2020) looks at the benefits of becoming one with the world around us.  It awakens memories of the past bringing it to the present.

ONCE

we were part of Outside

and Outside was part of us.