Jaws Of Fate

People will never stop debating the subject of destiny.  There are those who fervently believe it is predetermined; everything happens according to a plan.  For many it is thought to be controlled by each individual.  Each choice made serves to direct us down a particular path.  If obstacles block the way, additional decisions may or may not alter the original course.

As a whole the domesticated canine clan seems to be fairly certain about the course of each day regardless of their human companions.  They know what they enjoy.  They know what they need.  And they know how to get what they need and enjoy.  Percy Dog Of Destiny (Boyd Mills Press, March 28, 2017) written by Alison McGhee with illustrations by Jennifer K. Mann is a tale of one determined dog who adores his ball.

Dog park?
What ho!

At the sight of his leash, Percy knows fun with friends is in his near future.  Before he can even consider leaving he has to find his ball.  After checking all his favorite, familiar spots in the house, he locates it sitting in his personalized bowl.  Percy is ready!

Along the way to the dog park Percy meets Molly, a poodle, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, a dachshund, and Fluffy, a Great Dane.  Each one of them is carrying their prized possessions.  Four happy pooch pals race through the gate and along the fence.  Wait...where's Fluffy?  Oh, there he is.

They sniff and greet each other except for Fluffy.  The big guy would rather take a whiff of a nearby flower.  They enjoy other tail-wagging doggy diversions with Fluffy favoring a more individual approach to each one.

In the midst of their fun a squirrel taunts Percy, challenging him.  This squirrel wants his ball.  There is no way that squirrel is getting Percy's beloved ball.  When Percy summons his crew, the rotten rodent makes a move.  Woof! Woof!  What a fetch-tastic surprise!


When a dog love a ball, nothing else will do.  Wherever they go, the ball goes with them.  In this narrative author Alison McGhee displays her understanding of this canine characteristic perfectly.  Told in first pooch point of view, short sentences provide readers with the inside scoop on Percy's thoughts and actions.  Alison masterfully manipulates the plot toward the unexpected conclusion with a cadence created by Fluffy's signature deviations from the norm.  Percy's "pet-names" for his ball are guaranteed to bring on the giggles and grins.  Here are two sample passages.

Where's my special ball?
There you are,
my little porkie pie.

Time to pee on the tree.
Oh, Fluffy.


Percy is one perky pooch as clearly shown on the matching front of the dust jacket and book case.  That ball is going with him forever and always.  Look at the spine which extends to the left in the same width.  Those paw prints are moving forward with purpose.  To the left, on the back, the three friends, Molly, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie and Fluffy, are walking away from us as Percy stands over the ISBN with his tail happily wagging.  The combination of the pale yellow with the red reaches out and grabs your attention.  The opening and closing endpapers are covered in the same rich, radiant red.

Beneath the text on the title page, Percy is looking forward at readers with his ball firmly held in his mouth.  Jennifer K. Mann uses white space as an element in her design and layout.  It frames the other elements on each page.  She might have a single major image on one or two pages or display several on a page as when Percy is looking for his ball in the beginning.  She has him checking inside a shoe, a dresser drawer, a toilet and a waste basket.

The perspective is always at a dog's level.  When Percy's human sets off to the dog park with him, all we see are legs and the leash coming from above Percy.  The pictures rendered in pencil and digital paint have a casual but realistic feel to them.  The lines are loose and flowing.  If the expressions on Percy and his friends don't have you laughing out loud, the squirrel is sure to do the trick.

One of my favorite illustrations is when the four friends are running through the gate into the dog park.  The sheer bliss they are feeling is evident is their stretched body postures.  Even though each one is holding their favorite toy, you can see them smiling.  This image spans two pages.  The outline of the fence is spare with flowers along the outside and flowers inside the park within enclosures.  We can see the trunks of several trees and birds and butterflies flying.  The squirrel makes a first appearance; a foreshadowing of his dastardly intentions.


This book, Percy Dog Of Destiny, written by Alison McGhee with illustrations by Jennifer K. Mann is fabulous!  With every reading it gets funnier and funnier.  The pacing supplied by the blend of text and images, as any dog lover can tell you, is superb.  Readers will be asking you to read this again and again.  For a delightful read aloud session I would pair this with award winning titles, A Ball For Daisy by Chris Raschka and Ball by Mary Sullivan.

To discover more about Alison McGhee and Jennifer K. Mann please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  You can view interior images at Jennifer's site.  I know you will enjoy reading the post at author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast when she chats with Jennifer. There is a lot of artwork to enjoy.

Picturing Story

We save things.  Some people save more than others.  The most precious of these saved things usually represents a memory we choose to remember for as long as we can.  Some families pass on items from one generation to the next.  There are always stories attached to them.

It seems most children like to tell tales about themselves and hear those of others.  They know instinctively as Kate DiCamillo, author and National Ambassador for Children's Literature 2014-2015, says stories connect us.  Tell Me A Tattoo Story (Chronicle Books, April 12, 2016) written by Alison McGhee with illustrations by Eliza Wheeler allows readers to share in the warmth of a family evening.

You wanna see my tattoos?

A little guy tugs on his father's shirt eager to see the pictures inked on his skin.  It's a frequent request the father enjoys fulfilling.  The first selected tattoo represents the father's favorite book and all the times he listened to his mother read it aloud.

Moving from his shoulder to the inside of his wrist are two words rather than a picture.  The boy's father never wants to forget how his dad lived his life.  An intricate floral tattoo recalls his meeting a pretty girl.  When his son wants to know why she was so pretty and if he has met her, his dad's reply is certain to make you smile.

As a fourth tattoo is shown, the dad remembers a journey taking him far from home for a long time.  Now and then, it is a hot land, a foreign land, across an ocean.  The final tattoo is small with three numbers and three words.

It's been placed on the dad's chest near his heart.  As the two converses the boy declares the tattoo he cherishes more than the others.  It's at this point the father's shares a secret.


As surely as if she had written the words once upon a time, Alison McGhee has our attention with her first sentence, a question. We want to see the tattoos too.  What do they look like?  What do they represent?  We become the little man.  Having the father as the sole speaker reinforces this feeling.

As each portion of the narrative (and the tattoos) is revealed to readers we realize they signify milestones in the child's father's life.  They are the foundation for what will be become the boy's life story. Here is a sample passage.

This one, well, this one's from my favorite book that my mom used to read to me.
Did she read it to me over and over and over?
She sure did.


When unfolding and opening the matching dust jacket and book case we get a sense of familial love and a kind of elegance.  The golden yellow used in the rays is a part of every single image.  Sometimes it is a pale, tiny spot color and other times it draws us directly into the picture.  It's a soft glow of light, a radiating of memories.  The exquisite details on the tattoos appear throughout the book.

On the back, to the left, on the same background color, a white dove is flying carrying a sprig of olive branch.  The opening and closing endpapers are awash in a blend of the tattoos and other elements from the story.  The same palette as shown on the jacket and case is used here.  On the title page Eliza Wheeler features the family's home in the foreground at night with the city in the background in silhouette.

Rendered in India ink with dip pens and watercolors all the images span two pages.  Delicate lines shape the elements in the pictures.  With every reading you discover new precious pieces working to create a marvelous whole.

One of my favorite illustrations is for the first tattoo.  On the left both the father and his son are facing readers.  The father, smiling, looks at his son as he pulls back a portion of his shirt to get a better look at the tattoo.  On the right, crossing the gutter to the left, the father as a little boy is sitting in his mother's lap beneath a clothes line outside.  His mother, wearing an apron with pockets holding clothes pins and a shirt flung over her shoulder, is holding a book with him reading aloud.  Baskets of clothes are to the right and left of them.  A breeze is blowing the clothes already on the line and the surrounding wildflowers.  Behind them is the farm house, fields of corn and the barn with a silo.


Tell Me A Tattoo Story written by Alison McGhee with illustrations by Eliza Wheeler is a heartwarming title brimming with love; a love of stories and of a nightly family ritual.  Readers will thoroughly enjoy not only what the tattoos depict but moving through the bedtime preparations. You will want to have this on your personal and professional shelves.  The end, like all wonderful books, will have you going back to the beginning so you can experiences it all over again.

To learn more about Alison McGhee and Eliza Wheeler please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.   Alison McGhee is interviewed via Skype at Take Two.  It's a wonderful podcast about the spark behind the story.  Eliza Wheeler wrote about this title and the process at Picture Book Builders.  She was a guest at author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  You can find two additional interviews of Eliza Wheeler at Andrea Skyberg's site including a tour of her studio and Miss Marple's Musings.

UPDATE:  Please stop by 100 Scope Notes hosted and written by teacher librarian and 2014 Caldecott Medal committee member, Travis Jonker to read his insightful review of this title.

..."If I Never Get Back."

On February 24, 2016 people around the world will be celebrating World Read Aloud Day.  One of this year's activities leading up to the festivities, focused on the sheer joy of reading, is the 7 Strengths Countdown.  These seven weeks highlighting specific themes, belonging, curiosity, friendship, kindness, confidence, courage and hope, began the week of January 3, 2016.

Very early this morning I finished
a book, a book with words and pictures resonating long after the final pages are turned and the cover is closed, which embodies every single one of those ideas.  Firefly Hollow (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, August 18, 2015) written by Alison McGhee with illustrations by Christopher Denise is a place called home by firefly, cricket, vole and human nations.  It is an extraordinary place if you have a true heart, a heart ready to believe.

Swoop!
Firefly flitted through a knothole in the hollow tree, straight out into the clearing and straight back in again.  The night air outside the hollow tree was cool, and the air inside was warm.  She whooshed back and forth from cool to warm, outside to inside, faster and faster and faster until---yikes---she accidentally side-swiped Elder.

Since she was a teeny, tiny baby Firefly was watched over and encouraged by Elder.  They had a secret code for communicating, three fast and two long blinks which meant a variety of words depending on the situation.  Regardless of what she learned in her Basics of Blinking, Air Safety and Fear of Giants classes, Firefly practiced her midair flips, loop-de-loops, figure eights and timed her endurance flying.  Firefly had dreams; to explore beyond the safety of her home, to get closer to the miniature giant and to fly among the stars traveling to the moon.  The other fireflies thought she was crazy.

Cricket was usually getting in trouble during the Telling Temperature, High Jumping or Fear of Giants classes taught by Teacher.  He understood the reasons for fearing all water, the sun and giants but he had secrets.  Cricket had been close to the miniature giant, a boy called Peter, many, many times.  At night when the other crickets were singing about the natural world, Cricket hid away from the others among the reeds on the sandy shore, singing the words Peter and his friend sang,

Take me out to the ballgame...

Cricket had a dream; he wanted to be the Yogi Berra of crickets, learning to catch.  The other crickets thought he was crazy.

Vole was the last of his kind.  All the other river voles had lost their lives in a great flood (the giants had destroyed a beaver dam) when he was very young.  He now lived on a boat crafted of cedar by his grandfather tied to the roots of a white birch on the bank of the river.  He practiced a series of sailor knots over and over and memorized the River Vole's Guide.  Many seasons had come and gone and Vole had never left this spot.  He had a dream to sail, as his ancestors had done for years, down the river south to the sea.  The other animals highly respected Vole.

Both Cricket and Firefly were told giants could not see or hear them but after curious Firefly found Cricket, they made discoveries of their own.  These lead to a summer like none other ever experienced before in any of their lives. Firefly, Cricket and Peter helped and healed one another.  Vole watched, waited and cared for the two small creatures.

As the days grew shorter, the leaves started to look a little less green, and Peter's parents kept talking about school (He is refusing to go for reasons I will let you uncover.), a hurtful encounter at the hollow tree had Firefly doing the impossible.  Nations united in unforgettable moments.  Words of wisdom and comfort

You'll know when the time is right.
I'll be watching over you.
Let it come to you.

bound in hope a courageous, kind and confident cricket, firefly, vole and boy.  Their curiosity and sense of adventure created a friendship built on the need to belong.


The realm of Firefly Hollow is a place tucked away outside the hustle and bustle of city life, a small space of trees, leaves, grasses, and wild flowers near a river running to the sea.  We only know of two homes of humans near the wildlife community.  Alison McGhee fashions a world we want to reach out, hold gently in our hands and store in our hearts forever.  In our mind's eye we can see the hollowed tree, home to the firefly nation, the school training all the crickets, the outside and interior of Vole's boat and the flat rock, sandy beach and home of the boy Peter.  We share balmy nights lit by stars and a moon and days full of summer sunshine.

The conversations between the characters are genuine, full of true emotion.  We are also privy to the thoughts of Firefly, Cricket, Vole and Peter.  In addition to the dialogue between the characters McGhee has a narrator softly and subtly unfolding all the parts of the characters' lives, past and present, so we completely and wholeheartedly feel a kinship with them.  Here are some sample passages.

Firefly floated closer still.  This song was not a cricket song at all.  Firefly could hardly believe it, but this song was, in fact, a giant song.   It was the same song that the miniature giant used to sing, back in the days when his friend was still there and they played catch on the shore.

"I don't care..."

This was a song about forbidden things: giants and ball games and crowds.  Firefly fluttered her wings just enough to stay aloft, trying to be as quiet as possible, so that she wouldn't disturb the unknown cricket and his song.

"...if I never get back."

Somewhere out there was a cricket who snuck off at night to sing about something forbidden, something dangerous, something that none of the other crickets wanted.  Somewhere out there was a
cricket
like
her.

Now the sun went down, and the clearing in the woods began to glow with fireflies.  Vole watched the little rebel cricket hop down the creature path and hide himself in the reeds by the riverbank.  Every time Vole heard this particular cricket's song, he crept out onto this deck to listen.  There was something about the little cricket and his song that made him dream of faraway places.  Of what he himself might see, when he finally sailed downstream and beheld the great waters beyond.

Peter tilted his head in the way that meant he was trying to figure something out.  How could Cricket explain to him?
"After we die, we turn into music," he said.  "And we're everywhere."  They turned into the sound of the wind, rustling the leaves on the trees.
The crunch of an acorn in the fall.
The tap-tap-tap of a woodpecker's beak on a tree.
All these sounds were music.  Crickets and the memory of them were still part of the world, even if they were invisible.


The illustrations in this book by Christopher Denise will literally take your breath away.  You are introduced to Vole, Firefly and Cricket during a nighttime conversation along the river bank in the initial visual on the dust jacket.   The luminosity seen here is found in the fourteen full color single page images placed within the interior of this story.  

These eloquent pictures depict fireflies in flight, one doing loop-de-loops beneath a full moon, Cricket gazing at the captured baseball card of Yogi Berra, sunlight streaming through the trees into the clearing, and Peter, eyes open wide in wonder, peering at Cricket and Firefly near their flat rock.  Each image is a study in light and shadow, delicate details drawing you into the world of Firefly Hollow.  Numerous drawings in black and white and various sizes further support the narrative.  Each chapter begins with an oval picture above the text.  One particular image of a small paper boat caused me to burst into tears.

One of my favorite (I love all of them.) illustrations is the interior of Vole's boat at night.  He is sitting in his chair which rests on a small rug on the plank floor, an open book on his lap.  Firefly is floating upward toward her hammock-like bed in a spider web.  Cricket is sleepily leaning against the folded paper boat resting on Vole's table.  The room is lit from the glow of the fire.  Readers will wish they could join them.


Firefly Hallow written by Alison McGhee with illustrations by Christopher Denise is a marvelous story of longing, loss and love.  It's one you want to read at least once a year.  It's a story you will want to share with as many as you can.  Read it one-on-one or to an entire group, but read it you must.  This book is a classic in the truest sense.

To learn more about Alison McGhee and Christopher Denise please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  They both have more information about this book on their respective blogs (Christopher's) which are linked at their websites.  At the publisher's website are several more interior images as well as an excerpt from this book.  Take a moment to read Q & A with Alison McGhee at Publishers Weekly about this title.  Alison McGhee also talks about her writing process for this book at The Pippin Insider.  Christopher Denise and Nick Patton chat together on The Picturebooking Podcast. 

Update:  Enjoy this broadcast on MRPNews 'Firefly Hollow' The children's book that began with a painting  Writer Alison McGhee on 'Firefly Hollow' and the power of poetry

A Gift Freely Given

It simply wouldn't be Christmas morning without hearing the sound of her voice.   We would gather in the living room sitting on the floor in front of an old cabinet-size radio and record player unit.  A melody from an orchestra would introduce the beginning and softly provide background music as Loretta Young, an American actress, read The Littlest Angel written by Charles Tazewell.

For decades this was the only version of the story we knew.  About fifteen years ago I was able to obtain a print edition illustrated by Sergio Leone (text copyright 1946).  It along with the recording provided the basis for a children's sermon I gave on a Christmas Eve.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, a new angel,

...exactly four years, six months, five days, seven hours and forty-two minutes of age...

is residing in the heavenly hosts.  He may be among angels but he acts exactly like a boy his age living on Earth.  The Understanding Angel asks him what he misses most.  His reply is a box of treasures left under his bed.

On the day of the birth of Jesus Christ the only gift this angel has to give is his most prized possession from home, a worn and battered wooden box filled with items from his boyhood.   He is humbled and tearful when he places it with the other glittering presents left by the other angels.  To the littlest angel's surprise the voice of God proclaims it as the gift which pleases him most.  It is raised into the night sky to become the Christmas Star shining over the stable in Bethlehem.

This year a story of another small angel is presented to readers.  Star Bright:  A Christmas Story (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, September 30, 2014) written by Alison McGhee with illustrations by Peter H. Reynolds opens with big news.  Like leaves falling from trees, paper announcements drift through the heavens reading,

The Herald GOOD NEWS Prince of Peace on His Way

It was the end of December, and a baby was soon to be born.

Angels are beside themselves with joy.  On Earth presents are being gathered by men of wisdom.  A new angel, a small girl, wants to find a gift too.  She thinks as hard as she can about those things a baby likes.

First she thinks of light breezes, gentle drops of rain and soothing songs.  These she cannot give.  They don't belong to her; they don't come from her.

As she peers out at the cosmos its sheer size makes her feel tiny in comparison.  Even with the light of celestial bodies there is a lot of darkness.  Sometimes the dark can make you feel alone.  Sometimes the dark can make you feel lost.

Not only do you feel lost, you might be literally lost; unable to locate familiar signposts.  With that thought she knows what she can give to the baby.  With that thought she closes her eyes, opens her wings and soars.


Her sentences are simple but bring us wonder with her words, lovely visual images.  Alison McGhee speaks to the child, the child in all of us regardless of our age.  How many times have you stood beneath the night sky gazing up at the countless stars spread across your view?  Everything seems to float away so it is only you and the stars.  This is what the little girl angel is sensing and we are kin to her in this.  McGhee brings her innocence to the page and her desire to help those in need.  Here is a sample passage.

Rain?
Rain to cool the baby's skin.
Rain to fill the puddles.
But rain was the gift of the clouds. 


The predominant use of purple in the illustrations rendered in pen, ink and watercolor then enhanced digitally by Peter H. Reynolds conveys the significance of the story.  It is also reminiscent of the sudden breathtaking colors seen in the sky as the day ends and twilight shifts into night.  On the front of the matching dust jacket and cover the newest angel sees the three well-known travelers from her celestial perch.  On the back, in a new picture with a white background amid swirls of watercolor at the top and bottom, she is again on her pedestal looking upward this time.  The words beneath her read

One very small angel.
One very important baby
about to be born.
One very special gift
to be given...
but...what?

Red opening and closing endpapers represent the warmth of this story.  On the initial title page Reynolds acquaints us with this angel as she reaches out to grasp one of the announcements. On the formal title page she stands on a platform, a ladder reaching skyward amid clouds tinged in shades of purple.

All of the images span across two pages.  Barefoot and wearing a three-piece suit like the other angels, Reynolds does give this very special being some additional items.  She is wearing an old style aviator helmet with goggles and a scarf around her neck.  (I may be drawing parallels where they are not intended but truthfully I am reminded of brave women airplane pilots of the past.  This little angel has a selfless spirit, a willingness to fly into the unknown for the sake of others.)

Of particular interest is the means this angel has to give vision to her thoughts; computer-like monitors are attached to various circular pedestals among the clouds.  This adds a bit of extra light-heartedness to the pictures.  Each of the Earthly scenes is done with attention to the realistic landscape but reverence to the events.

One of my favorite visuals is of the angel thinking about giving rain as a gift.  In this, as in the two others, the background is entirely white.  We are closer to her than in any other picture.  Her eyes are closed as her extended hands reach out to feel the drops of water.  There is pure peace to be seen in this illustration.

Whether you are familiar with The Littlest Angel or not, this book, Star Bright:  A Christmas Story written by Alison McGhee with illustrations by Peter H. Reynolds is one of the most beautiful narratives I have ever read about the origin of the Christmas Star.  It is not about the giving of something but the gift of self.  You will want to add it to your collection of Christmas titles making the reading of it a yearly tradition.

Please follow the links embedded in Alison McGhee's and Peter H. Reynolds' names to access their websites.  At the publisher's website are more illustrations from this title including my favorite.  

Wishing each of you a very Merry Christmas!  May your life be guided by the gift of a single brilliant star.

It Takes Two

One of them is short, the other is tall.  One of them has blond hair with a mind of its own, the other, straight brown hair.  In looking at the world, one sees a glass half full, the other tends to be less optimistic.  Exuberance versus restraint.

Yet, these two girls, opposite in nearly everything, have one of the most important qualities in common, their affection for one another.  In the early autumn of 2010 Candlewick Press released Bink & Gollie, an instant hit, written by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee with illustrations by Tony Fucile.  This title earned the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year, a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of the Year and a Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book.

Three short stories revealed that shockingly, bright socks and pancakes can teach the art of compromise, climbing a mountain can be done in the comfort of your home with a peanut butter sandwich snack at the peak and a marvelous companion, Fred the fish, can teach about the power of friendship.  It's just the two of them living in homes as different as they are; a tiny cottage at the base of a big old tree with a rock wall fence and gate, the other, slender, sleek and modern with an attached deck among the top branches, a series of wooden steps creating a path between the two.  Get ready readers, they're back!

Bink & Gollie: Two For One celebrated its book birthday on June 12, 2012.  The absolutely delightful duo head to the state fair for a fun-filled day.  Three separate events further define the characters and the strength of their attachment to each other.

Immediately Bink, who can never get enough to eat, is attracted to the Whack A Duck! game by the prize, the world's largest doughnut.  In what can only be described as a comedy of errors, three balls later, one carnival game man is definitely a changed man.  Moving through the grounds a large poster catches Gollie's eye.

Yearning to try her luck at a talent show and actually doing it are two different things.  Bink and the livestock barn provide the ideal answer to a healthy case of stage fright.  As the sky darkens into evening, Gollie, straight and tall,  clothed in a royal cape and crown carrying a scepter walks beside the perky, petite Bink, as she proudly gazes at her chipmunk balloon in hand.

Before Bink knows it, Gollie has them seated before Madame Prunely, crystal ball at the ready on her table.  Shrewd Madame Prunely doesn't miss a trick, quickly summing up the day's disappointments.  Her perceptions of the future though carry the two forever friends down the fairway, an added spring in their steps.

As in the first volume the dialogue between the two is filled with humor and heartwarming sentiment in brief but meaningful narratives penned by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee.  These two authors, like their characters, are completely in sync using language to not only tell a story of friendship but to play with the meaning of words; challenging readers to explore as they enjoy. They have a gift of knowing what needs to be said when.

Here is a passage from the first small chapter.

I'm going to whack a duck," said Bink.
"Step right up," said the duck man. "Whack a duck!"
"I'm going to win the world's largest donut," said Bink.
"Of course you are, little lady," said the Whack-a-Duck man. "You've got winner written all over you."
"I do?" said Bink.
"She does?" said Gollie.

 Taking the passage above a step further are the spectacular digital illustrations, for the large part, in black and white with bright splashes of color.  Tony Fucile depicts the literal Bink looking at her shirt for the writing all over and figurative Gollie is wondering what kind of winner the duck man sees.  Therein lies the dynamics of these three talented people working together on the lives of these incomparable companions; text extended by pictures speaking volumes without words.

No detail is too small; the sign over the Whack-a-Duck counter proclaims, A Game of Skill, Cunning, and Sweet Surprise, hanging on the wall are stuffed doughnut people with legs dangling as consolation prizes, or Bink's T-shirt with a goldfish pictured on the middle.  Fucile alters his image sizes, zooming in and out as needed, sometimes bleeding the illustrations to the page edge and other times giving them a frame.  Wordless two page spreads or a grouping of six small pictures on a single page pair perfectly with the story.  His facial expressions on all the characters are simply marvelous.

Bink & Gollie: Two for One written by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee with illustrations by Tony Fucile is a fantastic follow-up to the first volume further cementing the friendship of the two opposites in readers' minds and hearts.  One can only hope that a third book is in the works.  By following the link to the first title visit the official Bink & Gollie website.  There are extras there for everyone including a teacher's guide for each book.

It Begins In The Chill of Winter But Lasts Forever

As swirls of chilly white spiral through the air and winds howl around the house, how fitting to be holding Making A Friend by Alison McGhee with illustrations by Marc Rosenthal in my hands.  With the onset of winter comes the promise of creating a being from the snow; of having that child at the heart of us become a chief architect, builder and creator.  McGhee's and Rosenthal's collaboration on this title sheds new light on being young, on how the simplest activity can resonate throughout our lives. 

Using single words, a phrase, a group of thoughts or a short highly visual sentence McGhee brings readers into the experience of a young boy as he senses a shift from fall into winter, his dreams are filled with thoughts of it.  Upon wakening one morning to a world of white we celebrate in his wonder, joy and formation of a snowman step by step complete with his own red cap for a topping.  Though the man of snow is silent a friendship is formed.

When the warmth of spring leaves only the stick arms, red cap, carrot nose, and pebble eyes and mouth the youth asks: 

Where did you go?  Where did he go?

In subsequent pages he sees him in falling water, rain upon the ocean, fog in the hollow and in the frost upon the panes of a window.

As the months pass it becomes cooler, leaves change color and fall.  Ice appears on the lake, snow drifts down coating his surroundings.  The boy's friend comes back, made by his own hand.  What sets this tale apart is an idea that Alison McGhee introduces during the summer and repeats in the fall and winter,

What you love will always be with you.  

Friendships once formed whether that being is visible or not are still friendships.  A bond cemented with love is forever.  A simple joy is not forgotten.  These are the threads woven through the fabric of this charming story.

Pencil illustrations digitally manipulated by Marc Rosenthal bring a timelessness to the story; they could be fifty years ago or yesterday.  Body language and facial expressions leave no doubt in the readers' minds as to what the boy is thinking or feeling.  Using shades of primary colors to enhance his brown line renderings Rosenthal enhances McGhee's narration as well as providing several wordless pages that give his personal perceptive perspective to the storyline.

Attention to detail sets his illustrations apart; during the first snowfall a single window upstairs casts a yellow glow, a snowman's body appears in the clouds.  When the boy missing his friend muses about his whereabouts, his face appears in the ripples of the pond, a frosty square of glass or formed on the ground from cones and stones.  What you love is always with you permeates throughout each visual.

Recall those fond memories of the first snowfall, crafting your own personal snow being and the joy of those crisp, clear days spent in the wonder of winter Making a Friend.  Rest assured that in the capable hands of author, Alison McGhee and illustrator, Marc Rosenthal, that what has been lost is never truly gone.  Revel in their gift of taking less is more to an art form.

Pair this with The Biggest, Best Snowman by Margery Cuyler, Stranger in the Woods:  A Photographic Fantasy by Carl R. Sams, The Snowman's Path by Helena Clare Pittman, The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming, Snowmen at Night by Caralyn and Mark Buehner or Snowballs by Lois Ehlert.