Dream. Believe. Act.

The other morning it was too icy and too cold to walk our normal route. When my canine companion and I roamed around the backyard, two chickadees swooped into a bush right next to us.  For several moments their cheerful chatter banished the bitter winter chills and wind.

Their presence brought back memories of other encounters with fellow chickadees, one brave enough to land on the tip of a cross country ski pole.  There are also those magical marvelous minutes too near a bull elk.  His haunting bugle echoing over me alone in the deep snow of Pigeon River State Forest forty years ago.  Some things stay with you forever.

These unplanned meetings are a reminder of our stewardship toward this planet we share with a myriad of living creatures.  So many wild beings are in need of our assistance and protection.  They are not alone, though, as Sanctuary: A Home for Rescued Farm Animals (Clarion Books, January 31, 2023) written and illustrated by Julia Denos shows us.  Her thoughtful text and heartwarming artwork are a precious ode to those animals who might be overlooked in our endeavors to make life for all those on our planet better.

It is dark, but I can see your light.

The voice of a child speaks to an animal, reassuring them about the security they seek.  They need to look no longer.  Another child tells a group of animals, they are to be given names rather than numbers.  Here they matter.

In this space, all are free to be themselves.  Animals can simply live for the sake of living.  They need not worry about supplying others with any form of food.  Their bodies are safe from harm.  They and their young can grow to oink, moo, and cluck to their hearts' content.

In this place, humans will heal, not hurt.  In this place animals can sleep without worry.  In this place, dreams do come true.

Sometimes, adults cannot believe children see things as they are, but they do.  They do see things as they are and they open their hearts and minds.  Nothing is more honest, valuable, or formidable than children who know their hearts and minds.  Their words become actions.

Through the voices of five children, author Julia Denos offers hope, hope for the rescued animals, hope for the children who love those animals, and hope for healing in our world. Each of the children offers comfort and expected joy to the animals who arrive and live in the sanctuary.  The word here is used repeatedly as reinforcement and a promise.  Its use does precede a soliloquy by the final child. Here she shares the truth all the children believe.  It is an opportunity for readers to participate in the same truth.  Here is a passage.

Here is home.  Where you can be

who you were born to be, just like me.

Let's feel the earth, stretch our legs,

lift our hooves, and spread our wings!

The child featured on the right, front, of the matching dust jacket and book case, is nuzzling nose to nose with a new guest at the sanctuary.  The light between their heads signifies the connection between those giving love and those in need of love.  The field filled with dandelions (and their wishes), tiny forget-me-nots, and clover stretches across the front and the back. 

The girl's body crosses the spine and her blue jean-clad legs extend to the far left side on the back, left, of the jacket and case.  Near the girl's waist are two, fuzzy yellow baby chicks.  On a hill behind her graze a cow and calf and a sow and piglets.  At the top of the hill is a barn.  There are sparkles of light around the barn and a ray of light coming from the barn.  Julia Denos has pinpricks of light on the entire image.

On the opening and closing endpapers, the backgrounds and patterns on each are reversed.  Left becomes right and right becomes left.  On the one the background hues are rose and golden yellow washes.  On the other, shades of blue, and a bit of green and yellow color the canvas.  On each are different prints made by the animals' feet.  Amid the tiny dots of light are dandelion seeds, a dandelion and dandelion leaf, clover leaves, a four-leaf clover, feathers, a butterfly, a bee, and the stalk of another flower.  

On the dedication, verso and title pages, a single illustration shows readers the rolling hills, flowers, birds and the barn of the sanctuary.  A beautiful blue sky fills most of the two pages.  These pictures rendered in

graphite, watercolor, acrylic, and digital paint

are double-page visuals, single-page illustrations or two images on a single page.

Most of the single page images are loosely framed with liberal white space bordering that framing.  The animals are realistically portrayed as are the children.  It is the use of color, lines, and brush strokes which give them a softness, a welcome gentleness.  This invitation asks readers to pause, looking for delicate details like a honey bee resting on a clover blossom, a butterfly poised on the tip of a horn, a spider hanging from a web in the barn as animals curl against each other during a rainstorm or the heart-shaped earrings one of the girls is wearing.

One of my many favorite illustrations (besides the final, double-page picture) is the one for the above-quoted text.  It is a two-page visual.  On the left side, beneath a blue sky, one of the children dances with a pig near one of the barns.  In front of them is barnyard dirt stretching left to right.  In front of the dirt is meadow grass filled with clover.  Among the clover on the left are two bunnies, one brown and the other white with brown spots.  On the right side just above the meadow grass, a white, feathery turkey stands with wings outstretched, some feathers drifting down to the dirt.  Happiness and contentment radiate from this scene.

This book, Sanctuary: A Home for Rescued Farm Animals written and illustrated by Julia Denos, is an exquisite treasure.  It could be used in animal studies or discussions about the care of our planet and its inhabitants.  At the close of the book, Julia Denos writes a moving two-page letter 

Dear Caregiver,

This letter is about animals and children, specifically farm animals. It speaks about how human society has treated the farm animals.  At the close of the letter, she lists seven 

small ways you can make big changes 

before she signs 

I'll be dreaming with you.

Julie

At the bottom of the first page of the letter, in small print, Julia Denos asks readers to look for nine wild plants in her illustrations.  On the back jacket flap, it states that Julia Denos has always been a lover of animals.  In 2017, she became vegan.  She has a rescued cat and dog and likes to visit animal sanctuaries.  This book is certain to find a permanent place in readers' hearts, hearts championing for animals.  You will want to place a copy on your personal and professional bookshelves.

To discover more about Julia Denos and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  Julia Denos has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  She is most active on Instagram.

To The Rescue

There are those individuals with hearts so full of compassion they will do anything at any time to come to the assistance of another.  They easily place themselves in the position of the being in dire straits.  All thoughts of their own welfare vanish.  They are the definition of a friend in need is a friend indeed.

If in the course of providing help an adventure should ensue, these individuals will greet every obstacle with unwavering confidence and courage.  In their collaboration Special Delivery (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, March 3, 2015) author Philip C. Stead and illustrator Matthew Cordell introduced us to such a person.  Her name is Sadie.

This gal, who will go the extra mile, literally miles and miles, returns in The Only Fish In The Sea (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, August 15, 2017).  Nothing will deter her from her goal.  Nothing.

"Hey, Sadie!  Did you hear about Little Amy Scott?"

Our story opens with Sadie's friend, Sherman, riding his bicycle as fast as his legs will work.  He yells out to her about Amy Scott's birthday present fiasco.  Amy Scott takes her gift of a goldfish, which she says is boring, still in the plastic bag and throws it off the end of the dock into the sea.

Sadie agrees with Sherman about this being a complete misfortune for the tiny creature.  In fact, she thinks it's terrible.  Why would anyone put a goldfish's life in jeopardy?  There is only one thing to do.  Rescue it.

With determination Sadie informs Sherman that Ellsworth (She names the goldfish because that's the kind of human being Sadie is.) will be saved.  There are items to be procured for this effort.  You won't believe why Sadie needs twenty-one pink balloons but as noted previously Sadie is a thoughtful, kind soul.  Although at one point a statement she makes has Sherman worried about the future of the goldfish after it's located.

Sadie and Sherman and six monkeys (Those monkeys from the first book have relocated to Sadie and Sherman's community.) set off across the sea with the monkeys rowing and the friends sipping tea.  It is, of course, raining.  As the wind picks up, sea creatures begin to circle the boat.

On the crest of a wild wave victory is in sight.  One of the passengers simultaneously notices another resident rise from the deep dark waters.  The fate of the rescue rests in the hands of this gallant gal, her friend and the boat's crew.  Back in the center of the village, townsfolk gather in a show of affection.  And what of Little Amy Scott you ask?  You'll have to read the book, dear reader.


To have Philip C. Stead bring back a protagonist and her cast of characters is cause for celebration.  As in the previous title dialogue opens before the title page in the form of Sherman trying to get Sadie's attention.  You can feel the gentle tension and excitement already starting to build with this technique.

Sadie, true to her personality as created by Stead, is ready to do whatever it takes to save that goldfish.  This time she carefully plans and stocks the proper gear for success, although the reader is constantly surprised by those items and their significance.  Told entirely in dialogue, the meticulous selection of text gives us the soul of the story; a life and death situation, others trying to avert disaster, urgency, comedy and ultimately profound kindness and justice.  Here is a sample passage.

"In the meantime, we'll have tea.  Patience, Sherman, is the most important part of fishing."


When you look at the opened dust jacket your eyes are first drawn to the right, the front.  Set in a scrolled, glided frame, this moment conveys the height of the adventure.  Sadie stands stalwart holding her cup of tea, Sherman has the net at the ready, the monkeys are in various stages of rowing.  Two are completely unaware of the danger wrapping itself around them.  One is totally frightened.  A fourth monkey has spied something in the distance. You can almost hear the scream of the wind and the crash of the waves and feel the rain on your face.

To the left, on the back, those crazy monkeys are painting the very picture we have just seen.  Two are at the easel, one is screaming aloud, another is taking a picture, one is stirring paint in a can and the final monkey is painting the hat of the stirring-paint monkey.  In other words, it's mayhem.  Sherman and Sadie stand back and watch.  This is on a white canvas.  In this image, as in all the illustrations in this book, Matthew Cordell is a master with details.  Sadie is carrying her helmet, sipping a cup of tea.

While I received an F & G at NerdCampMI, I wanted to wait to talk about this book until the release date today because I knew the book case would be amazing.  And it is.  The background is a map, one of the maps used to find the goldfish.  Pencils, rulers, compasses and protractors are placed amid snapshots taken before, during and after the adventure.  Almost all of them are a close perspective.  The opening and closing endpapers are different in color which is significant, a sage green and pink.

Having the dialogue and Cordell's illustrations bring the reader to the title page is superb.  It leads us into the reappearance of the monkeys, who are never actually mentioned in the text but play a huge role in the pictures.  When we see them on the title page, they are playing instruments in the town square on and near a fountain.  Bananas are everywhere, thrown to them for their music.  This is important because as Sadie and Sherman prepare for the trip, the monkeys make payments for everything in bananas in the visuals.

You will stop at every page to look at all the elements placed there by Cordell.  You want to see what the monkeys are doing. (You will be laughing nonstop.)  You want to notice the expressions on Sadie's and Sherman's faces.  You don't want to miss the items included from the previous title.  Most of Cordell's illustrations span two pages but he uses single pages to showcase the pacing.

It is nearly impossible to select a single favorite illustration from many but when they first start to save the goldfish is certainly one of them.  To the left one of the monkeys (They are all dressed in sailor outfits with the hats.) is running frantically across the sand, left behind.  He has dropped a paint can and a balloon is drifting away.  The rain is starting to fall harder.  To the right the boat is heading out to sea.  Sadie is talking to Sherman as she rows.  Two monkeys are shouting at the third running on shore.  Another monkey is rowing.  Another is using binoculars.  At the front of the boat a monkey searches the sea with a spyglass.  The crow watches.  The fishing poles are being used for one of several surprises.  Sherman's hat has blown off in a gust of wind.

No matter how many times you read this title you will begin and end it with a smile on your face.  You will burst out laughing more than once.  Like the companion book, The Only Fish In The Sea written by Philip C. Stead with illustrations by Matthew Cordell highlights a character you can't help but admire.  Her steadfast friend and the wild monkeys make this book one you will want to own for your professional and personal bookshelves.  We can never have too many characters who have kindness direct their lives and fuel their bravery.

To discover more about Philip C. Stead and Matthew Cordell and their other work, please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  Here is another link to information about Philip C. Stead.  At the publisher's website you can view interior illustrations.  This book is mentioned in a post by author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  The cover reveal was hosted by teacher librarian Matthew C. Winner at All The Wonders with a conversation.  Philip C. Stead and Matthew Cordell chat at Publishers Weekly KidsCast about this book.