To Know Them

As an understanding of each living thing on our planet grows and is known, our perspective shifts.  We come to view these individuals as more than their name suggests.  They respond to each other and to us in distinct manners.

If the opportunity presents itself to study and interact with a specific individual, their essence is revealed.  If you have not been fortunate enough to experience this in your own life yet, the newest nonfiction picture book by masterful author and photographer April Pulley Sayre reveals this beautifully.  Being Frog (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, February 4, 2020) is about developing a relationship on a sensory and personal level with the world around you.

A frog 
is a being.
It is watching.
It is seeing. 

Just as the frog is watching and seeing, we, too, can watch and see them.  A frog can choose to sit on the same rock or log.  They favor one place over the other, day after day.

Food is hunted for survival.  Attempts are made until there is success.  In the heat of the day, a frog seeks relief from the warmth in shade or water.  Sometimes as the frog rests, is it thinking?

Perhaps it remembers its youth.  Perhaps it remembers the journey from egg, to tadpole and baby frog. During the day it moves up a rocky slop, stops and then, suddenly jumps skyward, only to sit again.

Time for humans is measured by clocks and calendars.  What is time like for a green frog?  How does it measure the days of its life?  A frog is.


Through weeks of watching frogs at a nearby pond April Pulley Sayre pens a poetic ode to their uniqueness.  Her simple but profound sentences describe the meaningful moments of their lives.  Her language vividly mirrors their movements.  A rhythm is supplied with rhyming words, phrase length and punctuation.  She repeats words from the beginning at the end to generate a circle, a powerful, meaningful circle.  Here is a passage.

This log.
Its daily job?
Support the frog. 


From your initial look at the front, right, of the open and matching dust jacket and book case, you find yourself fascinated by the sheer elegance of the colors and shapes on this frog.  There is a majesty in this captured minute.  The title text is raised.  To the left on the back are three rows of four photographs with narrow white lines in a grid defining them.  Frogs are shown in various positions and places on their pond.  Lovely presentation of flora is there also.

Additional pictures are shown on the end flaps as well.  The opening and closing endpapers are a shade of yellow as seen on the frog.  On the title page a front view of a frog's face peers through a spectrum of color.

The photographs throughout the book, taken by April Pulley Sayre, range in size from a single page picture crossing the gutter to create a large column for text, nearly full-page illustrations, several panels on a single page, and full-page images.  Their size and the white space for text shape the pacing and emotional effect.  The point of view in these photographs is outstanding.

One of my many, many favorite photographs is the first one.  It spans a single page on the right and crosses the gutter a bit to the left.  It is a close-up of a frog's face with the area surrounding it blurred.  Although the frog is still, you believe it could leap into action at any second.  It's a breathtaking portrait.


Readers of all ages will find the words and photographs in Being Frog written and illustrated by April Pulley Sayre either shifting or enhancing their belief in every living being having individual worth.  At the close of the book an Author's Note offers insights into the process, the difference between anecdotal evidence and scientific data, and April Pulley Sayre's observations and thoughts about those observations.  Resources for Further Exploration are offered.  I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about April Pulley Sayre, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  April Pulley Sayre has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.


Please take a few moments to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to enjoy the other titles selected this week by participants in the 2020 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

From a Blaze of Brilliance to a Blanket of White

With every gust of wind they rain down faster.  Swirls of gold, red, orange, brown and faded green fall.  A patchwork pattern of overlapping leaves covers the grass.  These colorful showers signal the passage of time in autumn 2017.  Only thirty-eight days remain until the arrival of the winter solstice.

There are now entire trees with bare branches lifting toward crystal blue skies one day and cloudy, gray vistas the next day.  September and October are memories.  Full of Fall (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, August 29, 2017) written and illustrated by April Pulley Sayre represents through poetic phrases and her signature photography the changes we witness as one season passes into the next.

September sun 
is low in the sky.

So long, summer.
Green, goodbye!

Whether you look at a large landscape as you travel down a path or road or focus on a single leaf in your own backyard, they herald change.  They are a reflection of what was and what will be.  The individual shapes of each tree are now outlined in their respective hues.

Shades of yellow, gold, orange and red hang like Nature's jewels on rough boughs of brown.  A canopy of color provides shelter from sun or rain.  Ponds, streams, rivers and lakes capture the array.

Run your hands over the bark on trunks.  Close your eyes and feel a single leaf or hold one up to the light filtering through the trees.  What message do they bring?

Soon the assistance leaves supply to trees is finished.  They let them go.  Now they nurture the dirt and water in a necessary cycle.  Their brilliance fades.  It's coming.  Snow.


As an astute observer of the world in which we live, April Pulley Sayre asks us, through her words, to notice the seasonal shift.  During those ninety days as our world spins from summer's end to autumn and then to winter, many small events contribute to the grand scheme.  Each one plays a significant part.

A series of phrases are joined by her rhyming words.  Some only have one or two words.  Others have six or seven. The cadences they create invite us to join her as we walk through the days of autumn.  Here is another sample passage.

Trees are ready.
Twigs let go.

Leaves slip
and spin.

Wind sweeps---
leaves blow!


Beginning with the opened, matching dust jacket and book case, we experience the full majesty of the transformation of autumn.  As you run your fingers over the front of the jacket, the title text is raised.  The large maple leaf has been given a matte finish in contrast to the glossy background.  It's as if we are touching a real leaf.  To the left, on the back, a squirrel scampers along a downed branch among a carpet of fallen yellow and brown leaves. 

The opening and closing endpapers are a rich, rusty orange.  On the title page an ancient stump, rings ragged and wide, provides a background for fallen leaves and text.  With each page turn a photograph raises our awareness of the variations revealed during this season. 

The point of view, through her camera lens, has us gazing through a field of browning grasses, light tipping the tops, watching closely as a squirrel grasps grass with edges blurred, or standing on the side of a pond, gasping in awe at the opposite shore lined with red, orange and yellow trees, their hues reflected in the water.  Some of the pictures span two pages and others are group by two or three.  The multiple illustrations on two pages are separated by thin white lines.  The placement of text is perfection.

One of my many favorite pictures spans two pages.  We are looking along a rough trunk of a tree upward as the branches stretch from page edge to page edge.  Patches of blue sky can be seen through the tiny yellow, gold and slightly green leaves.  It's absolutely exquisite.


April Pulley Sayre has a gift as a master poet and photographer.  She weaves words and images together in Full of Fall to fashion a sensory experience for readers.  This title, with the companion books, Raindrops Roll and Best in Snow, should be in every professional and personal collection.  At the close of the book two pages offer scientific explanations for particular phrases relative to leaves.  April Pulley Sayre also talks about Fall around the world and Never the same show.  She includes resources on the final page, an image of two beautiful leaves on bark.

To learn more about April Pulley Sayre and her other work, please visit her website by following the link attached to her name.  You will enjoy the backstory associated with this title.  At the publisher's website you can view several beginning interior pages along with the explanation pages at the close of the book. April Pulley Sayre is interviewed at PictureBookBuilders about this title.

Nutty Tree Inhabitants

After the last of the leaves fell to the ground this autumn, you can stand in the center of my back yard and see eight squirrel nests.  No wonder nearly any time of the day during the summer one or more can be seen scampering across the yard.  Sometimes it looks as though two are playing a fast and furious game of tag.  It soon became obvious size is not an indicator of dominance.  The smallest red squirrel seems to always be chasing the larger fox squirrels.

You would think with winter, by the calendar, nearly a month old all the squirrels would be set for the season but the other day before a particular bout of bitter temperatures, one scampered across the yard with a bunch of leaves to bolster a nest.  Watching it move up the trunk, it did not go to one of the many leafy apartments but to a hole in one of the trees.  Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep (Henry Holt and Company, November 1, 2016) written by April Pulley Sayre with illustrations by Steve Jenkins is the fourth collaboration by this team combining poetry and art to deliver facts to readers.

Squirrels wrestle.
Squirrels leap.
Squirrels climb.
Squirrels sleep.

In this title we become acquainted with gray, fox, red and flying squirrels.  Some traits they share in common, other characteristics are particularly specialized to only one.  Their tails are more than a fluffy adornment.  They function as protection from the weather and keep them centered as they scoot from place to place high above the ground.  Their eyes, noses, jaws and paws function with purpose.

I wonder if their chirping is simple chatter, code for danger or perhaps they are calling out to one another in greeting.  All you have to do is walk across an area inhabited by squirrels to see evidence of their work.  Nuts, whole or in pieces, are everywhere.  You can see small holes as they bury or dig up their stores.  There might be some new oak trees sprouting in the spring.  Who knew squirrels are nature's gardeners?

If you happen to catch one midrun across the grass, in a flash they disappear up a tree trunk.  Have they gone to the top or only the other side, hiding?  With all the energy they expend during the day, it's no wonder they curl up as night descends to rest and relax.


Twelve poems supply a very squirrel-like cadence to readers.  Each four-line narrative rhymes on the second and fourth line.  April Pulley Sayre, a keen observer of nature and in this case squirrels, presents them exactly as they are seen out in the world; full of energy, stopping with twitching tails and paws but ready to charge like lightning if needed.  She weaves information into each poem; the purpose of tails, how specific physical characteristics are used by the squirrels, where they stay and rest, how they gather and hoard, and most importantly how they keep the trees they need growing.  They are the forest gardeners.  Here is another sample poem.

Squirrels gather.
Squirrels store.
How many seeds?
More, more, more!


Time and time again, if you happen to be observant in your neighborhood or out walking in the woods, you will have seen a squirrel leaping precisely as pictured by Steve Jenkins on the front of the dust jacket.  His cut-and-torn-paper collage illustrative technique is nearly photographic in detail.  Crossing over the spine leaves, branches and two squirrels frame the three previous collaborations of Sayre and Jenkins.  As in much of his other work, Jenkins uses white space to great advantage.

On the book case hues of brown cover the front and back.  As on the jacket the back highlights the other three titles but close observation shows these are placed on portions of a tree.  Moving to the right, on the front, a sleeping squirrel is shown curled up in a furry ball in its nest.  A pattern of acorns, caps on, caps off, covers the opening and closing endpapers. A two-page picture of squirrels, branches and leaves provides space for the title and verso pages.

For each of the twelve poems Jenkins gives readers a double-page image.  In many of them he frames specific actions within a circle imposed on top of the main illustration.  With his masterful skills he manages to fashion squirrels that literally look ready to leap off the page.  When they look right at the reader on several pages, you can almost hear them chattering at you.  Jenkins cleverly shifts his perspective; sometimes you can get a broader view of the action and then with a page turn, you feel as though you are part of the squirrelish fun.

One of my favorite illustrations is of a squirrel stretching from a tree trunk to gather an acorn.  How they can do that without falling is amazing.  Jenkins captures the stretch perfectly.  Above the oak branches on the right, he features two circular smaller illustrations.  In one a squirrel is looking at us from within a hole in the tree.  In the other a squirrel is curled up in a nest at rest.

Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep written by April Pulley Sayre with illustrations by Steve Jenkins is a lively look at these backyard and forest inhabitants.  This collaboration is as fine as the others, encouraging readers to respect and appreciate their world.  At the close of the narrative are four pages of further facts grouped by species in this book, tails as tools, squirrels glide, early life, feeding time, all in the family, tree hole homes, squirrels: the planters, overwhelmed by acorns, conifer seed collectors, squirrel ancestors, helping oaks and animals and old tree neighborhoods.  There is also a list of suggestions for further reading and interesting notices in the news.  This title was selected by the NSTA in their Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12: 2017.

To learn more about April Pulley Sayre and Steve Jenkins please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites.  If you wish to view some interior images from this title stop by the publisher's website.  Enjoy the book trailer.


If you have not seen their previous titles, Eat Like A Bear and Woodpecker Wham! please read these posts.  All of the books by this team are outstanding.


Please visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to see the titles selected by participating bloggers in the 2017 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.  This week Alyson highlights titles coming in January.

And So It Begins...

It came with a fury; the wind howling after a brief respite from the breezy day.  In the flashes of lightning leaves flew past my windows.  Thunder rumbled.  Rain pounded the outside of the house.  Temperatures dropped fourteen degrees in minutes with twenty more to fall in the night.  It's coming.  Winter.

Will it begin to softly fall while our world sleeps?  Will the ground be covered in the morning?  Will the air be sharp and chilly? Best in Snow (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon& Schuster Children's Publishing Division, October 11, 2016) written and illustrated with photographs by April Pulley Sayre is a sensory sensation of the season's shift and the precipitation transformation.

A freeze.
A breeze.
A cloud.
It snows.

Flakes fall and cover the fur of waiting squirrels. Birds' feathers billow in the wind as snow swirls around them.  Leaves gracing the ground get a new coat.

If enough snow falls it disguises familiar forms creating new figures.  It goes where the wind wills it.  Heavy and wet, dry and fluffy it's an artist.

Bend close and see the magic it paints in tiny icy creations.  When the air warms it becomes something new.  This is only for mere moments in the scope of the season. Soon the cycle begins anew.


With a writer's eye and ear for cadence April Pulley Sayre fashions a poetic presence for snow.  Twice six words are used; carefully placed between a series of two or four word phrases.  Only once do three words signify a particular pause in the pacing.

With her observations and word choices Sayre draws our attention to snowing and snow.  She points out the conditions for flake formation, how it looks when and where it lands and what happens based upon humidity and temperature.  Here is another passage.

Water seeps.
Crystals feather
as ice creeps.

The opened dust jacket is a beautiful sight for our eyes as April Pulley Sayre freezes in a frame splashes of color in a snowy landscape.  Her choice of perception asks us to be constant in looking at the world in which we live.  On the left, the back, is a more panoramic woodland view with a tiny bit of red in an otherwise brown and very white landscape.  A cardinal sits, still as a statue, on a branch.  When you run your hands over both the left and right sides all the snow is slightly rough to the touch.  The title text is raised.  The book case matches the jacket less the textures.  The opening and closing endpapers are blue-jay blue.

The squirrel, a part of the opening and rhyming closing, is seen on the front jacket flap.  A heron stands poised on a snowy water's edge on the title page.  Each illustration, some spanning two pages, others partial pages or extending across the gutter, is a gorgeous glimpse of the beauty Mother Nature graciously bestows on us.  For some of the text Sayre groups pictures together in a trio separated by thin white lines.  Sayre brings us in close to see frosty delicate patterns and the tiny flakes on oak leaves and a duck's feathers.  She stands beneath a tree lightly coated in snow shooting upward toward a brilliant blue sky.  The hours spent waiting and watching to bring us these images must have been many.

One of my favorite photographs of several is a close-up of evergreen branches coated in snow. The sun has warmed them so icicles have formed on the ends drops dripping. I'll bet if you listen closely you can hear them fall.


Best in Snow is a stunning presentation of the types of snow as it moves through various phases.  The images strikingly enhance the spare but sensory text.  This book is an essential purchase for your professional and personal bookshelves.  At the close of the book two pages are dedicated to Secrets of Snow along with recommended books for reading.  Be sure to read the companion title Raindrops Roll.

To discover more about April Pulley Sayre and her other works, please take a few minutes to visit her website by following the link attached to her name.  At the publisher's website you can view eight interior illustrations.

Rat-A-Tat-Tat

Mother Nature has a marvelous checks and balances system in place.  In northern Michigan our ash trees are dying in large numbers due to the Emerald Ash Borer.  Consequently we have an increased variety of woodpeckers that have set up residence.

This spring a Pileated Woodpecker flew in for a landing on the birch tree right outside my front picture window.  It was so close I wanted to reach out to touch it.  We have little Downy Woodpeckers dashing about on a daily basis.  While probably not new to the neighborhood but more visible lately is the Northern Flicker who likes to roam my lawn as well as the surrounding trees looking for food.

One of my strongly held beliefs, as I have mentioned previously, is the more our younger readers know about their natural world, the more apt they will be ready to preserve and protect it.  Woodpecker Wham! (Henry Holt and Company, May 12, 2015) is the most recent collaboration between author April Pulley Sayre and author illustrator Steve Jenkins.  (One of their previous books, Eat Like A Bear, is featured here.  In a staccato style reminiscent of the birds' rhythmic beak beats, chanting words pair with fascinating art as we explore the world of woodpeckers.

Swoop and land.
Hitch and hop.
Shred a tree stump.
CHOP, CHIP, CHOP!

Undoubtedly most of us have seen these birds sweep across our vision but learning about hitching enlarges your appreciation of their skills.  Much like Morse code their tapping is chatting among themselves plus it comes in handy when attracting a mate.  A bona fide feast is found under the bark once they set to work with beak and tongue.

Feathers and wings are cared for well; you never know when color will be needed for display or protection.  As tools their beaks carve homes for themselves and for other woodland dwellers.  They could give lessons to gymnasts in their ability to cling and hide.

As consumers of fruits, they're unknowing seed planters.  Baby woodpeckers keep parents busy until they can search and seize their own food as well fly on their own.  Squirrels have competition in woodpeckers storing food for winter.  Did you know that? And so it ends as it began.


Seventeen four line poems with lines two and four supplying a rhyming tempo welcome readers to woodpeckers and their realms.  April Pulley Sayre uses alliterative and onomatopoeic language to place the outside world on the pages of this book.  Aspects of interest to the intended audience are featured with accuracy.  To expand on the poems, Sayre has included six pages at the close of the book explaining more about the Woodpecker World.  Some of the headings are:

Champion Chiselers
Instant Messages
Seeds by Splat
Cleanup Time
Drilling for Cavities
Home Security

Here is another poem.

Spring sap rises.
Who will drill?
Sapsucker, sapsucker,
sticky bill! 

Spanning both the front and back of the dust jacket the turquoise sky heightens the colors of the highlighted woodpeckers moving about on parts of the same kind of tree.  The fine details throughout the book, the delicate lines, are already evident in these two birds.  Did you know the feathers above their beaks keep wood chips from their nostrils?  I really like the holes in the title text.  Those woodpeckers have been busy.

The different book case is the image used with the first poem.  The opening and closing endpapers are the same shade at the title words.  Northern Flickers flock and flit about on the informal and formal title pages.

Steve Jenkins' cut-and-torn-paper collage artwork covers two pages with the exception of four single pages opposite one another.  These blend well together in design, layout and color.  Whether Jenkins gives readers a fuller view or a close-up of the woodpeckers, they appear real enough to fly off the page.

Two of my favorite illustrations are an extreme zoom of a woodpecker making a hole in a tree and two birds in a cherry tree.  In the first the tree covers one and a half pages.  Chips are flying as the hole forms.  We see this looking at the back of the bird's head.  In the second image the colors are striking; a vivid sky blue, black, white and red on one bird and brown, gray, black, red, golden yellow and rust on the other as they hang on cherry tree branches full of fruit and green leaves.


Woodpecker Wham! written by April Pulley Sayre with illustrations by Steve Jenkins is a wonderful portrait of these members of the avian community.  Authenticity is apparent in the words and artwork throughout the seasons of the year.  A page at the end is dedicated to further reading, websites, and acknowledgments.  I highly recommend this for your home and classroom bookshelves.  It's a read aloud treasure brimming with factual gems.

Please visit both April Pulley Sayre's and Steve Jenkins' websites to learn more about them and their other work by following the links attached to their names.  The publisher's website provides views of eight interior pages.  This title was one of several featured by author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and at Kirkus.


Make sure you stop by Kid Lit Frenzy to see what other books were selected by bloggers this week who are participating in the 2015 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.  Thanks a thousand times over to educator Alyson Beecher for hosting this endeavor.

Changes

If my eyes had been closed, I would still have known it was there.  The air smelled differently as soon as I stepped outside.  Quite by surprise but really when needed the most, last week it rained.  It had been long months since the roadways, yards and rooftops were wet with anything but snow.

By the time Xena and I finished walking, our coats were soaked but we both were filled with the sheer joy of this, however brief, change in the weather. Raindrops Roll (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, January 6, 2015) written and illustrated by April Pulley Sayre is a lush lyrical and pictorial ode to the fascination of rain.  It will have you yearning for all the sensory wonder this experience brings.

Rain is coming.
You can feel it
in the air.

If you look you can see the difference in the sky. Other life, tiny beings, knows to seek shelter under and within nature's umbrellas.  If you listen closely, it makes remarkable music when it begins.

Rain quenches thirst, cleanses and holds things in place.  It makes a dirt stew.   Every nook and cranny is a vessel for this precious liquid.

When it finishes, it still remains.  We need to zoom in, get close to the earth and see the transparent jewels hanging from grasses, edging flowers and marking pathways.

These delicate drops shape and sharpen.  Some of them stick, others slide.  They may be visible above or soak into the ground.  Until the sun pushes aside the clouds, they are another fragile, vital element in the cycle of life.


With the grace of a gifted wordsmith April Pulley Sayre takes readers into this particular portion of the water cycle.  Among the pages of her text for the minutes we are reading (and lingering after the book is closed), we feel the rhythm of the arrival of rain, the transformations as it falls and the noticeable differences when it stops.  She creates a beautiful blend between rhyming, alliteration and simple statements with a specific beat.  Her sensory word choices take us to each and every moment.  We are observers right beside her.  Here is a sample passage.

Raindrop spangles
mark angles.
They cling to curves
and cover cocoons.

Every single page holds visual representations of April Pulley Sayre's words in the photographs she took.  The matching dust jacket and book case highlight leaves speckled with watery spheres.  On the back, the left, a single bird sits at the bottom of the page as rain falls.  Perhaps the rich deep purple opening and closing endpapers signify the worth of rainfall.  One of many close-ups showcases a red, heart-shaped leaf on the title page against an unfocused green background.

Striking images are captured on all of the pages, sometimes spanning across both pages or grouped, edged in thin white lines, like a gallery collection.  Most of them take us as near to the subject as possible.  The lighting, perspective, framing and focus are exquisite.  I can only imagine the hours dedicated to getting the exact shot necessary to complement her poetry.


Spread over two pages is one of my favorite images.  Sayre has taken a picture magnifying the leaves on a plant, bush or tree. The raindrops are generally larger than the size of your thumb.  In them we see a reflection of the branches.  In a word, this is stunning.


Raindrops Roll written and illustrated with photographs by April Pulley Sayre is a treat for our senses.  You can't help but acquire a new appreciation, or enhance your gratitude, for this natural occurrence.  The next time the forecast calls for rain, you'll be ready with new eyes and ears.  At the end of the book Sayre includes two pages of scientific explanations about sections of her text along with a short bibliography of other related titles.  I highly recommend this title.

To learn more about April Pulley Sayre and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name taking you to her website.  April Pulley Sayre's pictures are featured at author and blogger Julie Danielson's blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  A portion of my favorite illustration is shown.

To Be And Learn

Since most of us lack the capacity to morph from one form into another, understanding other people, other animals, tends to be difficult or complicated at the very least.  Yet, we believe knowledge is key to creating empathy.  How can we eliminate fear or distrust without it?

Reading is how we build this bridge; reading closes gaps in our awareness.  We read well-researched nonfiction titles by authors who are experts in a particular subject area or who have consulted with those who are indeed professionals in their field.  We also read books like Eat Like A Bear (Henry Holt and Company) by April Pulley Sayre with illustrations by Caldecott Honor winner, Steve Jenkins. This is how we learn to enlarge our world beyond ourselves.  We become the bear.

Can you eat like a bear?
Awake in April. Find food.
But where?

After being asleep four months, having lost one-third of our weight, it's easy to understand the hunger.  First though, our thirst must be quenched; a pond, a stream or nearby river might do.  With long claws for digging, snow disappears into dirt to reveal shoots of water-loving flora or the remains of another animal who did not survive the winter.

In each of the seven months until we sleep again, our lives revolve around our ability to find something to eat.  We use our nose to smell delectable delicacies, fresh green plants or a pile of ants. If we're up to speed we might run down a stray young elk or later grazing, another bear.  Taking a bath is another opportunity to catch a fresh feast.

We dig and dig and dig some more, discovering appetizers or a midday meal.  We climb heights of broken rocks to capture groups of moths at rest.  Soon it's time to collect the harvest of fruits nature provides.

We dig and dig and dig yet again to uncover what other animals have stored.  We search and seek to find a place to sleep; a place to protect us from the winter winds and snow.  It could be we'll need room for more than ourselves; mid-winter might bring surprises.


When you mesh a childhood embracing the out-of-doors, nurturing a love of nature, with an education in biology and writing, an author such as April Pulley Sayre may appear to the benefit of her many readers.  This June when attending the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago, in the midst of crossing the large hallway from the exhibits to the information area, I glanced at the name tag worn by a woman passing by me.  It read April Pulley Sayre.

There among all the hustle and bustle we chatted about her books.  She said she was very pleased with Eat Like A Bear.  Now, having read it multiple times, I can understand why.

Guiding us through the months spent after and before hibernation, after seeking information from those working directly with bears, she gives us the ability to walk beside a single bear.  Her poetic, rhythmic prose full of activity, encourages us to follow.  Use of recurring phrases, sometimes altering a single word, generate an easy flow.  Here is an examples.

Drink like a bear---from a stream.
Leaping trout? None about.
Bushes? Bare. No berries there. ...

Using cut-and torn-paper collage Steve Jenkins' illustrations welcome readers into the bear's life.  For this volume the bears are made with Amate, a handmade Mexican bark paper created from the bark of ficus (fig) trees.  As soon as readers see the front and back jacket and cover, they'll want to touch them. (The ants on the front cover shimmer like the tiny bodies do in the wild.)

Definitely a master of this medium, Jenkins' use of paper is astonishing in his ability to convey the intricate life-like details of each element in the pictures.  His perspectives, a close-up of the bear's head, side view, another two pages zooming in on a dandelion plant with the bear smaller in the background, two bears meeting nose-to-nose, a partial side view of their heads or the bear, neck stretched to taste huckleberries, looking from the bottom upward, will have readers believing they are participants in these monthly adventures.  My favorite illustration is of the bear seated in the meadow with the dandelions.


Author April Pulley Sayre and illustrator Steve Jenkins, have collaborated, as they did in Vulture View, to conceive an intriguing portrayal of one of nature's most commanding members in Eat Like A Bear.  This title is the whole package, a gift in words and pictures, informing and creating a link to another part of the chain we call life.  Thank you April Pulley Sayre and Steve Jenkins for this book.

To view more pages from the book follow this link to the publisher's website.  To learn more about the author and illustrator follow the links embedded in their names within this post.