Considering Questions

Curious children question . . . everything.  This is the very act which makes them so amazing. Being near their inquiry is invigorating.  It's wonderful to see curious children continue to be curious teens, curious young adults and curious adults.  I can still recall, as I have mentioned previously, sitting in church thirty years ago, listening to the first female minister in any church I attended utter the words, "When you're through learning, you're through."

There will never come a time when our fascinating minds are filled to capacity; there is simply too much wonder in the world.  Two publications in the final third of the year address this compelling need to know; this lively speculation about all sorts of things.  Just Because (Candlewick Press, September 10, 2019) written by Mac Barnett with illustrations by Isabelle Arsenault follows a bedtime conversation between a child and their father.

Why is the ocean blue?

Surprisingly enough, the father elaborates with story instead of science.  According to him, the fish play guitars and sing sad songs once the child is asleep.  They then sob tears of blue.

Now accelerating the inquiries, the child asks about rain.  The father replies with a mixture of fact and fantasy.  His explanation as to why leaves change color makes perfect sense if you forget about the dryness of leaves and trees in general.  He attaches the next answer to the previous answer with astute cleverness.

When the child asks about the disappearance of dinosaurs and goes on to ask about black holes, her father gives two of my favorite interpretations tying them together.  When a barrage of questions fills the bedtime conversation, the father has a kindly request.  This, as you might expect, prompts another query.  With the special gift fathers are known to have, his response is loving, wise and truthful.


In the manner storytellers have of inviting listeners into their tale, Mac Barnett starts with one of the classic questions children are known to ask.  With the father's reply to this first question and the subsequent ones, he gives readers a gift every single time, the gift of thinking outside what is expected or accepted.  The cadence we have come to appreciate and respect in picture books of excellence is supplied when the answers to questions one and two, three and four and five and six become splendid pairs.  Here is a part of one of Mac Barnett's father's answers.

Millions of years ago,
thousands of asteroids
fell on the earth.

But the dinosaurs
had planned for this.
They fastened themselves . . .


In looking at the open dust jacket you initially notice a blend of geometric with whimsical.  This look is a pictorial representation of the verbal approach taken by the father in answering his child's questions.  The dots on the child's bedding are enlarged to hold text.  The text is placed within circles throughout the book.  The colors shown in the artwork above the text are depicted in question and answer sets.

To the left, on the back, the first question, is placed in a large circle.  Three smaller circles hold leaves, a seashell and an automobile.  In a fourth circle, white, is the ISBN.  The book case is a stunning contrast to the jacket.  On matte-finished paper is a light cream shade.  A pattern is fashioned from leaves and flowers found on land and below in the sea, and there are sea creatures.  Lavender, hues of blue and green, purple and a reddish orange are given to these elements.  It's a depiction of all the wonder waiting to be found.

On the black opening and closing endpapers are dots of various colors and sizes.  Isabelle Arsenault rendered these illustrations

in gouache, pencil, and watercolor and assembled digitally.

On the title page is the nightstand in the child's room with their jar of marbles and some of them scattered on the floor.  A two-page picture is devoted to the first question with the text in a large circle on the left and a picture of the child in her bed in her room with her father standing in the doorway on the right.  The colors are shades of black, gray, white, cream and blue for the circle.  For the answer we are taken under the sea, with a brighter focus in the play of light and shadow.  The blue is featured.  The father's answer is in white circles.

For each question and answer the father, child and the child's dog change their position and expressions.  Readers need to carefully watch.  Whatever color appears in the circle will become prevalent in the following image. For the illustration after the two pages depicting multiple questions in multiple circles, we see a larger perspective of the child's room.  Many of the items in the room are incorporated in the questions and answers.

One of my many favorite illustrations is for the answer as to why birds fly south in the winter.  For the background on the right showcasing two flying swallows, each carrying leaves in their beaks, Isabelle Arsenault selects a pale mint green.  On the left is a collage of greenery, leaves and stems in all shapes and sizes in shades of black and gray with the same pale mint green.  It's a breathtaking array.  Tucked among this collection is a small insect with two arms raised in praise.

Just Because written by Mac Barnett with art by Isabelle Arsenault is a conversational masterpiece.  It allows us to see inside the bond between a loving parent and an inquisitive child.  This book was recently selected at one of The 2019 New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Books.  I can't imagine a professional or personal collection without this title on the shelves.

To learn more about Mac Barnett and Isabelle Arsenault and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  Mac Barnett has an account on Instagram.  Isabelle Arsenault has accounts on Facebook and Instagram. At the publisher's website and at Penguin Random House you can view interior images.  At Art Of The Picture Book both Mac Barnett and Isabelle Arsenault are interviewed about this title.  At author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast this book and the artwork of Isabelle Arsenault are highlighted.  Enjoy the book trailer.





If you could take a few moments thinking extraordinary things about what we accept as true, you might find yourself reflecting as the children in this second title do.  I Wonder (Random House, October 1, 2019) with words by K. A. Holt and pictures by Kenard Pak is an exploration of the art and craft of questioning.  It's like having a list of inquiries you could spend a lifetime searching for answers.  Speculation has rarely been this . . . wonderful.

What if the sun is really a kite?

This first of a combination of twenty-six wondering and questioning phrases is the spark that ignites a fire of possibilities.  It also generates another series of questions.  If the sun is a kite, what are the planets?  Are they kites, too?  If they are all kites, who is holding the string? 

Children from all ethnic backgrounds ponder.  Our next focus is on food.  How does it feel to be consumed?  When you think of water bottles, how big can you go?  What realm could be found inside a bottle?

We are asked to wonder if inanimate objects get tired, lonely or sad?  Insects find a place in these musings. 

Does a grasshopper take hopping lessons?

If you believe in unicorns, it stands to reason you need to know where they are now.

Clocks and a question of time makes sense, but belly buttons and galaxies are a completely new pair.  Thoughts turn to how a form of air is created.  Have you ever studied your shadow and its expressions?  As one child of many is tucked into bed, one final thought is offered.  For this one, and this one alone, there is a reply.  And it is the truth!

In reading over this collection of contemplations, you become aware it might be difficult to definitively reply to most of them.  K. A. Holt inspires us to go beyond what is known and to brainstorm the potential for stories.  Each one of these twenty-six is the ticket to a new adventure.  Here are two more for you to celebrate and pour into your imagination.

Do bubbles tickle everything they touch?

I wonder if books read us, too.


One look at the open dust jacket and you know this book is no ordinary book.  Oh . . . no.  This book showcasing a whale carrying a house with a unicorn coming from the back with fish swimming nearby and a blue car floating along with a kite flying is the stuff of fantastic.  The subtle, muted shades of the main image stand in sharp contrast to the sun and the bright colors of the title text.  This initial image urges you in the best possible way to open this book. 

To the left, on the back, five colorful kites fly upward from the darker shades of green along the bottom.  A lone smaller kite of blue stretches from the center edge on the left.  These kites frame the words in a pastel setting.  The words read:

What do you wonder about
when you look at the world?

On the book case of pristine white three children from diverse backgrounds run beneath the title text.  On the back, to the left, a home in pencil with gray shading above it is beneath a full moon and a cluster of stars.  On the opening and closing endpapers is a repeating pattern of a tiny red car, a teddy bear, a sun, a kite, a ladybug, a faint blue planet and a bubble.  The title page is like a dream.  The text is in lower case, partially in pencil and partially erased from a pencil rubbing.  The pastoral scene beneath it is very faint, mystical.

On the jacket flap it states Kenard Pak

uses watercolor, pencil, collage, ink, and digital media

to create his art.  For this book he alternates between double-page pictures and full-page pictures.  Each one is a unique perspective.  We are outside looking inside, looking upward, up-close, from a bird's point of view or shown a combination of two on a single illustration.  By looking at the light and sky in the images, it appears as if Kenard Pak is taking us from sunrise to bedtime except for the final picture. 

He begins and ends with a form of the sun bringing his visuals full circle.  Careful readers will see items in one picture appear again.  Readers will also want to see if the same children are shown in more than one image.

One of my many favorite illustrations is for the words

I wonder if books read us, too.

The floor and walls of the room are etched and lighter as is the staircase in the background, mostly in shadow.  In the center and filling more than half the space is a light tan rug.  Seated on the rug in her pajamas is a little girl.  With her a dog is calmly sitting and a kitten is seated next to her.  In front of this trio is an open book with the words

STORY TIME

on the front.  A talking yellow bird separates the two words.  Is the book reading the little girl and her furry friends?


Lighthearted, soulful and compassionate, I Wonder written by K. A. Holt with illustrations by Kenard Pak is a reflective selection of why we love what children think and have to say.  They are the reason as adults we strive to make the world better for them; so they can continue to wonder.  I highly recommend this title for your collections, professional and personal.

To discover more about K. A. Holt and Kenard Pak and their other work, please access their websites by following the links attached to their names.  K. A. Holt has an account on Twitter.  Kenard Pak has accounts on Instagram and Twitter. At the publisher's website you can view interior illustrations.  At author Cynthia Leitich Smith's website, Cynsations,  K. A. Holt is interviewed.

Listen, Little One

In the animal kingdom care of eggs, newborns and the littlest members of families is not limited to mothers.  There are notable fathers.  A single male lion, gorilla, or Arctic wolf guards entire large groups; prides, troops or packs.  Some sandpiper females leave the nest once the eggs are laid (she lays more than one batch of eggs per season) and for weeks a male takes care of the eggs and baby birds.  The same is true for Emperor penguins. The fathers carry a single egg on their feet, covering it with a brood pouch for warmth and protection.  They do this without eating for two months.  When the females return from hunting and feeding, the roles are reversed.

Truthfully the position of fathers in species is varied and fluctuates.  In his newest release author illustrator David Ezra Stein takes a traditional lullaby giving it a paternal perspective.  Hush, Little Bunny (Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, January 22, 2019) is a soothing exploration of nature and nurturing as spring arrives.

Come, little bunny, don't be shy.
It's time to tell the snow goodbye.

A first scamper out-of-doors leaves the little bunny in tears.  Papa is there to offer comfort.  He assures the little one blue sky is coming and if it does not, there are tasty treats to be found.

When those treats are consumed, there's much more to do.  A bunny's heart sings when it can roam freely in a field.  If danger soars above, Papa knows what to do.  He takes his precious child below that field cuddled in a cozy hole.

If the hidden space gets a bit snug, the duo can pop out again to the grassy landscape.  Should a sudden shower begin to fall, shelter is found beneath blossoming branches.  Fortunately, Papa has an answer when the situation shifts.

Tears may fall again, but fireflies brighten a broken heart.  A bird sings as a sunset radiates across the horizon.  Two bunnies, one big and one little, make their way home.  Love endures in the spring.  Love endures in every season.


As you read the phrases penned by David Ezra Stein a melody, unbidden, begins to accompany your reading.  A rhyming word ends each one supplying a cadence not unlike the movements of rabbits.  One phrase is repeated twice connecting this narrative to the traditional lullaby.  Having Papa speak to his small child makes for a personal and participatory story.  Here is a passage.

And if the afternoon brings showers,
we'll stay by a tree that's hung with flowers.

And when those flowers blow away,
we'll find some other bunnies and play.


On the front, nose to nose, eyes to eyes, smile to smile and paws to paws an adult rabbit and small bunny have our full attention (I know you are sighing.).  The use of yellow, green and hues of blue hint of spring on this open and matching dust jacket and book case.  To the left, on the back, amid a pale yellow-washed canvas, the bunny is hopping toward the spine through spring blooms.  A ladybug decides to move, too.

A golden yellow covers the opening and closing endpapers.  On the title page beneath the text the little one peers from underneath foliage at the remaining snow.  All the images are rendered by David Ezra Stein in

mixed media on watercolor paper.

The size of the illustrations moves from double-page pictures to full-page illustrations loosely framed in black lines to full-page visuals in free-formed circular shapes.  Some of the full-page images spread from edge to edge.

Delicate pastel shades reflective of the season are highlighted by loose black brush strokes.  Tiny lines indicate fur and whiskers.  It's wonderful how the placement of the characters' eyes, ears and body postures clearly convey their every mood.  Due the perspective in each scene readers are fully engaged in each moment.  They will want to touch the pictures.  They will giggle, sigh and probably laugh out loud at the image depicting Papa and Little Bunny going home through the grass.  The heavier matte-finished paper is perfect for David Ezra Stein's artwork.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is on a single page, edge to edge.  The sun is setting turning the sky golden and spreading a similar glow across the countryside.  A tree trunk frames the left side.  Branches extend from the left; one arches across to the right side.  Leafy vines with blossoms extend down from this branch.  Under this branch is a small pond.  On the back edge Papa and Little Bunny look into the water.  Lily pads float.  A tiny turtle rests on one.  On the branch a blackbird raises its head to sing.


As soon as you read Hush, Little Bunny written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein you will want to read it again to and with someone else.  This is a book to share one-on-one or with a group.  It can promote discussions on how our parents show love, support and care.  It could be paired with Good Day, Good Night, Dad By My Side, Gator Dad, The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits, How To Be A Bigger Bunny, and another David Ezra Stein book, Tad and Dad depending on whether your focus is fathers or rabbits.  To make your story time every more engaging you might want to have some musical instruments available.  I highly recommend this delightful title for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about David Ezra Stein and his other work, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website. At the publisher's website you can view interior images. David Ezra Stein has an account on Twitter.  He shares process art in his Twitter feed.  The publisher also has an activity guide.

Update:  David Ezra Stein and this title are featured at author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast on June 16, 2019.

Reptile Rollicking And Romping

If we could bottle up laughter allowing a little bit out on those days when we need it the most, I would have saved my dad's laughter.  Once he got started he could not stop.  Tears would run down his face and he would be gasping for breath.

That man had a huge sense of humor.  With two daughters and a wife who got herself into Lucille Ball type situations, he needed it. With him everything was an adventure and an opportunity for us to learn something new.  His favorite saying was actions speak louder than words.  Gator Dad (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 3, 2016) written and illustrated by Brian Lies is a fun-filled look at a day with a dad; a tribute to a dad like my dad and many, many others.

Come on---
let's go!
Let's squeeze the day.

Two dozing gators and little gator number three are about to begin their day.   A tasty breakfast and a refrigerator fright get them going.  The happy foursome rush through their necessary tasks so they can enjoy play time in the park.

They teeter and totter, race and run and swoop toward the sky.  With energy to spare, this papa becomes what his hatchlings imagine him to be.  He will go where others might not go and giggles full of glee will fill the air.  A trail of footprints will tell the tale.

Home once more, cozy in a comfy chair they travel to places, wild and wonderful, that soar and surround them from the pages of a book.  Inspired by those stories, they create a furniture and blanket fort of enormous dimensions.  Impersonations and noise sensations fill the minutes and hours.

Scrub-a-dub dubbing in the tub and snuggling with Dad during a storm end with the youngsters back in their own bed.  Shadows on the wall, a soft glowing light and all is right with these gators listening to a final story for the night.  Their day ends as it began with a phrase and a promise.


How can you not get a big grin on your face after reading the first two lines of this tale?  The second sentence written by Brian Lies is sheer genius.  The play on those words comes full circle at the close of the book in an action and a statement.

Having the dad narrate their day's activities and events offers closeness between these gators and readers.  Before we are aware, we feel as though we are joining them in all their merry making.  Lies supplies a rhythm with his words using some alliteration and rhyming.  Here is his phrase for bath time.  Lies certainly has a marvelous way of depicting moments in words.

After dinner, we'll rinse away the day.


Upon opening the matching dust jacket and book case, readers are greeted with a panoramic scene of dad and his gang of little gators galloping on a grassy hill enjoying the day.  To the left, on the back, a fully dressed zebra is sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper with the ISBN nestled on the back of the seat.  To the left on the lid of a garbage can, a mouse is reading a tiny newspaper.  In the distance on the far left is a city skyline.  It's befitting the opening and closing endpapers are a "gator" green.

Rendered in acrylic paint on Strathmore paper the illustrations are bursting with cheer and charm.  (Yes, these alligators have an undeniable charisma.) Lies varies his visual sizes from full page, edge to edge, double-page pictures and loosely framed ovals set among white space.  Extra entertainment comes when elements in these smaller images leave the frame.

Readers will enjoy noticing all the details in the images, names on the grocery (mice cream and goat meal) and household items, the swampish metalwork on the hatchlings headboard, the decorative posts on the park entrance gate, and backpack and attire patterns. The text becomes part of the overall design.  And the alligator grins and eyes convey the joy in every moment.

One of my favorite illustrations of many is when they are in the park.  Gator Dad is standing on a hill legs apart and arms stretched out and up and face lifted skyward.  The little gators are climbing on him as if he is a tall tree.  Clouds are forming in the background, a prelude to the incoming storm.  (Careful readers will notice how the sky changes during the day.)


Gator Dad written and illustrated by Brian Lies is one of my absolute best book choices about a dad and his children.  We all need to see how dads can seize and squeeze the day.  Read this any time of the day with those you love.  Make sure to have a copy on your personal and professional shelves.

To learn more about Brian Lies and his other work please visit his website by following the link attached to his name.  For an activity kit created for this title follow this link.  John Schumacher, Scholastic's Ambassador for School Libraries, featured the book trailer premiere and sentence starters and answers at Watch. Connect. Read.  Brian Lies was interviewed at Mile High Reading by educator, Dylan Teut.

Papa Problems

On Sunday June 21, 2015 across the United States people will be observing Father's Day, a day not officially declared a national holiday until 1972.  When I think of my Dad I remember his keen sense of humor, hearing him laugh at The Red Skeleton Show, his patience in showing me how to cast a fishing lure or throw a softball, "It's all in your wrist, Margie.", his knowledge on our walks in the woods and sitting for hours waiting for a deer to pass, one never did but he taught me the names of trees and plants, his persistence when we sat in a boat trolling for fish in near silence, his pleasure in working in the vegetable gardens, I have yet to grow tomato plants as tall as his were,  his cleverness in being able to fix everything and his love of reading.  I can still see him sitting in his favorite chair after a hard day of work, his undivided attention given to the plot or the provided information.

Most of us can learn much from our fathers, value their opinions, bask in their praise and feel secure in their nearby presence.  Tad and Dad (Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) April 21, 2015) written and illustrated by Caldecott Honor award winner David Ezra Stein (Interrupting Chicken) is an oh-so-true representation of a "growing" relationship between a tadpole and his frog father.  Let's leap on over to the lily pad.

My dad has big, buggy eyes,
strong legs, and a huge mouth.

When Tad's dad sings, it booms out over the pond.  Tad most certainly admires his dad's eyes, legs, mouth and music but most of all, he loves him.  Having mastered wiggling, Tad swims near Dad asking him to look and happy with the answer.

At bedtime Dad tries his best to get Tad all cozy in his own little spot nearby but Tad wants to sleep right next to his dad.  Dad's not too sure about this arrangement.  He wants to know why Tad is there.  The child simply wants to keep his parent company.  Of course his dreams of swimming don't exactly make for a comfortable rest for Dad.

Before Tad or his Dad knows it, Tad has legs.  His hopping garners the best kind of compliment from his dad.  Although his insistence at sleeping with his dad makes for yet another restless night for the elder.  When Tad discovers his mouth has grown, his replicates his dad's singing.  Poor pop can't believe the night has turned to morning.

With each new development in his growth, Tad is thrilled to show his dad what he can do.  To his credit Dad is quick to admire Tad's accomplishments.  When it's time to sleep after enduring nights of dream swimming, hopping, and singing, Tad's final bedtime fiasco is the last cattail for Dad.

Both Tad and Dad have their say.  Both Tad and Dad are mad.  Sometimes you need to be apart to be together.


David Ezra Stein writes with the voice of experience.  His dedications read

This is for Sam.
for all our daytimes and nighttimes together.

And to all the dads who are sleeping on the couch tonight.

Having Tad narrate the story reaches out and embraces younger readers.  The conversations between Tad and Dad and his dad's commentary will have adult readers grinning knowingly.  With the skill of a consummate storyteller, Stein supplies a pattern with each growth spurt, a question, an answer, a bedtime ritual and a dream sequence.  Here is a sample passage.

And then,
I grew legs.

Surprise, Dad!

So that's
what was kicking me...


The look in Dad's eyes on the matching front dust jacket and book case tell a completely different story than the gleeful grin on Tad's face.  You realize even before you open the book, something funny is coming in the form of a contrast.  To the left, on the back, at the top is an interior illustration of Tad looking a little wild-eyed during the night.  A deep dark green supplies the canvas for the opening and closing endpapers.  Black marker drawings of pond flora cover both but there is a difference with a page turn between the front and the back.  In a loosely framed oval beneath the title we see Tad gazing into his dad's eyes, closely...very close.

The verso and first page are a double-page image of Tad swimming under water to greet his mostly-submerged dad.  Shades of green, yellow, blue, pink, purple and brown color the pictures; some double-page edge to edge, double-page framed in wavy brush strokes, single framed pages or smaller circular images.  When Tad splashes it simply stands alone in a watery splish, gradually getting larger as his size increases.

Rendered by copying

Crayola-marker line drawings onto watercolor paper, then watercolor was added using a single, large, round brush, building up many layers of transparent color, (please read entire message on verso)

these visuals heighten the humor, provide a proper pond atmosphere, and capture the many moods of Tad and Dad.  The expressions on Dad's face, sometimes we only see a single eye, convincingly depict his frustration at bedtime causing readers to chuckle more than once.  What endears us to this dad is the portrayal of his gusto during the daytime activities with his child.

One of my favorite illustrations is a two-page spread framed in black brush strokes.  The shores of the pond surround an area of water.  Tad and Dad are seated on a large lily pad with their mouths wide open singing; quality time cranked up full volume.


Tad and Dad written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein is a heartwarming look at the highs and lows of fatherhood.  Both children and parents will see themselves in this story triggering merriment.  This is absolutely perfect for a frog story time theme or to send your child off to dreamland.


To learn more about David Ezra Stein and his other titles please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  David Ezra Stein is interviewed at Brightly, Meet the Illustrator:  David Ezra Stein.