Shine On

There is something soothing about seeing the sun rise in the morning or set in the evening, even if it is covered by clouds at the beginning or end of the day.  The sun's powerful presence is a sign of stability.  We welcome it even on those relentlessly hot summer days.

We know the sun provides us with heat and light.  It also plays a critical role in the sustaining of life on our planet with respect to water.  Rivers of Sunlight: How The Sun Moves Water Around The Earth (The Blue Sky Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., January 31, 2017) written by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm with illustrations by Molly Bang is a timely volume in the continuing The Sunlight Series.  It strengthens your previous knowledge and increases your understanding about water.

I AM YOUR SUN.
My energy warms your days.
I light up your world.

If you stop to think about it, it's remarkable how Earth is the only planet in this solar system filled with life.  As the Sun tells us, it's because Earth is covered with water.  Most of this water is salt water found in the oceans and seas.

 A tiny, tiny portion of fresh water is keeping everything alive.  It accomplishes this huge task by movement.  Water moves on Earth like it travels through our bodies when we drink a glass of water.  The Sun keeps it in motion.

Its heat causes the water to rise from the oceans and seas, evaporating and joining a cloak of water vapor surrounding the planet.  Specks of dust attach to the vapor forming drops which gather to shape clouds.  These clouds release the water back to the oceans and seas.  Sometimes the evaporated water joins another natural force; a river of vapor in the sky.  The rain or snow then falls on land blown by winds generated by the Sun.  Did you know there is a layer acting like

a giant sponge 

underground?  These aquifers save fresh water

for thousands of years.

The Sun continues to shine repeating the evaporation process on all plant life.  Its light ignites photosynthesis after plants soak up water through their roots and release it as vapor.  This cycle of bringing up and sending back down involves

a HUNDRED quadrillion gallons of fresh water

each year.  That number is completely mind-boggling!

Another impressive fact is the Sun works its marvels within the oceans and seas moving water there too.  Its light and heat work their magic on Earth's water at the equator and then moves it in the Gulf Stream.  You won't believe how this water works another kind of magic as it reaches the northern realms.  Think of an enormous waterfall and an equally enormous water highway called the Ocean Conveyor Belt.

The Sun goes on to explain the force of water to affect change in our landscape, to draw populations to its sources and how those people worked to utilize the water.  Did you know

The total amount of water on your Earth will always be the same?

Yet, our population keeps growing.  Another agent shifting the balance is the warming of our climate.  In the final page our Sun makes a pledge and asks a question.  We need to give it an answer which will ensure the continuation of life.


This nonfiction narrative written by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm explains the influence of our sun on our water masterfully.  After we read the words

Together, water and I
give LIFE to your blue planet,
and to YOU 

every page turn offers support for this claim.  The text flows with a cadence like water from the comparisons of amounts of all water and fresh water to its evaporation from the oceans and seas and release back in the form of rain and snow on the oceans, seas and land, to its storage in aquifers, how it moves within the sea, its power to turn rocks into sand or cut canyons, and how the sun and water preserve all life.  Punctuation, words in all capitals and repetition of key phrases generate further pacing.

Questions are tucked in the story with answers presented.  Using the sun as the narrator gives more importance to the information.  You can sense the underlying pride our sun feels as it gives us life.  Readers in turn with feel their respect grow as they are continuously amazed.  Here is a sample passage.

Yes, I move a giant river INSIDE the seas.
Just as water circulates in YOU, to
feed you, flush your wastes, and 
regulate your temperature, the
ocean river does the same 
throughout the seas.

HOW?
My light heats your Earth's 
equator steadily all year long, so
the surface water there stays warm.

My winds help move a wide current of that
warm water west, until...
the current bounces against land---the Americas!---
and curls back into swirling eddies.


When readers run their hands over the opened dust jacket, they can feel the raised text.  The color palette shown on the matching dust jacket and book case remains true throughout the title with the addition of full color in appropriate places.  The child riding in the boat in the current flowing from Africa is shown in every image engaged in an activity relative to the narrative; floating up with a handful of balloons, riding in a kayak holding an umbrella for shelter from rain or flying in an airplane over canyons and valleys.  To the left, on the back, is an interior picture placed above a list of the other titles in this series, My Light: How Sunlight Becomes Electricity, Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life, Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas and Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth. 

The opening and closing endpapers are a star-studded swirling mass of deep blues.  With a page turn we are greeted by a stunning array for the title page extending across two pages.  On the right our planet is depicted with the addition of golden waves, lines and curves giving us a vision of how the sun moves water.  These lines move to the left where the secondary text and author and illustrator names are shown along with the publisher.  The child is drifting over the top of the words with a parachute.

The seventeen illustrations by Molly Bang will take your breath away in their marvelous portrayal of the water's movement by the sun.  More times than not she will add animals, plants and other objects like boats in the pictures of the land and sea.  Her details are exquisite.  She shifts her perspective to add more meaning to the text.  For emphasis she encloses visuals with a golden yellow frame within a larger image.  You will find yourself pausing to look at each illustration carefully.

One of my many favorite illustrations is when we learn about the river of water vapor in the sky and aquifers.  On the left snow and rain are falling from clouds to mountains below them.  River branches reach into the mountains.  On the right water is rising from the sea in a wave of evaporation.  The child is riding a carpet on this wave.  Beneath the land we see how the aquifer is formed and collects water.  The design and layout is gorgeous.


Rivers of Sunlight: How The Sun Moves Water Around The Earth written by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm with illustrations by Molly Bang is a must-have title for your professional and personal bookshelves.  You can't help but feel total awe for our sun upon completion of this title.  Everyone will learn something new.  At the close of the book six pages are devoted to further information about each of the sections.  Did you know a single

large tree can transport nearly 100 gallons of water from the soil to the atmosphere each day... ?

To discover more about this outstanding collaborative team please follow the links attached to their names to access websites about them and their work.  There is a separate website for the series linked to that title.  At this publisher's website you can view and read one of the two-page spreads.


Remember to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to see the title selected by other bloggers participating in the 2017 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

When It Is, When It Isn't

When living in a state surrounded by four of the Great Lakes, large bodies of water can be easily reached in a few hours.  According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources there are more than 46,000 inland lakes ranging in surface size from less than a half-acre to more than 1,000 acres.  For three of the four seasons I can stand on my back deck and see Lake Charlevoix between the trees.  Being near, in or on the water has been a part of my life.

Essential to all living things, as a resource and a source of rest and relaxation, the value of water has never been more evident.  As a glorious ode to one of earth's prized elements Water Is Water: A Book About the Water Cycle (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, May 26, 2015) written by Miranda Paul with illustrations by Jason Chin will leave you with an even greater appreciation for the wonder of water.  You will long to step inside the pages of this book.

Drip.
     Sip.
Pour me a cup.
Water
     is
          water
unless...

As water moves from place to place heat or cold can make it alter its shape as steam or clouds.  In the right conditions clouds drop stretching out velvet cloaks to wrap around the world below.  It's hard to see clearly.

Clouds can release the moisture they hold as rain where it gathers in hollows, basins and crevasses.  Let's all jump in the puddles!  If it were winter those puddles would freeze into ice.  This surface would provide for an afternoon of figure skating, crack the whip or maybe some hockey.

Remember those clouds?  When they form in the winter no-two-alike snowflakes fall.  As much as we like the crisp air and the fun of these chilly months, the next season chases them away.  Melting snow and early rains mix with the soil to make mushy mud.

Roots dip deep into the dirt.  Water travels from blossoms to tiny fruit to sweet, crunchy apples.  How do we get the water from apples?  What is it called?  Ahhh...the tangy taste of cider.


The words penned by Miranda Paul make music.  Whether read silently or aloud, they move to a specific rhythm mirroring the different forms water takes.  Alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhyming flow from page to page.  Here is another sample passage.

Steam is steam unless... (page turn)
it cools  high. 
A dragon
     in a wagon?
A crow
     kneading dough?
Clouds are clouds unless...


Rendered in watercolor and gouache the illustrations by Jason Chin are marvelous.  The scene on the matching dust jacket and book case on the front actually begins the story.  On the back, to the left, Chin shifts seasons at the pond.  It's a full-moon-winter night.  Children are running across the frozen pond.  The feline friend is still sitting on the dock.  The darker shade of blue in the title text is used on the opening and closing endpapers.

Before the title page we see a single page picture of the sister and brother net in hand on the grass next to the pond.  A turtle is resting on a nearby rock.  Extending edge to edge on the title page the duo has captured the turtle.  Their mother is calling them from the hill on which their house sits.  Their father is working in the garden.  And the cat...is gazing at a bird in the birch tree.

The dedication pages feature another double-page illustration; the first of sixteen.  It's a cloud burst rain shower with the children running to their house as their parents wait for them on the porch.  Chin moves beautifully from outside the children's home to inside to their porch to the pond.  We follow them to school, and home again for gatherings of friends in winter and the end of summer.

Delicate details, lively, charming facial expressions, and a soft, realistic, color palette draw you into each illustration.  Chin tells small stories across several illustrations.  The turtle netted in one is cherished for a day before being released back to the pond.  The sister pays back her brother for scaring her with a garter snake as he lets it go.  There are others but you need to discover them for yourself.

I could frame any one of these images to hang on the wall in my home.  One of my favorite visuals is of the sister and her brother waiting for the school bus on a foggy morning.  They are standing beneath a striking red maple, leaves blanketing the ground.  Other autumn colors swirl across the page as their ride crests the hill.  The boy is reaching down to catch the snake.  The cat watches at the top of the hill near their house.  A tire swing dangles from a tree.  A jack-o-lantern looks out sitting next to the mailbox post.


Water Is Water:  A Book About the Water Cycle written by Miranda Paul with illustrations by Jason Chin is in a word beautiful; beautiful for the story, beautiful for the paintings and beautiful because all children will see themselves featured within these pages regardless of their race.  Like water the text and pictures begin and end during the same season bringing readers full circle. At the end of the book each of the changes in water is explained further on two pages.  The following two pages compare the percentage of water in some of the living things pictured along with other facts about water.  There are sources for Further Reading and a Selected Bibliography.  Pair this title with Raindrops Roll, Every Last Drop: Bringing Clean Water Home, Blue on Blue, All the Water in the World, Water Rolls, Water Rises, El agua rueda, El agua sube  and Water Can Be...  

To learn more about Miranda Paul and Jason Chin and their work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Miranda Paul has some activities for teachers regarding this title.  At the publisher's website you can view eight single page interior illustrations.  For a look at the process in creating some of the illustrations please head to Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast hosted by author and blogger Julie Danielson.  My favorite picture is there!



To discover what other titles are featured by bloggers participating in the 2015 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge be sure to go to educator Alyson Beecher's blog, Kid Lit Frenzy.

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.