Remembrance Of A Food

It sustains us physically.  It sustains us mentally.  We are grateful to have it.  We are saddened, and sometimes ill, when it is absent. The gathering of it, the preparation of it, the serving of it, and the enjoyment of it are laden with memories.  Words about it fill pages of books.  It is celebrated in song.  

Food in some form is necessary for us to survive.  What we eat, when we eat, who we eat with (or not), and where we eat can be a matter of routine and customs or change often.  Watercress (Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, March 30, 2021) written by Andrea Wang with pictures by Jason Chin is an intimate portrait of a particular food and its place in a family's history.  As children we can never truly know the full extent of our parent's past, until they make the choice to reveal it to us. 

We are in the old Pontiac,

the red paint faded by years of

glinting Ohio sun,

pelting rain,

and biting snow.

An unexpected cry from the mother has the car suddenly halting.  Both parents simultaneously say the same word, watercress.  There is something rarely heard in the tone of their voices.  From the trunk of the car, they remove a paper bag, and scissors, the worse for wear.

The children, an older brother and sister, are asked to help gather the watercress.  They remove their socks and shoes to wade in the cold, muddy water of the ditch.  When a car goes by, the daughter hopes it is no one she knows.  Her brother teases her with a soggy mess of watercress, and she grows weary of stuffing it into the sack.  Not soon enough for the daughter, everything and everyone is back in the car and heading home.

At dinner that evening the daughter refuses to eat the watercress.  It represents, to her, all the free things in their lives which set her aside from being her perception of normal.  The mother leaves the table and returns with a photograph of her family in China.  Her younger brother is in the photograph.  Of him, the brother and sister know nothing.

As her mother tells a sorrowful tale of her childhood in China, the girl is filled with shame for her thoughts and refusal to eat the watercress.  She now understands the significance of the leafy vegetable.  She begins to eat it, savoring its unique flavor.  It is a taste she will remember.  This is a story she will tell, to be passed from generation to generation.

As you read the free-verse poetic text penned by Andrea Wang, you feel as though you've stepped back in time and place.  The use of simile and alliteration and detailed descriptions create a sensory experience.  Regardless of your family's history, empathy for this girl, her parents, and the entire family is foremost in your mind and heart.  We identify with her first-person narrative and the inclusion of some conversation.  Here is a passage.

The tops of the cornstalks make

lines that zigzag

across the horizon.

Mom shouts,

"Look!"

and the car comes to

an abrupt, jerking stop.

Mom's eyes are as sharp as

the tip of

a dragon's claw.

The illustrations rendered by Jason Chin 

using watercolor on 140 pound cold press Saunders watercolor paper

are first visible to readers on the open dust jacket.  It is here we see his color choices, each representing the present and the past and a blend of the two.  The cornstalks on the right, front, transition to stalks of bamboo across and left of the spine.  Our narrator unhappily wading in the ditch to gather watercress along the side of the road becomes, on the back, her mother and her younger brother as children seated on a grassy hill overlooking their village.  The sky here is not that of a sunny day in Ohio, but a dismal sky in a China suffering during a famine.

On the book case Jason Chin presents us with an up-close view of watercress growing in a watery setting.  The circular leaves of varying shades of green float on a darker surface.  In the lower, right-hand corner is a dragonfly.  Its red body and translucent wings rest on top of the watercress.  Its presence is suggestive of transformation.

A deep teal covers the opening and closing endpapers.  It is close in color to the varnished title text on the dust jacket.  On the initial title page, we see the red Pontiac in the distance driving down the country road between midwestern fields of crops.  On the formal title page, the perspective has shifted.  The rows of corn are close to us on the left side of the image.  The car is driving down the dirt road directly at readers, on the right.  A row of utility poles line the road on the right.  With a page turn, the point of view alters again.  The car spans, close, across both pages.  The narrator of the story, the daughter, looks out the back window.  Farther away, next to her, sits her brother.

With each page turn, we are always immersed in the story, but our vantage point changes.  To elevate the text and emphasize pacing, the illustration sizes are either double-page pictures or full-page visuals.  Like the dust jacket, there is a stunning display, a blend of the present and the past.  We are aware of the emotional state of each family member by their facial features and body postures.  You find yourself filling with compassion for each one.

One of my many favorite images is a double-page illustration.  For me, a drive in the country becomes the beginning of a huge revelation.  On the left is the corn field growing up to the watery ditch filled with watercress.  There is a small grassy slope from the road to the ditch.  On the right the road comes into view with the red Pontiac demanding the focus of our attention.  The mother is looking out the passenger window at the watercress.  The father is leaning in her direction, noticing what she is seeing.  The sky reflects the hazy heat of a summer afternoon. 

The sheer beauty of the words and paintings in this story, Watercress written by Andrea Wang with art by Jason Chin, not only envelopes the reader but resonates long after the final sentence is read, and the last image is seen.  This is a book to read repeatedly.  At the close of the book is an author's note and an illustrator's note.  You'll want a copy for your personal and professional collections.

To discover more about Andrea Wang and Jason Chin and their other work, please visit their respective websites by following the link attached to their names.  You will find numerous useful links at Andrea Wang's site.  Andrea Wang has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Jason Chin has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Scholastic's Ambassador of School Libraries, John Schumacher, features Andrea Wang and this book on his blog, Watch. Connect. Read.  Both Andrea Wang and Jason Chin talk about this book at Publishers Weekly.  This book is highlighted on NPR, Picture This.  An interview with Andrea Wang at The Yarn, School Library Journal, by Colby Sharp gives you further insight about this title.  At author, reviewer, and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, this title and Jason Chin are showcased.  At the publisher's website is an educator's guide.  At Penguin Random House, you can view the initial title page.

   

Sizing Up

Whether we are conscientiously aware of it, we are comparing and contrasting throughout our day.  On multiple occasions we calculate how much time it will take to perform a given task and compare it to the time available.  We guesstimate measurements in rooms when decorating, in yards when landscaping, and in cooking meals with or without recipes.  When we are out and about, we gauge distances from one point to another, how close we are to the doe and fawn who suddenly makes an appearance or how high up the hawk is, gliding on an air current.

Sometimes on a clear night, with an overhead sky filled with stars, it is easy to wonder how something so far away looks as though you could reach up and gather a handful.  Your Place in the Universe (Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, September 1, 2020) written and illustrated by Jason Chin is a stellar title focusing on size, measurement, comparison, and distance.  We begin with our feet firmly planted on the ground and gaze outward into the universe.  

These kids are eight years old.

They are about five times as tall as this book,

but only half as tall as . . .

Before you turn the page to reveal the conclusion of the second sentence, in smaller print at the bottom you are told the number of inches tall the average eight-year-old is.  You are informed about the advantage of using inches in measuring.

We are further acquainted with the tallest bird in the world compared to the children.  This bird is then contrasted with the tallest land animal and the eight-year-olds.  New heights are explored when seeking the tallest living things and the tallest manmade structures which far exceeds those natural beings.

We move to majestic mountains and the tallest peak on our planet.  As we look up miles beyond mountains, we encounter portions of our atmosphere, the edge of space, and the thermosphere and exosphere which extends 6,200 miles 

above Earth's surface.

Comparisons are made to the distance to the International Space Station and the width of our planet.  Although the Earth is very wide it is not as wide as . . .

We journey farther and farther away from our home to those places we can see with our naked eyes and those places in our solar system not yet seen.  In all its vastness our solar system is smaller than the galaxy where it resides. Within this galaxy, The Milky Way, the number of stars is

more than 100 billion.

Do you know how long, even traveling at the speed of light, it will take you to reach the center of our galaxy?  Do you know how far away the nearest galaxy is to our Milky Way?  In a truly mind-boggling display of comparative wonder, galaxy groups are small against galaxy clusters which are small within the cosmic web and the universe as a whole.  In a brilliant use of words, we go from the 

observable universe

back to those four eight-year-old children who now know . . .

With every page turn your fascination grows due to the precise use of language and research of author Jason Chin.  Readers are completely engaged by the rhythmic pause in the narrative as we await what is taller, higher, wider, farther or larger than the previous thing being discussed.  With each expansion our marvel grows as he adds a new dimension to our thinking and the world we can see.  The fine print explanations along with the main narrative are informative and marvelous to ponder.  Here are two connected passages.

Earth is enormous, but it's not

so big compared to . . .

. . . the orbit of the Moon.

The Moon is 238,855 miles away from Earth.  It's so

far away that 29 Earths could fit between the two.  It's

so far that a jet plane going 500 miles per hour would

take 19 days to get there. 

You want to step into the setting shown on the front, right, of the open and matching dust jacket and book case.  It's easy to see yourself on a hill at night exploring the world with those four eight-year-old kids.  I love the diverse group featured.  The wash of sky with the cosmic light behind them creates a perfect atmosphere.  The title text is silver foil.

To the left, on the back, the necks and faces of an ostrich and a giraffe are shown watching the children.  These extend from the far-left side.  The landscape and skyscape span the spine and entire back.  The words on the back read:

Can you find your place

in the universe?

A hue between midnight blue and teal covers the opening and closing endpapers.  On the title page the children have arrived at the hill and are setting up their equipment.  It is still daylight.  On the dedication and verso page, they are almost finished putting the telescope together, leading into the first page.

These illustrations rendered 

using watercolor, gouache, and digital techniques

are as beautiful as the people, creatures, and worlds they depict.  The beings that are alive are highly animated.  Jason Chin accentuates his comparisons in the beginning by placing a monarch butterfly in the pages.  The butterfly gets smaller as the comparisons get bigger.

Careful readers will note the passage of time by watching the background, changing from daylight, to sundown, to dusk and the rising of a full moon.  Until we venture out into space, Jason Chin shows each contrasted thing in the picture with the next larger item.  The children, ostrich and giraffe are tiny next to the tallest living things.  These tallest living things are dwarfed by the manmade structures.  

Many of the illustrations are framed in white, others extend to the page edges.  The double-page pictures are dramatic, highlighting the grandeur of their portrayals.  There is a vertical, double-page picture requiring you to turn the book.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is when the children, the ostrich, the giraffe and books are shown as the full moon rises behind them.  Against the darkening sky the ostrich is left of the telescope with a pile of books around it.  To the right of the telescope, the children are standing on each other's shoulders with the top child holding a copy of the book for the giraffe on the right to read.  The giraffe is looking a tad bit surprised.  Beneath the giraffe, so tiny as to almost be invisible, is the butterfly.

With each reading of Your Place in the Universe written and illustrated by Jason Chin, you will learn some new incredible fact about this remarkable world in which we live. The book is a fine, very fine, work of nonfiction.  At the close of the book are four pages of further information with Jason Chin's artwork discussing Beyond Human Scale, Earth And The Solar System, The Solar System and The Universe.  Do you know what A Goldilocks Planet is?  There is a final page with A Note From The Author, A Note On The Age Of The Universe, A Note On The Illustrations, and Selected Sources.  I can't imagine a personal or professional collection without a copy of this book.

To learn more about Jason Chin and his body of work, please visit his website by following the link attached to his name.  Jason Chin has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  At the publisher's website there is an event kit and an educator's guide.  You can get a glimpse of several interior images at Penguin Random House.  Please take a few moments to enjoy this video.

Update:  This title and its author illustrator are featured by author, reviewer, and blogger Julie Danielson at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast on November 29, 2020.

To view the other titles selected this week by participants in the 2020 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge, visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher.

Waiting For Wonder

We understand the deceptions of time.  We know how seconds can feel like hours and hours can feel like seconds.  Perspective and what is occurring during any given moment or collection of moments are determining factors.

Children are curious about their growth inside their mother's body.  This curiosity is even stronger when they're told a new sister or brother is developing inside their mother now.  Nine Months Before a Baby Is Born (Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, April 23, 2019) written by Miranda Paul with illustrations by Jason Chin eloquently presents through information, poetry and artwork the changes inside a mother's body and inside a family's home.  As anticipation builds those months feel alternately like forever and flashes of lightning.

Small.
Ball.
The point of a pin.
Then it divides . . .

Our story begins.

Accompanying this verse on the left are factual words like first trimester, month one, weeks one to four.  Days seventeen and eighteen are portrayed even illuminating changes within hours.  We have joined this family in waiting and wondering.

With each page turn a new month, new weeks and new differences are happening.  A heart beats.  An embryo becomes a fetus.  A thumb is tasted.  A little girl plays with her baby doll and stuffed animals in her backyard.

At five months there is movement inside the mother's belly.  A mother and her little girl sing to the growing child.  She has ears to hear at six months.  Excitement swells along with the mother's body.

For the last two months the space is now full of a child moving slower and getting ready to be born.  When she arrives out in the world, her cries fill the room.  She is surrounded by loving joy.


After reading and rereading the words penned by Miranda Paul readers gain a deeper understanding of the changes happening in a family home as they await the birth of a child.  To pair and blend these poetic observations by enhancing our knowledge adds a marvelous measure to the waiting.  For each of the five line verses the final word in the third and fifth lines rhymes.

For the first five months four lines appear on the left with the final line on the right.  This changes for months six, seven, eight and nine until the circle is completed at birth with the lines on the left once again.  It's an excellent effect for pacing.


Looking at the matching dust jacket and book case readers can see as autumn comes, the birth of a child is about to happen too.  The lush colorful fall foliage on the trees frames a family with their two canine companions walking through a park.  To the left, on the back, the first interior illustrations of the egg and zygote, with clarifying captions, are shown on a blue background.

The blue is continued as a canvas for the opening and closing endpapers.  Rendered in watercolor and gouache on paper by Jason Chin the illustrations begin their interpretation on the title page.  We are going back in time from the jacket and case illustration to the previous winter.  As snow drifts down, the family, including the dogs, bundled in winter wear is walking through their neighborhood.

Opposite the verso, they are home.  Boots have tracked in snow.  A leash is being unhooked and a tennis ball is offered by the little girl to the other dog.  On the wall a commemorative poster highlights Morelia, Michoacan during a celebration.  This is the first suggestion the family might have a Hispanic heritage.  Later we see them reading a bilingual book, in Spanish and in English.  On the fireplace mantle in a following image is another hint.

The pictures Jason Chin paints of the development of the child inside the mother are intricate and fascinating.  They are on the left opposite the activities of the family on the right until as the baby grows, they move across the gutter farther and farther.  Finally, two pages are dedicated to the child waiting to be born. This is a dramatic portrait.  Readers will pause.

It is followed by a series of double-page pictures.  In each scene Jason Chin creates of the family we can see the warmth of their affection in their expressions and body postures.  We are also aware of the shift in seasons.

One of my many favorite illustrations is in the spring or early summer.  The family, their yard surrounded by a fence, is outside.  In one corner the parents are working on making a garden patch.  One dog is off to the left merrily digging.  In the foreground next to a large tree, the little girl has arranged her toys around a checkered blanket for a pretend picnic.  The other dog is resting and watching her.  She is seated on an overturned blue bucket feeding her baby doll a bottle.  She, like her mother, is wearing boots.


Nine Months Before a Baby Is Born written by Miranda Paul with illustrations by Jason Chin is a remarkable nonfiction narrative.  It is one you will welcome in both your professional and personal collections.  I can't imagine a discussion about pregnancy and the arrival of a new family member without this book.  At the end of the book are two pages with more facts about those items referenced in the poem's verses.  It is followed by several pages speaking about Nine Amazing Things Most Babies Can Do Before They're Born, a comparison of the length of time for babies to grow in animals and humans, and a What If . . .? section.  Acknowledgements and a selected bibliography close the book.

To learn more about Miranda Paul and Jason Chin and their other work, please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  Miranda Paul has a blog and an account on Twitter.  Jason Chin has accounts on Instagram and Twitter.  Author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson featured this title on her site, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.


Please take a few moments to read about the titles selected this week by those participating in the 2019 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted by educator Alyson Beecher at her blog, Kid Lit Frenzy.

Better Together

Friends and family, people, celebrate for any number of reasons.  None of these gatherings to observe something spectacular or the simple joy of another day, month, year or life well-lived are complete without food, especially dessert.  Said to be the most traditional American dessert pies have been historically documented throughout the world for centuries.  Most people will agree, there is nothing quite so savory as a fresh-baked straight-from-the-oven pie. 

Sometimes the first slice of pie is a bit tricky to cut and serve but the lucky recipient is certain to be happy whether it comes out whole or in pieces.  Pie Is for Sharing (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, May 5, 2018) written by Stephanie Parsley Ledyard with illustrations by Jason Chin takes readers to a sunny summer day in a park near the beach.  Children (and their parents) are making lasting memories.

Pie is for sharing.

It starts out whole

and round.

Even though you can make the slices large or small, sometimes there is not quite enough for everyone.  Pie, on this sunny summer day, is not the only thing more than one person can enjoy.  A book, a ball and a tree are for sharing, too.

Jumping rope offers more than one opportunity for happiness. Can you name them?  At the beach the gals and guys sail a small boat down a stream and take a rest on the toasty sand.  Some people and natural treasures are more easily given than time with 

your best friend.

An unexpected tumble does not hurt as much if someone holds and helps you.  From the mishap you can create a tale of adventure.  Secret spaces and discoveries are better with a pal.  

Singing an impromptu song, tasting ripe berries and snacking on homemade bread rounds out the day.  The evening promises even more happiness on this fourth day of July.  We are gathered because everything is better together. 

The entire tone of the book begins with the first four words.  Stephanie Parsley Ledyard fashions an atmosphere of goodwill where all are equal, and compassion dictates the actions of the children.  She asks us to notice the obvious but extends out thinking. When we think we are alone, we are not; a companion is hidden. When we are doing what we think is a single activity she invites us to look at all aspects.  Here is a passage.

Easy to share:

cousins,

sticks,

stones from your pocket.

The illustration on the front (right) of the opened matching dust jacket and book case feels as though you are holding this day in your hands.  The expressions on the children's faces, and their clothing reflects the ease of summer.  Everyone is eager for a slice of the pie, even the youngest's best friend, the black dog.  With little imagination you can hear the quiet chatter of their voices and the sounds of the seagulls. Jason Chin works the colors of red, white and blue into the banner for the title text, the table cloth, plates, napkins and blanket on the right. 

To the left, on the back, evening has arrived.  The boy in the yellow shirt, the brother of the youngest girl, is offering the crumbs in the homemade bread pan to the dog.  The same red used in the title text covers the opening and closing endpapers. With a page turn Jason begins the visual story.  A family is in their kitchen getting ready to go to the park.  Two pies are about to be placed in a picnic basket.  The little girl has a blanket tented on the dog's head and her head.  Her brother is kneeling on a stool at the island.  The dad is filling water bottles at the sink.  

A large double-page picture has the family getting on their bikes in front of the house on a small-town street.  Chalk pictures and chalk are on the sidewalk.  It's a peaceful setting for the title page. On the verso the family is on their bikes, riding.  

Most of the visuals rendered in watercolor and gouache extend from page edge to page edge on full pages or double pages.  For the purpose of pacing several smaller images are grouped on a single page.  Each scene, worthy of framing, has elements leading us to the next image.  On the grass in one of the final illustrations is a book titled Liberty. (I am wondering if this is a nod to Lady Liberty by Doreen Rappaport with illustrations by Matt Tavares.)

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is a single page picture.  Five of the children are sitting or lying on a towel on the beach holding the small boat they sailed down the stream.  To their right (our left) the smallest girl is shoveling sand over herself.  Her belly is buried.  The black dog is curled and sleeping next to her.  Behind them is a bank of rocks and a path.  Some of the parents are there with new arrivals. Two tall trees are growing on either side of the girl.  Trees provide a pale varied green background along the top.

Pie Is for Sharing written by Stephanie Parsley Ledyard with illustrations by Jason Chin is a warm-hearted, beautiful portrait of holiday activities and festivities.  It depicts sharing of the little but important moments.  It honors the freedom to do these things.  Perhaps the next time pie is shared readers will pause and notice the other things being shared, in addition to the pie, and be grateful.  I highly recommend this title for your professional and personal book collections.

To learn more about Stephanie Parsley Ledyard and Jason Chin and their other work, please visit their respective websites by following the links attached to their names.  (This is Stephanie's first picture book.)  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.  The publisher also has prepared a discussion and activity guide.  Stephanie Parsley Ledyard and Jason Chin are interviewed at The Horn Book about this title.  This book is featured at author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  Stephanie and Jason maintain accounts on Twitter. 

 

A Walk Through Earth's History

Once upon a time there was a teenager growing up in the 1960s who played the music from West Side Story and the Grand Canyon Suite more than rock and roll.  Those two albums spun on her turntable over and over.  She was fortunate to see a production of West Side Story at a nearby university before she graduated from high school.  It was a full ten years later before she stood on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Although the movements of the Grand Canyon Suite, Sunrise, Painted Desert, On The Trail, Sunset and Cloudburst, capture the majesty of this natural phenomenon as viewed by the composer, seeing it in person is beyond description.  It is grander than words can convey until you read Grand Canyon (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, February 21, 2017) written and illustrated by Jason Chin.  Jason Chin depicts the present-day splendor of this astonishing geological wonder in the context of its astonishing creation.

Rivers carve canyons.

This first of five sentences leads readers to the title page.  We already are privy to the basic concept behind the formation of canyons in general.  With a page turn our focus shifts to the magnificent Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon is one of the largest canyons in the world.  It is 277 miles long, as much as 18 miles wide, and more than a mile deep but it's much more than just a big hole in the ground.

Did you know it's hotter at the bottom of the Grand Canyon than at the top?  Did you know there are five ecological communities in the Grand Canyon?  The Inner Gorge at the bottom is home to many creeks which all run into the Colorado River.  This river has been cutting into the canyon for about five million years.  There are thirteen specific rock layers, from bottom to top, formed at approximate times; the youngest is 270 million years old.

As you walk from the lowest level, Basement Rocks, to the Grand Canyon Supergroup you might notice ripple marks.  These, like all the rocks, tell a story.  At one time this area was a tidal flat.  Layer by layer we wind our way through time.

We might see Trilobite fossils, inaccessible caves cut into cliffs, evidence of huge dragonflies with eight-inch wingspans and seed ferns, or first reptile footprints.  Along water a Lucy's warbler might sing to us, on the Bright Angel Shale a Black-tailed jackrabbit might hop in and out of view, if a Pinyon pine is growing among the rocks we have climbed to the Hermit Formation or an elk might move through the Ponderosa pine forest.  Replete with flora and fauna this resplendent formation is a living, ever-changing marvel, a testament to the adaptability of nature and the power within our planet.


Like the Grand Canyon Jason Chin layers his narrative.  Within framed visuals he invites us to travel with a father and daughter, conversational sentences revealing what they are seeing.  In areas either to the right, left or bottom of these elements he draws our attention to more specific details; the ecological communities, labeling the flora and fauna framing some of the illustrations, the rock layers, how layers are formed and fossils are deposited in those layers, examples of weathering, and the difference between cliffs and slopes.  A decidedly interesting take on the layers visited by the hikers is when Jason takes us with a page turn to what that area looked like billions and millions of years ago.  It might be under the sea with creatures developing shells, walking among those seed ferns with giant dragonflies hovering, battling wind and sand as tiny reptiles walk on land or swimming among forty species of sharks (gulp).  Here are several sample passages.

After climbing out of the Inner Gorge, you'll find yourself on a broad, sun-baked slope.  The plants and animals here are well adapted for life with little water.  Black-throated sparrows can go for long periods without taking a drink. ...

Above the red slopes of the Hermit are pale 350-foot cliffs.  Bighorn sheep easily navigate their narrow ledges with specially adapted hooves.  In the fall mating season, males compete for dominance by mashing into each other with their battering ram horns.


That moment when you first see the Grand Canyon spread before you as you stand high above the Colorado River winding through the rock walls is magnificently portrayed on the matching, opened dust jacket and book case.  We gain perspective as to the scale through the placement of birds soaring or resting on pines.  The body stance of the girl, standing on the ledge, traveling with her father certainly conveys the magic one feels.  On the opening endpapers Jason Chin has placed a large map of the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.  He shows us its position relative to other states around Arizona with an inset.  On the closing endpapers we see on the left the layers of rock on the South Rim going down to the Colorado River.  Moving up from the river are the various habitats up to the North Rim.  This is a different point-of-view from the previous images.

All of the illustrations rendered in

pen and ink, watercolor and gouache

are breathtaking in their realistic color palette, exquisite details and shifting perspectives.  The title page is a night scene spanning two pages.  A starry sky with a full moon lights up the expanse of the canyon as a mountain lion sits at the top.  Page turn after page turn we follow him as he descends to get a drink in the creek where the father and daughter have camped for the night.

Readers will want to pause looking at the framed visuals placed within the larger landscapes shown.  Jason alters the sizes of those framed pictures to create pacing.  When he starts to show us how certain layers might have looked eons ago, he uses cut-outs showing the past and present.  When we travel to the past, these illustrations are spread across two pages.  Every time you read this book, you will see something new.  At the close of the narrative a four-page gatefold will have you gasping at its beauty.  Careful readers will notice something special being carried by the daughter.

One of my favorite of many illustrations is at the beginning when the daughter notices the mountain lion paw prints in the mud by the creek as they are getting ready to break camp in the morning.  We are close to the creek and can see a red-spotted toad sitting on a rock watching her.  Off to the left her father is reading a map outside their tent.


Grand Canyon written and illustrated by Jason Chin is a masterpiece.  It's a guidebook, a geological and historical exploration and a tribute to all plants and animals making their home there.  At the close of the book Jason talks about the Grand Canyon, Human History, Grand Canyon Ecology, Grand Canyon Geology, How Canyons Are Carved, The Colorado River, the Grand Mystery and The Story In The Rocks.  In A Note From The Author he discusses his illustrative process.  You can view his meticulous research through the Acknowledgments, Selected Sources and suggestions for Further Reading.  Every bookshelf should have a copy of this book.

To learn more about Jason Chin and his other wonderful work, please visit his website by following the link attached to his name.  There is a curriculum guide for other titles by Jason.  There is a new, February 23, 2017, informative and interesting interview at Publishers Weekly.  There are several interior images at the publisher's website.



Just for fun here is a NPR All Things Considered episode on the Grand Canyon Suite.



Please take a few minutes to read the other posts by bloggers participating in the 2017 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted by Alyson Beecher at Kid Lit Frenzy.

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.

Natural Attraction

There's no denying the joyful jolt you get when pleasantly surprised.  You may discover robins have built a nest in the new ivy you placed in a hanging planter.  Seemingly overnight the tops of perennials are popping up through the soil.  You hear the clatter of hoof beats running down the middle of the road after you and your dog startle deer during a late night walk

The same feeling can happen when you open a new book by an author /illustrator.  Having read their previous work, you have certain expectations.  I have to say when I read the April 29th release of Gravity (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press) written and illustrated by Jason Chin I may have said "Wow" more than once before I closed the back cover.

GRAVITY MAKES OBJECTS FALL TO EARTH.

This is the first of only seven sentences in this title which explains clearly, concisely and precisely what gravity is.  One word appears on each of the first six pages except for the last page on which two appear.  The first page, without any text, is part of the initial two page visual.

Readers see sky filled with clouds as a surprised seagull flies by an open book, this book, covering most of the illustration.  Continuing with the bird's eye view, a panorama spreads across the next two pages; a small figure can be seen on the beach below as the book descends much like a bird itself.  It falls next to a boy wearing a beach towel for a cape, goggles and a snorkel.  His hands are holding a toy spaceship and astronaut.  Scattered on the sand are the remnants of lunch and sand castle building.

With the next sentence, everything slowly swooshes into space because gravity is gone.  Our moon moves away from us as we move away from the sun.  Everything changes without gravity gliding through space.  Fortunately with gravity the sun, Earth and moon are once more keeping each other in place; mass determining the strength of the pull.  It also means those things sent adrift fall back to Earth.


Jason Chin's economic use of words has a dual purpose in this title.  Not only do they provide a definition of gravity for younger readers but they act as a narrative impetus for his illustrations.  Repetition of key phrases reinforces meaning and brings the story full circle.


You have to wonder what this book will deliver when you first glance at the matching dust jacket and cover.  Why are a toy astronaut, beach ball, half-peeled banana, toy spaceship, sand pail and shovel floating above Earth?  Plain, rich, deep blue endpapers representative of the atmosphere envelope the pages.

Using a book, this book, as part of the illustrations is a stroke of genius.  It gives the sense of a continuous story.  As an element in the pictures it acts exactly like a gravitational force drawing the reader into the words and pictures.

When gravity is gone, the looks of disbelief on the boy, the sea gull and crab add a dimension of humor.  In that first scene you can almost hear everything moving away from the beach out into space.  Carefully readers will notice other important items next to those found on the beach when everything is drifting away from Earth.

When showing how the moon moves from Earth and the Earth moves away from the sun, Chin uses a series of four panels shifting perspective.  It's a brilliant use of layout and design.  Again when creating his visuals for defining how mass determines gravitational pull, readers will gain a true sense of size as he shows tiny black objects approaching the gigantic sun as well as comparing the sun and Earth at opposite ends of a double-page illustration.

Without giving away the conclusion of the story, I have to say Chin's final two-page illustration and the one on the publication page at the close of the book are masterful pieces of storytelling.  His ability to present factual information within a visual narrative is done magnificently.  One of my favorite illustrations is in the beginning when the boy looks at the open book after it falls on the beach.  What is the boy (and the seagull) thinking?


I find myself smiling every single time I read Gravity written and illustrated by Jason Chin.  The blend of text and illustrations is stunningly conceived and executed.  Prior to the publication page Chin includes two pages with smaller illustrations telling readers more about gravity.  Eight sources are listed in a bibliography.  I will be including this book in my Mock Caldecott list for 2015.

Please follow the link embedded in Jason Chin's name to access his website.  There is a host of information there for educators.  This link to the publisher's website shows you illustrations from the book. Update:  This link is to an interview of Jason Chin by Julie Danielson at Kirkus Reviews.  She follows the interview with artwork on her blog Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.




Please be sure to see all the other nonfiction books others have read and reviewed at the 2014 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted by Alyson Beecher at Kid Lit Frenzy.  This week she is highlighting new releases for May.

The Only Place On Earth....

Even though the third month in this new year is winding down,  I still have many books published in 2012 which I will not leave unread.  In December 2012 a title appeared on the Nerdy Book Club Award Nominees list which began receiving starred reviews as early as July despite a September publication; four starred reviews in total.  When the National Science Teachers Association released their Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12: 2013 (Books published in 2012), this title was on the list.

This book takes readers to one of the most unusual places on the planet.  Many of those animals calling it home are found no where else.  Fascinating, factual and filled with gorgeous paintings, Island: A Story of the Galapagos (Roaring Brook Press, A Neal Porter Book) written and illustrated by Jason Chin, is more than worthy of every ounce of praise and recognition.

The sun is rising over a lonely group of islands more than six hundred miles away from the nearest continent. The air is still and the sea is calm, but beneath the water something is stirring.

With that opening we follow an island through four stages of life.  Six million years ago through a series of volcanic eruptions it is born and grows layer by layer.  Eventually, through the course of nature, a seed becomes a tree, a bird lands and stays and marine iguanas swim from a older island to the newborn.

Though the length of time is hard to imagine one million years pass; the island is in its childhood phase.    Teeming with life the land and waters surrounding it create a unique ecosystem.  Another million years passes with the island developing different climate zones due to varying elevations.

As the island grows into adulthood other islands have been born; larger islands.  Due to the specific water and land conditions creatures normally found in other parts of the globe migrate and take up residence; birds, sea lions and tortoises.  For the sake of survival their original physical characteristics over a period of years shift to match this island's environment.

Five million years have brought numerous changes to the land and its inhabitants.  Due to its shrinking size and flattening some have left; others still call it home.  One day the waters advance; the island sinks from sight.  Six million years have now passed.

Though this land mass is no longer visible, others in the group still exist to be discovered, explored and have the abundant and singular life documented.  A ship, the HMS Beagle, arrives in 1835 carrying a passenger who will change the world's thinking.  Charles Darwin is that passenger.


In his author's note Chin states:

This story is based on science, but brought to life through my imagination, and I hope that it will excite and inspire readers just as the remarkable islands of the Galapagos have excited and inspired me.  

Naming four authorities in the field who assisted in his research gives Chin a sound basis upon which to build his narrative.  Very few, if any, of the students I know or have known will ever have the opportunity to visit the Galapagos.

But with this accessible, informative text they can, as I have several times, not only make the trip but be inspired by this beautiful place.  The technique of assigning biographical divisions to the life of the island is an open invitation to explore its amazing adaptive changes.  The delivery of the details, the spacing of the various progressions, attracts and maintains interest.


The majesty and mystery of the Galapagos Islands captivates readers immediately with the double page spread across the jacket and cover displaying the varied flora and fauna.  The warm natural hues of greens, blues, browns and golds seen here are replaced with the cooler but still stunning blues, greens, whites, and grays found on the land and sea of the island during its lifespan.  The opening endpapers done in shades of golden brown feature framed portraits of thirty-six species of The Galapagos.  Using the same colors a close-up map of the islands plus an inset showing its position relative to South America is shown on the closing endpapers.

Jason Chin has painted all of the illustrations.  His one and two page visuals bleed to the page edges, drawing in the reader.  White space frames a series of smaller illustrations on alternate pages when he chooses to showcase the passage of time, the arrival  of animal populations and their growth or changes in their physical characteristics.  Layout and design combine to create a pictorially pleasing flow of events.  His final two page spread is breathtaking.


In a word, marvelous best sums up Island: A Story of the Galapagos by Jason Chin.  As to his goal of generating excitement for this beautiful place, I say mission accomplished and then some.  With the same care found in his narrative and paintings he includes a page each about Charles Darwin and the Galapagos, The Galapagos Islands and Endemic Species of the Galapagos.  

This valuable volume peaked my interest to the point where I created a new Lino which includes links to his website, the publisher page with extra illustrations, a video and a nice assortment of web pages with information and lessons.