Wherever We're Together

Defining home depends on the individual.  For some it's a permanent structure in the same place year after year.  A more temporary residence with a changing location is home to others.  Home may not even refer to a physical object.

Home may not be something you can see.  It might be anywhere as long as you are with a particular being, or where you feel loved.    For those in the animal world home can be these things along with other attributes.  The Road Home (Abrams Books For Young Readers, March 7, 2017) written by Katie Cotton with illustrations by Sarah Jacoby presents a breathtaking lyrical and visual representation of home through four animals.

Fly with me to far away,
where sun sill warms the ground.

An adult bird beckons to a baby, asking it to take flight.  The seasons are shifting and they need to do the same.  Winter can be harsh.

A tiny mouse, though its paws are sore, is encouraged to keep working.  A nest must be made from straw and leaves offering them protection.  To be hidden is to be safe.

Wolves race for food, hunger gnawing at their stomachs.  The younger of the two is learning to hunt. To take a life is to save their own lives.

Two rabbits, hearts pounding, run for shelter through brambles.  The chilling fingers of cold mingle in their fur.  They are pushed by the panic filling their bodies.  Their den offers sanctuary.

Each of these animals is moving during the day with different intentions but what they seek is the same...home.  Home is survival, the opportunity to live another day.  Do you think they see the world as a whole as home?


Though the narrative describes difficult living conditions it does so with grace and distinction through the words written by Katie Cotton. For the bird, the mouse, the wolf and the rabbit at least four sentences, two of them rhyming, depict survival essentials.  Warmth, safety and food are driving forces in their lives.  To have the same sentence at the close of each description ties all the animals together.  When Cotton alters it at the end, a truth is revealed.  Here are three more sentences.

Come with me through tangled trees
and thorns that grasp our coats.
The air is cold and sharp as ice.
It chills our trembling throats.


Rendered with watercolors and digital media the illustrations by Sarah Jacoby create an atmosphere complementing and heightening the text.  The intricate lines and exquisite details as well as the altered perspectives seen on the book case are continued throughout the book.  To the left of the adult and baby mouse, on the back, is a panoramic view of snow-capped mountains in the background with forest trees and rolling hills in the foreground.  Framing this along the bottom is the last of the flower blooms of the season.  The title text is embossed copper foil.

The opening and closing endpapers reflect in a wash a season or perhaps a time of day.  The first is in hues of blue and the second is in warm golden yellow and orange.  Beneath the text on the title page the two mice are shown in miniature.

Most of the images span two pages with the exception of several grouped together on one page with a single page picture opposite them.  Those smaller illustrations, three, in a group definitely ask us to slow our reading.  This allows us to feel the full emotional impact.

One of my favorite pictures of many is at night.  Snow covers the ground as a full moon glimmers through the tree branches on the right.  Beneath it are rows of evergreens behind a large open field.  A path cuts through the white.  On the left we can see inside a hill where the adult rabbit and baby rabbit are curled in sleep, safe for the night.


The majesty of animal life is conveyed beautifully in The Road Home written by Katie Cotton with illustrations by Sarah Jacoby.  The eloquence of the words and luminous illustrations fashion a volume which reads almost like a lullaby.  You will want a copy on your professional and personal bookshelves.

To learn more about Sarah Jacoby and her other work please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  You can view interior images at the publisher's website.

Holding On To Beauty

They walk among the towering fifty foot tall ponderosa pines and tamarack trees grazing on grasses and bushes.  You can see them as darkness falls away to daylight, in the mid-morning or late afternoon hours, and at twilight.  They can be heard munching on apples at two am if you have to go outside with your dog.  Chain link fences surrounding homes built more than thirty years ago mean nothing to them.  This is their land.  It has been for centuries.

Gliding through our city and outlying suburbs alone, in pairs or large groups, the white-tailed deer are a reminder of our need to protect and preserve.  As stewards of our fragile planet our vigilance is not an option.  Counting Lions: Portraits from the Wild (Candlewick Press, October 13, 2015) writing by Katie Cotton, illustrations by Stephen Walton and a foreword by Virginia McKenna draws readers into the wild with stunning artwork and poetic observations.

One lion
sits and watches his rough-and-tumble pride.
He surveys the golden savanna, and a flicker catches his eye---something moving in the grass.

This big cat, a monarch, a sentinel and a soldier, ever attentive, rules, observes and fights to safeguard his family.  It seems fitting the group is called a pride.  His look is fierce and filled with purpose.

As a page is turned the numbers advance.  Two gorillas, a mother and child, nose to nose, are so close they are sharing the same air.  Tiny at birth, the baby will stay near for several years.

Tall, graceful and spotted they reach for leaves.  Three giraffes roam the grasslands on long legs with stretched necks.  Nestled near three cubs a majestic tiger stares and dares anyone to come near her family.

Did you know elephants walk from the day they are born?  Five search for food and water where others have traversed before them.  They are not found anywhere else in our world, these Ethiopian wolves.  Even though they are six in number, they work as one.

Seven cuddle and get cozy as a storm swirls about them in Antarctica.  Wearing no crown, these Emperor penguins live an unimaginable existence in a land of ice and snow.  Every two to four years these female turtles move en masse to lay their eggs.  Eight swim toward the sands.  How much longer will these creatures grace our oceans?

Wearing bold-hued feathers nine macaws line a limb.  Their chatter informs each other of the latest forest gossip.  Displaying coats which leave no doubt as to their identity, ten zebras lean down to quench their thirst.  Though their heads are bowed, their eyes miss nothing.  Others seeking them for dinner need the water too.  Fifty-five animals altogether, from one to ten, counting on us.


For each specie Katie Cotton has penned sentences lyrical in style.  We are taken to the place, we are keenly aware of the animals' physical qualities, and we are asked questions.  Each piece begins and ends with a number followed by the name.  This along with vivid description, alliteration and the repetition of the number followed by a noun in the next to last line create a pleasing rhythm.  Here is the completion of the first.

...A challenger to his throne?
His muscles tighten.  He throws back his huge head,
about to roar---but it is only a lioness, returning with a kill.
He settles down to keep watch again.
Who knows what he has seen?
One king.
One lion.


Mesmerizing is a word which comes to mind when first looking at the matching dust jacket and book case.  These images rendered by Stephen Walton in charcoal reach out, grab you and don't let go.  You can't turn away.  You want to sit and study every single one.  On the back, to the left three giraffes look at you from the left-hand corner. The orange color of the title text is replicated on the opening and closing endpapers.

Throughout the book the only colors are the white background, the orange text and shades of charcoal.  The first image is the only one on a single page.  The rest span both pages, the narrative placed outside the scope of each picture.  You will find yourself frequently reaching out to the page wanting to touch one of the featured animals.

Light and shadow and fine lines create beings ready to break free from the confines of the page at any moment.  You believe if you close your eyes and then open them; the animals might be alive in the room with you.  The way they stare right at you is marvelous.

One of my favorite illustrations of several is the five elephants ranging in ages.  The younger ones stay close to their parent in the grass.  The notched ears and wrinkled skin are exquisitely portrayed.  You can almost hear them breathing.  For the moment they have paused to eat but you know they'll move on soon.


Counting Lions: Portraits from the Wild written by Katie Cotton with illustrations by Stephen Walton and an introduction by Virginia McKenna is an eloquent, poignant look at ten different animals, some needing our help more than others.  At the close of the book several paragraphs are dedicated to supplying more details about each of them.  Information is included about the author, illustrator and the role of Virginia McKenna as a champion for wildlife.  There is also a page of websites for those seeking additional facts.

To learn more about Stephen Walton and his work please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  This is a link to a blog post, Why I don't edit 'proper books' for grown-ups, by Katie Cotton which gives you a feel for her passion for picture books.  Enjoy the book trailer provided by the UK publisher.




Be sure to stop by Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the titles selected by other bloggers participating in the 2015 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.