Peas, Pass More Peas

Getting children to eat their vegetables is an age-old frustration felt by mothers on a universal level.  It has been the source of countless jokes, cartoons and picture books.  The ingenuity of mothers to get their children to eat peas in particular is only equaled by their sons and daughters schemes to avoid them at all costs.

Given their less than desirable lure at the dinner table, it was pure pleasure to see them in LMNO Peas (Birch Lane Books, 2010) written and illustrated by Keith Baker.   This happy-go-lucky, unique alphabet book uses peas as people rhyming their way through the ABCs highlighting various occupations, recreational pastimes and everyday living.

We're acrobats, artists, and astronauts in space.
We're builders, bathers, and bikers in a race. 

Baker has followed the success of that title with a new one, 1-2-3 Peas (Beach Lane Books, July 2012).

As the numbers one through ten are counted, each is accompanied by a rhyme with the pea(s) engaged in an activity followed by the repetition of a single word mirroring their actions.

One pea searching---
look, look, look,
Two peas fishing---
hook, hook hook.

Verbs describe the peas in boats, a garden patch, an airplane, a swimming pool, or on a track, stage or scaffold.  When the reader arrives at eleven the numbers are mentioned up to nineteen with a single sentence tying them together.  From twenty to one hundred the numbers are counted by tens continuing with poetic rhythms as the robust, round, green guys and gals form, move, snooze, piece, gaze, group, giggle, and drift toward their goal.

Propelling this counting chant through the pages are the digitally rendered effervescent illustrations of Baker.  His book jacket, spreading across the back and front gathers the peas together, each moving to the beat.  Endpapers are green on green, a series of dots resembling the spirited spheres.

All the visuals are blended together across two pages regardless of whether they're devoted to a single number or two.  The colorful, textures on each gives one the sense of having gathered together fabric pieces to make a animated whole.  What really pulls the reader into the pages are the peas.

Using the tiniest of details, infused with subtle humor, it takes no stretch of the imagination to picture a world peopled with peas running parallel to our own.  For example, when the number seventy takes a turn with

seventy peas singing---la, la, la

instead of having them simply in separate groups around the gigantic 70, Baker creates an entire scene. The seven is rooted in the ground with king-size flowers growing upward, as a large line of notes weaves through the two numerals.   Strategically placed are groups of peas representing singing in its varied forms (opera, in the shower, barbershop quartet, etc) giving puny nods to well-known musical figures.  Whatever these peas pursue it is done so with panache.

One cannot help but smile when looking at the cover of 1-2-3 Peas; a smile guaranteed to last well after the last page is turned.  Never has a counting book been quite as much fun as when written and illustrated by Keith Baker with the assistance of his personable peas.  Clever readers will be searching the pages for the consistent appearance of a special visitor.

I highly recommend this title for one-on-one sharing or with a group.  Every reading will bring new discoveries.  I'm having a hard time not seeing a passel of hand-crafted peas being passed around or held by students during the storytime.

Singular But Not Alone

Toward the end of November through the month of March handmade snowflakes, keepsakes, some more than twenty-five years old, hang above both entrances and the circulation desk in our library media center.  Students marvel at their intricate patterns amazed by the variety.  Not surprisingly enough I learned through my connection with picture books that no two snowflakes are alike.  If I had learned it somewhere along in my studies in grade school, high school or college, it was tucked away in the back corner of my mind to be resurrected with the publication of Snowflake Bentley, a Caldecott Medal winner in 1999 written by Jacquelin Briggs Martin and illustrated with woodcut designs by Mary Azarian.

Again I am reminded of this marvel in nature with the newest title written and illustrated by Keith Baker, No Two Alike.  An evergreen frosted in snow against a chilly winter sky, snowflakes softly falling, is the resting place of two perky red birds chirping away, a single illustration spanning the front and back covers.  Endpapers thick with snowflakes (I tried to find two alike) introduce readers to the red-feathered fliers as they venture out from their birdhouse to explore the frozen landscape.


Adventures begin, discoveries are made and questions are answered as these words follow the companions:

No two snowflakes are alike,
almost, almost...
but not quite.

The duo soars, completes aerial loops, tries to catch falling flakes, feather-tickles a slumbering squirrel, skis on pine needles, snacks on leaves, and taunts a passing fox.  Throughout their travels using spare, lilting, rhythmic verse Baker recites that nests, tracks in the snow, branches, leaves, forests, fences, roads, bridges, houses, and friends may be similar but each, in their pleasingly particular pattern, are unique.  His closing two page spread against the lacy falling flakes shows two large red feathers falling, identical except for the black tip on the one.

In response to an email Keith Baker states that his digitally rendered illustrations are first sketched in pencil.  Sketches are then scanned into Photoshop.  He draws and adds color with a stylus and Wacom Tablet.  None of his images are imported unless they have been drawn first by hand.  He wishes all his pictures to have a hand-crafted look rather than the super realism or 3-D style. My thanks go to Keith Baker for responding to my request.

To this reader's eye the visuals created by Baker are as fresh and crisp as the season which they depict but there is a softness to them; a feel of collage, a careful placement.  A subtle silence permeates from the pages despite the playful ventures of the two feathered friends.  The choice of red for the birds, that warmth, among the cooler colors of this time of year, when Mother Nature is at rest, draws readers into the narrative.  As he did in his New Times Bestseller, LMNO Peas, small bits of humor are woven into his visuals such as the birds making a pile of snowballs, calling out to the fox, ready to send one sailing through the air.

No Two Alike written and illustrated by the mind and hand of Keith Baker is a charming, refreshing, winter journey taken by two likable birds affirming our individuality with exhilaration.  This is going to be a perfect title to share during these January days aloud to groups of students who I know will beg to hear it again.  I will quickly comply with a smile.