It's Time . . . Now

It's December 24, 2019.  This time of year, the air is dry and cold.  In northern Michigan tonight, it is unlikely the sky will be clear but if it's cloudless the sliver of moon will allow for lots of stars to be visible.  These pinpricks of light shimmer like jewels, some are so large it's as if you can pluck them from the dark.

In a recent holiday title, our eyes turn to the sky, a December sky.  The Bear And The Star (Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, September 24, 2019) written by Lola M. Schaefer with illustrations by Bethanne Andersen centers on an extraordinary event.  It will change the world.

Early one December morning,
Bear woke
and turned toward the horizon,
to a star---
a new star,
barley visible,
yet larger than any before.

This star was a signal.  Bear knew it was time.  First, he needed to seek a special tree.  This tree would surpass all other trees in height, strength and in location.  He found an elegant evergreen standing alone on a hilltop.

Bear raised up and roared in the four directions.  His call resounded in places high and low, near and far.  Bear went back to his woods and gathered his forest friends.  They ran by his side to the tree on the hill.  Animals, all kinds of animals, from those four directions soon joined the others.

The brightness of the star grew.  Bear's voice again thundered and carried across great distances.  Humans, from all walks of life, heard.  They stopped, listened and knew it was time.

They sought the place from where Bear's words came.  They carried items they valued and brought others with them.  And the star rose higher and higher and became brighter and brighter.  You might be wondering why animals and humans from around the world came to this tree over which the star shined.  If you think about it and reach into your heart of hearts, you will know why it is time and why they arrived.


After reading the first sentence on the first page, Lola M. Schaefer has our undivided attention.  With every page turn, a layer is added to this tension, a tension revolving around a single question.  This question has an answer for which the animals and people are aware.  With lyrical descriptors for all these beings, we see their diversity and willingness to heed the Bear's call.  Here are two passages.

As the star shined brighter,
Bear roared louder than before,
his voice booming 
across mesa and meadow,
over sea and peak,
from cliff and bluff.

People put down
hammer and hoe,
grass and thatch,
knife and rice,
shield and sword.


As you hold the open and matching dust jacket and book case in your hands, it's hard not to marvel at the splendid snowy setting.  The sloping hill on the front continues downward on the other side of the spine.  Behind it, another hill, more in the distance, begins in the center on the left and meets the first hill to form a wide v.  Leafless trees seen on the front are also placed on the back.  A third red bird rests in one of the two trees there.  The radiating beams of light from the star appear on either side of the spine.  We are intrigued by the presence of the bear and his relationship to the star.

On the opening and closing endpapers are different scenes of swirling snowflakes against two skies.  On the first, a rosy morning light pours from the right lower corner upward and into the lightening blue sky.  On the second, a rich darker blue covers most of the two pages, getting slighter lighter in the lower half on the right side.  A slight bit of blush is seen at the bottom.

A double-page picture greets readers on the title page.  Set upon the canvas of the lightening sky filled with falling snowflakes is Bear.  Rays of the star extend down from the top on the left.  We are shown the upper portion of Bear's body as he looks directly at us. 

These full color illustrations rendered by Bethanne Andersen with

oil paints on gessoed Arches printmaking paper

all span two pages.  They are individually beautiful but combined they reveal a breathtaking story.  We are treated to a variety of perspectives, each designed to bring us into the moment.

It is a decidedly sensory experience.  We can feel the vibrations from the sound of Bear's roar.  We can hear the voices of all the animals moving from around the world toward the tree.  We can listen to the sounds of the people gathering and singing.  All are joining together for one purpose.

One of my many, many favorite images is of Bear with a cardinal, raccoon, squirrel and a salamander.  We are very close to them as they move from left to right.  The cardinal, wings spread wide, covers a large portion of the upper, left-hand corner.  It carries a small olive branch in its beak.  Beneath the bird is Bear extending across most of the left and past the center on the right.  Next to and under him is the raccoon carrying a sprig of holly in its mouth.  Squirrel scampers ahead of the raccoon with an acorn in its paws.  Along the bottom on the right a salamander maintains a fast pace.  They are placed on a canvas of blue with a heavy snowfall.


When you read a book like this one, the mounting suspense is replaced with a satisfied sigh and perhaps a tear at the conclusion.  The Bear And The Star written by Lola M. Schaefer with illustrations by Bethanne Andersen is an important title, relevant now and always.  It is one you will want to include in your personal and professional collections.  I am sure it will promote thoughtful discussions.

To learn more about Lola M. Schaefer and Bethanne Andersen and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Lola M. Schaefer maintains accounts on Facebook and Twitter.  Bethanne Andersen maintains an account on Instagram.  If you would like to see the first double-page picture, it can be found at Lola M. Schaefer's website, here.

Numbering The Years

Do you remember playing hide and seek with the neighborhood kids as it started to get dark?  Whether you were "it" or running toward the ultimate hiding spot, the sounds of counting rang out.  Using a well-known, tuneful chant, our group reached one hundred by fives.  When the top number was reached you could hear those familiar words, "Here I come, ready or not."  It was like a rite of passage when you were old enough to play by counting correctly.

The act of counting is such a part of our lives, once accomplished, we are unaware of the actual amount of times it is used during our day.  In an enlightening and uncommon take on numbers, author, Lola M. Schaefer with illustrator, Christopher Silas Neal, has created Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives (Chronicle Books).  Let's explore their world with a mathematical eye.

In one lifetime,
this spider will spin
1 papery egg sac.

Fragile. Don't touch.

From cover to cover we read about eleven animals, five mammals, one arachnid, one insect, two reptiles, one fish and one bird, eleven fascinating facts, and eleven ways to count those intriguing details. Within these pages we think, look and tally.  We pause and ponder about what we might notice if we stopped to look more carefully.

Each animal's life is not measured in days so much as it is measured in physical changes, cycles and instinctive habits.  An individual caribou gets not one, not two, not even three but ten sets of antlers during their life.  I know that Xena sheds her coat twice a year but an alpaca does so much less.

Whenever I hear a woodpecker I'll be thinking to myself, is that the second, fourth, sixth or thirtieth house they are carving out of a tree?  The louder a rattlesnake's rattle might mean it has more beads.  How can forty beads fit on the tip of its tail?

Can you guess which Australian marsupial has fifty babies in a lifetime?  I'll bet you'll be surprised not only at the sea mammal who never gets a new tooth but how many teeth they actually have.  Roaming the African savannas is an animal whose adult height and number of spots are a match.

Alligator eggs, butterfly visits to flowers and seahorse births leap from 550 to 1,000.  As the numbers climb our eyes wander from leaf tips to tree trunks, forests to barns and under the sea.  We travel the world number by number, animal by animal.


Lola M. Schaefer begins her book with an introductory explanation of her numerical estimations. She includes factors which might affect these numbers and the experts whose advice she sought.  For each animal she begins with In one lifetime...  Using this phrase repeatedly ties each animal to the one before and after it.  For most she provides a conversational aside.  It's like she is speaking with her readers instead of at them.

At the conclusion of the title, The Animals, the common and scientific name of each are given along with several informative paragraphs.  A computation including the average adult life span further instructs on how Schaefer got her numbers.  In What is an average?  she defines average with an example and how she used averages in this book.  Finally, in a special section, Lola M. Schaefer reveals I love math.  She provides readers with an opportunity to quiz themselves with story problems.

Gazing among the rows of trees on the matching jacket and cover, woodpeckers busy making homes, each hollow numbered, readers realize they're about to take a walk into the world of counting among nature.  Opening and closing endpapers in black feature an alligator with numbers like air coming from its mouth.  Matte-finished paper increases the tactile experience.

Rendered in mixed media, the two page illustrations for each animal by Christoper Silas Neal showcase the individual behavior.  It won't take readers long to discover (second animal for me) that for every number listed Silas pictures the exact amount.  Yes, I did count the 100 spots on the giraffe but not all the teeny-weeny, squiggly-wiggly baby seahorses.

How he chose to illuminate each animal, using a solid background, black, white, green, blue or a combination of two, draws the reader's eye immediately to the intended feature.  His technique of including delicate, intricate details with simple bold elements is appealing in design and layout.  I would not hesitate to hang my favorite illustration, the swallowtail butterfly on black among flowers colored white, blue and yellow, on the walls in my home.

I have been turning the pages again and again of Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives written by Lola M. Schaefer with illustrations by Christopher Silas Neal for several days.  The pairing of Schaefer's information with Neal's illustrations is completely captivating.  This title could serve as a means of presenting mathematical averages to students or for the beginning of a research project.

Wouldn't it be fun for students to make pages like these? ...to make their own book?  To learn more about the author and illustrator follow the links to their websites embedded in their names above.  If you click on Christopher Silas Neal's link to his blog, you can see more pictures found in this book.   I would pair this with Bugs by the Numbers: facts and figures for multiple types of bugbeasties by Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss. Recently Jen reviewed at Teach Mentor Texts: Using Mentor Texts to Promote Literacy, Million, Billions & Trillions: Understanding Big Numbers by David A. Adler, which would also be a good match.