The Best Gift Ever

More than twenty-three years ago, a chocolate Labrador puppy was born.  As the smallest dog in her litter, a powerful name was given to her by her human.  She was called Xena.  For fifteen years, she was a constant companion to a woman who had endured pain and was starting a new normal.  The duo wandered, walked and ran in all kinds of weather.  They shared adventures firmly stored in the human's mind and heart.  

After Xena's death, fifteen blog posts beginning on December 2, 2015 and ending on December 21, 2015 were written.  In those posts conversations about our shared experiences lead to honoring a specific book focusing on a dog or dogs.  Today I have the distinct pleasure of again paying tribute to the enrichment dogs bring to our lives.  

Every action they take is based on the use of their enhanced senses, any training they may have, and a deep desire to give unconditional love.  The collaboration of author Maria Gianferrari and illustrator Ishaa Lobo gives readers a title filled with the return of that love.  To Dogs, with Love: A Love Letter to the Dogs Who Help Us (Roaring Brook Press, December 5, 2023) speaks truth in lyrical words and in lovingly-fashioned and researched artwork.

Dear Dogs,

Thank you for your tails

that whip and thump and pump,

Even when they're stubby---

They bring joy.

Each of eight passages begins with thanking dogs for one of their notable characteristics.  Their ears never miss a sound.  It's as if they understand every word we utter.  With their eyes, they see us and what we cannot see.

As our hands stroke their fur, regardless of its length or texture, peace wraps around us. Their paws provide perspective in every step and stance.  When we least expect it, dogs' tongues are the best kind of kisses.  Kisses we need.

The phrase "the nose knows" is an authentic description of dogs' ability to sniff out anything good or bad in our surroundings, even our emotions.  When a dog's head finds its way next to your head as you sleep, it is the best gift ever.  An unbreakable bond, a lasting connection, is formed.

As the letter comes to a close, we thank them for all the actions they take every day to join us in our lives.  They know when to give joy or soak up sadness.  They bring calm as we drift off to sleep in their presence.  We are filled with gratitude.

With every word author Maria Gianferrari writes we are aware of her gift as a wordsmith and of her fondness for all things dog.  As she describes each physical attribute, we know she has witnessed and enjoyed the benefits of every aspect of a dog.  Her use of rhyme and alliteration create a musical flow throughout this entire ode to our canine companions.  Here is another passage.

Thank you for your fur,

Long

Or short,

Coiffed

Or curly---

Fuzzy for nuzzling,

Gifting comfort.

On either side of the spine on the dust jacket, illustrator Ishaa Lobo has drawn a cozy setting within the same room as indicated by the walls.  She features a child nestled within the curve of a dog's body, each canine offering exactly what the child needs.  Shown in the eyes of the children and dogs in each image, you know they have formed an attachment.  On the book case (the surprise as some of my younger students call it), a different illustration is shown.  It is a stunning interior picture spanning from the left edge to the right edge.

On the opening and closing endpapers, ten dogs are displayed in a variety of poses.  We can see that some of them are wearing their therapy vests.  On the title page and verso, dogs are cuddling with their dedicated humans and with a child reader resting on the floor.  

These illustrations, rendered digitally with a tablet pencil, evoke a genuine warmth in the color palette, perspective, settings, and realistic details.  For each physical attribute Ishaa Lobo decides which picture size best conveys a pictorial message.  She varies the sizes between two-page illustrations, full-page visuals, and smaller vignettes.  She sometimes chooses to bring us very close to a dog's paws, their head, or their connection to a human.

As you turn the pages of this book, you are aware of every line, every texture, and every setting.  They work to create a window into the humans' lives changed by the presence of a dog.  Outside a small cottage in a meadow is a table holding a vase, several journals and a pencil.  Next to the table is a child in a wheelchair.  A dog wearing a wheeled-harness rests its paws on their lap.  Both move with wheels.  There is an instant understanding between them and between us as readers.

One of my many favorite illustrations is the one featured on the book case.  It is a wordless double-page interior picture.  From left to right, we see five dogs and the tail of a sixth.  They are all walking on leashes with their humans heading to the right.  They are eager and focused.  All we see of the humans are portions of their legs and feet.

I can already hear the gasps and sighs of readers, when they view To Dogs, with Love: A Love Letter to the Dogs Who Help Us written by Maria Gianferrari with artwork by Ishaa Lobo.  At the close of the book two pages are devoted to A Note on Therapy Dogs.  This is followed by two more pages informing us about the variety of therapy dogs and available resources.  I already know I will need multiple copies of this inspiring title.

To learn more about Maria Gianferrari and Ishaa Lobo and their other work, please follow the link attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Maria Gianferrari has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Ishaa Lobo has accounts on Instagram and Twitter.   There is an interview at Maria Marshall's website of these creators relative to their work and this book.  At the publisher's website, you can view several pages of interior illustrations.

For Maria Gianferrari, dog love is the most pawsitive medicine of all!  To Dogs, with Love is Maria's seventh book featuring beloved canine characters, following Being a Dog: A Tail of Mindfulness, Operation Rescue Dog, Hello Goodbye Dog, Officer Katz and Houndini, and the Penny & Jelly series.

Ishaa Lobo is (a) Children's Book Illustrator living in London.  She is the illustrator of The Mystery of the Love List by Sarah Glenn Marsh; To Dogs, with Love by Maria Gianferrari; and There Always Room for One More by Robyn McGrath.  Her next book, Bigfoot's Big Heart, written by Sarah Glenn Marsh, will be released next year.  In her spare time she likes to visit galleries, go to the cinema, and go on walks.  See her work at ishaalobo.com

From Tiny To Mighty, Above And Below, Watch Them Go

Without fail near Mother's Day every year, a deliberate, planned treasure hunt began.  Unlike many treasure hunts, there was no map with a large "X" marking a spot.  To be sure, there were areas to check, but much depended on the weather and the type of spring we were having.  As a child and then later as a teen, I am not sure which was more fun, watching my father seek and find the elusive morel mushroom or finding them myself.

How my dad acquired his skills as a morel mushroom hunter or, for that matter, skills at finding other edible mushrooms is a mystery, but our meals were better for his knowledge.  For him and every reader with a desire to learn about the fantastic abilities of living species to be found around us in the natural world, Fungi Grow (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, October 17, 2023) written with infinite care by Maria Gianferrari with exquisite artwork by Diana Sudyka is a title as precious and delicious as the morel mushroom.  A poetic, lively and informative narrative accompanied by detailed, colorful images highlights a realm deserving our attention.

Fungi grow.

Start with a spore---

     a sort of seed.

Readers journey from unusual places on fungi by unusual modes of transportation.  Self-generated breezes, rain, unsuspecting animals, slim, and malodorous smells help spores to move.  Once these spores have landed, they begin to fashion roots.

These rootlike formations, named hyphae, free enzymes which act as agents of change, breaking down and taking back.  The hyphae make threads, like cotton, which spread underground.  These mycelium are responsible for what we see above ground.

Some mushrooms rely on trees for their life.  Trees make what they cannot. They in turn provide trees with minerals.  They, mycorrhizal fungi, connect trees to one another so they can send messages which can warn other trees of danger.

Some edible fungi are found above and below ground.  Other mushrooms begin small, grow up and then spread out like dancers' dresses.  Fungi can be found on dead wood, looking like shelves, tiny umbrellas, or colorful, striped tutus.  

Fungi come in shapes and sizes and colors that defy imagination.  Large or small they make their presence known.  They can punch through cement or asphalt or thrive where everything else has died.  They can be deadly or can help.  They are an essential, magnificent piece of the puzzle we call life.

Much like the path a spore takes, Maria Gianferrari, through her extensive research and gifted writing, takes readers roaming with purpose through the world of fungi.  Repetition of the title phrase ties portions of the narrative together like mycorrhizal fungi.  Alliteration and rhyming invite us deeper into the text.  Explanatory paragraphs further inform us beneath lyrical statements.  Here are two connecting passages.

Spores catapult, sail, wander with wind.

PUFF!

Cottony rot fungus spurts

plumes of spores.  This action,

called "puffing," creates wind

for spores to sail on.

When you open the matching dust jacket and book case, one of the first things you notice is the artwork by Diana Sudyka extends to the ends of the left and right jacket flaps.  The vibrant color palette surrounds you, giving energy to the living creatures and fungi featured.  We are taken into that moment depicted on the jacket and case.  We cannot wait to enter the pages within the body of the book after this gorgeous introduction.  The title text, fungi and creatures are varnished.

The opening and closing endpapers feature a rustic red covered in irregularly-shaped white elements.  These could be spores or perhaps we are very close to the mushrooms shown on the jacket and case with those same distinguishing marks.  The array of fungi on the title page extends across the gutter to the verso page.  The title text is above and the author and illustrator names are in the green expanse below.  In a frame with fungi growing from the edges, we find the dedication on the opposite page.

These images by this artist,

rendered in gouache watercolor and finished digitally,

are highly animated.  Spores fan out simulating their movement.  Tiny dotted lines show their paths.  Words like puff, plop, poof, and pee-ew are shown in realistic and exaggerated portrayals.  Fungi are all labeled in delicate handwriting.  When the narrative transitions, Diana Sudyka frames the initial illustration with an ornate oval border.

The pictures range in size from double-page illustrations to single-page visuals.  As the narrative grows more powerful, so do the images.  We are given huge panoramic scenes and breath-taking close-ups.  The attention to detail is superb.

One of my many favorite illustrations is a double-page picture.  It is for the words:

Mushrooms SPROUT.

Parasols POP OUT.

Mushrooms fan,

arc,

spread their skirts.

A stump in ringed colors of gray and black supports rusty-gilled polypore, violet-toothed polypore and turkey tail shown in their rich hues.  Leaves and grass go along the bottom to the left.  There red and orange pinwheels open.  A frog takes cover under them.  Above them, on a large branch, are intricate pinwheel mushrooms that look like lace.

Whether you are hiker of forests or have never set foot in one, you will be enchanted by Fungi Grow written by Maria Gianferrari with illustrations by Diana Sudyka.  Among radiant images and magical words brimming with information, you will stroll again and again, amazed by fungi and their traits. At the close of the book are several pages of back matter, including a warning about never eating mushrooms found outside unless they are approved by a professional, a glossary, how fungi heal and help, fun fungi facts, fungi life cycle, sources, further reading for kids, additional resources, and blogs and websites. I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Maria Gianferrari and Diana Sudyka and their other work, please access their respective websites by following the link attached to their names.  Maria Gianferrari has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Diana Sudyka has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  At the publisher's website, you can view the open jacket and interior images. 

Maria Gianferrari's yard is full of fungi.  From branching corals and pointy stinkhorns to smoky puffballs and colorful jack-o'-lanterns, everything's coming up mushrooms!  Someday she hopes to find some morels---she'll even share them with a squirrel.  Maria's favorite edible mushroom is the hearty portobello.  She lives in Massachusetts.

Diana Sudyka grew up hearing stories of her grandfather, an ardent forager, bringing home chicken of the woods and maitake mushrooms for meals.  Her favorite edible mushroom is the delicious morel that popped up in her yard last spring.  Diana lives with her family in Evanston, Illinois.

Chilly Jeweled Treasures

In the midst of winter, snow, wind, and cold can work to create breathtaking artwork.  Last year as I was wandering from beach to beach along Lake Michigan and noting the work of this trio, another admirer asked if I had seen the blue ice at a nearby beach.  I had not.

I believed most of the rare blue ice was to be found along the Lake Michigan shoreline closer to the Mackinac Bridge, but this blue ice was along the shore at the west end of Lake Charlevoix. (Blue ice forms when a combination of clear water, dense ice, and sunlight work together.)  As I pulled into the vacant parking lot and looked across the snow at the lake, I gasped.  Fortunately, the sun was shining and it heightened this spectacular natural wonder.  

One of my favorite authors was also intrigued by the formation of ice when observing the pictures taken by a friend.  When this woman's curiosity is awakened, we can expect an outstanding title to follow.   Ice Cycle: Poems about the Life of Ice (Millbrook Press, October 4, 2022) written by Maria Gianferrari with illustrations by Jieting Chen is a collection of informative original verses enhanced by equally informative and transformative images.  You might want to bundle up as you step into the pages of this brisk book.

Ice Is Born

From freezing water,

Bonds settle into order.

Shapes unfold

Temperature and vapor mold.

Lattice facets

Crystals form habits.

This first of eleven poems introduces us to the creation of ice.  We are also privy to familiar and, perhaps, unfamiliar words used in the context of ice.  It is beginning, too.

The next poem talks about frost before we read about how water freezes on wood, plants, and in soil to fashion hair, flowers, and spikes.  We are intrigued by the range of movements ice makes.  We listen as its sounds fill the frigid air.

Have you ever heard of the word frazil?  This is another beginning on the surface of water, salt and freshwater places.  Ice shapes are given names like hummock and bummock.  If you think the word floe acts alone, you'll be amazed at learning about its partners.

When certain animals are born it is called calving, but this word is used, too, when ice breaks from a larger portion of ice.  Names are also assigned to ice as it grows older, whether it melts or survives melting.  Ice's life finishes and starts with the rising and falling of temperatures.  It is a circle to be savored.

That we are factually informed through poetry is evidence of the talent of author Maria Gianferrari.  She starts and finishes the text with the same three words.  In between those three words, short phrases, rhyming words, alliteration, carefully chosen descriptive adjectives and verbs, and terms relative to ice wrap us in a world of water, wind, and bitter temperatures.  Maria Gianferrari takes us on a journey from the smallest forms of ice to towering giants and landscapes farther than our eyes can see.  Here is a passage.  It is the first part of the poem Ice Plays.

Icicles shine,

Drip and drop.

Ice spikes launch,

Stick and prick.

Cat ice whorls

Swirl and twirl.

Brinicles sink,

Plume and bloom.

Upon opening the matching dust jacket and book case, readers are treated to a single image spanning left to right over the spine.  The color palette definitely depicts a frozen atmosphere.  To the far left of the spine is a large glacier and sheets of ice.  The sheets of ice reach like fingers into the icy blue water.  This takes our eyes to the right side with the clever display of title text shaped like an iceberg.  

These images by artist Jieting Chen

were created with Photoshop.

On the title page a small figure dressed in red stands on a snowy piece of land jutting into the turquoise water.  Rising above the water are enormous mountains of ice.  With a page turn labeled forms of ice,  geometrically framed, stretch from the verso page to the first poem.  

Each page turn is a beautiful surprise.  Jieting Chen varies her perspectives, sometimes within the same illustration.  We might be close to the kind of ice forms featured, or given a wider, more vast viewpoint.  Sometimes to indicate the size of the ice forms, a person or water vessel is placed within the visual.

Smaller labeled pictures are shown in a column off to one side of two pages, or they might be the main highlight as in the poem, Sea Ice Sprouts.  Light and shadow indicate the time of day.  Added details portray sound and movement.

One of my many favorite illustrations is a double-page picture.  It is as if we are standing in an open window on the second floor of a building.  The window opens like a French door.  The panes on the left and right sides are etched with frosty designs.  The tree branches are spiked with delicate spines of ice.  Below in the snow, two children play.  Their forms cast shadows on the snow.  Are they starting to make a snowman or gathering snowballs for a toss and catch?

From the first page to the last page, Ice Cycle: Poems about the Life of Ice written by Maria Gianferrari with artwork by Jieting Chen is captivating.  There is extensive back matter.  The first page is titled Ice Is Nice!  This gives us some basic information.  The next page is dedicated to Freshwater Ice Formations.  Here terminology is thoroughly explained.  This is followed by two pages with words defined relative to Sea Ice and Ice on Land.  There is a short section titled Time to Experiment:  Make Ice Spikes!  At the close under Further Information is a list of books, websites and online articles, photos and videos and sounds of sea and lake ice.  I highly recommend this book for your personal and professional collections.  Use this title as an informational read aloud or as an introductory title for a unit on ice, winter or cold climates.

To learn more about Maria Gianferrari and Jieting Chen and their other work, please access their websites by following the link attached to their names.  At Maria Gianferrari's website she has an activities and resources page for her books.  There are some great ideas for this title.  Maria Gianferrari has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Jieting Chen has an account on Instagram.  This book is featured at author Tara Lazar's site, Writing For Kids (While Raising Them) and at Maria Marshall's site.  At the publisher's website, you can read an excerpt and view interior images.

Maria Gianferrari thinks ice is nice.  After seeing editor Carol Hinz's feathery frost photos on Instagram, she was inspired to find out more.  During her research, Maria was amazed by all the diverse kinds of ice that exist, and this book was born.  Her favorite form is pancake ice.  Maria lives in Massachusetts with her family, where winters usually bring ice and snow. 

   

To Them Every Moment Is A Miracle

Every single day when morning arrives and I wake up, the first thing I see is my dog, Mulan.  She is either still sleeping next to me or giving me the where-is-my-breakfast stare.  And every single day, I take a few minutes to be grateful to have her sharing life with me.  She reminds me to focus on the now.  She does not dwell on the past, which is not to say that she does not remember.  She just chooses not to have it steal her current joy.  She does not think about the future except to get excited about what we will see on our walks or when we go for a ride in the car.  She, like the dogs before her who have been a part of my world, lives life as it should be, moment to moment.

For dogs everything is a sensory experience.  Based upon what they see, hear, taste, touch, or smell, they react with what I have come to believe is perfection with the exception of skunks and porcupines, of course.  Being a Dog: A Tail of Mindfulness (Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, April 5, 2022) written by Maria Gianferrari with pictures by Pete Oswald is a book to savor every day, any day.  It is a reminder of the purpose and value of how we spend our time.

Can you be like a dog?

Being like a dog

is BE-ing.

Right now.

They tend to disregard what was and what will be in exchange for what is.  They embrace the morning with stretches, wagging, doggie kisses, and a breakfast and beverage enjoyed.  When they go outside, one of the first things they do is lift their noses to the air, gauging all the local happenings.  They sniff every whiff.

Do they know how to play?  They do with every muscle and movement in their bodies!  And they don't care if it is sunny, rainy, windy, or snowy.  

Whatever emotion comes their way during the day, they express it.  We should, too.  There is no better display of happiness than the happiness of a dog.  Wherever they go, whatever they do, they do it completely.  

They realize the need to rest during the day to recharge when necessary.  We should realize this, too.  Then, get back into the action in every season.  At the end of the day do you have a ritual?  Dogs do.  They let nature tell them it's time for bed.  Every muscle and movement in their bodies welcomes sleep and dreams.  

Author Maria Gianferrari has been and loves to be in the company of dogs.  She believes like Roger Caras that 

dogs make our lives whole.

It is through her observations of her canine companions and research about them that gives this book its authenticity.

Her short sentences and phrases are as if a dog is speaking them.  She takes us, word by word, through a dog's appreciation of finding joy and living fully throughout their day.  Alliteration adds to the zest this dog, all dogs, bring to a day.  As we follow this dog and his human, we are reminded to be like a dog.  And we find ourselves agreeing with total abandon.  Here is a passage.

Wade and watch in the water.

Tunnel and shovel in the sand.

Hide and leap from the leaves!

One of the first things you might think from looking at the right side, front, of the open and matching dust jacket and book case is this dog is wise in the ways of the world.  This dog is ready to embrace the day.  This dog loves to run, fetch, and return.  Do you notice the smile?  Do you notice the heart-shaped tag?  The dog and text on the front of the dust jacket are varnished.

To the left, on the back, beneath the words

Let's BE like a dog---right now.

is an interior image.  It shows this dog's human popping up from a pile of leaves as the dog jumps high in the air over those leaves.  We all know they will then roll around in the leaves together.  Both the child and dog have their mouths open in happiness.  

The opening and closing endpapers are the bright turquoise color we see on the dog's collar.  The title page is a mirror illustration of the jacket and case.  With a page turn we see the dog chasing a seagull on the left and sitting and waiting next to the tennis ball on the right.  These are the publication information and dedication pages.

Throughout the book, Pete Oswald 

used cut paper and scanned watercolor textures to create the digital illustrations for this book.

They are highly animated with spot-on dog expressions and body postures.  Pete Oswald includes details in the images allowing us to see the bond between this dog and the child.  

The pictures are single-page images with wide loose frames, smaller images grouped on a one or two pages, full-page pictures, edge to edge, and double-page visuals, edge to edge.  Regardless of the activities, our eyes are drawn to the dog and the human's response to that dog.  They are together, always.

One of my many favorite illustrations (I could literally frame a lot of them.) is the first double-page picture in the book.  It is morning.  On the right side of the image, through a window, we see tall buildings glowing in the morning light.  Near the window on an oval rug is an easel.  A picture of the dog has been painted by its human.  The tennis ball is beneath the window.  On the left side is the bed.  Above it, on the wall, are pictures representing the friendship between the child and dog.  (One of the pictures shows the child's hand reaching for one of the dog's paws, tip to tip.) The child, still under the covers, is stretching their arms upward.  The dog is on top of the blankets and stretching.  What a wonderful scene to begin a day!

Truthfully, I cannot imagine a personal or professional collection without a copy of Being a Dog: A Tail of Mindfulness words by Maria Gianferrari and pictures by Pete Oswald.  At the close of the book are several pages giving us examples of how to be like a dog in all four seasons.  We are challenged and instructed to SNIFF like a DOG, HEAR like a DOG, SEE like a DOG, FEEL like a DOG and TASTE like a DOG.  Along the bottom of these four pages are facts about dog characteristics.  On the final page we are shown a Mindful Breathing Exercise.  The illustrations on these five pages are fabulous!

To learn more about Maria Gianferrari and Pete Oswald and their other work, please follow the link attached to their name to access their website.  Maria Gianferrari has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Pete Oswald has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Here is a link to a post on author Tara Lazar's Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) site including an interview with Maria Gianferrari.  You can view some interior images from this title there, too.  Here is a link to a virtual launch of this book at Books of Wonder with both Maria Gianferrari and Pete Oswald.

UPDATE:  Maria Gianferrari is interviewed at Picture Book Builders on June 14, 2022 about this title.

Maria Gianferrari is a community scientist, self-taught naturalist, and bird nerd who holds an M.A. in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in English.  She is the author of narrative nonfiction picture books which celebrate urban ecosystems, the natural world and our wild neighbors.  She also writes engaging expository nonfiction.  And as a lover of dogs, Maria's fiction picture books star dogs as main characters and explore the human-canine bond.  She writes from her light-filled, book-lined study in Massachusetts with rescue dog, Maple at her side.  

A Journey Toward Home

Throughout countless hours over decades, not a single one is seen.  Regardless of the habitat explored, they remain elusive.  They prefer the shadows, moving during the in between time before sunrise and after sunset.  Movement in daylight is out of necessity.  

Maybe, the enormous ''house cat'' running from one wooded area to another wooded area across a neighbor's vacant lot is a first sighting in more than sixty years.  Their presence can be fleeting.  After reading Bobcat Prowling (Roaring Brook Press, March 22, 2022) written by Maria Gianferrari with pictures by Bagram Ibatoulline, readers (this reader did) will acquire an eye for spotting this member of the larger feline family and smaller lynx group.

Beyond your house,

behind tall pines,

under paling stars

Mother Bobcat wakes.

With her, a yearling greets the day.  Snow still covers the ground.  A call from a male separates the two.  The yearling needs to find its own home range.  Lengthy travels begin for the cub born one year ago.

Paw prints follow the path of train tracks.  They show shelter sought within the lower branches of evergreens.  In the light of morning, Yearling finds a snowshoe hare.  Yearling is ready for breakfast but a Canada lynx leaps first. Yearling leaves.

The next meal, a squirrel, is snagged by another bobcat.  Yearling again leaves.  Days pass.  Snow melts.  Yearling is spotted in a neighborhood, traveling to the next possible space.  Ring-necked pheasants gather along the edge of a river.  Yearling is quiet and stealthy.  Food!  A coyote charges. Yearling runs, drops the prize, and climbs a tree to safety. Sleep.

Months have come and gone.  Yearling is now Bobcat.  An elder bobcat has died.  Its home range is free for another bobcat.  Bobcat stakes a claim.  If you are observant, you may discover another of Mother Nature's creatures sharing your same space. 

This nonfiction narrative penned by Maria Gianferrari takes us into a part of our world we might not otherwise appreciate.  Through her sensory descriptions, we are able to shadow Yearling as it takes a trip repeated for generations.  The inclusion of humans and their world at several points makes for a more realistic depiction.  Here is a passage.

Yearling wanders.

Winter wanes.

You watch from your window

as Yearling visits your bird feeder,

snaring unsuspecting songbirds.

But he's just passing through.

The scenes presented on the left and right of the open dust jacket look to be as one, but on closer inspection they are two distinct visuals.  To the left of the spine is a great snowy slope with a mountain vista in the background.  A line of evergreens appear to the left and in front of the mountains.  A road, in the front, curves to the left.  Looking small in comparison, Yearling walks down the road.  To the right of the spine, intently focused, is Yearling.  We are close to the cat as it pounces.  The bobcat and text are varnished in this winter setting.

An enlarged interior image covers the book case.  It is still winter along a river.  Yearling has just captured a pheasant.  The remainder of the birds take flight to the right and above the bobcat.  The sky and clouds are colored with end-of-the-day hues as the sun sets. 

On the opening and closing endpapers is an amplified map.  It shows the route taken by Yearling becoming Bobcat and locating a home range.  It begins in southern Vermont and ends in eastern Massachusetts.  The map is colored in shades of tan, cream, and gray.  It is similar to a topographical map.

On the title page, Yearling runs over a grassy field.  On the verso and dedication pages, a large winter illustration covers both pages.  The snow in the center is a placeholder for text.  Below it are blades of brown grass.  Above it are fields of rolling hills and a forest on the right.

Bagram Ibatoulline rendered these images using

watercolor.

Each two-page picture is rich in texture and nearly photographic.  As readers, we are drawn into each  portrait, each portion, of Yearling's quest.  Some of the action is filled with the tension of survival.  We view immense landscapes in the wild and in urban locations.  We are given a very real sense of sharing, with respect, a common place.

One of my many favorite illustrations shows Yearling stretched on a leafless branch at the top of a tree.  The trunk of the tree and most of its branches are on the right side of the image.  The bough on which Yearling sleeps extends across the gutter to the left.  Part of Yearling's body hangs off the branch.  The lower portion of the sky is a blend of pale peach and pink.  Above this is a darkening blue sky with a sprinkle of stars beginning to show.

This book, Bobcat Prowling written by Maria Gianferrari with artwork by Bagram Ibatoulline, is an informative, beautiful chronicle in the life of a bobcat yearling.  At the close of the book are two pages titled All About Bobcats, a page titled How To Hunt Like A Bobcat and one titled What's On the Menu?  There is a list of books for further reading and of websites to visit and videos to view.  This title is a companion to Coyote Moon and Hawk Rising.  You will want to place a copy of this book in your personal and professional collections.

To discover more about Maria Gianferrari and Bagram Ibatoulline and their other work, please follow the link attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Maria Gianferrari has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  At Macmillan, you can view interior images.  This title is highlighted at Maria Marshall's website and at Picture Book Builders.  Both include interviews with Maria Gianferrari.

Maria Gianferrari is a community scientist, self-taught naturalist, and bird nerd who holds an M.A. in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in English.  She is the author of narrative nonfiction picture books which celebrate urban ecosystems, the natural world and our wild neighbors.  She also writes engaging expository nonfiction.  And as a lover of dogs, Maria's fiction picture books star dogs as main characters and explore the human-canine bond.  She writes from her light-filled, book-lined study in Massachusetts with rescue dog, Maple at her side.

From Them Comes Life

From their heights, the world spreads before us. (Even when we get stuck at the tip top and have to ask for help getting down.)  When a slight breeze blows, walking among rows of evergreens planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps is like strolling through whispers of angels, a gift from heaven.  Leaning against the trunk of a single tree can strengthen you; the tree lends you resolve and resilience.  Most of all trees hold memories.

With the passing of my sweet Xena, now almost six years ago, two kind-hearted author friends give me a tree with a metal label, Xena's Tree.  That tree and label have traveled with me in multiple moves.  It is now joined by five other trees, one for each year she has been gone.  I am so comforted by the sight of those trees when a dear author friend lost her beloved dog companion, I did the same for her.

Trees freely give to all around them, representing more than we can at first imagine.  BE A TREE! (Abrams Books for Young Readers, March 30, 2021) written by Maria Gianferrari with illustrations by Felicita Sala is a lyrical declaration in words and art about the immeasurable worth of trees.  It explores the similarities between trees and humans, offering us a pathway to be our best selves.

Be a tree!

Stand tall.

Stretch your branches to the sun.

It would be wise for us to root ourselves, be grounded, as are trees.  Human spines and tree trunks both house integral elements necessary for sustaining life.  Can you think of your skin like bark?  I can.

Under the bark are systems upon systems functioning to further growth.  At each's center is a beginning beat.  At the top, the tree's crown, like our hats, gathers, filters, and protects.  What will your leaves do?  Together, the top, the bottom, and what hums in the middle, we and trees are not so different.

When you stand in a forest, you see all kinds of trees.  Together they work, speaking, sharing, and sustaining each other.  Together they help the air we breathe, the soil upon which we stand, and the high winds which howl.  Around the globe trees are home to a multitude of plants and animals.  Can you name some?

Did you know trees reach out to immigrant trees?  No tree regardless of its age or physical condition is ever alone.  Trees know helping other trees strengthens them and the forest as a whole.  Can we not do the same for our fellow humans?  

Every poetic line in this narrative takes readers to a tree.  The words penned by Maria Gianferrari mirror the attributes of a tree.  They are strong, deeply fixed, and all-encompassing in their reach.  Single sentences hold profound truths about trees.  In these truths she asks us to see ourselves in the same aspect.  Here is a sentence.

Beneath your bark

are layers,

such as sapwood,

carrying nutrients

to help you grow bigger

and taller;

and heartwood,

strong as bones

to support you.

When you open the dust jacket you find yourself either gasping or reminding yourself to breathe.  The image spans flap edge to flap edge.  The tree you see on the front, right, of the jacket spreads to the right edge and nearly across the entire back, left side.  The plentiful children with birds among them are both heartwarming and hopeful.  You can almost hear the chatter of the gathered girls and boys mingled with birdsong.  On the back, left, is a single white bird.  Two children, hand in hand, in the grass are watching it.  The grass, roots and communicative fungi end at the flap edges.  On the heavy matte-finished paper all the children and birds are vanished.  In a word, exquisite.

An interior image of a large ancient tree spreads across the book case.  A child in reading among the gigantic roots.  Another is climbing up a rope, as a third one rests a hand on the tree.  Two people are seated in a bench to the right of the tree with a large red balloon tied to the back.  Two birds rest in the branches of the tree.

The opening and closing endpapers are a botanist's delight.  In two shades of green, they feature twenty different leaves and three seeds.  Each one is carefully labeled.  Portions of these endpapers are repeated on the first and final page turns.  Prior to the title page, two children play on the sprawling large branch of a tree.  The boy awaits the girl climbing up a rope ladder.

A double-page image moves from left to right on a crisp white background for the title page.  In a series of five vignettes, we see a child plant a seed.  It grows, grows, grows, and becomes a tree, roots fanning out below the surface.

These illustrations by Felicita Sala rendered

with watercolor, gouache, and colored pencils

are bold but intricate two-page displays with every page turn.  A variety of trees are represented.  Perspectives shift and ask readers to pause, noticing each item contained in the picture.  The four-page gatefold is stunning in the variation between the previous two-page visual and what is revealed.  This is the goal toward which we must endeavor.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations has a wide trunk taking up half the page on either side of the gutter.  It only fills the top third of the image.  Climbing up the bark on the left side is a tiny snail.  On the right side a girl crouches next to a snail, her fingertip reaching to touch it.  For the bottom two-thirds of the picture, we see a vast network of roots and fungi.  Three animals are burrowing among the roots and dirt. 

This book, BE A TREE! written by Maria Gianferrari with illustrations by Felicita Sala, presents the grandeur of trees and their vital place on our planet.  It invites us to learn what they can teach us.  At the close of the book is an Author's Note, Five Ways You Can Help Save Trees, Be A Forest: How You Can Help In Your Community, two pages dedicated to a graphic and textual Anatomy Of A Tree, Further Reading And Viewing and Websites.  You need to make sure you have a copy of this book on both your personal and professional bookshelves.  

To learn more about Maria Gianferrari and Felicita Sala and their other work, please follow the link attached to their names to access their websites.  Maria Gianferrari has accounts on Facebook and Instagram.  Felicita Sala has accounts on Facebook and Instagram.  This book is highlighted at Beagles and Books, Picture Book Builders, and Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  At Beagles and Books is a list of blog tour stops.  At each site you can view interior images.

Maria Gianferrari has climbed fig trees in Italy, stood under stately coastal redwoods and twisted Torrey pines, marveled at mitten-shaped sassafras leaves, colorful coral trees and sawtooth oak acorn nests.  She lives with her family, including dog, Maple, in a house encircled by trees. 

Cavorting Creatures

Standing still in a sunny meadow or cool, shadowed forest offers more opportunities than calm.  It is a generous gift, a means to observe animals without them being frightened of your presence.  It may be watching a squirrel practice throwing skills as the ground is blanketed by its tossing of un-opened pinecones.  Two wild rabbits running in circles with little leaps as part of their routine is a sneak peek at a bunny ballet.

Animals are fully aware every moment of every day.  Their lives depend on this understanding.  They are wise enough to know work and play are necessary for balance.  Play Like An Animal!: Why Critters Splash, Race, Twirl, And Chase (Millbrook Press, April 7, 2020) written by Maria Gianferrari with illustrations by Mia Powell is an exploration of the lively antics of animals.

DASH!
     HIDE!
SPLASH!
     RIDE!
You love to play!
Animals do too!

They have diversions like you do, but their play is for a purpose.  It's a planned situation to hone their skills for survival. They are training for their futures.

Rolling around in the mud is more than displaying a love of dirt.  For collared peccaries and rhinos, it is a means of protecting themselves from sun, heat and pesky bugs.  Being able to leap with ease from tree to tree is not training for a trapeze act, but it builds agility in running from those who want you as a meal.

If you watch animals in the snow, what may seem like foolishness is increasing their abilities to seek solutions to problems.  We count ourselves fortunate if we witness dolphins or elephants enjoying themselves in their natural water parks.  Even watching them on videos we can see how they do this in unison.  Why is this important?

Other creatures play at fighting, wrestling, tug-of-war or tag. What is this teaching them?   Each activity, though pleasurable, is conditioning these animals like athletes or performers.  It can mean the difference between life and death for them.  It can mean having a life shared with others in harmony or living in isolation.  Did you know Keas, a parrot living in New Zealand, can make their own toys?  The next time you play, which animal are you imitating?


What readers will notice first about the writing of Maria Gianferrari in this title are her one-word action verbs.  This definitive use of language invites participatory reading.  These verbs precede a single sentence about the animals and what they are doing.  This is followed by a short explanatory paragraph placed in a separate box.  This approach supplies readers with a rhythm bringing them full circle, from the beginning to the end.  Maria Gianferrari also uses alliteration and rhyming to enhance this cadence.  Here is a passage.

JUMP, WHIRL!

BOUND, TWIRL!

Ungulates love to leap!


(Note:  I am working with a printed PDF.  My copy of this title has not arrived yet.)

When looking at the dust jacket, front and back, right and left, there is no doubt in your mind of the joy to be had by animals and humans alike when they are engaged in play.  On the front, each of the featured animals is in motion in their natural habitat.  It's a glorious blend of water, land and air.  On the back, a sunny hillside highlights the cavorting of children from various ethnic backgrounds.  They are happily leaping, running, jumping in the mud and twirling.  A single rabbit is at rest, looking ready to race away.  Two dogs are enjoying the puddle with their humans.

The opening and closing endpapers are patterned in tiny portraits of animals at play.  They showcase wolves, giraffes, rhinos, elephants, monkeys, gorillas, and ungulates.  The landscape, a green grassy canvas, is dotted with trees, shrubs and water.

Rendered

using paints, handmade textures, and digital media

the illustrations by Mia Powell are wonderful displays of play.  Her humans and animals are highly animated.  All of them express delight at their activities.

The images, double-page pictures and full-page illustrations, place the animals in the environment they relish the most.  Mia Powell, in order to show captured moments, includes a series of horizontal visuals on a single page.  At times we are close to the movements of the animals and then we step back to get a larger view.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is a single-page picture of a rhino.  Most of its body is below the surface of a muddy hole or shallow body of water.  There is some vegetation behind it and on the sides.  Several leaves float near it on the surface of the mud and muddy water.  All we can see of the rhino is its head and horns.  Its wide-eyed look indicates pure bliss.


This title, Play Like An Animal!: Why Critters Splash, Race, Twirl, And Chase written by Maria Gianferrari with illustrations by Mia Powell, is loaded with fun and facts.  At the close of the book sections named:  Why Play?, Play By The Rules, Like These Animals Do!, Play Like These Animals . . ., More Fun Animal Facts, and Further Reading provide us with additional information.  This is an excellent book to include in your professional and personal collections.  It's certain to be a highly requested read aloud and supply circumstances for further research or readers' theater.

To learn more about Maria Gianferrari and Mia Powell and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Maria Gianferrari has accounts on Facebook and Instagram.  Mia Powell has an account on Instagram.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images as well as read an excerpt.

UPDATE:  Maria Gianferrari is interviewed in a podcast at The Lerner Blog

Maria Gianferrari's childhood playground was nature: climbing trees, playing hide and seek in the cornfield and slapping cow patties for fun!  Nowadays she tries to keep the spirit of play alive in her writing.  She enjoys playing Dominion with her family sans the curse cards, and her late dog, Becca, was always ready for a game of "catch the flying biscuit."


(From the jacket flap)
Mia Powell is a mixed media illustrator based in the United Kingdom.  She draws digitally but likes to incorporate handmade textures and elements into her artwork as well.  Mia loves to play with her dog, and she has drawn him in the pages of this book.  He is black-and-white and loves to chase, especially squirrels.





Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to enjoy the other titles selected this week by participants in the 2020 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

A Raptor Reality

Deep in the darkening shadows of night, a sound echoes from the trees.  Along an empty roadway, the heavy flapping of wings stirs the air around bare branches.  You hear them more than see these mostly nocturnal predators.  It's a gift to observe one in the wild.

Known as mighty hunters, they silently and swiftly strike.  Their combined physical characteristics create a deadly force.  Whoo-Ku Haiku: A Great Horned Owl Story (G. P. Putnam's Sons, March 3, 2020) written by Maria Gianferrari with illustrations by Jonathan Voss is an informative, captivating exploration of the life cycle of these majestic birds.

A great horned owl pair
Finds a squirrel's nest of oak leaves
Perched high in a pine.

This haiku poem is the first of twenty-four beautifully worded insights.  Each observation adds to our growing knowledge of great horned owls.  It's as if we are present, watching this duo day by day through the seasons.

The newly discovered nest is re-fashioned while snow still coats the ground.  The owl pair are not without enemies; crows are a constant distraction.  The male hunts while the female tends the eggs, three pale orbs.

Even the most vigilant parents can loose an egg, a feast for a nearby woodland creature.  After the remaining two eggs hatch, mother and father feed, shield and guard them.  Watch out for that hawk!  Owlets venture from the nest, testing their feathers.  Flap wings, flap!  Flee from a waiting fox!  A mother dives.

Owlets rest, now safely back in their nest, eyes glowing in the night.  Parents protect.  Owlets learn to survive as months pass.  When autumn approaches, wings lift two to begin their lives away from the only home they've known.


With each haiku, writer Maria Gianferrari brings us deeper into the sensory experience of being a great horned owl.  Her masterful use of this literary form provides facts but also supplies us with a range of emotional moments.  We become one with these raptors through alliteration, onomatopoeia and poetry. Here are two more haiku.

Mama lays an egg
In the starlight it glistens
A moon of its own.

Pip. Pip. Pip. Poking.
A hole, cracking. Cracking. Crack!
Pink owlet pecks out.


Upon opening the matching dust jacket and book case readers will have to remind themselves to breathe.  This stunning portrait of the great horned owl parents and two owlets presents them for the nobility they are.  This nocturnal setting shows them at their realistic best.  The exquisite details throughout the book begin with this initial image.  The use of light and shadow is excellent.

The trunk of the tree crosses the spine to show the male in flight, wings spread upward.  Its eyes are searching, glowing as it gazes.  This bird is poised for action.  The tip of the left wing bleeds off the top, indicating motion.

A dark forest green covers the opening and closing endpapers.  On the title page the male and female have located an empty squirrel nest.  The one perches on a branch above the nest, as the other, wings up, prepares to land in the nest. On the final page, tree branches frame the text as a great horned owl, mouth open, flies between the dedication and publication information.

Rendered

using sepia ink and watercolor on Arches 300# hot press watercolor paper with color added digitally

by artist Jonathan Voss these illustrations elevate the words.  The depiction of the settings, seasons and time of day involves you completely as readers.  All the pictures are double-page visuals.  Sometimes the text is tucked into an image.  Other times a column is supplied on either the right or the left for the narrative.  Jonathan Voss has painted a smaller separate illustration to be placed on these columns at the bottom.  They expand the story vividly.

To place emphasis on pacing Jonathan Voss alters the point of view.  When the crows initially attack, it is at night.  We see them swooping against a somewhat cloudy sky with the full moon peeking through as the female owl, closer to us, defends the nest.  When the fox tries to consume the owlet and the mother plunges to the rescue, we are right in the action.  You can hear all the loud sounds amid the fury of wings and snapping teeth.

One of my many favorite illustrations is when the first owlet cracks through the egg.  We are very close to this wonder of new life.  The nest is shown along the bottom of the page.  The mother owl's body extends from left to right.  On the left her head is shifted to look at the newly emerged owl baby.  Her wing acts as a sheltering roof over the small bird.  The use of color and shading is radiant.


This book, Whoo-Ku Haiku: A Great Horned Owl Story written by Maria Gianferrari with illustrations by Jonathan Voss, is a remarkable nonfiction depiction.  Two pages at the end are devoted to twelve more fascinating facts and a list of resources divided into books, websites and videos.  I can't imagine a personal or professional collection without a copy of this book.

To learn more about Maria Gianferrari and Jonathan Voss and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Maria Gianferrari has accounts on Facebook and Instagram.  Jonathan Voss has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  At the publisher's website you can view the title page.  This title is highlighted with interviews at Mrs. Knott's Book Nook, Jennifer Mary G, Wild Delight and Miss Marple's Musings.

UPDATE:  Jonathan Voss is featured at KidLit411 on April 3, 2020.


WHOO's Maria Gianferrari?  She's a self-proclaimed bird nerd with a special fondness for raptors.  Her love affair with birds began in 7th grade science class when her teacher, Mr. Lefebvre, initiated a bird count.  While walking in her neighborhood, Maria's always on the look-out for all kinds of birds, and she loves searching winter treetops for nests in her northern Virginia neighborhood where she lives with her German-scientist husband and German speaking daughter.  This is her first book with GP Putnam's Sons.  She's also the author of another bird book, Hawk Rising. 






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