Better Together #2

It is not only people who respond to compassion.  Humans with animal companions, veterinarians who heal and care for them, and scientists who study them usually agree the response from animals approached and treated with kindness is favorable.  In fact, there is evidence some animals experience a varied range of emotions. (Animal Emotions: Exploring Passionate Natures: Current interdisciplinary research provide compelling evidence that many animals experience such emotions as joy, fear, love, despair, and grief---we are not alone by Marc Bekoff, BioScience, Volume 50, Issue 10, October 2000)  An act of compassion or harmony does not need to be a grand gesture.  It can be as simple as a glance filled with warmth and affection.

Sometimes, the least of us are the ones who need to receive that glance, a caring word, a helping hand or even something done in complete anonymity the most.  Tiny Kitty, Big City (Balzar + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, March 2, 2021) written and illustrated by Tim Miller simply, truthfully and with great affection is a gentle reminder of what it means to be charitable.  When we are mindful of others everyone wins.

Tiny kitty.

Big city.

When you are a tiny kitty, the city is more crowded.  It is a forest of feet and legs.  You hurry through the maze of people and vehicles as quickly and safely as possible.

Loud noises and barking dogs are frightening.  Bravery comes when joining with an iconic ally.  A warm day welcomes rest.  

An idyllic afternoon is spent dining and playing.  As evening descends, so does a snowstorm.  Nothing would be better than the warmth of a home.  Tiny kitty is chilly.

In darkness, a bluesy beat beckons.  Hearts swell at a serenade.  Love finds a way.

Using two words, kitty and city, and adding carefully selected, single adjectives, author Tim Miller tells a tale of being lost and found, and of finding what you may not have known you've lost.  The two-word phrases toggle back and forth as opposites and as responses.  The way this narrative is purposefully presented, we are able to understand the personality of the kitty and the characteristics of the city.  In those revelations, the tiny kitty and big city are able to meet in heartwarming rapport.  Here are two more two-word phrases.

Wildlife city.

Playful kitty.

Opening the dust jacket, we see the story beginning.  To the left, back, of the spine on pale blue is the tiny kitty peering from the inside of a tipped cardboard box.  On the front, right, the tiny kitty looks large compared to the big city in the background.  This reader likes to think of that as foreshadowing.  It is a hopeful concept.  The title text and tiny kitty are varnished.

You cannot look at the book case without smiling.  Across the opened book case is tiny kitty's face, up close and personal.  The nose and mouth are placed at the bottom of the spine.  One eye is on the left and the other eye is on the right.  This is a soul-to-soul stare.

Across the opening and closing endpapers, tiny pawprints, in blue on a cream canvas, loop back and forth beginning in the upper left-hand corner and running off the lower, right-hand corner.   The loops do change lengths.  Instead of going off the edge on the right side on the closing endpapers, the happy ending of this story is presented.

There are notable details for readers to see.  The words for the dedication are in the shape of a heart.  On the title page tiny kitty is staring into a puddle.  The kitty and the big city are reflected there.  Of the making of these illustrations artist Tim Miller says:

This book was made with acrylic gouache, with digital touch-ups.  Also my cat was sitting on my lap while I worked, so you might find some of her hair in the pictures.

Black lines define each element in these images.  Tim Miller presents multiple perspectives on his double-page pictures and his full-page pictures.  We look at the world from tiny kitty's point of view, from a person's point of view, and from a bird's gaze at the city below it.  These illustrations are full of emotion, fright, wonder, exhilaration, courage, contentment, fun, joy, and love.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is a double-page picture.  The sky is golden in the middle of a sunny day.  Trunks and bare branches of trees rise in front of background buildings on the left.  In front of these a large "library lion", facing left, stretches across both pages.  A familiar building fills a large portion of the right side.  Asleep under the majestic feline's face is tiny kitty on the large legs and paws.

Guaranteed to be a read-aloud favorite and much requested title, Tiny Kitty, Big City written and illustrated by Tim Miller needs to be on your personal and professional bookshelves. In his dedication Tim Miller conveys his passion and purpose for this book.  We are grateful to him.

To learn more about Tim Miller and his other work, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  Tim Miller has accounts on Instagram and Twitter. This title is discussed, and Tim Miller is interviewed at Scholastic's Ambassador of School Libraries John Schumacher's Watch. Connect. Read. and at teacher librarian Travis Jonker's 100 Scope Notes.  Don't miss either of these posts!  They are fabulous as is the post Tim Miller wrote for the Nerdy Book Club. 

If you were to ask a group of people of various ages a year ago how they define peace, would those same people answer differently today?  Perhaps, a lot of their replies would change.  A global pandemic has a way of altering perspectives and priorities.  Also, if you were to ask this group how to obtain peace, express peace, or give peace, would their thinking have shifted?  Peace, Paz and Frieden (English, Spanish, and German translations of the same book) (North|South, March 2, 2021) written by Baptiste Paul and Miranda Paul with illustrations by Esteli Meza allows all ages to ponder those very questions.  It expresses through universal actions in easily understood words and lively, luminescent images, peace is for everyone, everywhere, and always.  

Peace is a hello,

a smile,

a hug.

Peace is for those who dare to be different and for those who quietly work alone.  When we show respect for others, extending common courtesies to them like looking at them when we share conversations, that is peace.  Sometimes peace starts with an unspoken gesture.  When shared ideas are discovered, that unspoken gesture blooms into a movement.

When we give to others when we have more than we need, that is peace.  Do these actions happen immediately?  No.  Peace is a good habit to nurture and have.  It's something we carry with us as if it is a part of our bodies. 

Peace is acknowledging our mistakes to ourselves and to others.  This peace brings a calm during day and night, happiness and sorrow.  Where there has been life, there has been peace.  What can and will we do to bring it to all parts of our planet?

Having read this aloud in both English and Spanish, the words of Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul (and translator Aida Salazar), gently sing off the pages in the sweetest of melodies.  The thoughts and truths supplied through rhyming text envelope you.  The words in this narrative are an invitation readers will be unable to resist.  With intention the selected actions are possible, releasing all to enjoy the results.  Here is a passage.

Peace is on purpose.

Peace is a choice.

Peace lets the smallest of us

have a voice.

La paz es a proposito.

La paz es una eleccion.

La paz permite a los mas pequenitos

tener una voz.

When you look at the front (right) and back (left) of the opened dust jacket, it is like you are looking at a portrait of peace.  Look at the children from all backgrounds with different animals among a paradise of plants and trees.  Everyone is happy.  Everyone is enjoying the company of the others without discord.  On the back (left), there are three children, six animals and two insects, a butterfly and a bee. Across one of the large leaves, it reads:

Peace is a choice.

La paz es a proposito.

On the book case a muted gold is the canvas.  On the left side is information about the book and its creators.  On the front a sturdy brown trunk and several branches are seats for children and animals.  The leaves are a hue of blue and some are a shade of pink.  This tree scene is circled by a pale peach background.  At the base of the trunk an animal peeks out at readers.  The same white dove seen on the front of the jacket flies toward the tree here.

On the opening and closing endpapers three tiny flowers dot the bottom of a deep blue canvas.  The tree shown on the book case is placed in the center.  The children and animals are gone.  Within the blush-colored leaves is the word peace in multiple languages.

In a word, the artwork here by Esteli Meza is stunning.  Her style is distinctive, replete with vibrant rich colors.  The flora is bold and symbolic.  Children from all parts of the world are represented on each of the double-page pictures.  They are actively engaged with each other and the animals.  

With each reading you will notice a new detail.  When there is more than one animal, it looks as though they are a family.  Fish in the ocean swim forming the shape of a larger fish.  The white dove is in every image.  Readers will gasp at the four-page gatefold at the end of the book.  

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is for a single sentence.  It is night.  On the right we can see a sliver of the sky and two stars.  The dove is sleeping on a slim branch which winds up the right side and along the bottom on the right.  Two other branches fan out along the bottom on the right and left.  The body of a dozing lion covers most of the two pages.  A gray cat with a curved body and a girl with red hair in a braid lean against the lion's body.  A zebra is next to them.  The hues and pattern in the girl's dress complement the branches and leaves shown on the edges.  You know sweet dreams are being enjoyed by all.

This book, Peace, Paz, and Frieden written by Baptiste Paul and Miranda Paul with illustrations by Esteli Meza, is one to keep close.  It not only depicts peace with excellence but brings peace to all who read it.  You will want to read the Authors' Note at the end.  I highly recommend you place a copy or two in your professional collection as well as in your personal collection.

To learn more about Baptiste Paul, Miranda Paul, and Esteli Meza and their other work, please access their respective websites by following the link attached to their names.  Baptiste Paul has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Miranda Paul has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.  Esteli Meza has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  At the publisher's website are interior images, and multiple teacher resources.  At Simon & Schuster, there is one image not shown at the publisher's website.  At Scholastic's Ambassador of School Libraries John Schumacher's Watch. Connect. Read., the book trailer is premiered. Baptiste and Miranda talk about this book. 

UPDATE:  This title is showcased by author, reviewer, and blogger Julie Danielson at her site, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  There is an interview with Tim Miller and considerable process art.

Collectively Giving Thanks

Trust me, there is a time in your life, the younger the better, when you wake up each morning grateful to still be breathing with clothes to wear and food to eat in a home with the ability to keep you warm and cool when necessary.   For this writer every day begins with the first of several mile walks with my canine companion.  Today I am grateful for no encounter with the local bear.  Time during the morning is spent connecting with friends on social media, some of whom I have never met.  Yet, I am thankful for knowing them and hold onto the hope of chatting with them one day soon in person.  Hours are dedicated to making Flu-Fighter Cookies for colleagues at work.  It's good news when all the necessary ingredients are located, and they are baked to perfection. 

Winter is here covering nearly everything today in a snowy coat.  Getting to and from work without incident is a cause for rejoicing. An evening spent with an ever-so-patient pup playing and laughing at her antics feeds a work-weary soul.  It is indeed a time to express thanks when your day closes with writing about a book.  In this book, Thanku: Poems Of Gratitude (Millbrook Press, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., September 3, 2019) illustrated by Marlena Myles and edited by Miranda Paul, there is an abundance of words written by talented authors expressing numerous forms of gratitude.  If you seek it, you will find it.

Giving Thanks
In memory of Chief Jake Swamp

Thanksgiving is more
than just one day,
so a Mohawk elder
said to me.
(This is the first stanza in the first poem written by Joseph Bruchac.)

With each page turn (with the exception of the first poem and one other) we are presented with two poems.  Numbering thirty-two, these poems offer thirty-two different formats by thirty-two distinctive authors.  Each of their compositions gives us a fresh way to view our world as a whole or a small part of it.

In this first poem we are reminded every day is a day to give thanks.  We are given a new point-of-view of the sky everyone shares followed by expressions of thanks for the beauty of our avian friends, their flying abilities and songs.  Praises are penned for dinosaurs by future fliers and for the development of species, some not named or counted, over generations.  A math poem brings to life computations featuring compassion.  The true value of zero revealed in a tanka leaves you wondering.

Friends discuss birthdays and parties and hope for having a first one.  Teamwork is praised in a race.  There are all kinds of emergencies, but assistance is shown from a new perspective.  It appears when light and water are in a special alignment.  Roy G. Biv is introduced.  When we least expect them, the smallest words of thanks appear hidden among other words in a found poem.  An arachnid sends out a plea.

Are we ever thankful enough for sleep until we really need it?  Attitude is shown to be the key to gratitude.  We enter a cobbler's realm of waiting shoes.  Not necessarily painless, but scars, as an elder states, are a blessing in disguise.  The worth of passing stories from one generation to the next will leave you deeply moved.  The girl who entered a wonderland and a looking glass has reason to be pleased with her spectacles.  You'll grin at the descriptions of delightful dimples.

Humans with canine companions will knowingly nod in agreement at thankfulness for a puppy.  Sometimes doing the right thing brings gratefulness to both the giver and the receiver.  We love the colorful vistas during autumn but falling leaves have their special appeal.  Who knew a sweatshirt could have a best day ever.  Sometimes, during the best times, we can understand parallels between nature and humans.  The most common object can become a beachcomber's treasure.

Have you ever written words in the sand hoping the message is noticed by someone else?  An ode to dreams speaks invaluable truths.  There will be a moment in a family's history when the first individual will receive a college diploma.  It is important to be persistent in going wherever you need or want to go.  Just keep going.  We are reminded there is more than the expected mediums for painting.  On this day of winter's first big snow, the final poem about a snow-filled day closes with this repetition

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The thirty-two authors in order of their poems are Joseph Bruchac, Naomi Shihab Nye, Kimberly Blaeser, Sun Yung Shin, Ed DeCaria, Becky Shillington, Padma Venkatraman, Gwendolyn Hooks, Jane Yolen, Janice Scully, Charles Waters, Carole Lindstrom, Sylvia Liu, Carolyn Dee Flores, Sarvinder Naberhaus, Lupe Ruiz-Flores, Baptiste Paul, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Patti Richards, Chrystal D. Giles, Margarita Engle, Kenn Nesbitt, JaNay Brown-Wood, Diana Murray, Megan Hoyt, Jamie McGillen, Renee M. LaTulippe, Vanessa Brantley-Newton, Traci Sorell, Edna Cabcabin Moran, Charles Ghigna and Liz Garton Scanlon.  The poetry formats in order are:  didactic poem, epistle, concrete (shape), sijo, Fib, math poems, tanka, poem for two voices, septercet, hyperbole, quatrain, found poem, Tyburn, onomatopoeia, echo, allegory, tricube, (chant, free verse), (narrative poem, allusion), acrostic, decima mirror, McWhirtle, ode, mask, Shakespearean sonnet, ballad, pantoum, limerick, cinquain, palindrome, metaphor and Etheree.  Each poem penned by each writer, without you being aware, brings you into the essence of what they are saying.  It is a stunning achievement by all thirty-two people.


Like the words of all thirty-two authors, the illustration on the open and matching dust jacket and book case is an eloquent portrait in calming hues of blue and green with the warmth of pastel yellow, pink, peach and purple.  The contrast of the silhouette of the individual blowing on the flower and the text in navy blue is marvelous.  Featuring the names of the authors in those colorful shades of breath is a wonderful design decision.  It pairs beautifully with the words to the left, on the back, written by Joseph Bruchac in the first poem.  The silhouette flows over the spine and continues to the middle of the back.  Another lovely contrast are the flowers in white and navy along the bottom of the front and back and the scattering of seeds on both sides of the spine and within the spine.

A robin-egg's blue covers the opening and closing endpapers.  Black text of the names of the authors, the illustrator Marlena Myles, and the editor Miranda Paul as well as silhouettes of clusters of flowers in both lower corners appear on the title page.  These are placed on an array of pale colors like watercolors spreading out and blending together.

Rendered

in Adobe Photoshop with Texturino

by Marlena Myles the images vary between double-page pictures and full-page pictures.  The adept skill in which two poems are placed on a single double-page illustration and find commonality is wonderful.  Even the full-page visuals, though separate, have connections in the color palettes used.  The pictorial interpretations employed by Marlena Myles enhance every written piece.

One of my many favorite illustrations is for the two poems titled College Degree by Traci Sorell and A Graceful Journey by Edna Cabcabin Moran.  At first glance you are focused on the two college graduates, holding their diplomas and garbed in their gowns on the left and a bird's eye view of group of three people in single kayaks paddling on the right.  A more studied look shows their placement on a map of the world with the land masses in shades of gray amid blue, green and a bit of yellow swirls.  This is only one of many excellent artistic choices made by Marlena Myles.


Thanku: Poems Of Gratitude illustrated by Marlena Myles and edited by Miranda Paul is filled with words of wisdom from a diverse group of creative artists.  You could read one or all of them every day and still feel the positive peace they bring as if it's the first time each time.  At the close of the book are several pages dedicated to explanations of the poetic forms and brief biographies of the contributors.  Miranda Paul closes the book with a note to educators and parents about the value of gratitude all year.  She urges people to seek the truth and remain factual in discussing Thanksgiving.  She says: in one of several paragraphs:

Learning and sharing the fuller context of Thanksgiving doesn't mean that we need to stop celebrating entirely.  Many citizens of the hundreds of Indigenous Nations within the United States and Canada give thanks to the Creator not once a year, but every day, for all the gifts of life.  On Thanksgiving, Americans reach out in significant numbers to people in need within their communities.  Might we start there and move forward?  While we cannot change the past, we can acknowledge its consequences and work for peace and unity in the future.

Miranda Paul has included four resources after her note.  I highly recommend this title for your professional and personal collections.

I have attached links to all the authors' names, Marlena Myles' name and Miranda Paul's name which for most take you to their respective websites so you can learn more about them and their work. For a few I selected the best source I could find online other than a website.  At the publisher's website are interior images and excerpts which are breathtaking.  Marlena Myles is showcased at Kid Lit 411.  Marlena Myles and Miranda Paul are interviewed at author Cynthia Leitich Smith's website.  The cover was revealed at We Need Diverse Books.  Author, educator, founder and writer at American Indians in Children's Literature, speaker and recipient of the 2019 (May Hill) Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award Dr. Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled Nambe Pueblo) speaks about this book on her site.


Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the other titles selected this week by participants in the 2019 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Dear Readers:

Please do not be confused by time references in this post.  I started it well before midnight on November 6, 2019 but did not complete it until the early hours of November 7, 2019.  Thank you.

From One Small Object A Large Idea Grew

Throughout our lives people and their actions influence our mindset and, consequently, our actions.  These people's connections to us may last for decades or less than a day.  They are family members, friends, teachers or mentors or complete strangers.  Most of them we welcome into our world.  When a few leave, we breathe a sigh of relief, but make no mistake, they leave a mark.

For many, our parents or one of our parents offer love and support lasting beyond their lifetimes.  Our memories of their words and deeds guide us when we least expect it or when we need it the most.  Little Libraries, Big Heroes (Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, September 3, 2019) written by Miranda Paul with illustrations by John Parra is about a special man who took his grief and started a movement which has spread throughout the world.

FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, 
people have loved stories about heroes.

Mythical heroes, historical heroes, and even . . .

Some heroes are ordinary people, like you and me, who become extraordinary.  Todd (Bol) was one of them.  He struggled with reading in school but his mother, a teacher, was in disagreement with his teachers at school.  She told him he

was gifted.

She believed he would accomplish great things.

After graduating from school, Todd found work and the pleasure that comes with lending a helping hand.  Then his mother died.  He was overcome with a deep sorrow.  He remembered how his mother taught children in the neighborhood to read.  Holding this thought in his mind and heart, Todd got busy.

From pieces of old wood, he constructed a one-room schoolhouse with a door on the front.  Inside this schoolhouse, he placed books.  Anyone could take one for free.  It was not successful at first but one day a rummage sale nearby drew the attention of neighbors.  They loved Todd's little library, taking and giving books.

With the help of his friend, Rick, and members of their families, they built other little libraries, hoping to sell them.  No one came, so Todd and Rick decided to reverse the process.  They took these first thirty-two libraries from one state to another.  This was a success!  Word spread from person to person and place to place.  The little free libraries were featured on radio and television.

Do you know how many libraries were established in the first year?  Four hundred!  People who cared for them were (are) called stewards.  Some of these stewards, in turn, have become heroes.  They rise in the face of natural disasters.  They place Little Free Libraries where there is no access to books due to funding.  Did you know there is a Little Free Library on a hiking trail in Canada?  Wherever people are, Little Free Libraries are placed by heroes, people like you and me.


One of the first things you realize when reading this book researched and written by Miranda Paul is the value of building on someone's belief in you.  We should never dismiss what other people see in us.  This is how an average person makes the biggest impact on the greatest number of individuals.

With each paragraph Miranda Paul shapes and reinforces the idea of all of us having the capacity to achieve our ideas by portraying how Todd Bol persevered with the help of friends and family.  She includes specific examples, highs and lows in the endeavor and small moments of conversation to further engage readers in this marvelous story about this remarkable man.  Here is a passage.

Todd told them about his mom.  People
loved his story.  It reminded them of 
ordinary heroes they knew.

Soon, neighbors who had never met
before were gathered around, chatting like
old friends.  They grabbed books.  They gave
books.  The little library became the center
of their neighborhood. 


On the open and matching dust jacket and book case, first, on the front, readers need to pause and look at all the intricate details, artist, John Parra has included.  It's interesting to think about their significance.  He has featured people of all ages and occupations.  Todd Bol and his friend Rick are a part of the group, enjoying the success of their Little Free Library.

To the left, on the back, the pale blue background continues.  Pink and blue clouds hover over a row of books along the bottom of the page.  A blue bird soars near the top.  This is also where the ISBN has been placed; in the upper right-hand corner.  On the dust jacket many of the items are varnished on both the front and back.

On the opening and closing endpapers, the pale blue background provides a canvas for a row of colored book spines like those seen on the back of the jacket and case.  With a page turn, on the right, is the title text and the original Little Free Library with a blue bird perched on top.  The images throughout the book are either double-page pictures or full-page visuals.  The shift from one to the other is for pacing and effect.

Rendered in acrylic paint on illustration board the images enhance the text beautifully.  They bring in elements important to Todd's life such as actual family photographs and Little Free Library designs.  Careful readers will notice the license plate on Todd's truck as they travel and set Little Free Libraries throughout various states.  By observing the details placed by John Parra readers can speculate where in the world Little Free Libraries are.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations spans two pages.  On the left is Todd standing on the back of his pickup truck.  The truck bed is filled with Little Free Libraries and posts.  On top of one of the libraries is a blue bird.  (Another is flying from the right.) Todd has his right arm lifted in greeting as he faces readers.  Three people, friends and family, are carrying Little Free Libraries from just left of the gutter to almost the right side.  The fourth, a little girl, is standing near a library already on its post as another man shovels dirt.


There is something powerful when we look at the life of another person, someone like you or me, who was able to begin something still flourishing today.  Little Libraries, Big Heroes written by Miranda Paul with illustrations by John Parra is a tribute to a marvelous man but also a promise to all readers.  At the close of the book is an author's note, more about Little Free Libraries, more about the people and events in this book, a short list of resources, and a dedication page with special words in memory of Todd H. Bol.  I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Miranda Paul and John Parra and their other work, please visit their respective websites by following the link attached to their names. Miranda Paul has a blog here.  John Parra has interior images from this book at his website.  Miranda Paul has accounts on Facebook and Twitter.  John Parra has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.   The cover reveal is here.  The book trailer is premiered at School Library Journal, A Fuse #8 Production by Elizabeth Bird, Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system.


I am honored to have had the opportunity to participate in a question and answer conversation with both Miranda Paul and John Parra.  Their answers will endear you even more to this fabulous title.  You will also by privy to the depth of commitment and work both have done with this book (with all their books).

For Miranda:

In your author’s note, you mention first seeing a Little Free Library in 2011.  Where is that library located?  Did you get the idea to write this book then, or did something else prompt you to tell this man’s story?

The first Little Free Library I saw was somewhere in Wisconsin, though I don’t remember exactly where as we were traveling in another part of the state from where we lived at the time. (I doubt I even had a smartphone yet to snap a quick picture…) I didn’t have the idea to write the book immediately. I simply wanted to find out more about it—and possibly join the movement or figure out how to spread these to places I’d been that could benefit greatly from such an idea. It was about two years later that I ran into one of Todd’s family members, and then Todd himself, quite serendipitously. And by then I already had been collecting research on the organization and decided this would make a great book.

When researching for your nonfiction books like this one, what do you do first?  Do you seek an overview? Do you have a list of questions you want to answer?

I often start simply by reading as much as I can about a subject, and recording interviews if there are experts or witnesses. Often, something I read will lead me to something else, and so on. Once I have a lot of the big idea swirling in my head, that’s when a common thread or a certain angle begins to form, and I do another round of research that’s more targeted toward the specific tack I’m taking or the new questions I have. 

As a side note, I sold Little Libraries, Big Heroes to the publisher way back in 2015. Because the publisher was doing restructuring, and a host of other reasons, the book got delayed—and the LFL organization grew by leaps and bounds during those years. Therefore, I had to re-research and update some numbers at least twice—I think there were only about 30,000 LFLs when I first wrote it. And I made some changes to the text when the brilliant editor Lynne Polvino stepped in and helped me reshape it. Of course, when Todd passed away rather suddenly last fall, we added the memoriam which appears at the end of the book as well.

How did you choose what specifics to include to signify Todd as an ordinary, often struggling in school, child?  I am referring to this paragraph.

In school, he didn’t feel heroic.  Even though his mother had been a teacher who loved books, reading was difficult for him.  He was often scolded for asking too many questions, and was told that he wasn’t a good student.

One of my children took much longer to learn to read than the other, and he’s a question-asker. He’s on the spectrum, and generally thinks differently than many of his peers. In that and other ways, I made a connection to Todd’s story that I could appreciate in an intimate way. A personal way into a subject is important whenever I am working on a book, no matter if it’s about science or nature or a person’s life. In talking to Todd and Rick, and other Stewards, I was continuously struck by how humble they were and how they viewed themselves as ordinary. The impact of some of these libraries, and the program in general, is quite far-reaching—yet if you passed some of these individuals on the street, you might not even look twice. In a world where there’s plenty of bad news, it’s an encouraging feeling to know we’re walking among ordinary heroes pretty much everyday, everywhere.

You follow this paragraph with something his mother said to him in second grade which he carried in his heart always.  What words would you offer to young readers to carry in their hearts?

I want children to know, “This book is for you.” No matter how old or young you are, where you live, or what your skills may be, you have something to offer the world. You may feel that it’s something small, almost nothing at all, and that’s ok, because a lot of little drops make an ocean. A hero is not a one-size-fits-all term. Your story matters. Don’t be afraid to share your story, and enjoy listening to others’ stories.

For John:

After reading Miranda’s manuscript, what did you do first in your artistic process?  Did you start sketching out pictures her words presented in your mind? Did you do research on Todd Bol first?  (I know readers are curious about your process before completing the paintings in acrylic on illustration board.)

For Little Libraries, Big Heroes, like many of my other picture books based on biographies, the first official step is the research. In this case I reached out to Todd Bol, founder of Free Little Libraries, to see if he was willing to speak to me and provide possible reference material that I could use for creating the work. Todd was extremely helpful and wonderful in this regard. I think my first phone call with him went so well that we spoke well over an hour. He talked of his childhood, focus, motivation, and how his whole adventure in Little Free Libraries started. We stayed in touch throughout the project. I also researched online and obtained reference material for additional info and inspiration. The follow up steps was to sketch all the characters. Todd of course is there, as are many other real people mentioned in the book. Soon settings and backgrounds were established and a few Easter eggs thrown in for good measure. All sketches are usually scanned so I can manipulate composition and size. Once the drawings were approved by the publisher the final process was to paint. I still work mostly traditionally using acrylic on board.

In several of your books, including this one, you employ a technique in framing your images which adds a texture to them.  How do you do this? Why do you do this?

The texture is greatly inspired from my love of American Folk Art and Mexican Ex-Voto / Retablo style paintings. Many people think I paint on wood because of the scratched textured background in my work but I am actually using illustration board. There is a process where I add three to four different background layers of various colored acrylic paints, after which is sandpapered into to give it that worn and old fashion look. This provides my foundation. Once complete, I transfer the sketch to the board through masking out shapes and painting various elements. As characters and scenes take shape, the final steps are to add details and shading. The completed image with its worn look, gives the viewer the idea that the paintings are old, yet familiar, as if you could have found them in your grandmother’s attic.

I noticed there are pictures on the wall of Todd’s home as a little boy.  Are those replicas of actual photographs you discovered in your research?

Yes, they are based on actual photos Todd emailed me showing his family and childhood including his mom. I like that the art personalizes the book and connects it back to him as well as some of the other contributors and Stewarts in the Little Free Libraries organization. One of my favorite spreads in the book shows the first appearance of Todd standing in front of some kitschy and fun wallpaper that is actually based on wallpaper from his home growing up.

A blue bird, or perhaps a swallow, is seen in many of the illustrations in this book (and in your other books).  What is the significance of including this bird in your artwork?

I enjoy using birds, insects, animals, and nature in general throughout my books. As a child I loved the outdoors as well as going to the Natural History Museum and seeing the dioramas teeming with life. I sort of think that my painting are like those dioramas with life going on all around us even if we are not always aware it’s there. Birds especially have a special meaning of freedom with their flight. In a metaphorical way they can also represent a person’s idea(s), that is received or being sent.

Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the other titles selected this week by participants in the 2019 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

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.

Seeking, Finding, And Protecting Life

Adults, family, friends, and educators, have a marvelous opportunity in the presence of children.  They have the choice, some would say responsibility, to advise, instruct and assist younger gals and guys in the care of our planet.  This nurturing of the natural world benefits all.

When our children see the results of their efforts, it inspires them to continue.  It inspires them to spread and share their excitement.  I Am Farmer: Growing An Environmental Movement In Cameroon (Millbrook Press, February 5, 2019) written by Baptiste Paul and Miranda Paul with illustrations by Elizabeth Zunon informs readers about the life and work of Cameroonian, Dieudonne Tantoh Nforba.

THIS IS NORTHWESTERN CAMEROON.
Green.
Wet.
Alive.
The rainy season has begun. 

As a young boy, Tantoh enjoys walking among the plants and grabbing handfuls of dirt in his grandmother's garden.  He even tries to plant some "borrowed" onions which eventually die.  His grandmother explains these bulbs, plants, need the sun, dirt, and, most importantly, water to survive and grow.

As if a spark has ignited in the child, he asks more questions in school than his teachers believe one mind can create.  His classmates think all his inquiries foolish.  By the time he is a teen, Tantoh's father is ill but he still manages to gift his son with a shovel.  The boy uses the tool to further his knowledge of planting and growing.  He is nicknamed Farmer.  To be a farmer is not a compliment.

During high school Tantoh writes FARMER on his school uniform shirt and wears it until he graduates.  Encouraged by his older brother to ace his final exam in order to make a better living, Tantoh deliberately fails in order to farm.  After graduation he works in his village expanding his gardening skills until someone notices his outstanding work, offering to pay for Tantoh to attend college.

A debilitating illness strikes Tantoh and sets him back for seven years.  Drinking water is the cause.  Now Tantoh has another focus.  More education arms him with knowledge; knowledge he shares.  He gathers others to his purpose.  Together they grow like plants given sunshine, earth and water.


Baptiste Paul and Miranda Paul bring us directly into the narrative with those first twelve words.  In fact, green, wet and alive, are words which could be used to describe the life work of Tantoh.  Children see the value of his pursuits through his expressed joy, constant questions, and the support of his grandmother and father.

Paragraph by paragraph words bring Tantoh's purpose more sharply in focus for readers with explicit details of his failing on his exam, his gardening in his village after graduation, and nothing stopping him from higher education.  Another thing which binds readers to Tantoh is his attitude and proverbs.  If you were not cheering for him in his youth, by the time you complete this book, you will be cheering for his continued contributions for the betterment of people in his country.  Another writing technique readers will notice is the use of growing, gardening, terms to depict circumstances.  Here is a passage.

Together they build botanical gardens and rain gardens that
will hold water in the soil.  These areas produce food or flowers
all year long and provide green spaces to reconnect people with
nature.  The mayor of his home village, Nkambe, is impressed.
Eventually, the mayor promises to make sure the garden stays
beautiful for years to come.  By now, everyone in Northwest
Cameroon is calling Tantoh "Farmer"---and they say it with pride!


Upon opening the matching dust jacket and book case, readers are treated to two separate images which flow like Tantoh's water together. On the first Tantoh is looking directly at readers with villagers carrying water as they pass him at work.  To the left, on the back, we are given a countryside landscape view of green hills replete with paths and people carrying water.  The signature artwork of Elizabeth Zunon, like the words of the authors, invite us into the book.

On the opening and closing endpapers a created vision of green hills and blue sky supplies a canvas for photographs taken in Cameroon when the Pauls visited Tantoh and his country.

Using cut paper collage, watercolor, pen drawing, and pasted color pencil

Elizabeth Zunon fashions realistic displays of gardens, vast vistas, family moments of love and guidance, classroom settings and village gatherings.  To elevate the text her illustrations vary from double-page presentations to full-page depictions.

Sometimes we are given a bird's eye view and other times we are looking over the shoulder of Tantoh and important people in his life.  Readers never doubt the commitment and accomplishments of Tantoh.  It is evident in his every look, gesture and the way in which he holds his body.

One of my many favorite illustrations accompanies the above quoted text.  The text is placed higher on the page in a pale blue sky with soft clouds.  Beneath this is a line of trees and a village building.  On either side is a grove of trees.  Moving down the page is an area of green with swirls of variegated pink shades.  One is shaped like a heart.  People stand and look at these gardens.  The second half of the page, on the bottom, is a close-up of Tantoh and the mayor in another garden with large pink flowers.  They are engaged in conversation.  Two villagers are working near them.


We know one person can make a difference for the good of a great deal of people, but when you can hold their story in your hands, it's incredibly powerful.  I Am Farmer: Growing An Environmental Movement In Cameroon written by Baptiste Paul and Miranda Paul with illustrations by Elizabeth Zunon will motivate and strengthen individuals in their resolve to achieve their dreams.  At the close of the book there is an Authors' Note, Linbum Glossary and Pronunciation Guide, Words for Water and a map of Cameroon and Africa.  I highly recommend this for your professional and personal collections.

To learn more about Baptiste Paul, Miranda Paul and Elizabeth Zunon and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites. Miranda Paul has a blog here. Paul, Miranda and Elizabeth have accounts on Twitter.  Elizabeth Zunon has an account on Instagram.  You can view interior pictures at the publisher's website.  There is a post on the publisher's blog by Elizabeth Zunon about her artist process for this book.  It is utterly fascinating.  UPDATE:  Author Traci Sorell interviews both Baptiste Paul and Miranda Paul at author Cynthia Leitich Smith's blog, Cynsations.  They talk about their collaboration on this title and their other work.  It is a wonderful, informative interview. 



To view the titles selected this week by other participants in the 2019 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge, please visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher.

Trekking Toward Education

In some homes if you, as a child, dare to complain about having to go to school, you receive the mantra of having one or both parents relating their trials in getting to school as a child.  It seems they had to walk miles through extreme weather conditions or over extreme terrain or arrived at their destination by enduring extreme modes of transportation.  This is meant to remind you of how trivial your objections are in light of their difficulties.  It is also a suggestion to be more grateful for the opportunities to be enjoyed each day in your classrooms.

While some of the adults' stories about getting to school are certainly exaggerated; others have a ring of truth.  Adventures To School: Real-Life Journeys Of Students From Around The World (Little Bee Books, May 1, 2018) written by Baptiste Paul and Miranda Paul with illustrations by Isabel Munoz brings to light documented cases of students taking risks and enduring unusual circumstances to get an education.  In learning about their stories we gain a greater understanding of the countries in which they take place.

Ustupu, Guna Yala (San Blas Islands), Panama
It's just after midnight when I wake up.  There are so many stars in the sky!

You might be thinking this is a typical scenario for anyone, anywhere, excited or anxious about going to school but this student is up this early to ride in a small boat with her parents.  They will make a six hour trip to her school across rough water.  She and her mother will stay with a host family.  Across the ocean on the continent of Africa, a girl carries her sister on her back as she makes her way to school. She is barefoot navigating through garbage and mud and safely past strangers and guards.  It is 2am.

Back in South America in the country of Bolivia a young student rides a teleferico, a car thirteen thousand feet above sea level, powered by electricity.  A fear of heights might make this a tricky trip to school!  Have you ever heard of the heaven ladder located in China?  Children go over a cliff and climb down the side of a vertical rock wall to reach the bottom. Thankfully, they do not need to do this each day. 

Running for almost a mile and a half to avoid elephants is not a usual way to begin a school day but for students in Kenya, it is.  A tiny carriage moves along a wire bridge over a river in Nepal.  A brave brother sings to comfort a frightened sister.  Another brave duo, a grandmother and her granddaughter quietly walk the street to her school building after a night of fighting in Donetsk, Ukraine.  Glass from broken windows is swept away by teachers.

A ride on a crowded subway car in Japan does not deter a little child.  Wearing a yellow flag is a signal for adults to help him if he gets in trouble.  Three hour walks in all kinds of weather or an early morning horse ride to catch a bus are customary for students in two other countries.  These children and those with parents realize the value and power in having an education.


In an authors' note prior to the beginning of the book, we are told each of these thirteen stories are a composite of real individuals.  For this title the names of the children are fiction.  The authors also explain the diversity within each place, its people and their customs and culture.  Both Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul combine their talents to write compelling, truthful episodes in the lives of these children.

Using a first person voice for the children creates an immediate connection with us.  On the page opposite each child's tale is information about their country.  The authors chose points of interest most likely unknown by most readers.  Here are portions of two passages.

El Alto and La Paz, Bolivia
Artists are painting a new mural as I enter the station.  I walk up many stairs, take out my tarjeta, and wait in line.  A worker waves me into the moving car.  I slide to the far window, and other passengers join me.  The doors close, and the busy noise of the city disappears.  I feel a little dizzy when the teleferico moves quickly, but the ride is smooth.  It's like we are flying!

An electric-powered teleferico (with solar-powered Wi-Fi) operates at thirteen thousand feet above sea level, connecting the mountainous cities.  It has transported more than forty million passengers since it opened in 2014.  Over three thousand students ride the cable car every day at a discounted fare that is equivalent of less than twenty-five cents.   


Day after day when many students ride the familiar yellow school bus to their classrooms I wonder how many of them would feel about riding the modes of transportation featured on the front and back of the opened, matching dust jacket and book case.  Would they like to ride thousands of feet in the air over their city?  To the left, on the back, framing text in a series of panels, eight other forms of travel are featured.  The illustrations fashioned by Isabel Munoz, for the jacket and case, while in all color, feature the primary colors heavily, relying on this appeal for the intended audience.

The opening and closing endpapers are an intricate, delicate pattern of pencils, crayons, paper clips, and push pins amid tiny leaves and teeny lady bugs.  The design on the back of the jacket and case frames the text on the title page.  Each two page picture provides an intimate, true-to-life and moving testament to the words of the child and the facts on each place. 

We see dedicated and loving parents rowing a canoe carrying their sleeping child across winter waters.  We see a girl carrying her sister on her back as she carefully moves through a metal fence, avoiding trash and dirt.  We see children climbing down a steep, steep wall on precarious ladders. 

For each of these images, Isabel Munoz gives us a perspective which will involve us in the journey.  Sometimes we are close to the travelers and other times we are given a larger view for greater impact.  She helps us to understand what these children endure to receive an education.  A single small illustration and the country's flag are showcased on each page.

One of my many favorite illustrations takes place in Meru and Samburu, Kenya.  It is a bird's eye view of the village.  Isabel Munoz gives the land a barren look with little vegetation.  It is shades of cream with bits of green.  In the far right-hand corner is a partial view of a damaged home.  Large elephant tracks are visible in the dirt from left to right.  Seven children are hurrying to school, anxious to avoid the elephants.  Most of their backs are to us.  One child is turned, possibly to tell the one farthest back to walk faster.  All but the smallest of the children leave their own footprints in the dirt.


Without a doubt Adventures To School: Real-Life Journeys Of Students From Around The World written by Baptiste Paul and Miranda Paul with illustrations by Isabel Munoz will generate much discussion if not outright gasps during a read aloud.  The blend of true stories, factual accounts, and the details about each country are sure to promote further research.  A lengthy bibliography is included at the book's end.  A full bibliography is at the publisher's website.  I highly recommend this book for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Miranda Paul, Baptiste Paul and Isabel Munoz and their other work, please visit their respective websites by following the links attached to their names.  At a publisher's website you can view interior pictures.  Here is a link to an educator's resource guide.  At their publisher's blog Miranda and Paul chat about this title.  Maria Marshall interviews the Pauls about this title.  Isabel Munoz has an Instagram account.  Miranda Paul, Baptiste Paul and Isabel Munoz are all on Twitter.


To learn about the other titles selected by participants in the 2018 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge, please visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher.

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.