From The Start, Heart To Heart

When you least expect it, but need it the most, there it is.  You might be cresting a hill on a walk with your dog and the sight you see takes your breath away.  As you look through the different shades of spring budding on trees spread before you, in the distance hues of blue water like glass extend to an opposite shore. The shadows and light cast an enchanting spell on this moment.  There is silence.  Even your canine companion stills.  What if you had not glanced that way?

This beauty on this day is a symbol and a sign.  In What the World Could Make: A Story of Hope (Roaring Brook Press, May 4, 2021) written by Holly M. McGhee with illustrations by Pascal Lemaitre, two friends find the best life has to offer in the simple things given to them as they explore their world.  Each season brings the duo closer together, bound in mutual affection.

The friends thought it a wonder---

winter white flakes a gift from the sky.

Side by side they sat, as flakes fell on them.  They were amazed at the beauty.  Bunny wanted the snow to never stop.  Rabbit asked if Bunny was sure.  Bunny really wanted the memory to last always.  And Rabbit understood.

So, Rabbit made a snowball for Bunny.  It was large and perfectly shaped like their tails.  Now Bunny would have the memory of the winter white flakes always.

With the arrival of spring, Rabbit and Bunny were enticed by the colors and smells of lilacs.  During this season it was Rabbit who wanted the memory to last always.  As the most beloved kind of friends do for each other, Bunny made something extra special for Rabbit.  

Summer offered a delectable, tangy and crisp treat.  This present was presented by warmth, water, and tiny grains of ground rock and minerals.  As the days shortened, the rich glow of autumn supplied them with the perfect place to do what bunnies and rabbits do best---

JUMP!

That's what Bunny and Rabbit did, wondering at the wonder this year made for them.  

And then---

The words written by Holly M. McGhee in this story radiate from the pages, wrapping around you in a hug you want to last forever.  The friendship between Bunny and Rabbit is precious and pure, shown by their willingness to make a shared moment never end for the other.  Through the rhythmic sentences, repetition of phrases and conversations, we learn as they have.  Hope, like their love, is where you choose to find it.  It is provided each and every day and night of our lives.  Here is a passage from the story.

"I know what you mean,"

said Bunny this time.

"The kind of forever where

you remember it even after 

it ends!"

When you look at the front of the open and matching dust jacket and book case, you have questions.  Two rabbits, bunnies, with their backs to us are facing the sky, future, rosy with the rising (or setting) sun.  A field filled with possibilities stretches from them to the bottom of the jacket and cover.  On the front of the jacket the text and friends are varnished.

To the left of the spine, the back, there is a crisp white canvas.  Here, in the center, Bunny and Rabbit walk and splash, paw in paw, through shallow water.  On either side of them is a treat they will soon taste.

On the opening and closing endpapers is a delicate mint green.  On the title page, the image of Rabbit and Bunny sitting in the tree is placed between the text.  All the illustrations were rendered with

pen and ink and Adobe Photoshop

by Pascal Lemaitre.  One of the first things you notice about Pascal Lemaitre's artwork in this book is his superb use of space.  For many of the scenes Bunny and Rabbit are small, surrounded by a natural setting.  His fine lines and limited elements in each illustration convey a real sense of fascination.  The image sizes range from double-page pictures to a collection of smaller visuals on two pages and back to double-page images before this is repeated.  It is a pleasing flow enhancing the narrative.  The splendor of each season is portrayed in wonderful color choices.

His intricate details add to the endearing quality of the friends and their experiences.  Each of them is wearing colored scarfs with a white R on the red one for Rabbit and a white B on the green one for Bunny.  The quality of emotion conveyed with their eyebrows, eyes, button noses and mouths leaves no doubt in readers' minds as to the state of their minds and hearts. 

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is a double-page picture.  Across the top of the pages is a light purple wash with plump snowflakes falling in it.  Below this is white.  On the left side Rabbit is holding a large snowball and reaching toward Bunny.  Falling snow is shown on Rabbit and the slightly shadowed ground around her.  To the right of the gutter is Bunny.  She stands looking at Rabbit, expectant and happy, her paws clasped in front of her.  To the right of her is an evergreen tree laden with snow.  

When you finish reading this book, What the World Could Make: A Story of Hope written by Holly M. McGhee with illustrations by Pascal Lemaitre, you find yourself smiling.  In fact, you've been smiling the whole time and perhaps, you might be a bit teary by the tenderness expressed in words and artwork in this title.  Is there ever a time when we don't need hope?  Is there ever a time when we don't need to share the simple, freely given gifts of nature with someone who understands us completely?  I can't imagine a collection, personal or professional, without a copy of this book.

To learn more about Holly M. McGhee and Pascal Lemaitre and their other work, please access their respective websites by following the link attached to their names.  Holly M. McGhee has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Pascal Lemaitre has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  This book is featured with an interview at Kathleen Temean's Writing and Illustrating.  At the publisher's website you can view interior illustrations.  

Seeking Calm And Connections

Sunday morning, standing outside on the hill, clouds were at the beck and call of the wind.  Wispy smoky clouds, barely above the horizon, were moving to the west and larger fuller clouds, higher and above them, were moving to the east.  Birds were enjoying the benefits of a heavy earlier rainfall.  After an overcast day, as dusk settled crickets chirped their evening chorus.  Large wild rabbits, fur darkening, froze like statues, nearly blending in the tall weeds dying as autumn approaches.

Two recently released books ask readers to enjoy each and every moment pausing to consider our place in an infinite whole.  Here and Now (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, September 3, 2019) written by Julia Denos with illustrations by E. B. Goodale (Windows Candlewick Press, October 10, 2017) explores finding the marvelous in minutes.  It asks us to think of what others are doing in those same minutes.

Right here,
right now,
you are reading this book.

Where exactly is this book you are reading?  You might be holding it.  Another person might be holding it.  You might be sitting, standing or snuggled into a cozy spot.  If you are seated, what is under you or what is above you?  Go all the way down and go all the way up.

You and everyone on this Earth are moving through the stars and among other planets, and orbiting the sun in a vast universe.  As you are reading this book, what else can you see?  (I see fog blanketing grass, leaves, tree branches and rolling hills.)

Somewhere, a telephone is ringing.

Extend your vision.  Extend your thinking.  There is more to be seen.  There is a future to be dreamed and lived.  There are creatures, wild and domestic, everywhere.  All kinds of things are growing and mending.  Can you name things growing?  (I have a big bruise and a bump that doesn't hurt as much.)  There is much we cannot see, but that doesn't mean it isn't expanding, improving and evolving to be its best.  Extraordinary.


There are many things we fail to think about, important things, but author Julia Denos reminds us of those items, circumstances and possibilities and invites us through her words to participate.  Beginning with this very book, she asks us to center ourselves and then reach out to other surroundings and people.  This is how she connects us to each other.  In her sentences, this is how we find the marvelous in the everyday items, circumstances and possibilities.  Here is a sentence.

A friend you haven't met yet is sitting down to dinner.


Rendered in

ink, watercolor, monoprinting, and digital collage

the artwork by E. B. Goodale begins on the open dust jacket stretching from left to right, back to front.  The golden grass and flowers start in the upper left-hand corner extending over the spine to make a gentle curve on the front.  The sky on the back is darker and scattered with stars unlike the front.  Beneath the grass on the back is a cross-section of what is underground.  We see a chipmunk's home, bones, rocks and a box marked secret.  This ground stops at the spine to become the pond on the front.  The use of white on the front of the jacket is brilliant.  The child seeing her reflection is also noticing how ripples spread like we do when we walk through life.  Everyone has an impact.

Lifting the dust jacket to the book case, we are shown a hand on the far left and a hand on the far right, holding the book.  The canvas is in hues of blue, brushed in parallel and even strokes like floorboards.  On the opening and closing endpapers the fabric from a quilt on an interior image is used to cover them both.  Characters from the illustrations are shown gathered beneath the text on the title page.  One of them is holding this book.  Ants and an airplane figure in the picture.

Each illustration, spanning two pages or a single page with text on an opposite page or woven into the picture, is a poetic presentation of the text.  Children from different racial backgrounds explore and appreciate what is offered to them.  Readers will see themselves in their activities and the expressions shown on their faces.  A sense of calm permeates with every page turn.  Easter eggs are there to be found by careful readers.

One of my many favorite illustrations spans two pages.  A walkers' bridge crosses over a small river from left to right.  A cityscape can be seen shadowed in the distance behind it.  A flock of birds flies over the bridge on the right.  The four characters featured are shown on the left; two are standing on the bridge.  The oldest is seated on the ground with the youngest near a tree.  A butterfly is landing on their dog's nose.  Another two people are relaxing on a blanket near the riverbank, their dog curled up and sleeping.  This element begins on the left, moves over the gutter and completes on the right.  Ducks, Canadian geese, squirrels, pigeons, rabbits, more butterflies, a bee, a mouse, ants and a spider web are depicted among the humans.


Peace, mindfulness and respect for each other and those things around us are guaranteed when reading Here and Now written by Julia Denos with illustrations by E. B. Goodall.  Julia Denos includes an author's note at the end.  One of her sentences reads:

Meditation is just another way of noticing, and noticing is a little bit like magic.

I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Julia Denos and E. B. Goodale and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  Julia Denos has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  E. B. Goodale has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Author, reviewer, and blogger, Julie Danielson hosts several illustrators including E. B. Goodale on her blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  You will enjoy the showcased illustrations.  In this video Julia Denos and E. B. Goodale speak about the process for creating this book.





Author Holly M. McGhee and illustrator Pascal Lemaitre who earlier collaborated in Come with me (G. P. Putnam's Sons, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, September 5, 2017) work together again.  Listen (Roaring Brook Press, September 3, 2019) welcomes us into the art of finding connections.  Each one of us is a vital link in the chain of life.




Listen

to the sound of your feet---
the sound of
all of us
and the sound of me.

We should next pause and take a peek at the sun which shines all around the world on all of us.  When the sun sets, stars sparkle all around the world above all of us.  Inhale the air which is necessary for all of us.  Savor your food.  When was the last time, you put your hands into the dirt, feeling its richness and how it gives life to many?

As we use our senses for these experiences, we are asked to do so through the filter of our hearts . . . our wonderful hearts.  Our hearts are powerful, performing feats for us.  They are our guardians and our storytellers.  They allow us to see what is alike between everything rather than focusing on the differences. They take us back to the beginning.


Repetition throughout the narrative by author Holly M. McGhee supplies a beckoning cadence.  We find ourselves immediately engaged in the sensory suggestions.  Each time we are prompted to focus on others and on all of us.  In a wonderful technique, we close the narrative with the same words but with an altered rhythm.  Here is a passage.

Dig

in the earth.
Your roots are mine,
my roots are yours,
the roots of all of us
are the same.

Yet you are you and I am me and we are we.
Us . . .


On the open and matching dust jacket and book case a small child quietly observes a tiny red bird among the flowers and overhanging branches. (This tiny red bird is shown throughout the book.)  The rising sun shines on them both.  To the left, on the back, on a canvas of white, the same child is leaning their head against the trunk of a tree, arms to either side of the smooth bark.  Their eyes are closed.  A washed, loose, blue circle frames most of this picture with the sun low in the sky.  Each scene is as if a collective breath is being held.

A washed spring green covers the opening and closing endpapers.  Loose, fine lines by artist Pascal Lemaitre present pastoral scenes during daylight and nighttime.  Changing background colors reflect these varitions.  We feel the gentle breeze blowing leaves as a deer leaps away.  We feel the warmth of the sun.  We see stars reflected in the water as we float on a pond.

Each image requests readers to stop.  We need to notice the tiny details.  Can you see the ants, snail and rabbit?  Do you see all the bees buzzing over the sunflowers?  (Are the sunflowers there because of the Van Gogh quote at the book's beginning?)  What word is fashioned from the tree roots underground?

One of my many favorite illustrations spans two pages. (They are all double-page pictures.)  It is night and purple shades are used to color everything starting with a lighter color at the top and darkening near the horizon and into the water.  Stars shine in the sky and in the water as reflections.  The landscape, flowers, grass and trees, the dock and boat are etched in black.  A lily pad and shadows of fish are shown.  The child is leaning over the edge of the boat looking in the water.  The tiny red bird is singing, perched on the tip of the bow of the boat.  The child and bird have a glow about them as does one of the stars.


Peace and admiration for yourself and all others envelops you when reading Listen written by Holly M. McGhee with illustrations by Pascal Lemaitre.  Each page turn is like walking into open arms and being embraced by all that is good.  Wonderful as a read aloud or read silently to yourself, this book is highly recommended for your personal and professional collections.

To discover more about Holly M. McGhee and Pascal Lemaitre and their other work, please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  Holly M. McGhee has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Pascal Lemaitre has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  The publishers have created a special site for Listen which includes an activity kit and interior images.  John Schumacher, Scholastic's Ambassador of School Libraries, hosts the book trailer premiere on his blog, Watch. Connect. Read.  It includes a chat with both the author and the illustrator.  At Kathy Temean's site, Writing and Illustrating, Holly M. McGhee talks about this book, her career and her friendship with Pascal Lemaitre.

Power of One

Children are extremely intuitive.  They can read facial expressions, body postures and the inflection in the words we speak.  They can detect sincerity and truth in a heartbeat.

They have undoubtedly noticed adults following the news and current events with increased interest and their active participation in government and politics.  They understand there is social unrest throughout the globe and even in their own neighborhoods.  Come with me (G. P. Putnam's Sons, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, September 5, 2017) written by Holly M. McGhee with illustrations by Pascal Lemaitre addresses with compassion and courage the real concerns of a child.

All over the world,
the news told
and told
and retold
of anger and hatred---

People against people.

As adults, we know how disturbing this is for us.  For children it's downright scary.  Although fearful, the little girl approaches her father wondering how she can help.  What can a she do?  He replies,

"Come with me."

Living in the city, public transportation is nearby their home.  Together, hand in hand, they take a ride, politely greeting people and treating them with respect.  Even though the child and her papa do something ordinary, in the face of her fear it becomes an act of bravery.  Still upset by the news, she asks her mother the same question.

After her mama's answer they take a walk in their neighborhood, shopping at their favorite food shop.  This simple everyday trip reinforces the idea of accepting each individual on their own merits.  Her parent's activities prompt her to propose doing something on her own.  It's not easy for her mother and father to respond but they do.  They are choosing to live as we are intended to live.

As the little girl leaves her apartment, she is greeted by a boy across the hall.  They go.  They do.  It captures the attention of one, then another and then another.  From the smallest, greatness can flourish.


In this narrative, a gentle but powerful story, Holly M. McGhee imparts wisdom through questions asked and answered through action.  The little girl's parents seek to alleviate her fears through continuing to embrace the ordinary.  Declarative sentences express the truthful results of those actions in a manner all ages can understand.  Holly ties the first three small adventures together with the title phrase, leading us to the splendid ending.


Beginning with the matching dust jacket and book case Pascal Lemaitre makes marvelous use of white space throughout this title.  Rendered in ink and watercolor the illustrations reflect and enhance warmth found in the text.  The scene on the front, on the right, is the little girl walking her dog.  This simple activity represents courage by her and her parents.  Behind her are all ages and nationalities of people.  To the left, on the back, she and her dog, the boy from the hallway in her apartment building and a new young friend are starting a visual depiction of their desire to spread joy.  This is a hint of the ending.

The opening and closing endpapers are covered in a soft, chocolate brown.  The illustrations prior to each outing are spare and on single pages.  The everyday excursions usually span two pages.  Frequently the little dog belonging to the girl can be seen with her.  Careful readers will notice another teeny, tiny character appearing once the two children are outside.

After pausing at page turns and looking at each picture readers will agree that all the elements work simultaneously to create a particular feeling.  We feel a connection to this child and her parents.  We feel our hearts swell in celebration for their kindness and consistent pursuit of maintaining normalcy.

One of my favorite of many illustrations is when the girl and her parents are seated around the dinner table.  She has asked her question as she reaches down and pets her dog.  Her papa has a fork filled with food halfway to this mouth.  Her mama is equally surprised holding her fork motionless.  This is a defining moment.


Come with me written by Holly M. McGhee with illustrations by Pascal Lemaitre is a book to be read and read often.  It replaces fear with each one of each doing our part to spread courage and compassion.  The smallest gesture can change the world.  You will want to have at least one copy of this on your professional shelves and one for your personal collection.

To learn more about Holly M. McGhee and Pascal Lemaitre and their other work please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites. Pascal Lemaitre has several of the interior images on his site.  Holly M. McGhee wrote an article for The Washington Post, Teaching children how even the tiniest person can make a difference.  Holly M. McGhee is interviewed at Brightly, Two Writing Teachers, and It's All About the Journey.  At Celebri-Dots Holly M. McGhee posted a dot.