To See Your Beliefs Reflected All Around You

Each morning as the first pale rays of dawn light touch the sky we wake knowing today is an opportunity to be our best selves.  As the sun drops below the horizon and evening descends, we can evaluate what was done or not done and what was said or not said.  As an educator, a librarian, it's our sacred task to learn and grow so the patrons, children and adults, who enter the library see, use and read materials which provide the whole world.  Everything we do should be in an effort to build connections through understanding whether through factual information or fiction titles.

Our lives are enriched by the increase in our knowledge about others and every living thing on this planet.  (We cannot ignore the events in our communities, our home states, the United States and around the world.)  For today, June 26, 2018, Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets: A Muslim Book of Shapes (Chronicle Books, April 10, 2018) written by Hena Khan with illustrations by Mehrdokht Amini rose to the top of a group of recently purchased books.  It supplies to readers a mirror, a window and a door. 

Cone is the tip 
of the minaret so tall.
I hear soft echoes 
of the prayer call.

As the pages are turned in this narrative and as we travel around the world visiting places with people observing Muslim beliefs and traditions, our hearts expand with compassion.  We learn to look for figures and patterns.  Each one has significance and value.

A door opening into a mosque is a rectangle. A fountain providing water for washing before prayers is an octagon.  A drum played during celebrations is a circle.  If you seek shapes, they are there.

Three more shapes represent structures used for sermons, prayers, and a sacred site.  Another is seen in gardens of great beauty.  A decorative tile holds a place for an affirmative verse.

A family gathering, a special article of clothing and a greeting reveal the outlines of forms. Tying these together are people.  People who begin and end their days with hope.  We are more alike than we are different.


To read the words written by Hena Khan silently is to feel peace.  To read them aloud is to release the joy. Each two sentence pair rhymes with the final word.  The first sentence includes the shape.  It may also introduce us to a meaningful word in the Muslim beliefs and traditions.  This technique of supplying readers with a repeating pattern fully engages us in the narrative.  Prior to the page turn we are wondering where in the world we will go, the shape we will see and how our awareness will strengthen.  Here is another couplet.

Square is a garden
with sweet orange trees,
a hint of jannah
on its fragrant breeze.


When opened, the matching dust jacket and book case depict the intricacy of the design elements in Islamic art and its architecture.  Several of the shapes mentioned within the book are shown on the front illustration.  It's a beautiful blend of interior images.  To the left, on the back, is an exquisite layered and vertical pattern in rows. 

On the opening and closing endpapers a combination of squares, rectangles, and triangles woven together is further representation.  Illustrator Mehrdokht Amini selects shades of red, orange and yellow to color the first set of pages.  At the back hues of blue, purple and green are used.  On the verso and title pages the top of the tower and minaret are shown with a rising sun behind them.

Each picture, spanning two pages and rendered in mixed media, enhances the couplets.  We travel from country to country and within various parts of a given community.  Colorful clothing and marvelous buildings, on the outside and on the inside, envelope us in this world.  We are explorers and guests and for others, this takes them into the known.

Mehrdokht Amini shifts the point of view allowing us to get an overview when it's important and bringing us close to the people so we can respectfully observe or participate.  Her people, adults and children, have large expressive eyes.  They suggest the mood within the moment.

One of my favorite of many illustrations is for circle.  Two daffs, large round drums, are being held and played by women.  Another woman is blowing on a small horn.  These four adult women frame the entire image.  Beginning on the left and crossing the gutter, children, holding hands, dance in a circle.  The clothing on everyone but especially the women is lovely.


With each reading your respect intensifies and your perceptions sharpen.  Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets: A Muslim Book of Shapes written by Hena Khan with illustrations by Mehrdokht Amini gives readers a stunning portrait in rhythmic, informative words and vibrant illustrations of Muslim beliefs and traditions. It is a vitally important title you will want to have on your personal and professional bookshelves.  There is a glossary and an author's note at the conclusion.

To learn more about Hena Khan and Mehrdokht Amini and their other work, please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  Hena has a blog linked to her site.  Mehrdokht has many illustrations for you to see on her site including the one I mentioned.  Hena has accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  Both Hena and Mehrdokht are showcased at Book Q & As with Deborah Kalb.  Hena chats about her work at 88 Cups Of Tea in a podcast.  She also talks in a video at Colorin colorado!  Mehrdokht is highlighted at Let's Talk Picture Books.  At the publisher's website you can download a printable poster.

To Be Perfectly Honest

In sporting events athletics, whether individually or as a member of a team, are constantly aiming for the flawless play, run, catch, swing, jump, routine, kick or shot.  They practice and practice and practice until one day the magic happens.  There are others who pursue their passions aiming for perfection; the exemplary musical melody, piece of art, compilation of words, architectural design, brick wall, perennial garden, or the most successful surgery or the most delicious fruit or vegetable ever tasted.  If you love what you are doing, you will continually aim high.

Will perfection be attained?  For some yes, for others the act of trying is a form of the ideal.  A shapely character introduced to readers in Triangle (Candlewick Press, March 14, 2017) returns in a companion title called Square (Candlewick Press, May 8, 2018) written by Mac Barnett with illustrations by Jon Klassen.  Square's friend, Circle, makes a request he is not sure he can honor.

This is Square.

Square has a secret cave with a square entrance in a large mounded rock.  Square's daily task is to take a square rock, a block, from down in the depths of his cave.  He pushes it with great effort up a hill.

At the top of the hill, he adds it to a stack of other blocks.  This is simply what he does.  As he is pushing a block up the hill one day, his friend Circle, glides up to him.  She believes him to be a great sculptor.  Square does not know what a sculptor is.

Circle is so excited by the shape of the block being identical to the shape of Square, she requests he make one of her.  He tries to tell her he is not as creative as she thinks he is but she has left.  This is a true dilemma for Square.

With hammer and chisel in his hands, Square begins his task but nothing works.  Soon he is in the middle of a disaster.  He is exhausted from his efforts, falls asleep and does not wake up until morning.  He realizes he is wet.

As Square stands wondering what he is going to do, Circle arrives.  She asks a question and Square replies.  She does not deter from her original assessment of Square.  She declares him a genius as she happily goes about her day.


Your enjoyment of this story does not diminish with repeatedly readings.  You find yourself smiling each and every time.  Mac Barnett gives us simple sentences but a subtle undercurrent of humor runs through the excellent blend of narrative and dialogue.  The contrast between what Circle assumes is true about Square and his conversations with her elevate the laughter factor.  He is honest enough in his thoughts to be worried about Circle's opinion.  Here is a portion of a passage.

He was surrounded by rubble.
"Whatever is the opposite of perfect,
that is what this is!  I must stay up
all night and figure this out!


A cream, matte-finished nine by nine inch cover displays Square on the front, wide-eyed, waiting and wondering.  There is something about his eyes which will have you, too, waiting and wondering.  Your anticipation is growing already.  To the left, on the back, Square's back is to readers.  His back is used as a place for four sentences giving us a hint of what we may encounter inside the book.

The opening and closing endpapers are a pale, mint green.  On the title page a tiny version of Square is placed between two clusters of rocks with delicate leaved-branches among them.  His eyes are looking to the right, inviting us to turn the page.  To the left on the verso page, all the text is placed within a square-shape.

The illustrations by Jon Klassen rendered digitally and with watercolor and graphite convey much with the placement of the elements.  (The use of the cream-colored space is outstanding in supplying pacing.)  Some are single page pictures, others cross the gutter and some extend over two pages.  We never see legs on Circle, she floats in and out of scenes.  We rarely see arms on Square and the only time we see an arm on Circle is when she and Square are giving a one-handed wave to us at the end on the dedication page.  The information about Mac and Jon which would normally appear on the closing flap is shown beneath the duo.  You will laugh when you read it.

One of my many favorite illustrations is on a single page.  Square has hammered and chiseled and chiseled and hammered a block until he is surrounded by bits and pieces of it.  What the text does not tell us is when he started this project, it also started to rain.  Now he is standing in a downpour.  A twig with two leaves is stuck to the top of his head.  His eyes are wide open but the dots are much smaller.  His hands, one holding a chisel and the other holding a hammer, are lifted in despair.  The bits and pieces of the block have formed a barrier which is holding water.


I can't imagine a professional or personal collection without a copy of Square written by Mac Barnett with illustrations by Jon Klassen.  This commentary on perfection and the joyful accident of reaching a goal is brilliant.  It shows us beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.

To learn more about Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen and their other work, please access their sites by following the links attached to their names.  At Penguin Random House and Candlewick Press you can view interior images.  Candlewick Press has posted a short Teacher Tip Card. Please take a few moments to read the Publishers Weekly The Shape of Things to Come from Award-Winning Picture Book Team and an interview with Mac and Jon at Art Of The Picture Book.  Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen are interviewed on NPR Books about this title.  Enjoy the video.

Being Your Best Self

Every single individual has potential.  Choices made daily determine how this capacity is developed.  We get to decide how we look at ourselves, each other and the world as a whole.  We very quickly learn we will not have control over everything that happens but we do have the ability to create our response.

Three titles published within the last several months focus on developing a positive perspective so our lives, the lives of those closest to us and the lives of people we may never meet are rich and full.  Collaborators author Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrator Tom Lichtenheld present Friendshape (Scholastic Press, August 25, 2015), a charming tale on the comforts trustworthy companions bring.  I Used To Be Afraid (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, September 29, 2015) written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger explores conquering fears by stepping back and looking at them with different eyes.  A daily ritual of a father with his children becomes Beautiful Hands (Blue Dot Press, September 29, 2015) written and illustrated by Kathryn Otoshi and Bret Baumgarten.


What's so great about having

Friends?

We're glad you asked!

See, the great thing about having friends is ...

Everything!

A blue circle, a yellow square, a green triangle and a red rectangle cheerfully list all the attributes of having a friend.  Each quality is not only displayed textually but visually.

Friends make you feel happy.

On the opposite page the foursome are indeed grinning but their shapes make a smiling face.

You know how you feel like you can be yourself in your own home.  Friends make you feel the same way no matter where you are.  It's like your minds are in sync. They have a gift for seeing play when no one else can and they do so with equality for all participants, even newcomers.

When you don't see eye to eye, they value you more than being right.  Through thick and thin there's nothing they won't do for you.  In case you are wondering why friends are friends to the end, the quartet arranges themselves to spell out the answer.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal speaks the language of her readers knowing what they value most.  She understands the importance of simplicity; her words clearly defining eleven virtues of lasting relationships in single sentences.  Each one builds toward the final thought.  Here is one of the sentences.

Friends may quarrel...
...but they don't stay bent out of shape for long.


Rendered in pencil with digital color the illustrations on the matching dust jacket and book case playfully extend the text in a punny sort of way.

An uplifting celebration of friendship 

is highlighted with a balloon (a symbol of celebration) floating upward with the Square happily hanging on tight.  On the back, to the left, the words

Here's to a great circle of friends! 

curves around Circle as Rectangle, Square and Triangle surround it.  The four pages of the opening and closing endpapers are in green, yellow, blue and red.  Everyone is equal.

Tom Lichtenheld places the characters on a crisp white background with the exception of elements placed on cosmic black to reflect one of the statements.  The secondary asides in the narrative are sure to elicit grins galore due to Lichtenheld's pacing and placement.  With careful curves and two dots emotions are readily depicted.

One of my favorite images is for the second portion of the quarrel statement.  Circle and Square are apologizing to each other on the left.  On the right Rectangle looks at Triangle and says

You know,
you have a good point.  



I used to be afraid of SPIDERS
but not anymore.

A young girl shares her fears with readers.  She then introduces us to her new view inviting us to try the same with our fears.  In a rhythmic back and forth of exchanges we are privy to her thought processes.

When a spider swings down on a silken thread we are startled but the beauty in their web work helps to ease the initial moment of panic.  Shadows shift when we have control of their creation.  In the face of change relief is found in those things which remain with us.

Some fears stay but not all the time.  We can turn the fear into fun.  Family does that for us.

Laura Vaccaro Seeger establishes a cadence, a sense of expectation, with the repetition of

but not anymore

in each of her sentences.  The fears addressed are real to many.  She moves from concrete (spiders and shadows) to more abstract (change and being alone) and then back to a person.  This final fear ends the entire narrative in laughter and warmth.

There is real fear expressed on the face of the girl on the matching dust jacket and book case.  By bringing the girl close to us we immediately have empathy and a little curiosity.  What has her frightened?  Opening the cover the narrative starts with us stepping back to see her peering from behind a living room chair as the dog looks at her.  This is also the title page.

Each image rendered in acrylic paint and collage spans two pages.  First the fear is portrayed followed by the relief found when looking at it differently.  Laura Vacarro Seeger is a master of the die-cut.  When the page is turned what initially appears alarming, turns into beauty, love, light, heightened self-esteem, or comfort.  Four two-page spreads are devoted to being alone and to her big-brother, extending into the closing endpapers.  The twist at the end is perfectly pictured.

One of my favorite visuals (Xena's too) is her fear of the dark.  She is seen peeking over the edge of her covers in bed with her pink stuffed bunny by her side.  A circle in the upper right-hand corner turns into the moon with a page turn.  Now she is sitting outside gazing at the sky with her canine companion at her side.


What will your beautiful hands DO TODAY?

This introductory question guides each subsequent series of questions and a reply that is also a question.  We are first asked

Will they PLANT?
What can you plant?

We are engaged in this conversation.  Our minds race as possibilities come to the surface.  Will we plant seeds, vegetable, flowers, or trees?  Oh no...

IDEAS?

Now we are wondering what hands can do.  Will they fix, fashion or grasp?  They will touch, lift, stretch and reach but what will they touch, lift, stretch and reach?

Once again we think of potential words to join with the questions.  We understand we are being challenged to expand our ideas into larger concepts.  Will this end today?  Do we do this every day?  What do you believe?

Kathryn Otoshi's text is based upon the first question which Bret Baumgarten asked his children every day as he held their hands.  By having the replies followed by a question mark, she is asking us to continue our thoughts.  She welcomes discovery through a more philosophical approach.

The rainbow color palette seen on the book case is used throughout the book.  All the images are created using the hands of Kathryn Otoshi's and Bret Baumgarten's families with the exception of a final illustration employing more than one hundred hands.  Most of the background color is a pristine white.

Portions of the first two questions are written in cursive.  The letters on the key words are cut from hand prints as are the replying questions.  For a few the letters look as if they were written in finger paint.  The layout and design flows from left to right.  We see beginnings and the beautiful results; seeds to flowers, a caterpillar to a butterfly and a lizard to a dragon.

One of my favorite illustrations is the two-page spread at night.  The background is a rich deep blue.  A tree spans across the gutter, branches extending to nearly the page edges.  It is covered in fireflies.  In white we are asked

What will your beautiful hands DO...


These three books, Friendshape written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal with illustrations by Tom Lichtenheld, I Used To Be Afraid written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger and Beautiful Hands by Kathryn Otoshi and Bret Baumgarten will add joy in your classrooms and home.  They will have every reader extending themselves, wanting to grow into the best they can be.  I can already imagine the discussions between readers and listeners and readers and readers....of all ages.

To discover more about Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Tom Lichtenheld, Laura Vaccaro Seeger and Kathryn Otoshi please visit their respective websites by following the links attached to their names.  Update:  November 21, 2015 A wonderful Pinterest board has been created by Amy Krouse Rosenthal for their book.  Eight interior images from I Used To Be Afraid can be viewed at the publisher's website.  Author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast has some artwork and a link to her review at BookPage.  Hand in Hand: Kathryn Otoshi on Her Collaboration with Bret Baumgarten for "Beautiful Hands"  is posted at School Library Journal.  Enjoy this video about the book.

#Bookaday Beautiful Hands by Kathryn Otoshi and Bret Baumgarten https://t.co/V8ercb3KZv

— John Schu (@MrSchuReads) September 19, 2015

A Gentle Giant In Hiding

They might be found under a bed, in the closet or only in your head.  Mostly big and tall, they're not very scary at all.  If one should flee (they do like to explore), don't worry.  They're fairly easy to see.

Some are red. Some are blue.  Some are yellow.  Some are a mix and match of one or more hues.  In a companion title to the popular, Have You Seen My Dragon (Candlewick Press, April 8, 2014) author and illustrator Steve Light invites us on an amusing adventure.  His young character is in search of her purple pal in Have You Seen My Monster? (Candlewick Press, April 7, 2015).  With the introduction of each possible place, we come to learn about this monster's likes, county fairs and shapes.


Have you seen my monster?
No?  Maybe he's already at the fair. 

As the little girl stands outside the entrance, her monster is hitching a ride on a vendor's cart, passing under a blue sign.  Will she spot him spinning among statuesque steads?  He might be in the food tent given his appetite for sweet treats.

Is that him wandering among the giggling gals and guys in a house with mirrors, whirling wheels and ladders?  Maybe he's looking for someone as hairy as he is.  He'll need to walk gently among the unhatched newborns and through the farm animal pens.  Let's twirl up high, to see if he can be seen.

Tractors and trucks might be an attraction but so can sliding with speed.  Is that him racing and weaving among the bumper cars?  Let's go round and round to the tip top, hoping to spy the merry monster.

He's very clever.  Perhaps he took first prize in a competition.  Is he marching to music?  Is he waiting for a big ding? It may be he is nestled with some stuffed animal friends.  There is now a sliver of moon in the sky.  A monster is needed to walk hand in hand with a friend.


Summer heralds the arrival of traveling carnivals and county exhibitions but with the words of Steve Light, we can enjoy the experience any time of the year.  Most children in the company of their parents value the addition of their own personal monster elevating the fun of the fair.  For those unfamiliar with the sights and sounds to be found, Light takes us on a tour through a series of simple queries and observations by the little girl.

In this hunt fashioned with words by Light we are looking for a cherished companion and forms.  For each of the visited spots, a shape is highlighted with text and color. Here is another sample passage.

Maybe he went to see 
the livestock.  I hope he
doesn't scare the animals.

square

You'll want to step right into the pages of this book once you've seen the illustration spanning the front and back of the dust jacket.  With no stretch of your imagination you'll hear the call of the merchants and ticket sellers along with the music of the carousel mingled with the laughter and screams of the riders.  The Ferris wheel crosses the spine joining other tents, a merry-go-round, a gigantic roller coaster and the flying chair ride.  On the book case the purple of the monster provides a background for the black outline drawings of the little girl and her buddy at a tea party and playing dress-up.  On the opening and closing endpapers, Steve Light has drawn a map in black on white with red arrows tracing the path the monster and girl take through the fair.  At each place a different color indicates the shape showcased.  A compass rose is in the upper left-hand corner.  In the lower right-hand corner framed in carnival decor are the girl and her monster, hands raised in joy.

With a page turn the little girl is playing beauty parlor placing ribbons in the monster's hair on the verso page.  Opposite, in full color, she rides piggy-back on his shoulders next to and under the title.  Rendered in 

ink using a Mont Blanc 149 with a B nib that *flips* to a fine line...then colored using Platinum Mix Free inks

the twenty illustrations are spread over two pages each, edge to edge.

Done entirely in black and white the details are elaborate and intricate.  The perspective is altered depending on the vantage point of the girl.  Readers will need to turn the book to view a vertical picture as the girl uses all her muscles.  Positioning of the girl and the monster is astutely done, so they are never too far from one another.  Spot color is used to identify the shapes within the illustrations.  In the upper right-hand corner of each image Light has placed the form in white on a black rectangle naming it.  

One of my favorite illustrations is beneath the tent riding the dodgem cars.  You are well aware of the activities on the outside but your eyes are drawn to the motion on the floor, the bumping and racing.  The faces on the children show disappointment, happiness and determination.  Our monster is running away from one particular driver with a glint in his eyes.


Have You Seen My Monster? written and illustrated by Steve Light welcomes reader participation.  It's a day at the fair.  It's a search for a missing but not so missing monster.  It's a shift in point of view looking for small shapes in larger places.  With much to relish on these pages, this title will have the loved look quickly.  As a read aloud it will make for a lively story time.

To appreciate more about Steve Light and his work, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  This link will take you to the Penguin Random House website to view interior images.  A completely different picture is available at the Candlewick Press site.  They have also created an activity kit.
UPDATE:  Steve Light was a guest at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast hosted by author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson.