Feline Follies

It seems like yesterday, but more than twenty years have come and gone since that sunny summer day.  In a tiny town along one of northern Michigan's largest lakes, a few people strolled down the sidewalks.  On one sidewalk, a homeless kitten wandered.  Most people hardly gave it a glance.  I was not one of them.

I stopped and talked to the lost soul for a few minutes.  Walking away, I engaged in the timeless battle of "should I or should I not."  When I turned around to go back, a family of three had stopped to kneel down and chat with the kitten.  The kitten had found its forever family.  A little boy was overjoyed.  A few months later, my remarkable, precious Xena came into my world.

The reality is, we never know when or what kind of animal will become a member of our family.  When they do, most days our joys are multiplied beyond our imagining.  Two recent publications, a month apart, focus on our feline friends.  In the first, Bathe The Cat (Chronicle Books, February 8, 2022) written by Alice B. McGinty with illustrations by David Roberts, a clever cat creates off-the-charts comedy with a little help from magnetized letters.

Come on folks,

it's time to clean!

Upstairs,

downstairs,

in-between.

This family, two youngsters, a baby, and two dads, need to work together because Grandma is arriving at two o'clock.  Their house is chaotic clutter. All the assignments are posted on the refrigerator door.  They are read aloud by Daddy.  The last one,

and I'll bathe the cat,

is not welcome news for the cat.

The wily feline rearranges the letters. When Daddys asks why the children and Dad are wasting time, they look at the tasks listed on the door.  They make no sense at all.

. . . Bobby, bathe the mat.

Sarah, mop the baby,

and Dad will mow the cat. 

Trust me, this cat does not want to be mowed.  Paws switch the letters again.  It is another crazy list.

The crafty cat goes back to the refrigerator.  This list is even more nonsensical, until Daddy makes a discovery.  It is almost time for Grandma Marge to walk through the door.  Will she find mayhem or peaceful perfection?

Author Alice B. McGinty begins this book with a common scenario, getting ready for the visit of a relative.  As her first rhyming phrases unfold, we easily step into their rhythm until the last sentence, a question.  Then, we burst into laughter.  Our laughter increases with every meddlesome moment the cat spends moving the words and fashioning outlandish new tasks which rhyme beautifully.  Here is another hilarious passage.

No, no! That's WRONG! You call this work?!

Have all you people gone BERSERK?

You've scrubbed my fish! You fed the FLOOR?!

MUST I READ THIS LIST ONCE MORE??

The bright shades of orange, pink, green, yellow, and blue we see on the front, right, of the open dust jacket invite happiness regardless of the frantic looks on all the characters, except the cat, of course.  We see here a hectic incident frozen in time.  We are curious to know what has happened.  To the left of the spine on another crisp white background, the child wearing the dinosaur costume is kneeling over the fishbowl.  She is feeding three eager fish.

On the book case the background is white.  On either side of the spine is a single image.  We see the fathers and two of the children chasing the cat that is nearly off the right side.  The baby is smiling and crawling along in the lower, left-hand corner.

On the opening endpapers, letters on the refrigerator spell the tasks to accomplish.  On the left side is a child's drawing of Daddy and Dad.  For reasons readers can guess, the words on the closing endpapers refer to things to do for the cat.  On the left side is a drawing of Grandma Marge.  On the right side is a drawing of the cat.

On the title page, the cat calmly licking one paw with a toy mouse in the other paw sits on top of the ''t'' in bathe.  These images by artist David Roberts ask readers to pause at every page turn.  We need to appreciate the details and the expressions on the characters' faces.  Just looking at the cat's face will have readers giggling. 

Rendered in pencil and watercolor, each two-page visual is loaded with elements extending and enhancing the words.  Sometimes we are brought close to the action and feel as though we are participants.  Other times, we stand back more as observers.  When the cat is rearranging the letters on the refrigerator, we are brought very close which heightens the laughter factor.

One of my many favorite illustrations takes place outside the characters' home.  The home with its hues of orange door supplies the background.  On the left, Bobby is bathing the welcome mat with a CAT SHAMPOO BOTTLE next to the large orange bucket.  Behind him and to his right, Daddy is vacuuming the lawn.  On the right, Sarah is mopping a laughing baby.  Dad is looking perplexed as he stands next to the lawn mower.  The cat, tail with fur on end, is running off the right edge.  It just heard the sentence

 Mow the cat?

If there is one thing we know to be true, it is laughter can be the best medicine, especially the laughter of children.  This book, Bathe The Cat written by Alice B. McGinty with artwork by David Roberts, is one readers will read often and listeners will beg to have it read repeatedly.  I highly recommend you have a copy in both your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Alice B. McGinty and David Roberts and their other work, please follow the link attached to their names to access their websites.  Alice B. McGinty has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  David Roberts has an account on Instagram.  At the publisher's website, you can view interior images.

Who can resist the allure of a kitten?  Those little bundles of fur are some of the most magical of baby animals.  Their curiosity for whatever is around them and their ensuing shenanigans can melt the iciest of hearts.  Author Florence Minor and her husband, artist Wendell Minor, present all the delightful, memorable aspects of these adorable babies in their newest collaboration, Smitten with Kittens (Charlesbridge, March 8, 2022).

Who isn't smitten

with a kitten's sweet MEW

and all the cute things

that kittens will DO?

The first meal of the day gives kittens the energy they need to play.  Outside, they love to chase butterflies.  Inside, they look in a mirror wondering about the handsome being they see.

If they happen to wander into the bathroom, it will only happen once or at least their humans will keep the toilet paper in a safer location in the future.  The television supplies endless entertainment for kittens.  The birds are the stars, but they don't seem to fly into the room. 

Tucked into the smallest cubbies, kittens hide and expect you to seek.  They run and romp and run and romp until their energy is gone.  Then, they get cozy and rest.  They dream of doing what they do best.

Within a single sentence or two, using rhyming words, Florence Minor creates joy we willingly embrace.  Her pacing asks readers to participate in the narrative, guessing what the second rhyming word is.  Throughout the entire narrative, we smile at the behavior of the kitten she so aptly describes.  Florence Minor has gifted us with the experience of being a kitten.  Here is the first of two sentences.  I wonder what the second rhyming word will be.

Kittens make trouble

whatever they DO---

rolling, more rolling . . .

In looking at the open and matching dust jacket and book case, we stop for a bit to relish the artwork of Wendell Minor.  Rendered

in graphite on paper and digital,

the illustrations are rich in texture and authenticity.  Every line vibrates with the liveliness embodied in kittens.  Wendell's masterful command of light and shadow raises the reader's pictorial experience.

On the front, right side of the jacket, the title text is raised.  There are also seven paw prints in varnished white on the right side of the front.  To the left, on the other side of the spine, a charcoal kitten is in a pounce pose.  Its expression is pure playfulness.

On the opening and closing endpapers are a series of ten kitten poses.  It is as if particular seconds are paused in time.  They are nearly photographic, but soft in their quality.  They are graphite on white.  Every single one is stunning.

On the initial title page, two kittens look up from the inside of a cardboard box.  One is resting their front paws on the edge of the box.  On the formal title page a large image of a kitten begins on the left, crosses the gutter, and extends to the center of the right side.  The kitten is curled and napping.  It is curled around a red toy mouse with white hearts on it.

White space is an element in these images drawing our attention to the kittens.  The kittens are shown in a variety of activities and poses.  We might see their entire body or only a portion.  Color is used sparingly as an accent.  

One of my many favorite illustrations is a two-page picture.  Three kittens are seated in a row with their backs to us.  One is to the left of the gutter; the other two are to the right of the gutter.  They are facing a television screen placed on a large surface.  They are staring intently at a bright red cardinal flying close to them among the clouds.  Their tiny heads are cocked slightly to indicate their concentration.

Readers of all ages will enjoy reading and rereading Smitten with Kittens written by Florence Minor with artwork by Wendell Minor.  At the close of the book are two pages with ten Fun Facts about kittens.  For cat and kitten lovers and for those wishing to enhance their appreciation of our feline friends, you'll want to have a copy of this title in both your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Florence Minor and Wendell Minor and their other work, please follow the link embedded in their names to take you to their shared website.  Florence and Wendell also share professional Facebook and Pinterest accounts.  Florence Minor has accounts on Instagram and Twitter.  Wendell Minor has accounts on Instagram and Twitter. At the publisher's website, you can view an interior illustration and download an activity sheet.  At Penguin Random House, you can view additional interior images.

An Intersection Of History

To this day, I can't believe my parents allowed it.  To this day, I can't believe I did it.  What were they thinking?!  What was I thinking?!

One fine day when I was still in high school, my friend and I left our tiny community and arrived at another tiny neighboring community.  After appropriate procedures and some hefty propeller spinning, the two of us lifted into the air in a two-seater plane built by her father and another man.  My friend, at sixteen, had her pilot's license.  To see our town and our homes from the air was amazing.  All those moments are firmly embedded in my mind and heart as a perfect day.

Nearly sixty years earlier, someone else had what must have been a perfect day.  Wilbur Wright Meets Lady Liberty (Christy Ottaviano Books, Henry Holt And Company, March 9, 2021) written by Robert Burleigh with illustrations by Wendell Minor is an exciting recounting of a historical ride lasting less than ten minutes. For every one of those minutes, you, like the spectators and Wilbur Wright, are enchanted and enveloped in euphoria.

It won't work!  This guy Wilbur Wright must be out of his mind!

I'll believe it only when I see it!

What will people dream up next?  Flying to the moon? 

Those were only a few of the thoughts voiced by the crowd gathered on September 29, 1909.  They wanted an answer to the question of the Wright Flyer really being able to perform.  Wilbur Wright was ready and prepared.  He had a canoe attached to the bottom of the plane, just in case something unexpected happened.

On the water, a congregation of boats and ships, including the Lusitania, were waiting for the flight.  Newspaper reporters stood by in hopes of headlines.  Wilbur Wright took his seat.  The combination of the spinning propeller and the runway lifted the Wright Flyer into the air.  Soon Wilbur Wright was moving at one hundred feet above land and water.

Below him was a city and its people in miniature.  Ahead of him was the Statue of Liberty.  Can you imagine being this man?  He had to get close but not too close.  Even though his focus was firmly on his task, Wilbur Wright could not help but hear the shifting tones of the people below and around him.  Gripping the levers, his feet resting on the bar, Wilbur Wright skillfully maneuvered the plane around this immense symbol of all that is supposed to be held true in these United States of America.

The chorus of celebration was a roar (and so was the foghorn from the great luxury liner).  When Wilbur placed the plane back on Governors' Island, he was swarmed by news people.  Maybe dreams do come true.

For the time you are reading this book, the world around you fades away.  Robert Burleigh skillfully takes his research and forms a realistic, historical narrative.  He brings the sensory experience of that day felt by Wilbur Wright and the spectators to readers with each sentence he writes.  To make it more inviting and inspiring to all ages, he takes the presence of ten-year-old Juan Trippe at this flight and brings his voice into the discussion four times.  (Juan Trippe learned to fly and founded Pan American Airways.)  Here is a passage.

Careful! Is the Flyer too close?  Wilbur hears the

roar of alarmed voices---a roller coaster of cries.  He

understands so well:  If even one tip of the Flyer's wing

touches the statue, he will spin crazily out of control

and plunge to his death.

Looking at the color palette used in this book, first seen on the matching and open dust jacket and book case, you are reminded of air and water.  It's as if artist Wendell Minor has captured those elements and placed them within his paintings.  On the right, front, he uses the red canoe placed on the Wright Flyer by Wilbur to add a bit of color to the text, too.  On the dust jacket, the text, Wright Flyer and Statue of Liberty are varnished.

On the left, back, is a scene as Wilbur flies over the water.  A tug moves from left to right, smoke steaming from its stack.  In the background, on the right, is an important historical building known to those who immigrated to the United States.  Above this, Wilbur slides through the sky in the Wright Flyer.

On the opening endpapers is a recreation of a newspaper headline from this notable date.  It is done in sepia tones.  On the closing endpapers, Wendell Minor has created a map of Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Hudson River, the East River, Governors' Island, and the Statue of Liberty.  It is carefully labeled and there are two explanatory sentences.  It shows the route Wilbur flew.

Across the verso and title pages is a panoramic view of the spectators, thousands gathered along the water.  Several trees show signs of autumn beginnings.  Most of the page is sky, hazy with blue and clouds.  Flying high on the left is Wilbur in the Wright Flyer.

These illustrations rendered using 

gouache watercolor on Strathmore 500 Bristol paper,

like the text, take you back in time.  Some of them are single-page pictures.  Others are vast views spanning two pages.  The details are highly intricate.  Both the Wright Flyer and the Statue of Liberty are breathtakingly portrayed.  One wordless two-page image is stunning.  (Juan Trippe is always in sepia tones.)

One of my many favorite illustrations is a full-page picture.  It is a closeup of Wilbur Wright seated in the Wright Flyer.  Dressed in a suit, tie, white shirt, and cap, he looks nothing like a pilot except for the firm, determined set of his jaw and look of concentration in his eyes.  Each hand is grasping a lever.  His legs are stretched in front of him, and his feet are placed on the bar.  Some of the mechanics are visible on the left.  Behind him are pieces of sky.

Each time I read Wilbur Wright Meets Lady Liberty written by Robert Burleigh with illustrations by Wendel Minor, I am astonished at the accomplishment achieved on this day.  Through the words and images, you can feel the intensity in each of those minutes.  At the close of the book is an AUTHOR'S NOTE divided with these headings, Into the Air---Maybe!, September 29, 1909: Look Up, America!, and Some Interesting Facts About the Wright Brothers and the New York Flights.  There is also an ILLUSTRATOR'S NOTE.  Included is a bibliography for both older and younger readers and a quote source.

To learn more about Robert Burleigh and Wendell Minor and their other work, please follow the link attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Robert Burleigh has an account on Facebook.  Wendell Minor has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  On Pinterest Florence Minor, an author and Wendell's wife, has a board highlighting some of their books.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.

Waiting For You

Moving from place to place is difficult for any number of reasons.  There is the packing and unpacking along with a multitude of items to complete on a written or mental checklist. There is the sense of loss at leaving what you have known.  There is the sense of unease at arriving where you've never been.  You are in a state of uncertainty multiplied tenfold.

When this happens, there is an answer to our frustration and anxiety.  It is waiting for us.  It does not cost us anything, but our time.  Southwest Sunrise (Bloomsbury Children's Books, May 5, 2020) written by Nikki Grimes with illustrations by Wendell Minor is the joyful journey of a young African American boy.  He, like many of us, discovers by listening, and looking we can find answers and previously unknown wonders.

Too old to cry myself to sleep, 
I hide behind my baseball cap,
close my eyes, and pout
all the way from New York
to New Mexico,
mad about moving to a place
of shadows.  . . .

The boy does not understand the reason behind the move.  When he wakes up the following morning, and looks out his bedroom window, one without bars, he is startled by what he sees. The mounding landscape in the distance has shifted into shades of color.

Still not happy about his current circumstances, he is sure the red chili peppers in their kitchen are the only bit of brightness one can expect to find in a desert.  He does decide, with a nature guidebook given to him by his mother, to go outside.  Again, his surprise is complete.  Spread before him like waves are fields of flowers noted in the book.

Gazing in another direction he sees yet another color; this one on a home formed of materials different than his.  Unaccustomed to the silence, he soon notices an unusual tree ahead with a group of black and white birds sharing the local news via their articulate noise.  Standing for a moment, the boy looks around.  The sky rolls on and on unbroken by the skyscrapers he has always known.

A bird certainly acting like royalty strides past him.  A lovely lizard glides across his palm.  Skeletal pieces of those long-gone gleam against the sand.  As the path he follows ends, he realizes the desert has seen him and fills his emptiness with a final treat.  A soul brimming with happiness returns the favor.


With each reading of the words written by Nikki Grimes, they reach farther into your heart. Her use of language, its poetic pacing and rhythmic beat fashioned by carefully placed punctuation, draws us into the experienced moments of this boy's arrival at his new home and his first day of exploration.  His emotional voice sings to us as it is transformed by his sensory morning stroll.  Here is a portion of another poem.

I look up,
try to understand
the deep waves of turquoise
overhead.
I search for the end of blue,
but there is none.


When you first look at the open and matching dust jacket and book case, the majesty and the silence of the panorama envelope you.  They allow you to be with the boy, hand to his head to sharpen his gaze, as he scans his setting.  The slight smile on his face is an indication of the pleasure he senses in his surroundings.  The rocky vista extends over the spine to the left on the back.  Here, the sky is a textured, watercolor blend of blue and white.

On the opening endpapers is a detailed, almost architectural depiction, of a cityscape.  A line of buildings, most of them skyscrapers, reach into the sky.  On the closing endpapers is a vast expanse of grasses, flowers, and a few trees reaching toward layers of rocky mounds, plateaus, and hills.  Above these is a sky awash with clouds.  A lone bird floats over one of the left ridges.

These illustrations rendered 

with gouache watercolor on Strathmore 500 Bristol Paper

by Wendell Minor, paint an emotional portrait of change within the context of a gorgeous natural space.  There is a union of soft textures, intricate lines, light and shadow and bold, almost photographic, elements.  The sizes of the images and their perspectives change with the narrative.  There are dramatic double-page pictures, single-page visuals and smaller images with wide white borders.

In many of the illustrations we get a real sense of the immensity of the location where the boy's home is located.  Even when we are brought close to the child like when he is holding the lizard, behind him is the New Mexican landscape stretching as far as the eye can see.  Readers will enjoy the altered points of view, not quite knowing what presentation they will see after a page turn.  This aspect ties us even closer to the boy and his morning walk.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is a single-page picture.  On either side at the bottom are rounded tops of shrubs.  We see a portion of the boy in his striped polo shirt, from mid-chest upward.  His right hand is raised in farewell.  Above him and close to readers is a magnificent magpie in flight, wings spread, and tail extended.  The bird is placed on white with a blue wash on the left and right sides.  What a magical moment created in this visual interpretation of Nikki Grimes wondrous words.


In this book, Southwest Sunrise written by Nikki Grimes with illustrations by Wendell Minor, readers travel from frustration to fascination with an African American boy who takes his first walk at his new home.  Nature, our natural world, has a huge capacity to soothe and calm.  I first read this book nearly two months ago, and with each subsequent reading, I find myself stepping into serenity.  I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Nikki Grimes and Wendell Minor and their considerable body of work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  On a page at his website Wendell Minor has multiple interior images from this book.  Nikki Grimes has accounts on Facebook, and Twitter.  Wendell Minor has accounts on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Please take a few moments to listen to Nikki Grimes read a poem from this book.  It's one of my many favorite entries.

A Wee Winged Warrior

If you listen closely, you'll hear them before you see them.  By remaining as still as possible, they'll hover close to you as they sip sweet nectar.  From your peripheral vision their striking colors are vividly apparent through a blur of wings.  Their size would seem to delegate them as delicate beings, but that is far from the truth.

Each year they endure an arduous adventure few humans would undertake.  Tiny Bird: A Hummingbird's Amazing Journey (Christy Ottaviano Books, Henry Holt and Company, April 14, 2020) written by Robert Burleigh with illustrations by Wendell Minor explores every aspect of this feat through facts, an exquisitely descriptive narrative and realistic, remarkable paintings.  You will enjoy memorable moments as you marvel at this inspiring wonder found in nature.

Today is the day.

In the yard,
the last orange flowers
open their petals to the slanting sun.

Three inches in length, a ruby-throated hummingbird seeks food within the orange flowers.  Wings moving rapidly, nearly imperceptible, help it to suspend above the petals.  It darts with efficient and succinct speed, sipping vital nectar necessary for the journey about to begin.

Tiny Bird, this ruby-throated hummingbird, knows with the arrival of autumn, its flight starts soon.  This bird, all alone, heads south of this well-known yard in the northeastern section of the United States.  Sometimes thirty miles an hour are traveled just above the treetops.  Along the way Tiny Bird still sips nectar from flowers and spears the occasional insect when diving closer to the ground.

In the nick of time Tiny Bird escapes the clutches of a hawk.  At times Tiny Bird rests, but the need to keep going is strong.  Soon the Gulf of Mexico stretches before the ruby-throated hummingbird.  It crosses this large body of water flying without stopping for more than twenty-hours.  With skill Tiny Bird uses waves to block the wind but watch out!  It's another close call by a predator.

Then the worst happens, a mighty storm.  Tiny Bird is losing strength fighting the wild weather. Salvation comes from two sources before the little creature continues once more.  Thankfully, in the light of a rising sun, a southern home is spotted.  A reward of rest and a banquet found in flowers await this wee winged warrior.


Information is woven into poetic lines by master of words, author Robert Burleigh.  Sound effects add authenticity to the narrative.  Alliterative and rhyming text supply a soothing but captivating cadence.  Readers are fully invested in this breathtaking and challenging trek.  Here is a passage.

Zap!
It flits down.

Flower to flower,
backward, forward, under, over,
like an acrobat of the air!

Radiant green feathers glimmering,
ruby throat shimmering,
Tiny Bird delicately dips its beak
into the heart of each flower,
extracting precious nectar.


The enlarged view of the ruby-throated hummingbird, Tiny Bird, on the front of the dust jacket (I am working with an F & G at the moment, awaiting the arrival of the new release.) brings readers close to this astonishing being.  The intricate details will have you longing to have the bird take a moment's rest on your outstretched hand.  The pale blue wash of the sky provides a wonderful canvas for the brilliant bird and flower.

To the left, on the back, a dark grass green background, one of the many hues in the small bird, showcases an oval image taken from the interior of the book.  It is a startling scene of the ruby-throated hummingbird struggling to survive during a fierce thunderstorm.  An introductory sentence arches above the illustration.

On the opening and closing endpapers are a series of explanatory images about these amazing birds.  Each illustration is captioned with facts.  The size of their nest is compared to a coin, their stature with spread wings is shown, their egg is compared to another familiar egg and there is a map of this ruby-throated hummingbird's route.

These pictures, paintings by Wendell Minor, are rendered using

gouache watercolor on Strathmore 500 Bristol paper.

Each one is connected to the next, like a row of artwork hanging in a gallery.  Wendell Minor brings us close to Tiny Bird in a double-page picture or a series of smaller visuals.  Then he takes us to larger settings or landscapes so we can appreciate the astounding nature of this bird's life and trip to the south.  Sometimes we are observers and other times it's as if we are Tiny Bird.  We gasp at its near brushes with death and sigh when it is safe.

Each brush stroke adds life to each painting in a pattern of light and shadow.  The portrayal of movement is stunning.  We can readily hear the hum of rapidly beating wings, the rush of air from an ocean breeze along the Gulf of Mexico or the rumble and crash of thunder and lightning in a horrific tempest.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is a double-page picture.  It's a depiction of the storm Tiny Bird flies through during the crossing of the Gulf of Mexico.   The upper portion of the image is a darkened sky marbled with angry clouds only broken by a flash of lightning, forks extending to the horizon.  The horizon, a line, above the churning and white-capped water is an eerie golden shade.  The wind-tossed waves span the lower section of the scene.  On the right above splashing droplets of water flies Tiny Bird.  We are very close.  One eye is shown, determined and focused.  The wings are shown frozen in flight, one extended from the body and the other downward before it raises again.  You can feel the supreme struggle Tiny Bird is experiencing.


Compelling at every page turn, Tiny Bird: A Hummingbird's Amazing Journey written by Robert Burleigh with illustrations by Wendell Minor is an excellent informational picture book.  At the close of the book a section titled Fun Facts About Hummingbirds furnishes further items under headings such as How Tiny?, Really, Really Tiny, A Little Bird with a Big Appetite, More Than a Few Days and Feisty Hummingbirds Defend Their Territory (to name a few.)  There is also a page dedicated to How to Become a Member of the Hummingbird Helper Club. This section begins with a reminder to look, but don't touch them.  We are encouraged to plant particular types of flowers, place hummingbird feeders in our yards, given instructions on how to make a feeder and fill it with proper food and finally a list of books is shared.  I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Robert Burleigh and Wendell Minor and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites.  At Wendell Minor's website you can view illustrations from this book, including one of my favorite ones.  Wendell Minor has accounts on Facebook and Twitter. (One of Wendell Minor's biggest fans is his lovely wife, Florence, who is also an author.  She has an account on Instagram where you can see his work.)  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.

UPDATE:  Wendell Minor is interviewed at author James Preller's Blog about this book, birds and birding, our natural world and his amazing body of work and his art.


Be sure to visit educator Alyson Beecher's site, Kid Lit Frenzy, this week to view the selections chosen by other participants in the 2020 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Portraits Of America

In the course of American history, there will always be women and men whose names are synonymous with their accomplishments. Their achievements, some over the course of their lives or for others one shining moment, will not be erased by time.  From generation to generation who they are and what they do are remembered.

As often quoted, many of them will find a firm place in the psyche of Americans for how they make people feel.  One man who presented everyday, and at times extraordinary, circumstances continues to give us a view of his truth.  Hi, I'm Norman: The Story of American Illustrator NORMAN ROCKWELL (A Paula Wiseman Book, Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, October 1, 2019) written by Robert Burleigh with art by Wendell Minor is a personal look at this remarkable man and his love of making art with paints and brushes.

Hi, I'm Norman.  Norman Rockwell.  Come on in.

Norman Rockwell, as an adult, invites readers into his studio.  It's a welcoming place for him to concentrate on his work but this is not the first place Norman, as he tells us, made art.  He has fond memories of drawing with pencil and paper on the family dining room table as his father reads aloud.  The characters in the book are his subjects.

Never one to join in the more athletic activities of the boys in his neighborhood, his workspace is the sidewalk.  The boys ask him to draw something and he does, taking chalk from his pocket.  In grade school, one of his teachers has him draw scenes on the chalkboard regarding whatever they are studying.  (Academics is not his forte, but drawing is his gift.)

When attending art school, it is challenging at times for Norman, but he is determined, improving and improving more.  He takes his learned skills and paints whatever he can to earn money.  (Did you know he placed

100% in gold at the top of his easel?)

He works until whatever he does cannot not be improved.

At the age of twenty-two he takes some of his work to the Saturday Evening Post.  They are looking for cover illustrations.  On the spot all five of Norman's illustrations are accepted. Norman eventually does more than 300 covers for the Saturday Evening Post.

Norman likes to doodle into existence his ideas for his work.  Then he combines his drawings to tell a story.  He uses models, even animals.  (The turkey incident is tricky.)

Life through Norman's eyes is at its best, but he does not shy away from the harder aspects people, regular people, face during war or as in one of his more famous paintings of Ruby Bridges (The Problem We All Live With) walking to school guarded by four U. S. Marshalls.  Norman closes his discussion with readers by returning to work on a commemorative painting of himself wrapping a Happy Birthday ribbon around the Liberty Bell.


There is an openness evident as soon as you begin this book written by Robert Burleigh.  You get a very real sense of the passion Norman has for his work as we journey with him from boyhood to his becoming a skillful artist.  The research done by this author comes through in every conversational sentence Norman presents to us.  It's as if we are standing with him in his studio and he is painting a picture of his life through his words.  When Robert Burleigh takes a five-word sentence from earlier in the book and uses it again to bring all the parts of Norman's life together, it's wonderful.  Here are two passages.

I can still picture the room where the art students
worked:  the gray light drifting down through the 
skylights, the smudged walls, and the floors littered
with rags and hardened paint.  But who cares?  If you
love something, you take the bad with it too, right?

Funny, but I sometimes felt I was chasing and at the same time being
chased.  Chasing my dream of becoming a great artist.  But also being chased
by the fear that I wasn't good enough.


On the matching dust jacket and book case, artist Wendell Minor, in a stroke of design genius, gives us two perspectives in this single visual.  Norman is looking at us as he paints the picture we see behind his right shoulder.  His personality, his love of his painting, shines on the features of his face.  Portions of this illustration are varnished.

To the left of the spine, on the back, we see Norman as a boy drawing with chalk on the sidewalk.  Two of the other boys are seated and kneeling near him, watching closely as a lion takes shape before their eyes.  A contented cat sits outside on a window ledge.

On the opening endpapers Wendell Minor features a younger Norman, standing in a field, looking directly at readers as he gently holds a frog.  An older Norman, the narrator of this book, is riding his bike down the street in Stockbridge, Massachusetts where he moved in 1953 on the closing endpapers.  These two images, other than those on the jacket and case, show Norman as he showed others, extraordinary in their ordinariness.

Each illustration,

rendered in watercolor, gouache, and pencil

in Wendell Minor's unmistakable style stands alone but is also an intricate part of the exquisite whole these combined visuals create in this book.  On the title page a young Norman carrying a fishing pole is standing with his dog on grass and wildflowers with a circular pastoral scene behind him.  On the verso and dedication pages an older Norman is shown standing in the entrance to his studio with the building and lush green grass, shrubs and trees framing him as they fill the page and a third visual.

With every page turn we see either groups of smaller illustrations, a small framed illustration, a full-page picture, or double-page visual, most in full color, but sometimes Norman as narrator is shown in black and white near another image.  Every detail is finely fashioned with delicate or broader brushstrokes dictated by the elements in the illustration.  Sometimes Wendell Minor has us outside looking in at Norman working or next to him in front of his easel.  The use of light and shadow, as always in his work, is marvelous.

One of my many favorite illustrations is a single-page picture.  It is a close-up of a window with a pigeon on the outside of the sill.  Through the window we can see a young-adult Norman seated in a chair in front of his easel.  He is wearing a smock, holding his palette in his left-hand and painting with a brush in his right hand.  His subject is a boy, dressed in winter garb, skating across the ice and holding a hockey stick.  You can plainly see the 100% at the top of his easel.


To have two great creators themselves working on this book, Hi, I'm Norman: The Story of American Illustrator NORMAN ROCKWELL, elevates this tribute of an American icon.  Robert Burleigh gives us intimate insights through Norman's voice due to his research.  Wendell Minor paints with the same sure knowledge through his study of Norman Rockwell.  In their notes at the close of the book, their respect for Norman Rockwell is clear as is their gratitude for being able to tell his story in this title.  In addition to their notes there is extensive back matter.  There is a two-page continuation of facts about Norman Rockwell's life.  There is a list of Rockwell's paintings rendered by Wendell Minor in order of their appearance in this book.  There is an important date timeline.  Five of Norman Rockwell's paintings are shown:  Checkers, Freedom from Fear, Art Critic, The Problem We All Live With and Liberty Bell.  There is a bibliography of books and some Norman Rockwell quotes.  I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Robert Burleigh and Wendell Minor and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Wendell Minor has accounts on Facebook and Twitter. (One of Wendell Minor's biggest fans is his lovely wife, Florence, who is also an author.  She has an account on Instagram where you can see his work.)  At the Norman Rockwell Museum website this book is showcased with interior artwork images.  At the publisher's website you can view other interior images, mainly from the beginning of the book.  Please take a few moments to watch this video of Wendell Minor talking about his work on this book.




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

Harnessing A Power

Despite the order in which they are placed, forward, backward or all jumbled up, this team of twenty-six is unbeatable.  When they go against any adversary, they will emerge victorious.  They can harbor mysteries.  They can comfort, heal and save.  They can move quickly and quietly or if necessary, they can roar like a lion.  They remain steadfast but are fluid enough to function for the well-being of multitudes.  This team of twenty-six are the letters of our alphabet.

They can work individually but function superbly in certain combinations.  Anyone can weld their power.  The Magic of Letters (Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, April 23, 2019) written by Tony Johnston with art by Wendell Minor is abracadabra!

Letters

hold

magic.

When you
know
their
secrets,
they open
worlds.

We learn at an early age to form the sound for each letter.  We say them over and over, chanting their names.  Soon we arrange them to make our name.  We say this over and over, chanting it like a miracle.

Letters can be used to represent strength.  A single word can stand for a foundation on which great things are made.  These foundations are timeless and true.

Other words made with the magic of letters describe a specific movement, a noise or the way something feels when we touch it.  Still more words make us laugh, hungry or take us into another world.  It's delightful to say them out loud.  What can we create if we connect them together?

As we use letters to build words, and then more words, and then, even more words, we can make creative and crazy and compassionate connections.  We can read creative, crazy and compassionate connections written by others.  In this the magic of letters is revealed.


There is something about the word magic which causes us to pause. Sometimes without even knowing we are doing it, we hold our breaths in anticipation.  With her first three words author Tony Johnston takes us into that pause.  Unlike many magicians, she discloses the secrets of the magic of letters. 

She walks readers through learning each letter, then using those letters to make a series of single words describing anything you can imagine but she doesn't stop there.  Her narrative continues by taking those words to complete thoughts.  She shows us how the magic works with examples.  Here is a passage.

Letters hold
surprises.
If you swinkle
them sweetly,
new words
appear---
like swinkle.


If you are familiar with the artwork of Wendell Minor (Daylight Starlight Wildlife, Wild Orca: The oldest, wisest whale in the world, or Night Train, Night Train) you realize looking at the open and matching dust jacket and book case, the illustrations for this book are stunningly different.  Yet on close examination, the line work we've come to appreciate is present.  Rendered with graphite on paper and digital tools these images take readers on a journey between imagination and reality.

To begin, a rabbit and a black top hat are synonymous with magic.  In this instance the rabbit is the magician as letters spill from the black hat and scatter.  For most of the illustrations throughout the book, the crisp white canvas used on the jacket and case is continued.  It showcases the other elements with excellence.  To the left, on the back, the spectacle-clad rabbit is taking a bow as two words form from inside the hat.  Can you guess what they are?

On the opening and closing endpapers, the vivid hue in the title text is used as the color.  On the initial title page, the rabbit, in front of the hat, is looking up and holding the letter "g".  Other letters spill off the right edge and continue to scatter, left to right, across the formal title page.  With a page turn the first two sentences are placed between the ears of the rabbit as he looks eagerly and straight at the reader.  All we see is his front paws, head and ears.  (This effect is used again beautifully.)

The picture sizes vary in tandem with the pacing and narrative; spreading across two pages, full pages or partial pages.  They are whimsical, lively and as unpredictable as magic.  The rabbit drives a huge dump trunk with words spilling out the back; words like trees, heart, art, libraries, time and diversity.  Words the author calls mighty words.  For the word quesadilla, a row of smiling vegetables and fruits, bookend a portion of this delectable food which stands in place for the letter "a" in quesadilla.

One of my many favorite illustrations spans two pages.  It's for the phrase

Giggling
words
like
flibbertigibbet.

Along the bottom of the page is a grassy expanse.  Brightly-colored tulips begin on the left, cross the gutter and grow to the right edge.  Among these on the right is a jack-in-the-box with a rising sun on the front.  A happy-go-lucky clown with arms and hands extended is smiling.  His suit and hat are red-and-white polka dotted.  The word flibbertigibbet is in shades of pink, orange and red and is written across both pages.


The Magic of Letters written by Tony Johnston with art by Wendell Minor is a celebration of letters, words they make and how we say, write and read them.  It is packed with power and energy.  This book can be used in a theme on alphabets, writing, reading or creativity.  You will certainly want a copy on your professional and personal book shelves.

To learn more about Wendell Minor and his other work, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  He devotes a page to this title showing several interior images.  Wendell Minor maintains an account on Twitter.

Gliding Through The Darkness

If you stand still, there is no sound outside tonight, not even the whisper of a north wind.  As soon as you move your breath is serenaded by the crunch of snow beneath your boots.  It's easy to believe in a special kind of magic on this evening in December.

If a long, low whistle sounds in the distance, you'll know passengers are traveling to a special place along the nearby rails.  Night Train, Night Train (Charlesbridge, October 9, 2018) written by Robert Burleigh with illustrations by Wendell Minor is about a similar journey where the everyday becomes marvelous and new.  Light and shadows cast a spell.

Train ride! Bump-bump.
Chug-chug. Slow.
Faster.  Faster.
Off we go.

A child looks out a train window as it leaves the station.  As it moves through the darkness all he can see is shades of gray.  Before too long the engine pulls the cars over a road, spots of red flash.

Through the countryside it goes.  Look!  A blue hue glows in a single window in a farmhouse gable.  Alabaster sparkles from a single star.  Color springs uninvited by the night but is nevertheless welcome.

Metal on metal flares into a familiar combination.  Along a busy highway a sign glimmers as it points toward a destination.  Water laps along a shoreline beneath a bridge.  Light beams from a full moon.

Speeding down the track the train streaks toward another station.  Inside on his seat the boy drifts into dreams.  Soon the shades of gray are banished by the rays of a rising sun.  A new day begins.


After reading the first set of four lines readers will feel the urge to read this book aloud.  Robert Burleigh takes the rhythm of riding on a train and incorporates it into each phrase, rhyming the second and fourth words.   In-between the introduction of nine colors amid those phrases, a repetition of the four-word title plus additional descriptors further defines the train and travel on this train.  Here are some passages.

Round. Yellow.
Mr. Moon.
Watching.  Whispering,
"Be there soon."

Night train, night train, beam-of-light train.


When you look to see the illustrator's name on the front of the opened dust jacket, you realize this is a departure from the usual work of this beloved artist.  After reading the book you can't imagine any other medium or style working as beautifully as the graphite on paper and digital choices of Wendell Minor.  The limited palette, gray, black, white, blue and yellow, on the front (right) of the dust jacket beckons to us.  To the left, on the back, the boy, holding his teddy bear is close to us as he gazes out the train window.  Red, white and blue are elements in this view, too.

A textured gray paper (cloth) covers the book case.  Along the bottom of the front a train track is embossed.  Above this in silver foil is the title of the book.  A soft charcoal is used for the opening endpapers.  On the closing endpapers a pale yellow announces the dawn.

Beneath the text on the title page the boy's suitcase is placed, covered in travel stickers.  His smiling teddy bear is seated next to it.  Opposite the verso and dedication page, which contains a thumbnail of the front of the dust jacket, is a wordless picture of the boy looking out the window.  His teddy bear sits next to him on the seat.  Light outlines them as it does other items throughout the book.

For each of the full page pictures a large border of white frames them.  This is followed by magnificent double-page illustrations spanning from page edge to page edge.  Wendell Minor elevates the mood of the narrative and its pacing by bringing us close to the scene or giving us a more panoramic view.  Sometimes the gutter and borders separate two pieces of a larger image.  The details, light and shading ask us to pause at each picture.

One of my many, many favorite pictures is nearly a bird's eye view of a small community along a river.  It spans two pages.  On the left older buildings, homes and a church with a tall spire nestle together.  The train speeds along the track at the bottom, left to right.  On the right the river stretches to the tree line and horizon.  It's starting to cross a bridge.  Wendell has added spots of colors already mentioned in the poem; an orange light in the church window, a blue shooting star, a red light on the right river bank, white stars, a purple glow in another building and black and gray.  (Every time a color is named the font is changed from white to that specific color.)


The mix of narrative and artwork creates a soothing, rhythmic feeling whenever you read Night Train, Night Train written by Robert Burleigh with illustrations by Wendell Minor.  To acquaint readers with colors and travel on a train, this title is a stunning choice.  It would be wonderful with a storytelling train theme, as a quiet time or drifting-off-to-dreamland bedtime book.  I love this book! (Wendell Minor talks about the locomotive in the pictures at the conclusion in an illustrator's note.)

If you want to learn more about Robert Burleigh or Wendell Minor and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.  Wendell Minor maintains an account on Twitter.

Majestic Matriarch

You think your respect cannot elevate.  You believe nothing else can astonish you.  New information astounds you.  Your admiration climbs.  You realize, yet again, we share this planet with incredible beings. Their very existence, in the light of constant changes and challenges, is nearly miraculous.

Orcas, the largest member of the dolphin family, also known as killer whales are endangered according to the U. S. Endangered Species Act.  This is specific to those orcas found in the southern resident community off the state of Washington.  (They are also protected under the Canadian Species at Risk Act as their range extends to British Columbia.)  In Wild Orca: The oldest, wisest whale in the world (Christy Ottaviano Books, Henry Holt and Company, September 18, 2018) written by Brenda Peterson with illustrations by Wendell Minor readers, through the voice of a young girl, meet Granny, an orca believed to have lived 105 years.

On the longest day of summer light,
Mia waits for Granny to join them for Orca Song. 

She is joined by her parents and other people gathered on the San Juan Island.  Granny, an elder matriarch, guides three pods. They are named by scientists as pods J, K, and L.  To put her approximated age in perspective she was alive before the Titanic met its fate. 

Granny and the orcas in these three pods communicate with a series of whistles.  Each orca's pod, if you listen carefully, is identified by their whistles.  Mia and her father, a scientist working at the Lime Kiln Point research lab, place a hydrophone in the water to listen for the approach of the orcas, especially Granny.  Orcas use their whistles to detect food and danger.

Drummers drum.  Singers sing.  They wait for the orcas on a hillside overlooking the water.  Mia is worried.  There are dangers to orcas, most of them manmade.  It's even harder for the young.

They are taught how to breathe and are lead in travel by the oldest female.  Granny has been caring for her group for more than one hundred years.  Thankfully when she can't help a member of one of the pods, there are humans ready to assist.  Where is Granny now?

Suddenly the air is filled with whistles.  Dorsal fins skim along the water.  It's a memorable display of acrobatics and song. 


Through her words fashioned from research and a passion for preservation Brenda Peterson supplies us with information about orcas while blending in a tradition seen through a specific child and her parents.  Brenda Peterson uses a pleasing mix of narrative, thoughts and conversation to honor Granny and her pods.  Sound effects are skillfully inserted into the story to welcome readers to this place and time.  Here are several passages.

"It's a superpod!" Mia calls.
J, K, and L pods---all visiting together.
"And there's another new baby!"

Near shore, family pods greet each other.
Headstands and flips.
Wild cartwheels over waves.
Orcas slapping their fins. Ker-splash!

Rolling and bumping one another,
orcas blow and breach.
Burp and chirp.
Spin and spyhop.
Just to peek around.


All the splendor of the arrival of Granny and her pods is portrayed on the opened, matching dust jacket and book case.  The grace and grandeur of these spectacular creatures vividly stretches from left to right in a stunning display. Can you hear the splashing, whistles and calls of the seabirds? The details in the artwork, paintings of Wendell Minor, are breathtaking.

When you view the matching opening and closing endpapers you cannot help but marvel at the mastery of Wendell Minor's illustrations. It's a map of the western portion of Washington State and British Columbia, Canada.  In color it shifts, right to left, from a blended golden-green to green as it gets closer to the islands and then to the blue hues of the Pacific Ocean.  The islands, including Waldron Island, Orcas Island, Blakely Island, Decatur Island, Lopez Island, Shaw Island, and San Juan Island are shown in proportion to the surrounding area but are also enlarged in a square in the upper left-hand corner. The Lime Kiln Point State Park and Lime Kiln Lighthouse are represented, too.  It will take your breath away when you try to understand how Wendell placed Granny over this with the map showing through the center section of her body. 

The verso and title pages are an image of the lighthouse, ocean, rocky shore, Mia and her parents and several orcas.  The sky and water nearly mirror one another.  Wendell has a gift for helping us to feel the emotional and actual atmosphere, weather, at any given moment.

Each illustration, full page and double-page, is a study in the human participants, the natural setting and the orcas.  Rendered in gouache watercolor on Strathmore 500 Bristol paper each picture uses light and shadow to convey particular moments.  There is softness when necessary and a bolder line and shades when depicting the orcas underwater or skimming and playing on the surface.  A vertical foldout will have you gasping.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is when we get close to the pods upon their arrival.  It spans across two pages.  The pale skyline is perfect for the placement of the words and a single orca breaching on the left between the texts.  Beneath this the other orcas are moving left to right, gliding on the surface, blowing, leaping, and spyhopping.  The water is blue-green and white with waves and splashes.  This is an exhibition of sheer joy.


Wild Orca: The oldest, wisest whale in the world written by Brenda Peterson with paintings by Wendell Minor is a beautiful tribute in language and art to one of the most enduring and endearing creatures seen on our planet.  It draws attention to how the orcas live, their plight and their habitat.  I highly recommend this book for your personal and professional collections.  Brenda Peterson highlights Granny and orcas on two pages at the end of the book.

To discover more about Brenda Peterson and Wendell Minor and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to visit their respective websites.  You will find lots of extra articles and images at Brenda's site.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.  Both Brenda and Wendell have Twitter accounts.

A Rabbit Who Reads Succeeds

Language is a beautiful thing to speak, to write and to hear.  Some words can be more than one part of speech.  This gives them extended meanings, sometimes within the same part of speech.  The word big is one of those words.

As an adjective it can refer to size or importance.  In How to Be A Bigger Bunny (Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, January 24, 2017) written by Florence Minor with illustrations by her husband Wendell Minor it might have several more meanings.  Inside of some of the smallest beings beats a big heart.

Tickles the bunny yawned.
It was time to get out of bed.

She searched for her brothers and sisters but they had already hopped away for a day full of play.  Was Tickles discouraged Nibbles, Wiggles, Giggles and Jiggles had left her?  Not at all.  She had a new book to read.

How to Be a Bigger Bunny was brimming with its own kind of excitement.  In the first story a bunny wished to reach the top of a tall tree.  Snoozing Tickles dreamt she did reach the top of a tall tree.  You could reach great heights if you never gave up.

She found herself imagining what it must be like to be bold and brave after reading the second story, How to Be Like a Pirate.  Tickles really enjoyed talking like a pirate.  As the hours ticked by our bunny friend was learning how to get out of difficult situations.  Nibbling was involved.  Quite suddenly a loud noise jarred Tickles from her reading.

Cautiously investigating she called for her brothers and sisters.  At first there was only silence but then she heard thumping.  Her discovery prompted her to use all the best parts of the stories she had read.  As she slept later at home Tickles wondered.  The following morning a dream came true.


Remember what I said about the beauty of hearing, writing and speaking language, the wonderful combination of words?  This book written by Florence Minor is a marvelous model of this very thing.  The three stories reflect on life lessons valuable in a variety of situations but for Tickles they match wonderfully the three things she must do to save her brothers and sisters.

The simple, short sentences are ideal for younger readers (and those young at heart).  To add interest and invite participation Florence includes narrative, thoughts, conversation and sound effects.  This blend, with her expertly placed punctuation, provides perfect pacing.  Here is a passage.

Nobody answered, so Tickles hopped off to look for them.

"Hello?" Tickles called.
"Helloooo?" Is anyone there?"
Nothing.
She called out again.
There was still no answer.
She listened carefully, and guess what?
She heard thumping.


Wendell Minor's painting welcomes you to step right into whatever world he has created.  Don't you wish you could stand next to Tickles in the field of flowers seen on the front of the matching dust jacket and book case?  You can almost feel the warmth of the air as a goldfinch flutters nearby and a swallowtail hovers above the blossoms.  You're sure if you reach out a hand you could touch soft fur.  To the left, on the back, Tickles is standing on a stack of books, arms outstretched on a canvas of pale yellow.  Royal purple covers the opening and closing endpapers.

On the initial title page Tickles has moved in the field.  Alone now, she has opened the book.  On the formal title page the story begins with the family cuddled and sleeping on their bed.  The bedspread is a quilt with squares framed in green; radish and carrot bunches in the center.

Rendered in gouache watercolor on Strathmore 500 Bristol these illustrations, nearly all spanning two pages, literally glow with the signature luminosity we adore about Wendell Minor's work.  His use of light is masterful; simply stunning.  Wendell's lines and brush strokes create a truly lifelike texture.  His attention to detail is photographic at times but in some portions of these illustrations Monet came to mind.

One of my favorite of many paintings spans two pages.  It is when Tickles begins her day reading her new book.  It is a close-up of her.  On the left is a field of dandelions and daisies.  On the right Tickles is learning against the truck of a tree with her book open.  She has paused to look straight at us.  Her big bunny feet are spread apart.  I don't think any reader would be a bit surprised to hear her say Hello.  Do you want to read with me?


How To Be A Bigger Bunny written by Florence Minor with illustrations by Wendell Minor is best shared over and over again.  It will be a beloved read aloud.  Within a tale of brothers and sisters the smallest becomes big by doing what any of us are capable of doing; except for the nibbling.

Please take a few moments to visit the website of Florence and Wendell Minor by following the link attached to Wendell's name.  You will be amazed at the large body of work created by these talented individuals.  At the publisher's website you can get a glimpse of the front and back of the jacket and case.

Happy book birthday to Wendell and Florence Minor's HOW TO BE A BIGGER BUNNY! 🎉 https://t.co/8GEtmDQTLz pic.twitter.com/n1FWpulsLS

— KatherineTegenBooks (@KTegenBooks) January 24, 2017

.@NanReads Thx 4 turning the star of How To Be a Bigger Bunny
into the sweetest gift in the best decorated gift bag EVER! #kidlit #reading pic.twitter.com/O6AhybHlIn

— Florence Minor (@minorart) December 17, 2016

The #Easter #bunny brought us first proofs of How To Be a Bigger Bunny. Cover reveal to come. #reading #kidlit pic.twitter.com/FBAeFSQ41x

— Florence Minor (@minorart) March 28, 2016

In Celebration Of The Blue Planet

While many of you may know the festivities for Earth Day 2016 will be held on Friday, April 22, 2016, you may not know about the theme for this year.  It's called Trees for the Earth (#Trees4Earth).  We are fighting to combat deforestation all around our planet.  In the year 2020 Earth Day will be fifty years old.  It is this organization's desire to plant 7.8 billion trees by that date.

With this in mind I would like to offer for your consideration three new titles focusing on trees and our wonderful planet Earth.  The Perfect Tree (RP|Kids, January 5, 2016), a debut picture book, written and illustrated by Chloe Bonfield follows a boy named Jack on a quest. He finds answers he was not seeking.

Once, a boy named Jack went on a journey to find the perfect tree.  Not to climb, not to draw and definitely not to hug.

This boy was looking for the perfect tree to cut down and make into a wood pile!  As he walked through the forest and up and down a hill no tree seemed to be worthy.  As he sat thinking and feeling discouraged a voice offered to help him.  A woodpecker leads, flies and sends out a rat-a-tat-tat!  The colorful results swirl around Jack and lift skyward.

Not to be outdone, a squirrel beckons to the boy.  A treasure fit for a king is revealed.  A final guide urges Jack to traverse among jewels until he needs to seek shelter from a pouring rain shower.

Jack does find something extraordinary on this day.  He puts aside what he no longer needs.  He embraces the purpose of trees and their gifts surrounding him with new understanding and respect.


Chloe Bonfield supplies readers with a circle story using an identical phrase in the beginning and to close her narrative but the meaning has changed.  The three encounters with animals, the woodpecker, the squirrel and the spider, each believing their tree to be perfect, show Jack a path he had no idea he needs to follow.  Bonfield mixes onomatopoeia within her story bringing a touch of realism to this fantasy in praise of our natural world.  Here is a sample passage.

Jack's heart soared as birds and feathers filled the air.  They tickled his face and tangled in his hair.
TWITCH.  TWITCH.  TWITCH. 

The opened matching dust jacket and book case are a marvel of three dimensional designs.  On the front we see the cool blues of a moonlight night.  On the back, to the left, it's still night but the light shifts to illuminate the hillside in shades of brown, white, black and green.  The opening and closing endpapers are a collected collage continuing forward (and backward) with a page turn.

A series of shifted perspectives and image sizes usher us (and Jack) on this trek filled with wonder and wisdom.  Shadows and light, muted colors and full color ask us to pause and ponder.  We are invited to participate with every page turn.

One of my favorite pictures is for the passage quoted above.  It spans two pages with the trunk of the tree down the center, branches extending to the left and right.  Five vivid birds are in flight, feathers falling as Jack sits on one of the lower branches.  The delicate details are exquisite.





















This Is The Earth (Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, February 23, 2016) written by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander with paintings by Wendell Minor is a stunning ode to all things beautiful on our planet.  Through poetic phrases and breathtaking vistas we see what we have and what we need to do to become better stewards.  This is our task.  This is our future.

This is the land,
fertile, alive,
crawling with creatures
that help it to thrive.

We gaze at an African savanna as animals silently roam and watch us.  Water splashes and rumbles past us on a rapid river, trout flashing in the sunlight.  Feathered friends glide above the fields.

We move through history as women and men make their homes from earliest times to the present.  Transportation and technology evolve taking a toll on this land.  Dangerous reminders of our presence fill the land, the oceans and the air.

There are signs of help; recycling, bicycle riding and watching water use drop by drop.  We become caretakers of our animal friends who have no voice.  Each one a valuable link in the chain of life.  What do you do?  What will you do?


The authors, Diane A. Shore and Jessica Alexander, introduce us in single descriptive sentences to the land, a river and the sky.  With care we move to a beautiful, flowing melody of words on how we use the Earth and share its resources.  Continuing one sentence at a time the history of our advancements and the effects of these changes are presented for the goodness they bring to people as well as the cost they exact from our Earth.  Using this is repeatedly is a way to keep us grounded like a familiar group of notes, reminding us not to forget.  Rhyming words are a welcoming refrain.  Here is a sample passage.

This is the sky,
endless and blue,
speckled with birds
as they soar into view. 


Wendell Minor's paintings are gorgeous in their depictions of his interpretations of the text taking us from one side of the Earth to the other, back in time and forward to a better, more appreciative future.  (In my humble opinion the man is a national treasure.)  Rendered in Windsor and Newton watercolors on archival 3-ply Strathmore Bristol paper with a realistic color palette we first journey to Africa on the matching dust jacket and book case.  On the back, to the left, within a circle is a scene of dolphins breaking the surface as pelicans, silent sentinels, fly above them.  The opening and closing endpapers are a gorgeous scene of the Earth as seen from the surface of the Moon.  On the verso and title pages the circular image from the back is extended to include a breaching whale.

Thirteen striking two-page paintings elevate the narrative along with four single page illustrations.  Minor's details are nearly photographic as is the luminosity he uses around certain elements in his paintings.  He guides our gaze in every single visual.

In referring to Minor's masterful interpretation of the text here is an example with one of my favorite illustrations.

This is the Earth that we treat with respect,
where people and animals interconnect,
where we learn to find balance between give and take
and help heal the planet with choices we make, ...

Minor, in a two-page painting, illustrates a scene at a sandy shoreline.  A row of people, young and old, from all ethnic backgrounds, stand watching two children, a boy and a girl, guide baby turtles back to the sea in the distance.  From left to right the perspective shifts from close-up to farther away.  The day simply glows literally and figuratively.




On March 8, 2016 Candlewick Press released a fabulously original representation of a growing danger on our planet.  Where's the Elephant? written and illustrated by Stephane-Yves Barroux is a colorful seek-and-find story.  It is also a call for discussion and for action.

Where's the Elephant?
Where's the Parrot?
Where's the Snake?

After these three creatures are presented to readers in three distinct colors, light grayish tan, red and green, on a background of white a page turn reveals a dense, bright forest.  We need to find the threesome.  They are there but carefully hidden by their habitat.

With each succeeding page turn beginning in the lower left hand corner, a wordless image features a growing number of trees cut from the forest.  As the trees are cut Elephant, Parrot and Snake continue to hide but the area between them is shrinking more and more.  A house appears on the cleared land filled with stumps and logs.

There are more homes and cars and less trees.  Cars need roadways.  More people need more homes.  Soon there are only three trees standing alone in a forest of buildings.  The final four two-page pictures address a sad truth with an outcome which will have you cheering.  The animals make a choice.


In an author's note on the left side of the closing endpapers, Barroux explains what prompted this story after a visit to Brazil five years ago.  Three years later inspiration prompted him to begin work on the book we now have the privilege to read.  After the initial three questions the entire book is wordless, as we look for the animals amid their diminishing home space.

When you open the book case the image from the front spreads across the spine to the back.  All three animals are showcased there amid text which would normally appear on the front flap of a dust jacket.  The opening endpapers are awash in blue until the center of the far right edge where we see a portion of a heavily forested island.  The title page includes nearly all the island with Elephant, Parrot and Snake waiting among the trees.

The remainder of the book is all two-page illustrations rendered in collage, acrylic and pencil.  The colors of the forest are more vivid within the body of the book than seen on the book case.  They are exotic in shades of green, red, yellow, blue, orange and brown.  This makes the absence of the trees more startling.  The white is a most noticeable contrast.

My favorite illustration is the final one.  And that is all I will say about it except it signifies hope.  Barroux has placed himself on the right in the closing endpapers reaching out to touch a log.



These titles, The Perfect Tree written and illustrated by Chloe Bonfield, This Is The Earth written by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander with paintings by Wendell Minor and Where's the Elephant? by Stephane-Yves Barroux, are absolutely perfect for your personal and professional collections.  Each one addresses the need for stewardship and care for our home planet in distinctly different approaches, each one done with passionate excellence.  All three could be used with all ages.

To learn more about these authors and illustrators and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites. The work of Chloe Bonfield is showcased at author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  At the conclusion of This Is The Earth both of the authors and the illustrator encourage readers to care for this Earth and how it might be done.  Where's the Elephant? was nominated for The CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal and remained on the longlist released in February of this year. To see an interior image from Where's the Elephant? please follow this link to the publisher's website.