Solstice Soul

After several days of above normal temperatures replacing a covering of white with the green of grass, Mother Nature clapped her hands, exerting her power.  Snow has been gently falling all day.  A winter weather advisory is in effect for counties in the northern section of the lower peninsula of Michigan.  A gale warning is issued for the waters of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.  It is a celebration of the winter solstice 2018.

There is a hush outside only broken by gusts of wind.  The mournful howl of a coyote sounds from the nearby woods.  Breaths of air in the chill are like puffs of smoke.  Winter Is Here (Greenwillow Books, HarperCollinsPublishers, October 30, 2018) written by Kevin Henkes with illustrations by Laura Dronzek is a companion title to their other books, When Spring Comes and In the Middle of Fall.  It's a lyrical representation of winter's elements with charming illustrations.

Winter is here.
It's everywhere.

Look up and see it drift down.  It lands on houses and their roofs.  Trees, shrubs and grass are dusted in layers.

The wind pushes winter into every nook and cranny.  Sometimes it does all this is silence.  Sometimes it does all this in clear hardness.  At night it shakes your home in fury.

You can't simply walk outside in the presence of winter.  You must don extra clothing from head to toe.  If you decide to stay indoors, winter is there too.  Look around you.  See it on frosty windows and your dog's fur.

Winter changes colors, mixing gray and white and bitter blue in the dead of a zero-degree night.  Winter stays whether it is welcome or not.  Then it surprises us, bowing out to allow a burst of new life.


With polished expertise Kevin Henkes selects words to depict winter.  Winter and snow are synonymous in the first two sentences with a series of seven verbs describing precisely how snow moves and stays.  The pace is slowed when soft and hard are contrasted.  It pauses when winter wear is listed in a zippy sentence.  Each portion of the season is portrayed like a poem within a poem.  Here is a passage.

Winter comes without a sound . . .
and it comes with many.

The wind howls in every language
and the windows rattle.


Rendered in acrylic paints the full-color, delightful, playful and sometimes eloquent artwork begins on the matching and opened dust jacket and book case.  On the front illustrator Laura Dronzek displays with warmhearted realism the complete joy of a dog in fresh, deep falling snow.  The cardinal couple supply vibrant color in this chilly setting.

To the left, on the back, the snowy background continues.  Within a framed circle a snowman sits.  A curious squirrel is perched on his head.

The opening and closing endpapers lead us into winter and into spring.  On the first brightly-hued mittens tumble among snowflakes on a blue background.  A sunny yellow canvas is used to present a pattern of butterflies and purple and pink blossoms on the second set.  The endpaper designs continue on the next and previous pages respectively.  The cardinal pair are perched on a branch above the dedication.

Laura Dronzek alternates between double-page pictures and full page images bordered in large white frames.  For the purpose of enhancing the narrative sometimes several smaller illustrations are grouped on single pages.  These create an illustrative cadence.

Every image is worthy of framing.  The boy and his dog are frequently present as are the cardinals.  Other animals seen in an urban setting are also shown; rabbits and squirrels.  Careful readers will notice one illustration is connected to the next.

One of my many favorite illustrations spans two pages.  We are viewing the scene as if we are standing outside.  On the left a leafless tree extends off the page.  Nearby are several evergreen trees.  As our eyes move to the right, we are close to the boy's home.  Looking in the window we see him petting his dog.  From the second-floor window a white cat looks outside.  Everything is heavily coated in snow as it falls.  Two rabbits, two squirrels and the cardinals are present.


This book, Winter Is Here written by Kevin Henkes with illustrations by Laura Dronzek, is a seasonal gem.  You will most definitely want to use it in a study on winter or the seasons.  It presents all aspects of this time of rest.  I highly recommend this title for both your professional and personal collections.

To learn more about Kevin Henkes and his other work, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  At the publisher's website there are other resources available.  There is a teaching guide and activities.

Birds Have The Words

About the same time birds were returning to herald in spring this year, two books were released with our feathered friends as central characters.  Each of these books uses text sparingly but to great advantage.  Highly expressive illustrations in each reflect and extend meaning.

Up! Tall! and High! (but not necessarily in that order.) (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is written and illustrated by Ethan Long.  Three short tales tell of birds wondering about who's the tallest, who can fly the highest and who would rather be up than down.  The technique of surprise is used in all the stories.

In the first one bird is quite proud of his height until another comes along. To his chagrin this bird is taller.  Then readers see a long, long leg extending off the page with the attached foot placed squarely between these two.  Clearly this newest member is taller.  But is he really tall or rather small or...POOF?  POOF???

Next we see a quartet of these winged beauties gathered, testing their flying abilities.  The problem is one of the group is a penguin.  His sadness is alleviated as he is elevated by a brilliant idea.  After all, what are friends for?

The final story has a small bird resting in the top of a small tree.  Along comes a much larger bird who also wishes to be up among those upper branches.  With a flap of his wings he is there but wait...oh, oh...  Up or down, it's good to have help around.

Ethan Long is short on words but tall on repetition, rhyme and rhythm.  Even without the illustrations the snap, vigor and humor of his language choices soar off the pages.  The final sentence in each ties everything together with warmth and a sense of accomplishment.

Drawing in ink and brush, Long then scanned in and colored his illustrations digitally.  The endpapers introduce the stories' characters as they parade across the pages.  Stick legs, round wide eyes, infectious grins, a slight shift in facial features and those delightfully shaped bodies in bold, complimentary colors burst with emotion.  Sturdy, shiny paper with flaps invite participation until the closing endpapers picturing the gang taking a bow as they leave.

Ethan Long has created a book for all ages where smiling is not an option, laughter is guaranteed.  All you have to do is open the cover of Up! Tall! and High! (but not necessarily in that order.) to enter his particular view of words we use everyday.  Please follow the link embedded in his name above to go to his website.  There you will find fun activities for kids and informative videos about his books and his art.

More (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children) written by I. C. Springman with illustrations by Brian Lies is an inspiring fable, a glimpse of what could be, should be.  Magpies, a part of the Crow family, are known to be an intelligent bird, with similar habits; collecting or attraction to shiny objects.  Mice, on the other hand, seem to make do with what is at hand. (as evidenced by their occupation in various parts of my garage and basement from time to time)

Endpapers looking much like brown-toned, textured grass paper begin and end this story.  Turning to the title and verso readers can see the beginning pictured before them, a tall tree, branch extended, with a mouse peering into a nest as a magpie bends toward the branch.  Single words start the narrative.

Nothing.
Something.
A few,
several,
more
and more
and more.

These first words are spread through eight pages as we watch how a single gift, a marble, from the mouse to the magpie becomes a collection obsession.  All to soon one nest is not enough.  Eight more are filled to overflowing.

The mouse pleads with the magpie, enough is enough.  A habit once formed is hard to break.  The weight of magpie's wanting is almost his undoing.

I. C. Springman takes forty-five words, carefully chosen words, to guide readers through magpie's desire to have not what he needs but what he wants.  Her text, in and of itself, is the lesson she wishes magpie and her readers to learn, less is truly more.  In the end, giving is receiving.

Using acrylic paint and colored pencils on handmade paper, Brian Lies wraps and weaves his realistic, rich illustrations around the text.  How he chooses to depict or interpret a word is exquisite.  For the very first word, Nothing, he places it in the upper left-hand corner of the creamy blank two page spread, picturing the lone magpie head bowed in the lower right-hand corner.

He alters the size of his visuals on pages or within panels, along with the focus.  At times we see a wide view, at others a close-up such as only the magpie's feet with some treasures in his nest.  His details are nearly photographic.  He adds personality to the mouse and magpie with extra touches, a piece missing from the mouse's ear, a band about the magpie's leg.  They are both irresistible.

According to an interview here readers gain a greater understanding of the ideas which prompted both I. C. Springman and Brian Lies to combine their efforts in More.  Oh, yes, you come away knowing the difference between nothing, something, more, less, plenty or enough but what's important is you realize their significance in our individual lives and how it impacts others.  At Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast Brian Lies shares more of the process for his artwork in this title.

I highly recommend both these books, definitely as a read alouds, for one-on-one and as great discussion starters.  And for some inexplicable reason these two titles started this song playing in my head.  Perhaps, because the words and illustrations in each of them are so upbeat, so perfectly perfect.

The Life of Color

I think it's genetic, on my father's side; all his cars, his clothing and his chair.  No room in my house is without it, even my KitchenAid mixer and dog's beds.  During the course of spring and summer I coax it from the gardens' ground, it becomes my bed on a sunny afternoon and I walk through its woodsy coolness.

I truly wanted to turn the pages of Green ( A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, March 27, 2012) written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger slowly, drinking in the visual displays.  But I found myself quickly moving from one two-page illustration to another marveling at the beauty of each, softly exclaiming aloud.  When I read through it again, I plucked out the words, stringing them together as a completed poem seen on a single page.

Two word verses titling each of the hues, forest green, sea green, lime green, pea green, awaken other senses, observations associated with the words.  So, too, do the other lines offering up states of green, slow green.  Pair the text with Seeger's paintings and words like rich, renew, remember and reverent come to mind.

Whether seeing a small white rabbit peering around a trunk in a forest thick with leafy trees, a sea turtle gliding through the pristine waters, a freshly sliced lime resting on a surface or weathered boards as backdrop for equally scarred signs with diminishing words, the acrylics are bold, thick, inviting readers to reach out and touch them.  So lavish are they, one can almost smell the earth, hear the birdsong, feel the water caress one's skin, taste the sharp, tangy fruit or touch the roughness of old wood.  Illustrations resonating, breathing, life with astounding color remind readers of a continual rebirth.  As one moves from one cover to the other a serenity descends; the world fades away as you enter Seeger's tribute to and respect of green.

Noted in previous titles for her use of die-cuts, Laura Vaccaro Seeger depicts her keen sense and meticulous care with regard to design in Green. Two leaves in the forest become small fish in the sea, triangles of camouflage become golden moths and grass chewed by a zebra become the petals on Black-eyed Susans in her masterful hands.  No matter how many times I have read this I am continually astounded by her placement of the die-cuts; downright magical.

From the embossed, raised Green of the book jacket to the final two small die-cut leaves on the large tree truck, replicating the original two die-cut leaves, Laura Vaccaro Seeger has wrought an impressive work of art glowing from within, far-reaching in its effect. 

Here is the link to an outstanding interview at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast on April 17, 2012.  Another interview conducted at Reading Rockets this past summer is linked here.