Again...Again...Repeatedly

A book is a gift you can open again and again.

Garrison Keillor

What is it that makes us return to our favorite picture book titles?  Do we go back, even though we know exactly what is going to happen, because the story, the beginning, the middle and the end, is in perfect alignment.  Could it be the words, the narrative, the dialogue, create a kind of song in our minds, painting a picture even without the illustrations?  Or might another visit be due to the stellar artwork, the fresh color palette, intriguing layout and design?

I believe it to be when the combination of all of these is so striking, that not only is the book memorable, but you as a reader sense a kind of magic, a cosmic connection.  When I first lifted the cover of Open This Little Book (Chronicle Books) by Jesse Klausmeier with illustrations by Suzy Lee I had no idea what to expect. (I rarely consult the jacket flaps until after I read the book.)  Within a few seconds I began to feel a pull, a pull taking me right into the center of the book.


Open this...

Those first two little words offer much.  It seems so often when growing up we hear the opposite.  "Stop!" "Don't open that!"  This phrase is different; freeing, warm and inviting.  So we do as it requests.

In the Little Red Book, the Little Green Book, the Little Orange Book, the Little Yellow Book, the Little Blue Book and the Little Rainbow Book readers are introduced to Ladybug, Frog, Rabbit, Bear and Giant.  Each character is reading a book about the next as the volumes, inset in one another, continually get smaller.  As we move from book to book the characters move into the next title until a problem arises.

The pages of the smallest book cannot be turned by the hand of Giant.  But what are friends for? A book is began and finished with the story within read; to each character's individual and personal joy.

As first the Little Rainbow Book, followed by the others, is closed Giant, Bear, Rabbit, Frog and Ladybug return to their original settings.  When readers turn a page and read:

You close this little red book...

they, like the characters, are transported to a place where a passion can be pursued in the company of like-minded beings.  Read.  Read again.  Share. Read another. This is a timeless, treasured circle with no end.


According to an interview at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast Jesse Klausmeier first conceived this book when she was five years old.  There is a child-like wonder in the simple sentences linked together; a curiosity about what will happen next to whom.  When she chooses story, the reading of a story, to bind these characters together in friendship, the repetition of the words creates a spiral circling outward to surround you.  You, the reader, become a participant in the tale.


Every single time I read this book I discover something new in the illustrations.  Suzy Lee's interpretation is meticulous; right down to the tiniest amazing detail.  Using pencil and watercolor with digital manipulation she begins on the jacket and cover; a lofty view of a tree trunk on the left whose branches stretch as shelves providing space for books and readers alike. Her opening endpapers are rows of tiny gray raindrops on a soft creamy white background switching to a variety of colors, like a rainbow, on the closing endpapers.

Initially Lee opens using a limited palette, black, white and red with a hint of green.  As each little book is opened small spots of the other colors are added.  As the characters return home the use of color increases plus careful readers will see not only the gift of color but the gift of something else bestowed upon each. The pure happiness exhibited by Lee's Ladybug, Frog, Rabbit, Bear and yes, even Giant in each setting is marvelous to behold.


I've lost count of the number of times I've read Open This Little Book by Jesse Klausmeier with illustrations by Suzy Lee.  What I do remember is my excitement building at each page turn.  When I finish I know I am grinning from ear to ear wanting to shout from the rooftops "I love this book!"

Please follow the links embedded in this post to visit the official author and illustrator websites.  Suzy Lee did an interview at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast linked here.

I went right to my bookshelves and pulled off copies of Look At My Book: How Kids Can Write & Illustrate Terrific Books by Loreen Leedy, Making Mini-Books by Sherri Haab (Klutz) and The Elements of Pop-Up by David A. Carter and James Diaz because this title is guaranteed to inspire creativity.  You might also want to visit the web 2.0 application, Zooburst, to make virtual books.  It was an American Library Association 2011 Best Websites for Teaching and Learning.

Spreads Like..

Some winter mornings after a snowfall when the full moon is setting and the sun has started to lighten the horizon, walking in the backyard, I see signs of a party, of dancing by the light of the moon.  Rabbits have left their footprints peppered across the landscape in gleeful circles.  It makes me wonder what happened when I was sleeping and they were not.

Are rabbits the only beings playing in the crispy air?  Maybe something else moves through the quiet hours during the seasons, silently leaving a mark.  Moonlight (Greenwillow Books, January 24, 2012) written by Helen V. Griffith with illustrations by Laura Dronzek whispers an invitation to readers about Earth's lunar orb.

Head lifted a bunny longs for the moon's glow to light the night.  A breeze frees the cloudy cloak but the rabbit has already left for the comfort of a burrow and longed-for sleep.  As if the moon is a knife, it begins to gently spread its luminescence.

Moonlight slides like butter
skims through outer space
skids past stars and comets
leaves a butter trace

Through mountains, among the trees, high and low, across streams, the light moves with purpose until it reaches the cozy haven of the resting rabbit.  Does the light rest easy there?  No, it does not, but continues to cast its warmth into the dreams of the one who desired its radiance. 

This is one of those very special books when the text is gathered together presents a six stanza poem, each with four lines, rhyming on the second and fourth lines.  Read as a single poem it's a graceful, lyrical ode to the moonlight reaching out.  How Helen V. Griffith choose to separate the poem, spacing and placing the lines throughout the pages, creates pauses, adding a calming, a sense of peace.

The imagery of using the moon's rays as if they're butter is a pleasing one.  Most readers associate butter as golden, adding color and warmth to the telling.  Butter makes the everyday, the simple, feel more than it was before, as does the moonlight.

Opening the book jacket readers see the rabbit nestled among leaves and flowers awash in the glow from the large moon on the left side.  Rich blue endpapers mimic the evening's presence.  The title page shows a cloud beginning to cover the moon.  All the illustrations within this title are across double pages.

The full color art rendered in acrylic paints by Laura Dronzek endearingly illustrates the moon's journey past sleeping parents and their children; goats, deer, robins, raccoons (wide awake) and trout.  Her depiction of the moon buttering Rabbit's dreams is gorgeous in its vivid colors surrounded by wide lines of yellow. While all the two page spreads with the brush strokes of yellow depict the moon's travels over the darkened land, my two favorites are when the moon passes through space and the final two pages; the party begins.

The combined talents of author, Helen V. Griffith, and illustrator, Laura Dronzek, bringing readers into Moonlight, is lovely, soothing to the soul.  One on one as a bedtime story, it's perfect.  With a group to introduce poetry, pacing in writing or to invite discussion about the difference between day and night, it would work wonderfully.  I can also see reading this before a rest time as a ritual, at the end of the day or a very special day, Pajama Day, in our classrooms.

Julie Danielson, blogger extraordinaire, at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast casts the spotlight on the artwork in this book here.  Take a peek inside the book below.  And for some reason I could not help thinking about the old song, Moonlight Serenade, written and made popular by Glen Miller.  I heard it quite a bit growing up.

Hip-Hopping Sleuths

Madeline, has just set foot on Hornby Island, after taking two ferries, island to island, from her school on Vancouver Island.  All the other children on Hornby are homeschooled but that's not Madeline's style.  Madeline, self-reliant, responsible, sensible, watches over her parents, Flo and Mildred (Harry and Denise), leftovers, along with most of the residents on the island, from the hippy era. 

Not too long ago she got a job at the Happy Goat Cafe bringing in extra money, actually the only reliable income the family has, but to her dismay it's usually used in the pursuit of such activities as the annual festival of Luminara; residents making luminaries to welcome the summer solstice.  This year she could really use the money for a pair of white shoes.  She is to be honored with three awards at her fifth grade graduation with Prince Charles, yes, the Prince Charles, in attendance.

But these problems pale in comparison to her nearly being run over by a car with lots of red eyes peering out of darkened windows with a fox? driving, then arriving home to discover that her parents have been kidnapped; held until they disclose her Uncle Runyon's address.  Uncle Runyon is a translator of code living on Vancouver Island; more normal than her parents but a bit of an academic "looney tune".  Before he can offer any solid assistance, he falls into a desired coma.

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny-Detectives Extraordinaire! by Mrs. Bunny, translated from the Rabbit by Polly Horvath and illustrated by Sophie Blackall (Schwartz & Wade Books, Random House) is the story of two rabbits finding Madeline under a blanket wondering what's real and what's not and what to do.  Mr. and Mrs. Bunny have recently moved into a darling small cottage near Uncle Runyon's manor; leaving a home much too large after their twelve children have left the nest, so to speak.  Out of the blue Mrs. Bunny suggests they become detectives; Mr. Bunny giving up his job on the carrot marketing board and she giving up her collecting lint to create art.
Wearing new fedoras (that makes them detectives more than a license) Madeline hires them; after all what is a girl, with a big bottom as Mr. Bunny states without any tact, to do?

What can only be described as wacky mayhem follows.  Mr. Bunny's driving skills leaving much to be desired, even if he is wearing Mrs. Bunny's twelve-inch purple sequined platform shoes to reach the pedals, using The Marmot, a garlic bread lover, to decode the file card, the only clue found at the scene of the crime, convincing the Bunny Council that Madeline is a pet to avoid jail, relentless questioning of Flo and Mildred by the ruthless head fox, Grand Poobah, riding recklessly with Mrs. Treaclebunny on her scooter and pushing the Panic Button, all add up to one laughable moment after another. 

Translator Polly Horvath brings readers into the realm of mysterious fantasy with endless action matched by even wittier dialogue and suppositions by her characters; imaginings of conversations and the thought processes of the rabbits, foxes and marmots is top notch to a T.  Contrasting feet-firmly-on-the-ground Madeline with her head-in-the-clouds parents couldn't be better.  Highly detailed descriptions of the life style of the animal world, a near perfect mirror of ours, increase the hilarity.

"Yes, yes, we've covered that," said Madeline impatiently.
"Well, how do we find out where The Marmot lives, then?"

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny looked at each other.
"We thought all children knew how to find things," said Mr. Bunny.
"Google," said Mrs. Bunny.

"I didn't know you could Google marmots, " said Madeline.

"You can Google anything, dear," said Mrs. Bunny patronizingly.  "I just learned how to use the computer this year.  Mr. Bunny taught me."
"And I'm never teaching you anything again," said Mr. Bunny.
"You got that straight," said Mrs. Bunny.

Contributing to and enhancing the audacity of this tale are the ink illustrations of Sophie Blackall.  Injecting humor at every turn leaving out no trifle, in the beginning when Madeline and Mildred are conversing, Mildred is hanging up bunny luminaries, Mr. and Mrs. Bunny fedora shopping, he sticking his nose into a hat or Mr. Bunny's wearing of the platform shoes as The Marmot is disguised, Blackall brings an ageless whimsy to the tale.  If eyes are the window to the soul, Sophie Blackall's pictures tell the true tale indeed.

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny-Detectives Extraordinaire! by Mrs. Bunny, translated from the Rabbit by Polly Horvath with illustrations by Sophie Blackall is a truly funny, fantastical folly full of memorable, heartwarming characters whose escapades laced with mystery are perfectly perfect. 

Spring Is In The Air And In The Step of...

For someone who loves to collect books as well as read them the care given by some authors and illustrators with respect to their artistic selection of design and color is sheer delight.  Kevin Henkes newest book, Little White Rabbit, is picture perfect in every way.  Using his recognizable media of combining colored pencil and acrylic paint his book jacket and endpapers envelope us in calming pink and green reminiscent of a gentle spring morning.  He carries this theme to the front and back book covers; the front frames a little rabbit in pink and the back frames the same little rabbit in green. 

As little white rabbit hops through the grass, by the fir trees, over a rock, under the butterflies or past the cat he wonders.  What would it be like to be green, tall, not be able to move, flutter through the air or too scared to wonder anything?  In two page spreads Henkes visualizes those thoughts in what can only be described as graphics that clearly portray little white rabbit's imagining; graphics, that I might add, are suitable for framing.

Little white rabbit's wanderings conclude by arriving back to the nest, nose-nuzzling with his Mom and not wondering at all about who loves him.  Charming, simply charming...