Tuesday Storytime: Winter is Coming

Some lovely nature books for the onset of winter, at the start of December.  Wanted to counteract all of the rampant Christmassing going on everywhere.

Winter is Coming

Tony Johnston, illustrated by Jim LaMarche

ISBN: 9781442472518

Reviewed here, read only exerpts for storytime due to extremely young attendees.

Such a beautiful book.  I trimmed it waaaay down so I could use it with this group - cut 6 spreads completely out.  Because it's sequential, it didn't detract from the narrative flow, just tightened the focus a good bit and moved it along a lot faster so our under-4 year olds didn't get terminal wiggles.  It's still one of the most beautiful books I've seen, but the language isn't as poetic or flowing as the illustrations (and the type is very small), which makes it a bit challenging to read aloud.

Moon Glowing

Elizabeth Partridge, illustrated by Joan Paley

ISBN: 0525468730

Blocky painterly collage elements and a lovely wintry color palette.

I've used this fall/hibernation book a few times in past storytimes, but not recently, and it goes very well with my natural progression of the winter concept here.  We follow three animals; squirrel, bat, and bear, as they prepare over the fall for the onset of winter.  The text is large and highly contrasted to the pages, the images are clear and stylized with crisp colors and sharp minimalist patterns and textures.  The tight focus on the three animals means that the book is super short, but still hits clearly on the natural world's focus in late fall; storing food, preparing shelter, sleeping.  Pretty and much more accessible to a younger crowd, not least because of the much more appropriate length and minimal text.

In November

Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Jill Kastner

ISBN: 0152010769

One day late with this one.  Much like the other two, but with a short coda about Thanksgiving.

This book somehow manages to be super-factual, but impressively lyrical.  While I have no problems at all with Kastner's beautiful illustrations (the contrast between the clear-as-a-bell framing and composition with the muddled and mottled colors and blurry edges of the actual paintings is stunning to look at) I have to contrast this lovely language with that in Winter is Coming, and see how much more apt and flowing it is, and it makes me wish that Rylant would write something natural and poignant for LaMarche to illustrate.  It would probably make me cry. 

New Picture Books: Winter is Coming, Tony Johnston

I saw a review for this earlier in the year, and have been waiting for it ever since.  I'm happy to say that while it isn't what I expected, it is absolutely beautiful, an amazing message, and a delight to read and pore over the illustrations.

Winter is Coming
Tony Johnston, illustrated by Jim LaMarche (The Carpenter's Gift)
ISBN: 9781442472518
Breathtaking colored pencil, acrylic, and ink artwork is utterly entrancing.  Beautiful.

This book is SOOOO PRETTY!  The premise is pretty slim - a naturalist girl (armed with sketchpads, binoculars, and notebooks) heads out into the woods as fall changes to winter, watching and recording the behaviors and appearances of the animals as they prepare for the rough season ahead.  Some of the thoughts and comments are a little bit stilted or odd, coming supposedly from a pre-pubescent narrator, but that is easily forgiven considering the underlying messages of peaceful observation, of awareness of the cycles and lives of animals in their natural habitats, and of conservation and protection.

But you guys, this book is flat out, drop dead, utterly breathtakingly heart-rendingly GORGEOUS.  The colors, the girl in her varied outfits as the days pass by, the animals and birds, the sketchy but detailed woods and fields.  Just makes my heart ache that I can't draw.

Unreservedly recommended.

Picture Book: The Carpenter's Gift, David Rubel & Jim LaMarche

The Carpenter's Gift 
David Rubel, illustrated by Jim LaMarche
ISBN: 9780375869228
Read February 10, 2014

This is a fictionalized account of the first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, and I truly wanted to like it, but it just felt like it was trying too hard the whole way through.  This is like the picture book equivalent of a Hallmark Holiday Special, complete with wispy, wistful pencil illustrations.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it, it wasn't horrible, just - none of the moments impacted me like they were obviously meant to do.  I'm not even entirely sure why.  If I had to guess, I'd say that it reads like a Christmas commercial, like the touchy-feely Saint Jude commercials, or those godawful adopt-a-pet sobfests.  It just felt artificial and forced, and the point (look, the Rockefeller Tree isn't entirely a crass spectacle!  Look, we give wood to Habitat for Humanity!!  See?  Christmas spirit, man!) was entirely too belabored.

I did love that the Sparky at the end was a girl.  Nicely done.

I also, for the most part, liked the wispy, wistful illustrations.  I just wish the writer(s ?) would have trusted the artwork to carry the emotion instead of beating the reader over the head with meaning.

This book was recommended by The Read-Aloud Handbook.