Picture Book Roundup: Biographies! Founding Mothers, Grandfather Gandhi

These are way too long and complex for storytime, but I just couldn't see them come in and not read them.


Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies
Cokie Roberts, illustrated by Diane Goode
ISBN: 9780060780029

I really picked this up because of the illustrations - I hadn't noticed the author until I started writing this review.  The endpages on this book are especially worthy of note - made up of collections of writings of the founding mothers.  Very impressive, and beautifully done.

Inside, we get an introduction from the author explaining how the concept of the "founding mothers" was missing when she was in school, so she decided to correct the lapse (I agree with her), then we get a quick timeline of what the "founding" timeperiod comprises (1765-1815) and then we're straight into a spread biography of each woman - when they were in time, what they focused on, what they loved and hated, and what they are remembered for.

Eliza Lucas Pinckney (indigo)
Deborah Read Franklin (Ben Franklin's wife and business manager while he was in "exile" in France
Mercy Otis Warren (letter-writer/campaigner)
(brief pause for a spread on Women Writers of the time)
Phillis Wheatley (former slave, child prodigy)
Abigail Adams (wife and mother to presidents/presidential advisor)
Martha Washington (troop support/first First Lady/vaccine promoter)
(brief pause for a spread on Women Warriors of the time)
Esther DeBerdt Reed (fund-raiser/campaigner)
Sarah Livingstone Jay (expat patriot)
Catharine Littlefield Greene (Washington supporter/troop morale booster)
Dolley Madison (rescued orphans)



Grandfather Gandhi
Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus, illustrated by Evan Turk
ISBN: 9781442423657
mixed-media collage, rich colors, sharp edges.

This is a lovely powerful book.  If I had slightly older children, I'd pair it with Peace, Baby, and have a storytime of the power of CHOOSING peace.  A grandchild of Gandhi comes to the commune, and is frustrated by the simple life there, by sacrifices, by racial tensions, by having to share his famous grandfather, and by his own inability to live in a feeling of peace.  The pivotal moment is when Gandhi reveals that not feeling anger isn't the goal - it's deciding what to DO with that anger.  Do we lash out and destroy like lightning, or do we harness the power of our anger like electricity to fuel our futures?

The mixed-media collage is mostly strings and threads and cloth, and when they appear, they're almost three-dimensional, inviting the reader to reach out and touch these characters.

Really impressive.

  

Picture Book Roundup: Biographies! I Am Abraham Lincoln, I am Amelia Earhart

I don't often use biographies in storytime, but I might actually be able to use the Amelia Earhart one - it's really short and kicky, and has some great illustrations that remind me just a bit of Calvin and Hobbes's Susie Derkins.

It doesn't hurt that they both also have that very Calvin and Hobbes simplistic way of taking complex moral ideas and just presenting them in kid-friendly language, with examples and illustrations that really resonate.  These are really short, and really simple, meant for very young audiences.  

I am Abraham Lincoln
Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos
ISBN: 9780803740839

Starting with the basics, Lincoln illustrates that character starts with the small things: persistence, determination, caring for others.  Then it jumps into a (VERY SIMPLISTIC) treatment of Lincoln's stances on the Civil War and ending slavery.  The running joke of being on the penny (what's a penny?) is a little silly for me, but perhaps it would strike a younger reader as more amusing.


I am Amelia Earhart
Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos
ISBN: 9780803740822

I am pretty sure this is going to get used in a storytime at some point.  Amelia is just too overenthusiastic to not take advantage of.  Seriously - this entire book is about the importance of enthusiasm.  If you want something, you work for it, and you fight for it, and you DO IT because it makes you happy.  Haters gonna hate - you just go for your dreams and see what you can do with them.  Again, a perfect Calvin and Hobbes style message, in a great little short biography for the youngest audience.

Tuesday Storytime: Rainy Days

I was away at a class this time around, so one of my lovely Clerks gave the storytime.  I didn't know we were slated for nasty weather when I picked these out for her last week, but given the rain last night, and the epic storms heading our way for today and tomorrow, I'm feeling a little prophetic!

Listen to the Rain
Bill Martin, Jr, and John Archambault, illustrated by James Endicott
ISBN: 0805006826
peaceful minimalistic paintings against a white backdrop

I love this book for storytime.  It's a perfect onomatopoeic verbal representation of a storm, with all the rhyming and similar words getting repeated and emphasized.  It's also a lovely combination of lyric and artistic minimalism and synthesis.  I'm a little jealous that I didn't get to read it, but I wanted something for my Clerk that would flow and read smoothly for someone with not as much practice at Storytime.  This one is perfect for that, and that's why I picked the theme.


A Letter to Amy
Ezra Jack Keats
ISBN: 0670880639
Ezra Jack Keats, y'all.

I don't like this one quite as much as The Snowy Day, but it's up there.  Peter wants to specially invite a special friend to his party, but there are some difficulties.  First, she's a girl, and that's a little weird.  Secondly, he wants to actually MAIL her an invite, to make it more special, but his day is just not going well - a storm blows in, and gets the letter wet, and then something even worse happens!  Poor Peter - will his friend even show up for his party now?  Love this man, love his books. Another good "easy read" for an inexperienced Storytimer.


Red Rubber Boot Day
Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Lauren Stringer
ISBN: 0152053980
saturated colors, close-focus, daily life, textural brushwork

I hardcore love this book.  I don't care that the author and illustrator aren't famous picture book people.  They are amazing and I want to send them all the love for this perfect perfect stompy rainy-day I've run out of things to do inside can I please go outside into the fresh rain-wet perfect new green day and play in the puddles book.  I like this book so much I went out and bought a copy for my home library and I don't even have a kid yet to read it to!


I miss my kids so much when I can't do my Storytimes so I'm really looking forward to next week:  Oversize Animals.

Storytime Potentials: Peace Baby, Brimsby's Hats

Rolling through the picture books still!

Peace, Baby!
Linda Ashman, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff
ISBN: 9781452106137

This book made me want to grow my hair out long and straight, wear bell-bottoms, and put on a flower crown.  Seriously, tho, this is a cute montage of stress-inducing child situations, with a mantra of "Peace, Baby" to remind kids to seek alternatives to violence or anger.  Especially nice because the situations are very realistic for kids, and because there is absolutely no religious or cultural context invoked.  This one will be getting used soon!


Brimsby's Hats
Andrew Prahin
ISBN: 9781442481473

I actually saw a review for this one in Booklist a while back and specifically requested it.  I was so happy today to see it in person finally!  It's always a gamble for me to get excited about books based on a review - I so often disagree with them, or find some little niggling thing that bugs me that the reviewer didn't include.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!

Brimsby (most excellent name) had a good friend, and they would sit together and visit, until the friend went off to sea to fulfill his dream of being a sea captain.  Then Brimsby was lonely.  How Brimsby found a tree full of potential friends and set about making friends with them is just a sweet sweet story.

It's a bit on the long side, but I think I can make it work.  It's worth it for a sweetie like this.

Storytime Potentials: Inside Outside, and Look What I Can Do!

My favorite days in the library are when the new books come in.  They smell like ink and paper, the pages are crisp and bright, and the covers are all shiny glossy plastic in their new covers.

Got a WHOLE LOT today.

Inside Outside
Lizi Boyd
ISBN: 9781452106441
wordless paper-cut collage.

I'm not sure I'll be able to use this one in storytime, but I really enjoyed seeing it.  The pages are like paper-bag paper, a bit rough and stiff, and the drawings are deceivingly naive line-drawings with color scattered about seemingly haphazardly.  However, the real treat is watching the seasons pass by through the windows (die cut) looking out and looking in as the main character (gender neutral) plays inside and out.  Lots of detail here, and lots to notice on multiple read-throughs.  Would be really good with a classroom, I think, to revisit time and again.



Look What I Can Do!
Nancy Viau, illustrated by Anna Vojtech
ISBN: 9781419705298
soft-edged "dreamy countryside" illustrations of animals and children at play

This is a perfect storytime book, and I am actually going to use it with Oops a Daisy! and another book (still have to find it) to create a "try and try again" theme.  I've wanted a theme like that for a while now, and these will be perfect together, if I can find a third.

Seriously adorable woodland creatures (including a snake and a spider for those phobic) narrate their attempts to do their specific type of work/play - a fawn stands wobbily, a raccoon tries to catch a fish and fails - and ends with kids attempting new activities as well - skating, riding a bike, hitting a baseball.  Rhymed couplets with the "wise owl" and the "wise owlet" providing the capstone rhymes.

Tuesday Storytime: Friends can be Different

We had a HUGE crowd this week, lots of boys, lots of energy.  The only one that was a bit of a mismatch was Chopsticks, but a parent wanted to check it out afterwards, so that's a win regardless.

Alex and Lulu: Two of a Kind
Lorena Siminovich
ISBN: 9780763644239
Block-prints and naive blocky-shaped characters.

Alex is a stereotypical boy dog, and Lulu is a stereotypical girl cat.  They are good friends, but Alex begins to think about all the ways they are different, and worries that they can't be friends because they are opposites.  Lulu reassures him that friends are often better when they have some differences, because that makes play and time spent together the richer.  Other than wishing that either Alex or Lulu wasn't majority white, and that they weren't so super-duper stereotypically boy/girl in their interests, this is a very nice calm sweet reminder that friends can and do have interests that are different.


The Story of Fish & Snail
Deborah Freedman
ISBN: 9780670784899
Book-within-a-book, where Fish and Snail live inside a picture book, and Fish explores inside other picture books.  Watercolors against a greyscale background.

Fish is happy being with Snail in their calm book, but Fish does like going out into other stories and bringing the tales back to Snail (who is quite happy to stay and play calm friendly games in their own peaceful book, thank you very much.)  Fish and Snail get into it when Fish wants Snail to come see an interesting (scary) book in person, and Snail gets frightened and lashes out.  But when Fish swims off into another story, Snail realizes being alone is no fun, and bravely goes out into the unfamiliar book to find Fish.  So pretty, so interesting, and a little mind-bending with the background of book-hopping.



Chopsticks
Amy Krause Rosenthal, illustrated by Scott Magoon
ISBN: 9781423107965
(SC Picture Book Award: 2013-2014 school year)
Visual puns all over the place, and asides from background characters/utensils.

Chopsticks do everything together, until an advance training exercise (skewering asparagus) leaves one man down with a broken tip.  Dr. Glue says he'll be right as rain in no time, but meanwhile, his buddy is driving him nuts trying to keep him company.  So the wounded stick sends his hale and hearty friend out into the world alone, to discover that he can have fun alone (playing soccer, baking, playing dress-up) and come back with interesting stories to tell his injured friend.  The story ends with both back upright and healthy, able to work as friends either together or apart.

William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back

William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back (Star Wars, Part the Fifth)
Ian Doescher
ISBN: 9781594747151
Read April 21, 2014

Review of William Shakespeare's Verily, A New Hope.

Still digging this series, and cannot wait for Jedi to come out in a few months.  There are some rough spots here and there (the AT-ATs were a little strange for me, and some of the monologues were just a touch on the longwinded side, and the lamentation song was a little weird) but otherwise it was another brilliant installment in the ongoing marriage between Star Wars and Shakespeare.

Favorite parts:

Singing Ugnaughts.  Seriously.

Lando gets an actual character arc.  This one is actually a qualified success, because I think one of the strengths of the film is that the betrayal just comes completely out of left field unless you're naturally suspicious.  They're talking, they're walking, the city is beautiful, and BAM - Vader!  But in a book (er, play) that's harder to accomplish and then have Lando become a hero, so I like that he gets asides and monologues and hints that he's really unhappy to be forced into this choice.

"Exit, pursued by a wampa."