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Perfect Picture Book Friday – The Mud Angels
In 1966, I was a child when the Arno River in Italy overflowed, flooding the city of Florence along its banks. I didn’t hear about the flood then, despite it being on the national news, and I had...
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Spider in the Well – Perfect Picture Book Friday
* Anyone here love subversive picture books? Got a new one for you today. Text/Illustration ©Jess Hannigan * Look at that hardworking newsboy. It’s his job to bring the town of Bad Göodsburg their...
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I Do Not Eat Children – Perfect Picture Book Friday
* This week, I’m adding another subversive picture book by an author illustrator to my list. Seems like we see this type of book more often from a single creator, and I wonder if that’s because they...
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An Accidental Hero – Perfect Picture Book Friday
As Earth warms, and climate change brings higher temperatures and lengthier droughts, forest fires are happening more often and raging with greater intensity. It is horrifying to see the destruction...
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Saving Delicia – Perfect Picture Book Friday
This story is a kind of comforting fable for our time, as climate change begins to stress different types of plants due to higher temperatures and longer periods of drought around the globe. Stress...
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The Great Lakes – Perfect Picture Book Friday
* With every new nonfiction picture book, Barb Rosenstock teaches a master class on how to structure a narrative and pull readers into a story. She has set the standard for picture book biographies,...
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The Last Stand – Perfect Picture Book Friday
I’m a Midwest farmer’s daughter, and the truth about farming is that it’s long hours, dirty, sweaty hard work that’s often never-ending. But it does feel good for the soul. However, it’s often...
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Pepper & Me – Perfect Picture Book Friday
There’s a lot to be said for unusual picture books. Sometimes I think of them as a kind of Rorschach of their creators, especially when they’re an author-illustrator, like Beatrice Alemagna. A creator...
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Genius Ears – Perfect Picture Book Friday
From the pair that brought you Genius Noses, comes another fascinating and beautifully illustrated book about ears, what we know and what we wonder about them. Filled with physical descriptions of...
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The Spaceman – Perfect Picture Book Friday
I’m not quite sure how I discovered The Spaceman, a picture book by an illustrator, Randy Cecil, who turns out to be a fabulous author, as well. The book feels as if it landed on my desk, still...
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The Runaway – Perfect Picture Book Friday + #Giveaway!
The Runaway is the final picture book in Nancy Vo’s Crow Trilogy, an enigmatic, atmospheric, and highly unusual set of stories set in the mid-1800s. The first book in the trilogy, The Outlaw, features...
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Happy First Year Book Birthday! – And #Giveaway
* It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since A RIVER OF DUST debuted! And, oh, what a fabulous year it’s been! Thank you all for embracing my book baby as your own. Thank you to those who attended...
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Kingdoms of Life – Perfect Picture Book Friday
* Browsable nonfiction books like KINGDOMS OF LIFE can do many things, including instill curiosity and wonder; offer up a “big picture” and then divide that picture into myriad details showing how...
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Ode to Grapefruit – Perfect Picture Book Friday
* I’ve always been a fan of James Earl Jones, but had no idea that the man with the mellifluous, commanding voice had struggled to speak as a child. This picture book captures his struggles, his fear,...
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It Is Okay – Perfect Picture Book Friday
* In the pantheon of books that feature friends coming to terms with their differences, IT IS OKAY stands out with its quirky, expressive, and detailed illustrations, and for its understated text that...
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Popi’s All Souls Song – Perfect Picture Book Friday
* How do we remember those we’ve lost? How do we help others through their losses when our own hearts are breaking? How can a story help us talk about grief? And how can a story help us celebrate a...
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The Gray City – Perfect Picture Book Friday
* I reviewed Torben Kuhlmann’s first book, Lindbergh: The Tale of a Flying Mouse, in 2014. Note that while that review mentions the Caldecott quality of his illustrations, Kuhlmann doesn’t actually...
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Veena and the Red Roti – Perfect Picture Book Friday
How can authors help kids make sense of historical events? Particularly, a life-changing event like Partition? By focusing on a specific child and her personal experience. Will the child character...
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The Cat Way – Perfect Picture Book Friday
* This week I’m featuring another book in translation (from Swedish), because I often find them so interesting, so off the beaten path of U.S.-published books. The 64 pages of THE CAT WAY read like a...
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Abzuglutely! – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Women who speak their minds in a straightforward way often get pigeon-holed as being too strident, too pushy, too too toooooo, just because they’re women. If men act in a similar fashion, they’re seen...
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