Picture Book Month - Last but Not Least - Day 30!

Well I actually did it!  I highlighted 1 of my favorite picture book authors for every day of Picture Book Month.  I hope that readers have rediscovered some favorites or found a new author to read. 

I saved a very special picture book author for Day 30 - Easton's very own Leo Landry!  We are so lucky to have a wonderful children's author residing in our town.  Mr. Landry has visited the library on several occasions to talk about his books, read to the children, or teach them how to create an illustration.  He has written and illustrated picture books, as well as chapter books and early readers.  I want to highlight on of each in this blog.

Grin and Bear It is his most recently published work.  It is an early reader that tells a wonderful story about a bear who loves telling jokes, but has a bad case of stage fright.  We were lucky to have Leo Landry host an open-mic comedy event for children in October.  Children listened to the story and then got a chance to stand up and tell a joke of their own.  The book is a great early reader as the children will love the jokes and the story of a warm friendship while parent swill appreciate the visual puns in the illustrations. 

Space Boy is a wonderful picture book about a little boy who longs for quiet - so he builds a rocket and flies to the moon.  Leo Landry's pencil and watercolor illustrations add to the sense of quiet and adventure.  This is a perfect bedtime story.

Finally, I must spotlight Sea Surprise, a great chapter book that got my reluctant reader of a daughter hooked on books as a 2nd grader.  She just fell in love with this wonderful story about a group of friends - a mermaid, a shark and an eel - under the sea.  The vocabulary is just right for those moving beyond the early readers and the illustrations are beautiful and full of fun.

So, if you haven't yet discovered out very own children's author and illustrator - stop by the library and find a Leo Landry book today!

Thanks for reading!  I was so happy to be able to talk about 30 of my favorite picture books authors.  I know there are many more that I was unable to include and I know I'll be finding more favorites in the future. Picture books are such a wonderful genre for children.  I know that the future is bright. In honor of Picture Book Month, I'd like to include this list of favorites from Leo Landry's website (http://www.leolandry.com/index.html) :

"There are so many artists whose work I continue to be inspired by every day. Here are a few of my all-time favorites: Melissa Sweet, M.B. Goffstein, Helen Oxenbury, John Burningham, Kady MacDonald Denton, Erik Blegvad, Peter Sis, Lucy Cousins, Charlotte Voake, Satoshi Kitamura, Emma Chichester Clark, Olof and Lena Landstrom, Richard Scarry, Edward Ardizzone, Simon James, and William Steig."

Picture Book Month - Day 27, 28, 29

Wow!  I know we are now in December, but I still have 4 more authors to highlight in order to meet my goal of one author per day during Picture Book Month.  So many authors, so few spots left!  Today I'd like to spotlight 3 authors, Eric Carle, Doreen Cronin and Lauren Child.

Eric Carle is an award winning picture book author/illustrator.  He was the 2003 recipient of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award which honor an author and or illustrator whose body of work over the years has made "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children."  His beautiful illustrations are made using hand-painted paper, layered in a collage technique.  Many of his works feature special cut-outs (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), sounds (The Very Quiet Cricket),  foldouts (Papa, Please get the Moon for Me) or even lighting effects (Dream Snow).  His newest title is The Artist Who painted a Blue Horse. It is a story that celebrates the freedom of the artist to paint things as he sees them, even a blue horse or a green lion.

We are very fortunate that we have The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art here in Amherst Massachusetts.  As he states on his website (http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html) :

For a number of years my wife Bobbie and I dreamt about creating a place where original picture book art could be enjoyed and appreciated. It has been said that picture books are an introduction to literature for the very young reader. We wanted to help build a museum that would be the same thing for the first time museum visitor: an introduction to the experience of looking at art.

I hope you get a chance to visit  his books and or the museum with your children!

Doreen Cronin published her first picture book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type while working as a practising attorney in Manhattan- luckily for children's literature she left the law and has been writing picture books ever since! What I love about her books is the humor. Click, Clack Moo, received a Caldecott Honor in 2001.  This is a wonderful book that can be used to teach children about the power of the written word - as well as being laugh out loud hilarious!  Farmer Brown discovers that his cows can type.  Not only that, but they begin to make demands. "It was bad enough the cows had found the old typewriter in the barn, now they wanted electric blankets! 'No way," said Farmer Brown...So the cows went on strike."  Children love repeating the refrain: "Click, Clack, moo."  The barnyard hijinks continue in several more books featuring the typing cows.  I also love her series of insect diary books.  In Diary of a Worm , They are full of dry humor and Henry Bliss' illustrations add to the fun.  Here's one entry: "April 20  I snuck up on some kids in the park today.  They didn't hear me coming. I wriggled up right between them and they SCREAMED. I love when they do that."  You can also read Diary of a Spider and Diary of a Fly.  Check out this wonderful author today!

 



My 3rd author of the day is Lauren Child (http://www.milkmonitor.com/home/).  She is probably best known for her Charlie and Lola picture book series, which has been made into a successful television series for Disney.  Her first Charlie and Lola book, I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato, won a Kate Greenaway Medal in the U.K. for outstanding children's book illustration in 2000.  This is comparable to the Caldecott Medal in the U.S.  The series features the adorable, imaginative and demanding Lola and her patient older brother Charlie, as well as Lola's invisible friend Soren Lorenson.  I love Lola's spirit and Charlie's love for his little sister.  Each book begins: "I have this little sister, Lola.  She is small and very funny."  In my daughter's favorite Charlie and Lola book, I Am Too Absolutely Small for School, Charlie tries to reassure a nervous Lola, that school will be wonderful.  For instance Charlie says: "I say, 'At school you will learn numbers and how to count up to one hundred.' Lola says, 'I don't need to learn up to ne hundred.  I already know up to ten, and that is plenty."  Also be sure to check out another favorite, Lauren Child's The Princess and the Pea.  In a collaboration with photographer Polly Borland, Child constructed miniature  3-D sets for each page in illustration in the book.  Imagine a dollhouse with paper doll characters.  I look forward to many more of Lauren Child's picture books!

Picture Book Month - Day 26 author

I'm nearing the homestretch for featuring a different picture book author for each day of this month.  I hope you have maybe found a new author or illustrator that you now love.  Please leave comments about your favorites, too!

Today, I want to put a spotlight on Ed Young, winner of the Caldecott Medal in 1989 and 2 Caldecott Honors, illustrator of over 80 children's books.  He takes inspiration for Chinese painting.  As he says on his website (http://edyoungart.com/) :

“A Chinese painting is often accompanied by words,” explains Young. “They are complementary. There are things that words do that pictures never can, and likewise, there are images that words can never describe.”

Lon Po Po won the Caldecott Medal in 1989.  As the subtitles states it is "A Red-Riding Hood Story From China."  In the Chinese version of the tale, a wolf comes to the door of 3 children claiming to be their Po Po or grandmother. The younger children let the wolf in, but the eldest is cautious.  " 'Po Po,' she said, why is  your voice so low?'  'Your grandmother has caught a cold, good children, and it is dark and windy out here. Quickly open up, and let your Po Po come in,' the cunning wolf said." After catching a glimpse of a furry face before the wolf blows out the candle, Shang, the eldest makes a plan to outwit the sly wolf.  The illustrations are reminiscent of Chinese panel paintings and add to the atmosphere of the story. Beautiful and haunting.

Seven Blind Mice earned a Caldecott Honor in 1992 and is a story time favorite.  It is a retelling of a folktale from India.  Seven mice each come across a "strange Something", but they all describe it very differently. One feels a fan, another a snake and so on.  Finally, the seventh mouse explores the entire "Something." It turns out that they have all encountered the same thing,- an elephant - but the others have only felt part of it.  The "Mouse Moral" at the end is : "Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole"  The illustrations are very different from Lon Po Po - utilizing cut paper collage and vibrant primary color paint.

The House That Baba Built: an artist's childhood in China is Ed Young's most recent book.  It is an autobiographical picture book of his childhood during the Japanese invasion of China and World War II.  His father has made a safe haven for his family - his wife, 4 children, and other relatives and friends in need of a place to stay.  Although a war is raging, inside the house there is still joy and imagination.  Towards the end of the war they can finally hear the bombs:
"We gathered in the hallway, where the dinner bell was - the safest part of the house, Baba said.  There were no windows there, so we could keep a light on.  When everyone was settled comfortably, the stories began.  Baba told of a woman kung fu warrior with bound feet...I pictured her, not the bombs outside, which didn't frighten me anyway.  I knew nothing could happen to us within those walls, in the house Baba built."
This is a lovely, lyrical and  true story.  The illustrations feel like flipping through and old scrapbook or photo album.  It is a wonderful way to get to know this very talented writer and illustrator.

I hope you will discover or rediscover Ed Young.

Picture Book Month - Day 24

Today's author is a classic - Maurice Sendak.  His most famous book is Where The Wild Things Are, winner of the Caldecott Medal in 1964.  He adapted his book to the stage in 1979 and it was made into a feature film in 2009.  He has written a children's opera, designed sets for operas and plays, produced an animated television show for his book Really Rosie and wrote an designed an animated sequences for Sesame Street. 

Where the Wild Things Are is probably most familiar.  It tells the story of a boy named Max who misbehaves and is sent to bed without supper. He journeys to another land: “And the wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws.” Max is made king of the wild things, but he soon misses home and my favorite line is the very last:

“And [he] sailed back over a year
and in and out of weeks
and through a day
and into the night of his very own room
where he found his supper waiting for him
and it was still hot”

  I love how this shows, that no matter how much a child may misbehave, Mom is always there waiting with a warm meal and love.

Chicken Soup With Rice, was included in the tv production of Really Rosie.  I just love this rhyming trip through the seasons of the year.  If you've ever caught the film, you won't be able to read the book without singing it as Carole King performed it! It begins:

"In January

it's so nice

while slipping

on the sliding ice

to sip hot chicken soup

with rice.

Sipping once

sipping twice

sipping chicken soup

with rice."

It's a wonderful trip through the seasons and all of the ways of enjoying chicken soup with rice.  My daughter's kindergarten teacher used this book all through the school year.

Bumble-Ardy is Maurice Sendak's latest book and his first solo work since 1981.   The books grew from an animated segment for Sesame Street by Sendak and Jim Henson.  It tells the story of a pig who has reached the age of nine without every having a birthday celebration:

Bumble-Ardy had no party when he turned one.

(His immediate family frowned on fun.)

So two three and four were on purpose forgot

And five six seven just simply were not!"

And so it went, until he turns nine and decided to throw himself a party at last :"Which isn't bad. In fact, it's fine."  Sendak is still the master of the picture book.

Picture Book Month - Day 25

 Today we'll look at some of the books by Paul O. Zelinsky.  He has won the Caldecott Medal as well as 3 Caldecott honors.  He first became intersted in children's books while taking a course at Yale University that was co-taught by the great Maurice Sendak. Here are a few of my favorites:

Rapunzel was the winner of the 1998 Caldecott Medal and it is easy to see why it was chosen.  The illustrations are detailed and transport you to a fairytale world.  It is a beautiful retelling with illustrations akin to Renaissance paintings.  It inlcudes full page and double page spreads. 

I love the illustations in Rumplelstiltskin, Caldecott Honor in  1987, even more than those in Rapunzel. I think it's due to the wonderful depiction of the tiny trickster.  Again, fairy tale lovers should seek out Paul O. Zelinsky's versions.  He is a master of fairy tale retellings.

The Maid and the Mouse and the Odd-Shaped House, is a title that I loved to use for pre-school story times.  Zelinsky adapted a party game into this wonderful book.  A maid and a mouse live in a pentagon house and go about adding to it - rooms, 2 chimneys, a path, etc.  The children will begin to notice that the house is becoming somethig else - a cat!  A really fun story that can be used with a white board or feltboard.

Check out these titles and more at the library today!

Picture Book Month - Day 23

A new favorite author is Michelle Knudson, author of over 40 books for children.  Two of her picture books are favorites of mine.

Library Lion is a book that I have read aloud to children in grades kindergarten through 3rd on school visits.  Of course the theme of the book caught my eye immediately!  It is a wonderful story about a lion who comes into a library and is welcomed, as long as he follows the rules.  He joins the children for story times and becomes a favorite of the head librarian, Miss Merriweather, as he helps out around the library - "He dusted the encyclopedias.  he licked envelopes.  he let small children stand on his back to reach books on the highest shelves.  Then he curled up in the story corner to wait for story hour to begin."  The children love to help me with the lion's very loud roar - it's so fun to be loud in the library isn't it?  From the first class I read this to, I knew it was a hit.  The illustrations are beautiful and the story really holds the children's attention - imagine a lion in our library!  It so happens that I have a ceramic lion on a bookshelf in the chidlren's room that looks a lot like the lion in the book.  After reading the book aloud, I will tell the students that they should visit the library and see if they can find our "library lion."  They love this!

I was very excited when Argus was published -I have found another wonderful read aloud for older children.  In this story, Mrs. Henshaw's class are hatching chicks for a science project.  Sally notices that her egg looks different, but is told not to worry.  When the egg hatches, we meet  her chick, Argus: "It was green. And scaly. And it had big yellow eyes."  It seems that Argus is not a chick, but a dragon.  Sally doesn't like having a dragon - she wants a chick like all of the others.  But when Argus getrs lost, Sally realizes that she loves this unique "chick".  A wondeful story about being different and being proud of what you are!  It has been another hit with the older children.

Check out these 2 wonderful books by Michelle Knudson and like me, you'll be awaitng her next!

Picture Book Month - Day 22

Nancy Tafuri is a wonderful author who's books are often a part of my story times for younger children.  When she first began to write children's books in the 1970's she was told that her illustrations were too big for the 5, 6 and 7 year olds that the market then aimed for.  We are so lucky that she was not deterred and her books are just perfect for younger children.  I use many for my Mother Goose Story Times for Under 2s and my Story Times for 2s and 3s.  She won a Caldecott Honor in 1985 for Have You Seen My Duckling.  On her website   http://web.me.com/nancytafuri/Site/Welcome.html she says:

“I feel honored to be creating literature for young children. Seeing how very important the early years are in a person’s life, I can only hope that my books can contribute in some small way to that growth, with the feelings that I hope I project within those pages, through line, color, shape, and story.”

I love using Spots, Feathers and Curly Tails for farmed themed story times for babies and toddlers.  As with all of her books, Tafuri's illustrations are bright bold and attention getting.  This book is like a guessing game and I have the children ad the sounds of each animal.  "What has spots?  A cow has spots." Each question spread shows a little bit of the animal and the answer appears in the next spread with the full animal.  I then would say "What does the cow say?"  and have the children "Moooo."  Is perfect for story times!

Nancy Tafuri is one of the authors that I use a lot for my baby and toddler story times.  The storylines are simply told and the illustrations really pop.  The Busy Little Squirrel is often the star of my autumn story times.  A little squirrel is getting ready for winter. When the other animals ask him to stop a moment  the reply is ""But Squirrel couldn't...He was so busy!"  The older children will join in the refrain each time as it is repeated.  Finally, Squirrel is shone fast asleep in his tree with all of the food he has gathered.

These are just 2 of the many wonderful picture books by Nancy Tafuri.  Check them out for your baby or toddler you'll love them too!