Look Up High! Things That Fly

Finished December 18

Look Up High! Things That Fly by Victoria Allenby.

Like her past picture books in this series, this simple book is aimed at building vocabulary, enjoying rhyme and rhythm, and encouraging movement. The illustrations are real photographs, like the previous books: Listen Up! Train Song and Shape Up! Construction Trucks.

The cover is padded and the pages are thick to stand up to abuse from young readers, and the print is large and occupies a small amount of each page spread. For each, Allenby emphasizes some words that can start a discussion that will build vocabulary. Here, it is verbs that the various flying items can be described with. Some may be new to a young reader and can be used to get them thinking about the different ways that things can fly. The last page of the reading is a question getting the reader to think about how they would like to fly. 

As usual for these books, there is a short section at the back that gives several ideas for further work based on the book. Here, it also begins discussion of prepositions, one that works well for things that have space between them and the ground. 

This is a great addition to any young child's library. 

The Scar

Finished November 27

The Scar by Charlotte Moundlic, illustrated by Olivier Tallec

This emotional picture book is aimed at a specific audience, and one that would be useful in certain circumstances, read to a child by an adult close to them, helping them through a difficult time. The opening words are stark, touching, and give a truth that is also a revelation. They are:

Mom died this morning.

It wasn't really this morning.

Dad said she died during the night,

but I was sleeping during the night.

For me, she died this morning.

Those words, together with the simple yet perfect illustration of a young boy lying on his bed looking up, take us into the feelings of the narrator. 

As he tells us the story of his loss and grief and that of his father as well, we see how he works through it, the emotions that he has been going through and continues to feel. Moundlic's writing brings the scenes to life, like when he describes his crying father "he looked like a washcloth, all crumpled and wet," and he expresses his struggle to understand how to help his father. 

This book had me in tears, but also left me feeling comforted as I relate to his loss. 

A good addition to a public library parenting collection. 

The Imaginary Alphabet

Finished September 23

The Imaginary Alphabet by Sylvie Daigneault

This picture book is an absolute delight. It is an alphabet book, an image finding book, a humorous book, and just a delight to read. You can spend hours over it as you search the details and enjoy every aspect of it, or just read it through. Each alphabet letter has an image with an alliterative description that mentions some of the images starting with that letter. For example, the cover image is for F and says "Fancy Ferrets Feeling Famous and Fabulous." There are several unmentioned images in each picture that begin with that letter as well (one example here is frogs) and at the back of the book there are lists of images for each letter. I did, however, find one that wasn't listed and there may be more that I didn't notice (mine was at the letter K). 

This is a book that will delight readers of all ages, provide a fun way to learn, and enlarge your vocabulary. Daigneault has an introduction where she talks about the inspiration and vision for the book, along with how she came to create it. It shows the passion that she has for her work. 

A Flower is a Friend

Finished August 2

A Flower is a Friend by Frieda Wishinsky, illustrated by Karen Patkau

This picture book is both delightful and educational. Full page pictures of flowers also include creatures that have a relationship with that particular plant, whether it be pollinating, feeding, sheltering, or protecting it from other creatures who harm it. 

There is a simple story that goes along with text opposite each picture, telling the reader what flowers do, and then there is section of information about the creatures that interact with each flower explaining the role they play, and at the very back is a list of the flowers depicted, with their page number. 

This book can be used differently with different ages of children as they first enjoy the simple story and pictures and then move on to learning about nature and how flora and fauna interact with each other. 

The illustrations are very realistic and the reader can spend time looking at the details in each image. At the end of the main story is a double page spread that encourages the reader to spend time looking for the variety of creatures in the more panoramic image of a flower garden. 

 

Percy's Perfect Friend

Finished May 12

Percy's Perfect Friend by Lana Button, illustrations by Peggy Collins

This picture book shows children interacting in a community space. Percy is shy and new to the group. He spots a stuffed cat, and begins to interact with it. He introduces himself to her and gives her a name, Miss Petticomb. Then they agree to play together. They play for a while, but when Percy takes his attention away briefly, he finds her gone. He searches the room and finds her at a tea party, but when he attempts to take her back, he must interact with other children who are now playing with her. As they each lay their claims to Miss Petticomb, they reveal information about how she is special to each of them in that moment. When Percy decides that he has lost his friend to these other children, he begins to walk away and be alone again, but when he looks back at her he finds the courage to offer something new that will join him to this group. 

This is a lovely story of shyness and how it can be hard to make new friends. 

The pictures work really well to bring the words to life, and engage the young reader with the story. The author, who is an early childhood educator has added a note at the end of the book explaining the nature of play and how it can help develop social skills in children, even when it begins with a stuffed animal friend. 

A great addition to any library. 

Happy

Finished May 12

Happy by Mies van Hout

This delightful picture book is simple and captivating. With vibrant colours, the images stand out from their dark background, and the accompanying one word text with each picture, on the opposite page reflects the colours from the image. The word is written to convey the emotion that it states and that the image portrays.

The images look like messy sketches done quickly with pastels, showing movement and skill. All the images are ones of fish, and the fish are in different sizes, with different details, but have the same basic elements of body, fins, and tail. The colours used for each fish also speak to the emotion portrayed, and as a whole, the image, colours, and details, particularly mouth and eyes, really illustrate the emotion well.

This is a great book to use to talk to kids about emotions, and could just be read as is, but is better taken slowly, looking at the details and discussing how they reflect the emotion in different ways. 

I just love this author/artist and this book is another fantastic example of her work.

Cocoa Magic

Finished April 30

Cocoa Magic by Sandra Bradley, illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard

This lovely picture book tells a story set in historical Charlottetown. The main character, Daniel is eight years old and one of the highlights of his day is going, before school in the morning, to help his Uncle Lewis at his chocolate shop. He's been doing this for years, and is involved in all aspects of making the chocolates that the shop sells, from mixing and tempering, to pouring and molding. 

When Daniel sees a new girl at school who looks lonely he decides to start leaving chocolates in her desk to surprise her. When that works even better than he expected, he starts noticing other children that need cheering up and begins leaving treats for them as well, until there comes a day when he leaves treats for everyone, with the help of his uncle. 

Shortly after, he finds himself the one feeling sad and without chocolates to console him, and he makes a new discovery. 

The author is also a clinical social worker and here she illustrates the importance of empathy in our lives and the connections that we have to others. 

I loved the pictures here as well, including the ones of individual chocolates in the endpapers. The children show as detailed individuals and one gets a sense of the period from the details in the pictures.

A great book for any season. 

While You Sleep

Finished March 25

While You Sleep by Jennifer Maruno, illustrated by Miki Sato

This picture book is a great one for bedtime. I particularly love the multimedia images by Sato. They are made from layers of textures made of paper, cloth, and stitches in a collage that really adds to the beauty of the book.

The story is of a girl going to bed, while a team of rabbits work to tidy up the world and put everything in its place while she sleeps. 

The bunnies are nice and fuzzy and can be seen waiting while she ends her day. She even has a stuffed bunny she hugs. She also has a grey and white cat that stays near her, observing everything.

The bunnies go to work once she is in bed, polishing the sun, combing the grass, dusting the butterflies, clouds mended, flowers painted, rainbows charged, the Milky Way embroidered, and the stars swept into their places. 

This is a book that flows as each step of the bedtime routine aligns with the tidying of the world and sky. It lends itself to being read slowly, looking at the detail of the illustrations, and softly as the reader and child wind down their day along with the child in the story.

An absolutely lovely book, with beautiful language and images that echo those words. 

Easter Morning, Easter Sun

Finished March 25

Easter Morning, Easter Sun by Rosanna Battigelli and Tara Anderson

This picture book has a cat family celebrating Easter from first thing in the morning until last thing in the evening. The figures are drawn engaging in human activity from wearing special clothes to Easter egg hunting. Besides the cats, we also see mice and birds, bees and the Easter Bunny.

They are finely drawn with lots of detail and come alive on the page. There are many details in the backgrounds as well from the stone path seen on the cover to trees and flowers.

The words are simple with four words to a page and each 2-page spread offering rhyming words. 

The morning starts with Easter buns, hot crosses on top and straight from the oven. It continues with Easter bonnets and an egg hunt, and a picnic with activities. It ends with an Easter dinner with the Easter bunny. 

A perfect book for the coming holiday.

Let's Add Up!

Finished November 27

Let's Add Up! by Victoria Allenby, illustrated by Maggie Zeng

I always like finding good number books for children, so this is a winner. A careful look at the cover gives a clue to the theme of the book, the number 10. The book goes over various combinations of numbers that add up to 10, and also uses the same combination to introduce the idea of sorting. For example the first combination of 5 drums and 5 tambourines equals 10, but it also shows the concept of these two different things also being sorted as musical instruments, and then follows that with the introduction of them being put to use, resulting in a band. The pictures bring even more depth to this, with each drum being different from the others and each tambourine unlike the others. 

The book gives so much to explore with this in terms of sorting and adding that it can support a lot of discussion. 

I also really like the diversity of the children depicted here, showing different races and abilities among them. The drawings have movement and interest, and looking closely offer more things to talk about. At the end of the book, suggestions are given for more activities that involve classification, adding, observing, counting, and being creative. A great choice for any young reader.

Bear Has a Belly

Finished November 23

Bear Has a Belly by Jane Whittingham

This delightful photography picture book introduces body parts to young children, having them look at animals' bodies and compare them to their own bodies. They can see how the parts can be the same and yet different. The first example has a rabbit with long, floppy ears and the child can see that they have ears as well, but theirs are not long or floppy. This book would be a good one to read interactively, touching and pointing to body parts and noticing differences. Kids can come up with other descriptions for body parts for different types of bodies and explore the world around them by noticing these things. 

The animal photos are appealing and illustrate the noted body part well, and the pictures of the children show diversity. 

The book also includes suggestions to augment the reading experience, including making it interactive, finding ways to integrate movement, and to encourage observation and learning beyond the reading experience. 

A great choice for young readers. 

Dinos Driving

Finished November 20

Dinos Driving by Lynn Leitch, illustrations by Scot Ritchie

Dinosaurs are a common interest of children and this book provides information on different types of dinosaurs in a humorous and interesting way. Readers are asked to imagine what kind of cars different dinosaurs might drive based on their known attributes. From physical characteristics to diet to behaviours, these attributes are used as reasoning for the choices here. 

The illustrations bring both the dinosaurs and the attributes to life, showing an adult velociraptor driving their family around in their Mini, a group of motorcycle riding Triceratops, and a bus driver Diplodocus among others. The book pairs up the dinosaurs with vehicles in the main narrative, with information given about the dinosaurs at the end.

As usual with this publisher, at the end of the book additional activities are suggested. These include having a conversation with the child about the pairings and why they might be matched the way they are, coming up with matches for other dinosaurs or other animals, doing their own illustrations based on those ideas, and coming up with poses or actions to match with the different dinosaurs that can then be acted out. 

A fun and silly book that definitely has child appeal. 

A Sky-Blue Bench

Finished November 15

A Sky-Blue Bench by Bahram Rahman, illustrated by Peggy Collins

This story of a young girl, Aria, doesn't give the background of her injury, although it is at the center of the plot. Aria has a "helper leg" after an accident. She is just now returning to school and finds it difficult to sit on the ground for class. 

After consideration of her options, she decides to build a bench for herself for class. The story shows the gathering of materials, the request for advice from someone with the necessary skills, and the construction of the bench including painting it a sky-blue colour with the gift of paint given to Aria. This blue is a colour of courage, peace, and wisdom according to her donor. 

Aria's project inspires the girls in her class to dream of more projects, from more benches to bookcases. 

This story is based on real children in Afghanistan, where wooden furniture was often used by refugees to burn to keep warm, resulting in a lack of furniture following their stay in facilities like schools.

The pictures really enliven the story, with the characters' emotions coming out through their facial expressions. A lovely read about a subject not often covered. 

Birds on Wishbone Street

Finished October 6

Birds on Wishbone Street by Suzanne Del Rizzo

This picture book is another lovely creation of Suzanne Del Rizzo. Her books are illustrated with her mixed media creations including a lot of polymer clay elements. This 3D effect really makes the pictures special and lively.

Here we have Moe (Maureen) who father immigrated to North America from Ireland. She is friends with many of the more recent immigrants on her street, who have come from a variety of places around the world. The most recent addition is Sami and his family who have come from Syria. Meo delivers a gift to Sami with winter mitts, hot cocoa and a feather. This is especially apt as Sami is a bird lover. He has a treasured pair of binoculars to watch to the birds and his box of treasures contains other bird-related items. When a female cardinal is found downed after a snowstorm, the children work with a local vet to ensure that she doesn't have injuries they can't see, and Moe learns that Sami had pigeons back home and can look after the cardinal until she is well enough to go back to her mate. 

This is a story of friendship, caring, and community told through one experience. A lovely story that will find a treasured place in many homes. 

Animals Move

Finished October 1

Animals Move by Jane Whittingham

This picture book for toddlers introduces new concepts around animals and movement. Inside the front and back covers of the book are pictures of adult and baby animals with the names for both. Within the pages of the book, there are pictures of the baby animals engaged in a variety of movements alongside pictures of children engaged in the same movement. 

The text is simple and easy to understand, and the pictures provide lots to look at. There are a wide variety of animals included here, and a wide variety of kids as well. I loved the inclusion of so many different children, including children we don't often see included.

The details of the animals are easy to look at and explore.

At the end of the book are a series of activities to provide further exploration for the reader. These include taking pictures of the child doing movements inspired by animals and using them to create a book of their own, coming up with tunes and dances for the different movements, charades, creating memory cards, and engaging in different movements during everyday activities.

A fun book that encourages children to get active, use their imaginations, and observe the world around them. 

This is the Boat that Ben Built

Finished September 25

This is the Boat that Ben Built by Jen Lynn Bailey, illustrated by Maggie Zeng

I loved the illustrations for this picture book, the colour nuances and the way the drawings suggested more beyond what was drawn. There are so many things to draw the eye and make one wonder. One prominent example is the girl and dog watching Ben throughout the book. They aren't in the boat with him, but seem glad to see what he's doing and at the end join him. 

The subtler ones include the butterfly jar on the boat. Sometimes it has a butterfly, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the jar isn't even there. 

There are so many things to look for and notice.

The words are also lovely and so well chosen. A cumulative tale like the classic "The House That Jack Built" rhyme, with the building up of additional elements and yet different too as the actions of the elements change at the high point of the story, creating a disturbance through a domino effect. 

The grey-green colours of the scenes in the book, landscape and water, provide a neutral, natural background that is soothing

The book also includes information after the story, here on the river ecosystem and the concept of ecosystems in general. It also gives information on the animals in the story, introducing concepts such predator and omnivore. The reader is also encouraged to think of ways to add to the story through the use of additional animals in the river ecosystem. 

I like how books like this encourage readers to explore the ideas presented more deeply, while still providing entertainment. 

Jen Lynn Bailey's background in and passion for environmental science and education lend itself to excellence in conveying the concepts here.

When Elephants Listen with their Feet

Finished September 15

When Elephants Listen with their Feet: Discover Extraordinary Animal Senses by Emmanuelle Grundmann, illustrated by Clemence Dupont, translated by Erin Woods

This advanced picture book goes through each of the senses, giving an overview of the sense for humans, and then looking at how they are different in various other creatures. In addition to the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, other ways of learning about the world around us are included. These are vibrations, and the sensing of the earth's magnetic field or the electrical impulses of other creatures. There is also a section for special qualities that some animals have, like a lizard that can walk on water, or the suction cup-like toes of geckos. 

There are additional text boxes with facts related to that sense. For instance, sight includes facts on light, a physical description of the eye and how it works, the largest eye found on an animal, and how some animals see better in the dark.

Each sense has several pages of information, with many illustrations to help convey specific animal examples. 

One of my favourite tidbits of information was that the blue-tongued skink's tongue reflects ultraviolet light, helping it defend itself from predators. 

The book has an index near the back, containing a list of all the animals discussed and the pages they are mentioned on. There is a second index on the topics covered in the book. 

I learned a lot from reading this book myself, and it is a perfect choice for any child curious about animals. 

Windy Days

Finished September 5

Windy Days by Deborah Kerbel and Miki Sato

This charming picture book conveys the feeling of a windy day in all its variations. From the gentle wind that ruffles your hair to the blustery wind that chills, the images and words bring them all to life. I always love the collage images that Sato uses in these picture books and how they reflect the words from Kerbel, but also add more, allowing readers to take their time and explore the pictures, finding new things to discuss. The children portrayed here enjoy the feel of the wind, and how it behaves on other things around them, from plants to pinwheels and kites. 

At the end of the book, they include more information giving suggestions for science experiments that are both fun to do and a great learning experience. The also give information on types of clouds that are shown in the book and encourage the reader to find examples of each one.

Like the rest of this series, the covers are padded with rounded corners and the pages thick and easy to grasp. 

A joy to read, and one that will be revisited often by young readers. 

Hello, Dark

Finished October 8

Hello, Dark by Wai Mei Wong, illustrated by Tamara Campeau

This picture book was inspired by the author's experiences as an early childhood educator with children with nighttime anxiety. The main character here is a little boy who has been afraid of the dark. He takes control of the situation by talking to the dark, and asking it to be friends with him. He first expresses his worries about the dark and how it makes him feel. He then talks about some of the good things about the dark, how it protects those creatures that are active at night and allows us to see the moon and stars more clearly. This is when he makes his offer of friendship, describing how they can talk to each other, play imaginary games together, listen to music and count sheep. 

The illustrations show the dark as a shape, but not as a monster, more as a shadow, and I loved the details of the boy's room and the outdoor world. His interest in vehicles is clear. 

This is a book that directly addresses the fears that some young children have about the dark and allays them. I liked that the boy took control, a good message for kids about how they interact with things in their world, as a active participant. 

I think this will be a useful book for many families. 

The Cow Said Boo!

Finished September 30

The Cow Said Boo! by Lana Button, illustrated by Alice Carter

This delightful tale is perfect for coming up to Hallowe'en. The book begins with the cow hanging out her laundry while dealing with a head cold. Instead of saying "Moo!", it sounds like she is saying "Boo!", so when she stumbles into the clothesline and gets a sheet caught around her, she ends up scaring all her other farm animal friends by looking and sounding like a very large and scary ghost.

As often happens when people are scared and then find out that the thing that scared them wasn't really scary, after their fear ends, at first they get a little angry.

But that night, a fox creeps onto the farm up to no good, and the cow is able to scare the fox as well, saving all her friends from this dangerous intruder. Her friends realize that not only had she saved them, she was ill, and so they rally together and look after her until she is well and can say "Moo!" again. However, as often happens when you spend time closely with someone who is sick without protection, the other animals have now caught her cold, and so the noises they normally make come out sounding odd as well. 

The back inside cover offers instructions on how to wash your hands (or hooves and paws!) properly to keep from getting or passing along a cold through touch.

The illustrations really bring the story to life and show the personalities of the animals. 

A fun and lighthearted read about a group of friends.