Perfect Picture Book Friday -- Dear, Agnes

Seventy-one percent of the earth's surface is made up of water. So for the last week of Earth Month, I take you to the ocean.

Title: Love, Agnes: Postcards from an Octopus

Author: Irene Latham
Illustrated by: Thea Baker

Publisher: Millbrook Press, 2018

Themes: Octopuses, STEAM, letter writing, problem solving, Earth Month

Opening lines: One day in the deep dark beneath the pier, an octopus found a large jar. She knew it would make the perfect home. But something was blocking her way.

Book Synopsis: When Agnes searches a new home, she discovers a postcard which she believes is calling her a monster, so she writes back to the author to set octopus facts straight. Thus begins the story of the giant Pacific octopus life cycle along with some ideas on how to handle uncomfortable situations.

The Kirkus Review

Why I love this book:

I love epistolary stories. I loved the Jolly Postman books by Janet and Allan Ahlberg and the adult series Griffin & Sabine by Nick Bantock. Love, Agnes the one problem that the other books always caused in a library; no envelopes of flaps to get torn. But it has the same feeling of being a part of the story as you read the postcards.

Octopuses are so cool! Agnes is an older octopus and it's a story about the end of her life. This is a part of the life cycle that we often gloss over, but it is ever present. Like the Monarch butterfly who lives to lay eggs and create new life before dying, so too does the giant Pacific octopus. 

Mixed into this life of the octopus story is another story about dealing with things that bother us. Andrew's mother tells him that rather than get angry and act out, he should write it down. Little did he know that answers to his problems would come from an octopus.

Illustrations: They are beautiful. So many colors, patterns, and depth.

To learn more about the author

Get to know the illustrator

Epistolary defitintion

Octopus Crafts

Octopus Science

An artist I know, Betsy Mitten, combines art and science in her after school programs. One of the projects the kids do it is make Gyotaku prints with fish and octopus. It's fascinating and allows a child to see the details of the octopus and make art.

Gyotaku the art of printing with fish.

Can you find the octopus?

Finally, if you want to find more cool picture books check out Susanna Hill's Blog where you can look for reviews by book, title, and by themes.

Perfect Picture Book Friday -- Lost Words

April is Earth Month and National Poetry Month. Two things that go together as well as peanut butter and chocolate, tacos on Tuesday, rain and rainbows, worms and soil, flowers and sunshine . . . you get my drift. 

Today's Perfect Picture Book doesn't fit squarely in the picture book category of books. It's 128 pages and the acrostic poems require time and thought to allow their words and meaning to sink in and take hold of your heart and mind.  Yet, it is filled with beautiful illustrations and is a non-fiction poetry picture book.

For me, it conjures up the Wild Flowers of America book that sat on our book shelf as I was growing up (see image at the end of this post). I would browse the pages on rainy days, make drawings of the flowers with my crayons and paper, and even occasionally use it as the reference tool it was designed to be. So while neither are traditional picture books, they are books that take you into nature and without being pushed or prodded, your own imagination is sparked.

Title: Lost Words: A Spell Book

Author: Robert MacFarlane
Illustrator: Jackie Morris

Publishing Information:  2017 in the UK by Penguin Books Ltd. and 2018 in Canada and US by House of Anasasi Press Inc.

Ages: 0 - 100

Description from Amazon: In 2007, when a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary ― widely used in schools around the world ― was published, a sharp-eyed reader soon noticed that around forty common words concerning nature had been dropped. Apparently they were no longer being used enough by children to merit their place in the dictionary. The list of these “lost words” included acorn, adder, bluebell, dandelion, fern, heron, kingfisher, newt, otter, and willow. Among the words taking their place were attachment, blog, broadband, bullet-point, cut-and-paste, and voice-mail. The news of these substitutions ― the outdoor and natural being displaced by the indoor and virtual ― became seen by many as a powerful sign of the growing gulf between childhood and the natural world.
Ten years later, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris set out to make a “spell book” that will conjure back twenty of these lost words, and the beings they name, from acorn to wren. By the magic of word and paint, they sought to summon these words again into the voices, stories, and dreams of children and adults alike, and to celebrate the wonder and importance of everyday nature. The Lost Words is that book ― a work that has already cast its extraordinary spell on hundreds of thousands of people and begun a grass-roots movement to re-wild childhood across Britain, Europe, and North America.

Opening Lines: Once upon a time, words began to vanish from the language of children. They disappeared so quietly at first almost no one noticed -- fading away like water on the stone.

Why I love this book: I first read about this book in a post from the Children in Nature Network. Sadly, that post slipped my mind until a friend shared an article about the book with me a couple months ago. I immediately ordered it. Each time I open the pages, I turn them with awe and reverence. The title on the cover is gold embossed and the cover illustrations are a small sample of the beauty that is held within the pages.

Each lost word is given three double page spreads. The opening spread for the word is a letter jumble with the letters of the word in a unique color. The second spread includes an acrostic poem on the left and a watercolor illustration of the word on the right. The final spread is a scene depicting the word in its surrounding world.

A book worthy of book cases everywhere. Each word can become an adventure to the outdoors.

The poems are deep and full of mystery and love.

It is a book you can look at and read over and over again.

Activities and Resources:

Activities and and Explorer's Guide from the John Muir Trust

Writing Acrostic Poems

More about Acrostic Poems and using the word at the beginning, middle and end of each line.

Make a flower chain crown

Nature Journaling for Kids

Wet on wet Watercolor Painting

Bird Identification

The book from our family book shelf.

My Acrostic poem from this mornings visit of nine turkeys:

Tom turkey struts his stuff
Under the bird feeders.
Rugged feathers raised, puffed, and shimmering in the morning light.
Kingly posture ignored by the ladies.
Every turkey more interested in breakfast,
Yet Tom persists hopefully.

Finally, if you want to find more cool picture books check out Susanna Hill's Blog where you can look for reviews by book, title, and by themes.

Spring Fling Writing Contest -- April Snow! Oh, No!

I love writing stories for these writing contests. They are a great way to practice writing to make every word important. They help focus the mind and the story and allow a person to play with ideas and strengthen imagination.

Spring Snow

https://media.giphy.com/media/Xik4r2GSVoVva/giphy.gif

April Snow. Oh, No!

(150 words)

The weatherman said, “Snow.” Sophie moaned, “It can’t be so.

Today has been warm and sunny. To tease about snow, is not funny!

Tomorrow, I’ll take a stand.” Sophie would wear shorts and T as planned.

The day dawned bright just as Sophie hoped. Her mother begged, “Please take your coat!”

School went as usual, language arts, math, then gym.

Outside the winds blew and snow clouds moved in.

Snow fluttered and fell, then the recess bell.

With gusto, Sophie went to play. She’ll never admit to shivering that day.

After recess and lunch, lessons to learn. Science and reading, everyone taking a turn.

Students packed up, their boots strewn on the floor.

Ding!

Sophie stood tall as she marched out the door.

She smiled in awe. The snow had all thawed.

“I never believed what that weatherman said.”

Once home, 

she slipped on warm jammies and crawled into bed.

Thank you to Kaitlyn and Ciara for creating this one. To read more spring giphy stories, click here.

So proud to be winner in this contest.  Thank you Melissa Stoller for copies of your wonderful books. A lovely reward! 

Perfect Picture Book Friday: Flowers Talk

You probably know that milkweed is very important to monarch butterflies because that's where they lay their eggs and then the caterpillars eat the leaves to grow big and strong so they can become butterflies. When it comes to quenching a butterflies thirst, they enjoy the nectar of many different types of flowers.

Flower Talk: How Plants Use Color to Communicate

Author: Sara Levine (www.saralevinebooks.com)
Illustrated by: Masha D'Yans (www.masha.com)

Published by: Millbrook Press, 2019

Themes: STEM,  Flowers, Nature, pollination

Ages: 6 - 11

Synopsis: A grouchy cantankerous cactus (prickly pear variety) tells the audience about how flowers use their colors, shapes, and scents to attract insects, birds, and and even mammals to help them make their seeds.

First Lines: "Hey, you! Pssst! Down Here! That's right -- I'm a plant, and I'm talking to you! But don't get too used to it. We don't make a habit of talking to humans."

Why I love this book: Pollinators are all the rage these days. We do need to save the bees and butterflies so it's a good thing we are talking about it! This books looks at the ecosystem and food web from the point of view of the flower and the symbiotic relationship between flowers and pollinators. It helps us understand the role that flowers and plants play in in the food web. This non-fiction story that will make you look at flowers in a new way.

Masha's watercolor illustrations are bright and exciting. The cactus narrator's prickly personality comes through on each page.

Excellent backmatter about flower pollination.

And really, talking to plants is fun. We should do it more often. You never know what you will discover.

A Q&A with Sara Levine

The blog post where I learned about this book.

Activities:

Create your own flower or nature scavenger hunt. Use the same one each season and see what things are the same and what things are different.

Take a hike in your local parks or forest preserves.

Start a Nature Journal

Play with watercolors. I found this little Nature Sketchbook that is easy to take with me and works well with all types of art mediums. Great for making art on the go or as a nature journal. I love this little watercolor set because it's easy to take with you and has lots of colors. A watercolor brush that holds water makes painting on the go super easy.

Make your own pollinator garden or participate in a local community garden.
A pollinator garden can be as small as a pot of native plants on your balcony or front porch. Make sure that you choose flowers that are native to where you live. Those flowers will provide the best food sources for native insects and birds.

And . . . If you want to find more cool picture books check out Susanna Hill's Blog where you can look for reviews by book, title, and by themes.

Perfect Picture Book Friday -- Rube Goldberg

It has felt like a crazy route to finally getting this post completed. I had planned to post it last Friday, but we got a new dog from a shelter who is just beginning to adjust to life in a real home.

Ginger our new family member

Last Friday, I went into my office to finish this post, but got distracted by some emails. Then a call from my husband suggesting we take the dog to the dog park so she could run free for a while provided another distraction. I figured I would come back and finish after our trip to the park. Instead, at the dog park I was running with Ginger and took a slow-motion flight through the air landing with my arm smashing into my rib cage. (The good news is that I did not fall into the dog poop that had been left by other dog owners and I did not fall on my dog.) Breath knocked from me, searing pain, and great embarrassment. I tried to shake it off just like my other past clumsy experiences. A couple hours later, the pain was getting worse so we spent a couple more hours in the ER to find that I had managed to crack a rib in my spectacular fall.  Suffice it to say that between the pain medication and the day turning to night, my blog post was abandoned but not forgotten.

So without further ado, I present to you:

Just Like Rube Goldberg: The Incredible True Story of the Man Behind the Machine

Written by: Sarah Aronson

Illustrated by: Robert Neubecker

Published by: Beach Lane Books an imprint of Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing Division

Ages: 6 - 11 

Themes: STEAM, simple machines, cartooning, biography, persistence

Synopsis: From Amazon: Discover how Rube Goldberg followed his dreams to become an award-winning cartoonist, inventor, and even an adjective in the dictionary in this inspiring and funny biographical picture book. 

First Line:"Question: How do you become a successful award-winning artist and famous inventor without ever inventing anything at all? (This is not a trick question.)"

Why I love this book:

Beginning with the cover of the book, you see Rube Goldberg machine designs in action. Even if you have never heard the phrase, Rube Goldberg Machine, you have most likely seen a drawing of one or even created one of your own. But, this book is not really about the machine, it is about the man. 

His name is Rube Goldberg. He loved drawing and cartooning from a young age. When his parents discouraged him from becoming an artist and cartoonist, he persisted. Sarah Aronson takes you on a journey with Goldberg and makes you a part of the story.

The illustrations are filled with wonderful details and lots of humor. The style is bright with details yet hearkens to the half-tone dot printing of newspapers.

This book has three hooks: It's a biography of a cool person, it's about following your dreams, and it's a story that encourages artistic endeavors. 

I am also excited to share this book because I get to highlight an Illinois author. Check out her website.

Activities to go with this book:

A Simple Starting Point to Creating a Rube Goldberg Machine

Design and Build a Rube Goldberg Machine

Another post of building a Rube Goldberg Machine

How to Draw Funny Cartoons

Tips for writing comics

More on writing comics

If you want to find more cool picture books check out Susanna Hill's Blog where you can look for reviews by book title and by themes.