Counting Birds -- Perfect Picture Book Friday

Title: Counting Birds: The Idea that Helped Save Our Feathered Friends
Author: Heidi E.Y. Stemple
Illustrator: Clover Robin
Publisher: Quatro Publishing Group USA, 2018

Opening Lines: Frank Chapman loved birds. He worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City creating exhibits about birds.

Themes: Citizen Science, Biography, Ornithology, Birds, Nature, STEAM, Earth Day

Why I Love this Book and Think You Will Too:

I love birds. When I was young, we had a neighbor who put sunflower seeds on the banister of her deck that sat in the middle of the woods. When we would visit, she was always sure to let up put seed out. Then she would call "chick- a dee-dee- dee, Chick-a dee-dee, dee" From the trees we would hear the little black, white and grey birds call back. "dee-dee-dee" That was how I learned about my first bird. They are still one of my favorite birds.

This book may be the first step in helping you love birds too. If you already love birds, you will enjoy this book for the information and beauty.

The author, Heidi Stemple is the child in the much loved and beautiful book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. She went out on the Christmas Bird Count owling with her father as a child. She continues the tradition with the Owl Moon Gang.

Counting Birds is part call to action, part biography, and part nature exploration.  It shows how taking a small step can lead to big things that protect and preserve our natural world.

The cut paper illustrations are beautiful and deserve special attention.

Right now you can watch and listen as Heidi reads the book.

Activities and Resources:

Be sure to check out all of Heidi's videos related to this book. She will show you how to call down the Owls.

http://heidieystemple.com/books.html

Learn more about Clover's Cut Paper artwork

Check out Clover's Website

Need a laugh? Did you know T-Rex has a connection with birds?
T-Rex visits the Birds at the Field Museum

Make a drawing of a bird. It's one of Heidi's suggested activities.
I made this one in Procreate on my iPad. It started with a random squiggle. I guess I had birds on my mind.

Give Me Back My Bones -- Perfect Picture Book Fridays!

Title: Give Me Back My Bones!
Author: Kim Norman
Illustrator: Bob Kolar
Publisher: Candlewick Press, 2019

Themes: Bone Structure, Pirates, Poetry, Halloween, Skeletons

First Lines:
A stormy Night has passed here
and toppled every mast here.
The ocean, flowing fast here,
has scattered all my bones!

Why I love this book:

• A fun way to teach a child the names of the bones in our bodies.
• A Pirate story!
• Poetry
• Kim uses Anadiplosis (not a dinosaur) but the repetition of the last word in each of the lines of poetry. 
• In the first three lines of each page/poem, her meter matches and ends of the lines use the same word. Then as she is showing us which bone the skeleton is seeking, the meter and last word change. The first three lines skip along at a fast fun beat. The fourth line is shorter yet takes longer to say making the name of the bone sticky and memorable.
• Beautiful under water illustrations.
• I am always curious to figure out how illustrations are made. It was a challenge for this book. I was pretty sure it was digital art, but that was a guess and I wanted to be sure. I found a sentence on a Pinterest post that says his work is created with Adobe Illustrator. Bob Kolar has a way of making the images cartoony yet realistic. 

I guess what I mean by that is there is a playfulness to the illustrations and yet, you can tell there was research and an understanding of the subject. The fish are recognizable as real fish you could see in the ocean. The bones are simplified, yet you know what they are.

I love the way he uses texture to create depth and dimensionality.

The color scheme with the dark background and bright foreground is engaging.

Activities and Resources:

Don't wait until Talk Like A Pirate Day to share this book. It would be fun now around Halloween. If you are talking about the human body and want to teach the names of the skeletal bones, share the book. Share it in a poetry unit to teach the meter and anadiplosis style of poetry.

Make a skeleton:
This one is 3 dimensional
This one is more Halloweenie
One more with lots to cut out.

Pick up a guide to ocean fish and see if you can identify the fish and other creatures in the illustrations.

Check Out Bob Kolar's Website. You can follow him on Instagram too.
Check out Kim's Website. You can follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Be sure to check out more #PPBF posts at Susanna Hill's Blog. So many wonderful books. So little time.

Planting Stories: Perfect Picture Book Friday

It's National Hispanic Heritage Month! What a wonderful opportunity to highlight Pura Belpre!

Title: Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre
Author: Anika Aldamuy Denise
Illustrator: Paola Escobar
Publisher: Harper. 2019

Themes: Librarians, Biography, stories, Diversity, Puerto Rico

First Lines: It is 1921. Pura Teresa Belpre leaves her home in San Juan for a visit to Nueva York. Words travel with her: stories her abuela taught her. Cuentos folkloricos Pura retold in the shade of a tamarind tree., in Puerto Rico.

Why I love this book: 
It's about a librarian! Even better a librarian from Puerto Rico. She loved children, told stories and wrote stories which were published.

As I read her story, I think about storytimes in the library and the sense of simple pleasure they provided. "In the children's room, she lights the story hour candle . . . and begins:
To me there is still nothing as lovely as sharing stories with a group of children.

Pura crafted her own puppets to bring her stories to life. Folktales were shared en ingles y espanol. taking us back in time to a special place that lives on to this day.

There is a joyful gentleness in the illustrations. Many colors, but they are all a little bit muted, soft and feel like we are being taken back in time to the world of Pura Belpre.

Activities and Resources:
Learn more about the Pura Belpre medal
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal

Learn more about National Hispanic Heritage Month
https://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov/about/

Visit your public library. Get a library card. Attend a storytime or other program. Check out some folktales from around the world.

Make a puppet. I love sock puppets. Here's a how to link.

Write a story and act it out with your new puppet.

Be sure to check out Susanna Hill's Blog where you can look for reviews by book, title, and by themes. And you can check out her weekly #PPBF post along with links to many more wonderful posts here.

I would love to hear your thoughts about the books I share. Have you read them? Were they available at your library? Did you ask the library to purchase them? How did you use them in your classroom or library? Feel free to share the posts with family and friends. Reading is wonderful and sharing about books you love, helps authors, illustrators and publishers.

My apologies for missing accents on words. I have looked up how to get them to work on my laptop, but my laptop doesn't want to play the way other laptops do. I will get it figured out and will edit this post once I do. If only it were as easy as it is on my phone and tablet. (That might be the solution, but I would like one that allows me to do all the work in one place.)