The Box Turtle -- Perfect Picture Book Friday

Title: The Box Turtle
Author and Illustrator: Vanessa Roeder
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2020.

Themes: Self-esteem, creativity/imagination, determination

Little Terrance the box turtle is born without a shell. His parents gave him a a shell that fit just right. Terrance was happy until one day some other turtles told him his shell was weird. Off he went to find something better. Terrance tries many shells, but each has something not quite right. Tag along with Terrance and his hermit crab friend to see what he discovers.

What I like about this book:

The artwork! Illustrations are created with Prismacolors, acrylics, and a box full of digital tricks. You can see from the cover that the colors are bright and cheerful. There is a lot going in in some of the illustrations, but you always know where to look to find Terrance and discover the problem.

Humor: Many of the box choices are so silly, kids will be laughing and pointing out why the idea was so bad.

Sweetness/Cuteness factor: This is just adorable, but not saccharine sweet, sunny and endearing sweet which make it appealing to so many kids.

Search and Find: Throughout the illustrations, there are little threads you can follow from characters appearing before their scene, to color palettes, and the raccoon.


Activities and resources:

Before you turn and look at the back end pages, see if you can think of other things that Terrance could use as a shell? Did you come up with some that Vanessa didn't illustrate? Did you come up with the ones that she did?

Check out the Teacher's Guide. It is STEAM Powered! and created by Marcie Colleen

If you haven't already read Lucy and the String, be sure to get your hands on that one too.

Learn more about Vanessa and her books on her website. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram too.

Be sure to check out Susanna Hill's Perfect Picture Book Friday Posts. Not only will you find out what she likes, but there's a list of books recommended by authors and illustrators too.

Perfect Picture Book Friday -- Grumpy Monkey

It is Perfect Picture Book Friday time. No matter what mood you are in, I hope have enjoy this book.  

Title: Grumpy Monkey
Author:  Suzanne Lang
Illustrated by: Max Lang
Publisher: Random House, 2018


First Lines: One wonderful day Jim Panzee woke to discover that nothing was right. The sun was too bright, the sky was too blue, and the bananas were too sweet.

Themes: Emotions, Grumpiness, self-awareness, self-expression

Synopsis and Why I love this book:

Sometimes you wake up and you are grumpy. No secret reason. Just grumpy. Jim Panzee wakes up grumpy one morning and everyone tries to help him enjoy the wonderful day. It doesn't help. Read Grumpy Monkey to find out how Jim deals with his grumpy mood.

The illustrations and characters make me think of Rudyard Kiplings The Elephant's Child. Which would pair well with this book if you were going on a theme of African animals, problem solving, and fun stories.

It also reminds me of the animated movie The Jungle Book (Again by Rudyard Kipling).

Fun emotive characters that any child can relate to.

Did you catch the name? Jim Panzee! How clever is that?

Activities:

The more we talk about and understand emotions and their transience, the better off we are in dealing with them when they occur. Have conversations about emotions. Discuss where the emotions are coming from. How does it feel? What does the child's face look like in the midst of the emotions? Provide acceptance for all of the emotions. The happy ones too..

Parenting tips of dealing with negative emotions.

Transient emotions and how to navigate through them.

Expressing Emotions Activities


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.