When Aidan Became a Brother -- Perfect Picture Book Friday

Title: When Aidan Becomes a Brother
Author: Kyle Lukoff
Illustrator: Kaylani Juanita
Publisher: Lee & Low Books, 2019

This is another book that I learned about from Matthew Winner while I was out at Highlights Foundation Summer Camp. I love that Matthew strives to share books for underrepresented groups. You can listen to the podcast here.

Opening Lines: When Aidan was born, everyone thought he was a girl. His parents gave him a pretty name. His room looked like a girl's room.

Why I love this book:

Aidan's story is not just about his getting a new sibling, but about how everyone thought Aidan was a girl when he was born, but he felt and knew that he was a boy. His parents came to terms with this realization and accepted him for who he is. When Aidan finds out he is going to become a brother, he wants to make sure that the new baby is welcome and given the opportunity to figure out who they will be.

I believe that all children should feel comfortable in their own skin. OK, I believe everyone should feel comfortable in their own skin and that works best when it starts early. This book is all about a family feeling comfortable in their skin. Life is not perfect, but when we recognize our mistakes and take steps to fix them, we make the world a better place; a more comfortable place for everyone to live happy full lives.

I like that this story is specifically about a child recognizing his gender doesn't match his body. There are many books about boys who want to wear dresses and they are wonderful for all children to see that it's OK to dress in girls clothes if you are a boy and boys clothes if you are a girl. Those books tell a child it's OK to be who you are and to discover yourself through dress-up and play. This book is about knowing who you are and being accepted for being that person.

I admit that I never wondered who I was in terms of gender. I'm a girl with a bunch of what would have been considered tomboy tendencies. (I like science and nature. I loved climbing trees and learning how to use the chain saw and help with cutting down dead trees to use as fire wood.) But I am a girl/woman.  I also know that in my life, there were times when others said things that made me feel less than whole. I was teased for my red hair. I didn't find out I was adopted until I was 13 years old and even after that it was a family secret. So while I always felt like my gender matched my physical body, I often struggled to feel accepted in the world.

If you know someone who feels unaccepted for who they are, hug them, and let them know that they are perfect, loved, and they belong. Share this book with them.

Activities and Resources: 

A book list:
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2019/06/27/childrens-picture-books-trans-gender

To understand Transgender identity:

https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/transgender

https://transequality.org/issues/resources/questionable-questions-about-transgender-identity

With kids:
Have a conversation about the things that make the child not feel like they fit in. Talk about what would make the child feel accepted.

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.

Zombies Don't Eat Veggies! -- Perfect Picture Book Friday

Title: Zombies Don't Eat Veggies!
Created by: Megan Lacera and Jorge Lacera
Publisher: Children's Book Press an imprint of Lee & Low Books Inc, 2019

First lines: Mo was a zombie with a deep, dark craving. It was dreadful. Devious. Absolutely  despicable. Mo loved to eat vegetables.

The love and joy of having his vegetables is so sweet.

Why I love this book:
1. The end pages. The front end pages are framed images of Dad being a very successful zombie. The back pages show Mo being Mo.
2. Recipes. Combining delicious vegetable dishes with creepy zombies terms. Zombie finger foods. Ha Ha H.
3. The zombie food is disgusting and sure to incite groans and gags from any audience. Dori-toes (For dipping), Arm-panadas.

Once again pure joy for their favorite foods.

4. Such a cute/gross lovable family, each family member with different skin tones.
5. Turning the tables on eating vegetables. The kid has to convince the parents that they are good.
6. They have mixed in some Spanish words here and there to give it a little extra cultural flavor.
7. Wonderful illustrations.  Look at the color combinations, the grossness, the humor.

And finally, It's a story about being accepted for your differences.

Activities and Resources:

Practice your Spanish.

Make one or more of the recipes at the end of the book.

Learn more about the author illustrator team and listen to their podcast interview with Matthew Winner.

Have conversations about the things you like and don't like. Find ways to make each other feel more comfortable about your differences.

Draw your own Zombie Head. How would you make your zombie portrait?

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.

Crab Cake -- Perfect Picture Book Friday

Title: Crab Cake: Turning the Tide Together
Author/Illustrator: Andrea Tsurumi
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019

First lines: Under the sea, where sunlight touches sand, lies a place that's home to many incredible creatures. Clownfish hides in the stinging anemone (ah-neh-mo-nee). Manta Ray gets cleaned. . .  And Crab bakes cakes.

Why I love this book: 

One: It is beautiful. Andrea's illustrations are full of color, detail and emotion. You could sit and look at each page for hours.

Two: It's about the creatures in the ocean. I love the ocean.

This is true. To add to it, if you are snorkeling in shallow coral areas, you can actually hear the Parrotfish crunching on the coral. And, if you think about it, when you put you feet on the sandy bottom, you are standing on Parrotfish poop (the sand).

Three: The play on words. Crab Cakes, get it? Popular people food and in this story, Crab bakes cake.

Four: It's an important story about saving our ocean.

Five: Fear can freeze us in our tracks, but if one person or crab shakes things up just a little bit, great things can happen.

And Six: Cake!

It's delicious, beautiful, poignant, and important!

Activities and Resources:

Learn more about the ocean life shown in the book. Who knows, you may discover some fun and strange facts along the way. Check out books from your school or public library.

Visit an Aquarium:  In Chicago, the Shedd Aquarium offers free days to Illinois Residents and is a Museums for All partner. Check out the Aquarium closest to you and spend the day under the sea.

Take Action! Even if you don't live near an ocean, there are loads of things you can do to help protect your family, the planet, and future generations.

• When you go to the beach, a park, or forest, take a bag and pick up garbage you find.
• Be sure to recycle.
• Rethink what you use, can you do without it? Can you use it again? Can you . . . .
• As the story of the Starfish goes, you alone may not be able to do a whole lot, but by tossing that starfish back into the sea, you have made a difference to that one starfish.
• Learn about the EU's ban on single use plastics.
• Did you know that Maine is the first state in the US to ban Styrofoam? 
• Start a program in your neighborhood/school and see how you can make it grow. Maybe the program is to teach people about the ocean, or the life cycle of butterflies, or how to grow a garden, or collecting plastic bottle caps to have made into benches. The sky's the limit.
• Write letters to your government officials, let them know you want change and you are willing to help make it happen.

Learn about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

https://lgbpodcast.libsyn.com/

Be sure to listen to Matthew C. Winner and Andrea Tsurumi talking about the book on The Children's Book Podcast Blog. This is one of my favorite podcasts so far. I enjoy them all, but the joy, compassion, humor, and enthusiasm that Andrea and Matthew have in this interview is contagious. You can subscribe to The Children's Book Podcast through just about any podcast app.

Remember, 71% of our earth is covered by water. You are made up of 60% water. Clean water is important. Not just the oceans, but our lakes, rivers, and streams too.

Be Like Crab and . . . Bake A Cake

Any cake. If you want to share it with me, I need it to be gluten free. 

I found this mix from Simple Mills at the grocery store, and it's really tasty. 

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.

The Important Thing . . . Perfect Picture Book Friday

Title: The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown
Author:  Mac Barnett
Illustrated by: Sarah Jacoby
Publisher: Balzar and Bray, 2019

I was so fortunate to hear Mac Barnett read this book at the Anderson Bookstore Children's Literature Breakfast way back in February. I fell in love. This is an important book.

It is a little bit biography of Margaret Wise Brown. You will learn bits and pieces of her life as you read. It is a little bit biography of Anne Carroll Moore who doesn't even appear in the book until page 20. A little bit about censorship. A little bit about life and death. A little bit about being strange and being yourself. Yes, it is an important book that tells you important things about Margaret Wise Brown and important things about life and death.

The First page: "It did not seem important that anyone wrote these stories. They were true. And it still doesn't seem important! All this emphasis today on who writes what seems silly to me as far as children are concerned." -- Margaret Wise Brown.

The first lines of the story: (I say story because while this is a biography, it is also a story.)
"Margaret Wise Brown lived for 42 years. This book is 42 pages long. You can't fit somebody's life into 42 pages, so I am just going to tell you some important thing."

Man, he had me at Hello.

Most picture books are not paginated. But this one is. Mac refers to the page we are on several times in the book just as he tells us how many pages the book is. We learn about Margaret as a child, as an author, and as an adult. We get tidbits of her life surrounded by the world around her and how she interacts with it. He tells us her books are strange, she is strange, and yet, she is compelling and exciting. I love people who are all of those things.

And then there are the illustrations. Sarah Jacoby brings Margaret Wise Brown to life in vivid colors and movement. Throughout she slips in book covers of Margaret's books and uses the characters from her stories to show the action within the biography. Be sure to check out the cover under the paper cover. It is lovely. Look closely at the illustrations. It's more than just Margaret's books (I think I missed that until I took a close-up photo of the page) So many details!

Activities:

Play Seek and Find throughout the book. What book covers do you see? Have you read those books? Check them out and keep the reading going. What other details do you notice? Are illustrations used in tiny spots from larger illustrations in the book? Count the rabbits.

Pick a bouquet of flowers and set them on your table. Enjoy the fleeting moments of flowers.

Read books by Margaret Wise Brown

Teachers and Librarians: This would make a great read for Banned Book Week. Or maybe the week before Banned Book Week. A door to open up to conversations about Banned Books. "Because every good book is at least a little bit strange, and there are some people who do not like strange things in their worlds." I hope today, libraries are less restrictive in their selection policies. I believe for the most part that they are. But, I also believe that we can ALWAYS do better. Whether that is buying more Indie published books that maybe didn't get reviewed in the major journals, seeking out more diversity in books by own voices authors, offering controversial programming, speaking up for all people, and being the place that communities can rely of for opening our minds and allowing us to learn and release our biases.

Thesarahjacoby.com
@sjacobee
https://veryimportantmargaret.tumblr.com/

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.

Perfect Picture Book Friday -- Peekity Boo Plus Two

Books for Babies and Toddlers! Celebrating the beginnings of independence. These books would make lovely gifts for newborns and first birthdays.

Title: Peekity Boo What You Can Do!
Author: Heidi Bee Roemer
Illustrated By: Mike Wohnoutka
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books Henry Holt and Company, 2019

First three pages: Peekity Boo! Look what baby can do . . . There's a shirt to slip off. Socks to kick off. Splishity splash! Here's a Baby's bath.

Themes: Bedtime, independence

Heidi creates wonderful poetry for young children. This story is an illustrated bedtime poem perfect for any toddler getting ready for bed.

The repetition of end words is a wonderful way to help a child build their language skills. It won't take may times of reading this book and toddler will be saying it along with you.

Why I love this book:
First I must admit that I had the privilege of taking a poetry writing class from Heidi. I may not have caught this book if not for that as I tend to read an look for books for an older age group.

This is a wonderful book for toddlers who are starting do do things on their own. It encourages them to try it themselves while at the same time, it is about family and the whole bedtime experience.

This book would make a wonderful gift for a child's first or second birthday.


Activities:

Turn getting ready for bed into a fun activity encouraging your toddler to do each activity in the story.

Play with the lovely Onomatopoeia words, Peekity Boo, Splishity Splash. Make up more words that sound like the activity you are doing.

Play Bath Games.

Title: Hooray for Babies!
Author: Susan Meyers
Illustrated by: Sue Cornelison
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers, 2019

Themes: Babies, activities, self-understanding

Gently rhyming, these babies discover the world in many different scenarios from looking in the mirror, to visiting the beach, playing in a pool, and taking a nap.

Opening Line: I'm glad that I'm a baby. I love my baby face.

Why I Like this Book: 
This is a cute book for babies (6 months +). It's a full size picture book with a board book feel. Heavy paper for easier page turns. Toddlers will see all kinds of babies in this story as they experience the day. The babies are realistically painted, reminiscent of the old Gerber Baby Food campaigns with added diversity.

Title: Baby Day
Authors: Jane Godwin & Davina Bell
Pictures by: Freya Blackwood
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2018

Themes:  birthday, babies, activities and emotions

First lines: Today is baby's birthday. There's going to be a party. Happy baby! Here come baby's friends. Hello!

Description and Why I like this book:

This is a cute day in the life of a baby book set on a first birthday when lots of other babies come for the party. The sparse descriptive language with the illustrations, show all the emotions and activities that can happen during a birthday party. This is great for language building and associating words with emotions and activities.

I read in the CIP notes that the "illustrations are rendered in line work and watercolor on paper, with digitally composited oil paint lino-block prints." Freya's sketchy style creates movement throughout the story. It's like she was the outsider watching the birthday party and capturing all the little moments, good and bad.

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.

Activities: 
Eat ice cream.
Play with baby.
Spend time at the park.

Bug Girl And Small Wonders -- Perfect Picture Book Friday.

Summer weather has finally arrived. The mosquitoes are busy making us itch, the worms are close to the surface of the garden soil, butterflies and bees flit from flower to flower drinking nectar and spreading pollen. It's a great time to be outside. When you need a break from the heat and mosquitoes, head to the library to check out these two book and learn about two incredible entomologists.

Title: The Bug Girl: Maria Merian's Scientific Vision
Author: Sarah Glenn Marsh
Illustrator: Filippo Vanzo
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company, 2019

Opening: As a young girl growing up in the 1650's, Maria Merian was curious about everything. Her hometown of Frankfurt Germany, was full of creatures that crawled, flew, and scuttled. Butterflies were her favorite insect because their wings held a rainbow of colors. She could watch for hours as the butterflies flitted around the flowers blooming near her home.

Why I like this book:
This is a wonderful picture book biography about Maria Merian and her scientific illustrations.  I had never heard the phrase "spontaneous generation" before reading this book. It opens the door to so many topics of discussion.
* Encourages kids to study the living world around them.
* Women scientists in the 1600's
* Spontaneous generation -- seeing how taking the time to understand the world around us changes our world view.
* Women artists
* Curiosity
*Forging ahead even when it is not the popular thing to do.

Title: Small Wonders: Jean-Henry Fabre & His World of Insects
Author: Matthew Clark Smith
Illustrated by Giuliano Ferri
Publisher: Two Lions, 2015

Opening: Once there was a village in the sunny south of France: a village much like any other, where the cocks crowed and the church bells rang, and everyone seemed to know his or her place. Everyone, that is, but one.
At the very edge of town, behind high walls and plane trees, there stood a pink house. In the house lived an old man with beetle black eyes and a black felt hat who talked to animals. Whether he was a sorcerer, or simply a madman, no one could agree.

Why I like this book:
I love learning about people who studied nature and paved the way for us to have a better understanding of the world around us. Jean-Henry Fabre loved nature and insects and spent his life studying them and writing about them.

This book starts like a scary story with the old man in the black coat and hat coming from the pink house. We don't know who is man is and yet, the President of France is coming to visit him. How curious.

Activities for both books:
Make your own Nature Journal.

Start a Nature Journal. See what you notice throughout the year about the insects and nature around you. Here are some tips about nature journaling.

Raise a caterpillar and watch the metamorphosis process. Keep track of it in your nature journal. Then set your butterfly or moth free. This time of year, you can find eggs and caterpillars to bring in and raise on your own. You probably already know that Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed. Did you know you might find a swallowtail egg or caterpillar on a dill plant.  I wonder where you might find a Cabbage White caterpillar?

Learn about a cocoon and a chrysalis. What are the similarities? What are the differences?

You can download and read books by Jean-Henri Fabre.

Learn more about Maria Sibylla Merian

Be sure to check out Susanna Hill's Blog where you can look for reviews by book, title, and by themes.

Perfect Picture Book Friday . . . On Sunday. Three for the Price of One

Well, the days got busy and here we are on Sunday. Any day is a good day to read a picture book; even better is to read three picture books. The first two books, I  learned about from other #PPBF bloggers, the last I found at my local public library. They are all beautiful in their own way.

Title: The Boy Who Grew A Forest: The True Story of Jadav Payeng

Written by: Sophia Gholz

Illustrated by: Kayla Harren

Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press, 2019

Opening: "The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is now. -- proverb 

In India, on a large river, among farms and families hard at work, there lived a boy who loved trees. Trees meant shade, food, and shelter for many.

Themes: trees, biography, ecology 

Why I love this book: 

🌞 Trees, ecology, protecting the earth.

🌞 Such beautiful  illustrations. 

🌞 This is a beautifully written biography of an unknown person who made a big difference  for his community.  While it's a story about a young man in India planting trees, it goes beyond that, Jadav Payeng's efforts, helped to protect his people from flooding, provided wood for building, and provided habitats and shelters for wildlife. It is a story that shows not only a person willing to work hard to protect and improve the land, it's a story about how everything is connected.

Activities:

🌳 Plant a tree.

🌍 Work in the garden.

🌳 Learn more about the author and illustrator. 

🌍 Learn about India and Jadav Peyeng's home

Title: You are Never Alone

Written by: Elin Kelsey

Illustrated by: Soyeon Kim

Publisher: Owlkids Books, 2019

Themes: ecosystems, Interconnections, earth

Opening Lines: Every moment this beautiful planet showers you with gifts. Clouds rain fresh water to quench your thirst. Your lungs swell with oxygen plants create. 

Why I love this book:

While this book is not technically non-fiction, it is based in non-fiction sharing many ways that we are all connected with each other and the earth. It is an earth hug. Soyeon Kim's illustrations feel like they come from the past of the Little Golden Book era of Mary Blair. The tiny people with the the grand world and micro worlds of the story are made up of all shapes and colors. They appear almost as fairies, and yet they are children connecting to the world, seeing and experiencing it up close. 

So beautiful.  Perfect for bedtime or after lunch and recess. A book to feel good about the earth and spark discussion.

Activities:

🌞 Spend time outside. Take a close up look at the world around you.

🌞 Learn more about all of the connections shared in this book.

🌞 Do something kind for someone you have never met.

🌞 Learn more about the author and illustrator. 

Title: Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets

Written by: Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth

Illustrated by: Ekua Holmes

Publisher: Candlewick Press, 2017

Coretta Scott King Award

Themes: Poetry, Poets

Opening: Part 1: Got Style? Poets love to make up their own rules about writing; that's what makes it so much fun. Sometime e.e.cummings and Nikki Giovanni use ellipses (...) to separate ideas and lowercase letters at the beginning of sentences. Langston Hughes, who loved jazz, was a master of repetition, rhythm, rhyming couplets, and quatrains. The poems in this section pay tribute to the poets being celebrated adopting their styles and rhythms.

How to Write a Poem

Celebrating Naomi Shihab Nye

Hush.

Grab a pencil

some paper and spunk.

Let loose your heart -- 

raise your voice.

. . . .

-- Kwame Alexander

Why I love this book:

The poems celebrating each poet are beautiful.  They introduce you to the writers through the eyes of the authors with poems written in each poet's style. 

At the end of the book there is a section with a short biography of each of the poets featured. It is a nice starting place to learn more about the poets.

This beautiful book of poetry celebrating poets, opens your eyes to the wonders of poetry, the beauty of the world as seen through poet eyes, and truly celebrates many poets from many cultures and time periods in history. 

Ekua Holmes' mixed-media collage art illustrations add even more life and color to each poem and poet.

Activities:
✏ Write some poetry.
✏ Read books by each of the poets featured.

Be sure to check out Susanna Hill's Blog where you can look for reviews by book, title, and by themes.