{picture book} Max the…adorably funny

  Max the Brave by Ed Vere Puffin Books, 2014 (UK). Sourcebooks, 2015 (US) This is Max. Max the Brave, Max the Fearless, Max the Mouse-catcher…But, in order to be a Mouse-catcher, Max needs to know what a mouse is, so off he goes to find out. With that cover and jacket copy, Mo Willem

{picture book} wonder-full

Just in time for a baby shower gift, one of my favorites (I have a print on my wall) came out with a new book: not that I wouldn’t have gifted the recently released board book version of Dream Animals (my review). The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin  Random House, 2015.

{picture/book} rules of summer

Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan. Arthur A. Levine (Scholastic) 2013.  “Never break the rules. Especially, if you don’t understand them.”–back cover copy. Rules of Summer, in its most simplified description, is about two brothers’ summer adventures. The story is told by Shaun Tan so there is the surreal and the incredible wordless impact of

{illustrator} yuyi morales

I occasionally share an illustrator who has caught my eye. See the above “picture book list” for other illustrators highlighted on this blog. For ’30 Days of Picture Books’,“Day Six” features three books and an Illustrator’s Spotlight! Day Thirty:  Little Night; Just in Case: A Trickster Tale & Spanish Alphabet Book; and  Nino Wrestles the World . —————————— Yuyi Morales is an author,

{book} a legacy, a man, a company of men, and Ntozake Shange

Day Twenty-Nine: Ellington Was Not a Street Written by Ntozake Shange Illustrated by Kadir Nelson Simon & Schuster for Young Readers [text: 1983] 2004 The narrative of Ellington Was Not a Street comes from Ntozake Shange’s poem “Mood Indigo” (from A Daughter’s Geography, 1983). The poem, excerpted for the picture book, is a reflection of and tribute to

{book} card carrying

Day Twenty-Eight: The Midnight Library By Kazuno Kohara  Roaring Book Press 2014 “Once there was a library that opened only at night.” The Midnight Library’s hours are dusk to dawn and its serves an adorable population of animals. The librarian? A young girl assisted by three owls. The picture book has a fairy tale opening, “Once

{book} an antidote

Day Twenty-Seven: I’m Bored By Michael Ian Black  Illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi  Simon & Schuster for Young Readers 2012 The potato was unexpected. I did not read the inside jacket copy. I didn’t even notice the back cover. Browsing shelves, I saw the front cover, remembered it’s popularity when it was released, and added it

{book} mother’s

Day Twenty-Six: My Mother’s Sari By Sandhya Rao  illustrated by Nina Sabnani NorthSouth 2006 Illustrated using mixed-media, My Mother’s Sari opens with the endpapers bearing instructions in how to don a sari. The photographed human model’s person painted over in the manner of the characters we will soon meet in the story. Whether it is in

{book} a present nostalgia

Day Twenty-Five: Wait! Wait!  By Hatsue Nakawaki Illustrated by Komako Sakai Translated by Yuki Kaneko Enchanted Lion Books 2013 Wait! Wait! is an ideal book for young children that gently follows their rhythms and preoccupations. With a text of few words, frequent repetitions, and delicate illustrations with which children will quickly identify, the book follows a young

{book} birth stories

Day Twenty-Four: The Baby on the Way  by Karen English Illus. Sean Qualls  Farrar Straus Giroux 2005 The Baby on the Way was not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be about a boy who is feeling anxiety about a new baby sibling on the way. And maybe Jamal is and maybe