When there’s thunder and lightning, people and wild creatures alike head for safe places to stay dry and ride out dangerous weather. Two beautiful and reassuring new picture books relate stories of characters who shelter together during summer thunderstorms. 

Together We Grow is the debut picture book from Susan Vaught, neuropsychologist by day and author by night, who has something to say about inclusion in this tale of barn creatures facing a harsh nighttime storm. In spare, eloquent rhyming couplets—“Lightning gash! Windy lash!”—the book opens as fierce weather drives a frightened fox and its cubs to a barn full of animals. After the animals tell the fox to scram (“Go away! We’re full today!”), a small, unassuming duck heads outside to assist the fox family and convince the other animals to allow some space in the barn—and in their hearts. 

Illustrator Kelly Murphy employs a color palette of deep, rich blues that juxtapose marvelously against the vivid oranges and yellows of the foxes, the duck and the warm light of the barn’s interior. Several spreads, including those toward the end of the book when the storm has passed, are lush and cinematic, and Murphy wields light and shadow to dramatic effect. The two-page spread in which the duck calls to the fox and its family to invite them inside is particularly striking; the duck stands in front of a block of yellow interior barn light, which accentuates the hope and promise embedded in an otherwise foreboding scene. Unusual perspectives and angles, many of them aerial, make for visually dynamic moments. 

Vaught’s depiction of furry farm life leans toward anthropomorphism, avoiding the messy biology of the food chain as it delivers a poignant message about embracing those who are different and caring for neighbors during difficult circumstances: “Learn and show / together we grow.” 

When the Storm Comes also unfolds in rhyming couplets, but author Linda Ashman adds a call-and-response structure: “Where do you go when the sky turns gray— / When the grasses bend and the treetops sway? / We gather here below the eaves. / We roost beneath some sturdy leaves.” Ashman’s use of the first-person collective “we” suggests that we’re all in this together. Like Vaught, Ashman considers how various creatures, including humans, respond to dangerous weather. Some of these creatures—a house cat, a pet dog—dwell indoors, while others, such as a hive of bees and a family of rabbits nestled in a hollow log, make their homes outside. Ashman’s narrative continues into the storm’s aftermath, depicting both cleanup efforts and a communal celebration of sunny skies. 

Illustrator Taeeun Yoo sets When the Storm Comes in a coastal town; among the humans’ preparation efforts, boats must be latched and tied in this neck of the woods. The comforting curves of Yoo’s linework give way to harder lines of flashing lightning and driving rains as the tempest arrives. Though storms are scary, there’s a cozy feeling when all the humans, along with the pet dog, gather inside to play a game, share stories and “curl up tight.” Once the storm has passed, Yoo returns to her signature soft and warm illustrations in this satisfying story of community.

These two books offer children an empathetic look at what it’s like for animals who fear storms just like we humans do. Readers will be comforted to see communities come together to stay safe during wild weather.

Tips for Teachers is a monthly column in which experienced teacher and children’s librarian Emmie Stuart shares book recommendations and a corresponding teaching guide for fellow elementary school teachers.

I’ve been meeting with my students virtually for about eight weeks. Last week, I asked them to share what they miss most about school. Most of them answered without hesitation: They miss their friends.

Childhood friendships are some of the most formative, intense and enriching friendships we’ll ever have. My best friend from kindergarten came to town this weekend. Spending time with her renewed my weary spirit and reminded me that there is life beyond face masks and virtual happy hours. As Alexander McCall Smith writes in The Ladies’ No. 1 Detective Agency, “You can go through life and make new friends every year—every month practically—but there was never any substitute for those friendships of childhood.”

The following two books demonstrate the tenderness and joy of childhood friendships.

My Best Friend
By Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki

A little girl meets a new friend at a park. Her new friend “laughs at everything” and is “so smart.” The two girls learn more about each other as they twirl, create, pretend and explore the park together. Their adventures and commonalities lead the narrator to the conclusion that “she is my best friend / i think.” Only at the story’s end does author Julie Fogliano reveal that the girls have yet to know each other’s names.

Making predictions before reading
Students who are asked to make predictions before they read will form connections between their own personal knowledge and what they discover in a book. This is a great strategy for keeping readers actively engaged.

Before reading, hold up the cover of My Best Friend and ask, “What do you predict will happen to the two girls you see here? Why do you think the illustrator used only two shades of colors? Do you have a best friend? What makes a best friend? How do we make new friends?”

The whole book approach
Educator and children’s literature scholar Megan Dowd Lambert created the whole book approach as a way to invite children to engage with all the parts of a picture book—not just the story but also the illustrations and production and design elements—in order to support both visual and verbal literacy. My Best Friend provides ample opportunities to try this approach with young readers. Here are some elements you can discuss.

Typography
Text placement throughout the book varies; there are only a few capital letters (the words “LOVES” and “HATES” are written in all caps), and the only punctuation is a period after the book’s final phrase. Show students the page with “skeleton hand” leaves; the word “Boo” is capitalized and set in a larger size that spans across the page. Ask, “How does the size and shape of this word show us how to read it?” A few cursive letters illustrate the narrator’s “fanciest” handwriting. Ask students whether they think these letters are part of the book’s text or its illustrations.

Color
My Best Friend employs a limited color palette dominated by warm, rosy peaches and deep forest greens. Ask students why they think illustrator Jillian Tamaki chose these colors.

Lines and white space
The illustrations’ ample white space and the book’s white background keep visual focus on the book’s vignettes and full-spread images. Several of the vignettes run off the edge of the page. The illustrations contain many fine lines that add texture and movement, and the girls’ adventures are dominated by curves and swirling lines. Prompt students to speculate about what kinds of artistic materials illustrator Jillian Tamaki used to create the images. What is the effect of her choice to “cut off” some of the images on the edge of the page?

Production elements
Underneath the dust jacket, the book’s case cover features a wraparound illustration of the girls playing hide-and-seek. Ask students to reflect on this image before and after reading the book. The book’s front and back endpapers are a warm chestnut shade of brown, while its back jacket is forest green. Ask students to speculate about why these two colors were chosen. The book has a strong portrait orientation. Discuss why this shape was the best choice for the book.

Cross-curricular activities
With a little creative thinking, it’s easy to create activities that incorporate picture books into many parts of the curriculum. Here are a few ideas for activities to extend learning after reading My Best Friend.

Personal reflection
Discuss what activities students like to do with friends. What is something about ourselves that our good friends understand? Invite younger students to respond to these prompts and the discussion through drawings or other visual art. Invite older students to respond through journaling.

Nature art
The two girls in My Best Friend make skeleton hands out of leaves. Take students outside and give them time to create something from items they find. Divide them into small groups to share their creations.

Similarities and opposites
The narrator of My Best Friend hates strawberry ice cream, but her new best friend loves it. Divide students into pairs and let them interview each other. Each pair must determine one way in which they are alike and one way in which they are different. Gather students back together and prompt them to share what they learned about one another.

Creative movement
The narrator makes her new friend laugh by pretending to be a pickle. Divide students into pairs. Ask one partner to name a noun; their partner must act out the word.

How to Be a Pirate
By Isaac Fitzgerald, illustrated by Brigette Barrager

When her aspirations are squashed by neighborhood boys who tell her she can’t be a pirate, CeCe visits her grandfather. She asks him, “What’s it like to be a pirate?” Using his tattoos as inspiration, Grandpa tells CeCe that pirates are brave, quick, fun and independent—but the most important thing a pirate needs is love. Her spirit renewed, CeCe returns to the boys with an emboldened and tenacious spirit. How to Be a Pirate wonderfully explores themes of intergenerational friendship, self-confidence and imaginative play.

Dialogic read aloud
Read How to Be a Pirate once straight through without stopping. Then read it again and pause to ask the following questions and to discuss students’ responses.

• How do you think CeCe feels on the title page of the book? What makes you say that?
• Before CeCe goes inside Grandpa’s house, what do the illustrations tell us about Grandpa?
• Once the illustrations show us Grandpa’s living room, what clues can you find to tell you even more about him?
• Why does CeCe believe that Grandpa can teach her how to be a pirate?
• Are CeCe and Grandpa really on a ship or in a jungle? What evidence can you find in the illustrations?
• Do you notice anything about the dog?
• Grandpa says pirates must be independent. Do you agree? Why or why not?
• How does Grandpa show CeCe that he loves her?
• What other traits can you think of that would help CeCe face the boys and be a pirate?

Writing letters
Ask students to think about different types of friends. For many students, conceptualizing a grandparent, a beloved pet or a cousin as a “friend” will be a novel idea, so ask students to think about a friend who is not in their classroom or in their grade level. Give them time to make a list of the ways this friend enriches their life, then guide students in transforming their lists into letters to their friends. Be sure to provide logistical instructions on how to fold, address and mail the letter.

Future homes
Readers learn so much about Grandpa through Brigette Barrager’s illustrations of his home. Ask students about their goals for when they are older. Provide pieces of oversized drawing paper and drawing supplies and challenge them to draw a house that reflects their future aspirations. For example, a librarian’s house might have lots of bookshelves and a Little Free Library in the front yard. An artist’s or musician’s home might have a studio. Encourage them to add details to their houses’ interiors and exteriors.

Gender stereotypes
Children receive messages about gender norms from birth. Invite students to categorize imaginative play activities as “for girls” or “for boys.” Let their responses guide you toward questions that give them space to consider why they consider activities to be divided between these categories. Provide time for them to share moments when they were excluded from playing with others or stereotyped because of their gender.

Tips for Teachers is a monthly column in which experienced teacher and children’s librarian Emmie Stuart shares book recommendations and a corresponding teaching guide for fellow elementary school teachers.

A contemporary Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama is often called “the princess of polka dots.” Ella Baker was an activist in the American civil rights movement. Flannery O’Connor is considered one of the greatest American writers. At first glance, these three women and their life’s work overlap very little. But as I learned more about Kusama, Baker and O’Connor from these these three books, I was struck by two commonalities: Each woman held tight to strong ideals and personal convictions, and these ideals and convictions the driving force behind their work—work that became their legacy and affected the future for generations.

As I sit here typing this, I’m wearing a long-sleeved sweatshirt covered with subtle polka dots. Next to my chair is a stack of reading material; the pile includes the July 2020 issue of Rolling Stone magazine with Kadir Nelson’s protest artwork on its cover, and my book club’s September selection, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, O’Connor’s short story collection. The traces of these three women in my little bubble of personal space are but a small reflection of their wide-reaching, significant and lasting cultural impact.

Kusama, Baker and O’Connor each touched the future, but much of their work was accomplished behind the scenes. They didn’t seek the spotlight or cave to societal expectations. Perhaps this is why their names are not well recognized in schools across the United States. Perhaps this is why their stories remain largely untold. When classes begin again, I look forward to introducing my students to Kusama and her polka dots, to Baker and her peaceful protests and to Flannery and her peacocks.

Yayoi Kusama Covered Everything in Dots and Wasn’t Sorry
by Fausto Gilberti

As a child growing up Matsumoto, Japan, Yayoi Kusama loved drawing and longed for the day when she could travel to learn about artists around the world. She moved to America and was a struggling artist until Georgia O’Keefe took interest in her work and connected her with an art gallery. Soon Kusama’s modern and experimental artwork gained recognition and she began making films, outfits and mirrored rooms. When she returned to Japan, she continued to work, always pushing boundaries and adding her trademark polka dots to everything from pumpkins to dresses to walls. This story of Kusama’s boundary-breaking artwork is an excellent way to introduce students to a new artist and to the concept of modern art.

• Design an Infinity Room

Show students photographs of Kusama’s infinity rooms and watch these two videos. Discuss the concepts of repetition and infinity. As a class, talk through the design of an infinity room. Discuss its theme and how the theme will be carried and enforced throughout the room. Write notes on a piece of chart paper, then let students work independently or in pairs to brainstorm, design, draw and color their personal infinity room.

• Celebrate Dot Day

Each September, children around the world celebrate International Dot Day. Pair this book with Peter Reynolds’ The Dot and invite students to stretch the boundary of what constitutes a dot. In Reynolds’ book, a teacher challenges a resistant little girl to “make her mark.” Lead a class discussion on artists who made their mark and ask students to explain how Yayoi Kusama continues to make her mark in the world. 

Provide students with a large variety of art supplies (including different colors of paper and several forms of artistic mediums) and let them create polka dot art. Provide dot stickers in a range of sizes for students who wish to take that approach. If possible, display images of Kusama’s artwork around the classroom room for inspiration.

Lift as You Climb: The Story of Ella Baker
by Patricia Hruby Powell,
illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

Growing up under the bright North Carolina sun, young Ella Baker listened to her grandfather’s sermons, her grandmother’s stories and her mother’s gentle admonition to “lift as you climb.” Their influential words guided her as she grew up to become a leader in the civil rights movement who worked tirelessly to make sure that people of all backgrounds and classes were represented in the fight for equal rights. Working alongside prominent figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and members of the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Baker focused on grassroots efforts that sought change “from the bottom up.” She gathered other like-minded people, “workers, partners, believers—mostly women,” and together they visited community institutions such as bars, schools and bootblack parlors to make sure that people of all backgrounds were educated about their rights. She always left people with her personal driving question, “What do you hope to accomplish?”

Ella’s life was one of quiet and persistent leadership. She didn’t seek the spotlight, but instead dedicated her energy and effort toward meeting with individual people and encouraging them to “lift and climb.” Too often students learn about vocal, outgoing leaders with little attention given to the figures outside the limelight who make just as much of a difference by faithfully serving and loving their communities. Ella’s life and the question she asked others, “What do you hope to accomplish?” illustrates how every person has the power to make a difference.

• Grassroot Efforts

“Ella worked from the bottom up— /from the grass roots.” Explain the concept of grassroots organizing as it applies to politics and community change. It can be a tricky idea for students to grasp, but discussing practical action steps and showing students examples of grassroots efforts will help them conceptualize it. Read Andrea Beaty’s Sofia Valdez, Future Prez and F. Isabel Campoy’s Maybe Something Beautiful, then let students articulate how the characters in these books created community change through grassroots efforts. Remind students of Ella’s driving question, “What do you hope to accomplish?” Give them a few minutes or an evening to consider what change they would like to see in their school or community. Afterward, give them time to discuss with each other ideas for small “grassroots” action steps that would help make progress toward their goals.

• Current Event Connection

2020 has been a historic year in the United States. Ask students what they know about the events and social movements that have taken place all over the country. With older students, read news stories about peaceful protests and about those that became violent and discuss the differences between the two. Ask students to consider how Ella Baker might have responded to this year’s events. Using the information learned from the book, help students use inferencing and synthesizing skills to articulate what they think Ella Baker would be doing to support and further social justice if she was still alive today.

The Strange Birds of Flannery O’Connor
by Amy Alznauer,
illustrated by Ping Zhu

“Right from the start young Flannery took a shine to chickens.” Perhaps she connected with them because her pigeon toes and big imagination caused her to feel “like kind of an odd bird herself.” Using birds as a connecting thread, Alznauer tells the story of Flannery O’Connor’s life, from her days struggling to fit in at a girls prep school to the ways she found solace in her writing, before concluding with her early death. From her time spent at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop to the years she spent on her family farm with her peacocks, O’Connor constantly observed people and their choices. She realized if she studied something hard enough, “she could always discover some hidden strangeness, making it beautiful and funny and sad all at the same time.” By paying attention to her oddities, unique worldview and her fascination with chickens and peacocks, Alznauer paints a realistic and relatable picture of one of America’s great writers. Though they will not encounter her writing until they are older, O’Connor’s diligent work ethic, her bizarre characters and her love of strange birds are sure to make an impression on students.

• Peculiar Pet Persuasive Paragraphs

From chickens to peacocks, Flannery had some peculiar pets. Give students time to research their “dream” pet. Use this writing activity to review the process of gathering and recording important and valid information. After they have finished collecting information, guide students into using it to write a persuasive letter to their parents. Write three or four questions on a piece of chart paper and remind students that they must address each question at some point in their letter. Provide an outline for younger students to scaffold their first persuasive letter draft.

• Short Story Study

Flannery O’Connor’s short stories are read and studied around the world. Short stories and short story collections are often overlooked in the elementary school classroom. Teach a quick short story mini-lesson; emphasize the idea that a short story is a short piece of fiction with a beginning, middle and end. Read an example of a strong short story and then provide several short story collections containing authors from diverse backgrounds and stories with diverse themes, genres and characters. 



Some of my favorites include Virginia Hamilton’s Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales, Betsy Bird’s Funny Girl: Funniest. Stories. Ever., James Herriot’s Treasury for Children and Angela McAllister’s A Year Full of Stories: 52 Classic Stories From All Around the World.

For the next couple of days, allow children time to read selections from the collections. With younger students, read one or two stories aloud each day for a couple of weeks. At the conclusion of the study, older students can share their favorite short story or practice writing their own and younger students can illustrate a scene from their favorite story.

Tips for Teachers is a monthly column in which experienced teacher and children’s librarian Emmie Stuart shares book recommendations and a corresponding teaching guide for fellow elementary school teachers.

I will never forget the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. Two solid weeks of laptop distribution, intense virtual training, online courses construction and constant communication with school families and co-workers had my mind spinning. Like most teachers, I thrive on routine and love starting each school year with at least two or three months of lesson plans. This school year has forced me to loosen my tight grip and perfectionist tendencies. My district started the year teaching remotely, but students might return to the school building after the Labor Day holiday, or we could shift to a hybrid model. And, yes, there are about a dozen other possible scenarios!

Navigating the new and submitting to the unknown can be hard for teachers. Yesterday, three of my teacher friends came, individually, to the library, laptop in hand and tears in their eyes. I offered them chocolate and a place to express their frustrations and then reminded them that their frustrations and tears are caused by the grief of being separated from their students and not knowing how to best teach, guide and love them over the next few months. Teachers all around the world are working hard to overcome to 2020’s challenges and to master its new learning landscape, in which almost nothing goes as expected.

For the week ahead, I have a full schedule of synchronous classes, where I will be in the digital classroom at the same time as my students. Naturally, I have everything ready, planned and prepared. But I know that the next five days will bring an assortment of frustrations as my students and I attempt to connect with each other and build community through our screens. I’ve stuck a Post-it note with the word “grace” next to the keyboard on my laptop. It reminds me that I need to have grace for computer failures and slow Wi-Fi, grace for students who can’t (or won’t) mute their microphone or who constantly change screen backgrounds, grace for parents who email me multiple times a day, grace for applications that freeze in the middle of a lesson and grace for myself as I learn how to teach through a computer.

During the first month of teaching, I will focus on forming connections, building community and embracing change—ideas that are everywhere in the books in this column. Below, I’ve provided suggestions for how to use these books as foundations in virtual learning settings. But the most important virtual learning suggestion I can offer? Teach from a place of grace. Godspeed, teachers!

Playing Possum
by Jennifer Black Reinhardt

Alfred, a lonely possum, has trouble making friends because his “nervous nature” causes him to “freeze and play dead.” One day while browsing an outdoor bookstore, he notices Sophia, an armadillo with a similar problem. When they initially encounter each other, Alfred plays dead and Sophie roles up into her shell. After they unfreeze and unfurl, Alfred and Sophia bond over their anxious natures and reach out to other woodland creatures with similar defense mechanisms. An empowering story of empathy, Playing Possum will resonate with and reassure shy students and offer insight for more outgoing spirits.

• Emotion scenarios

Email emotion cards to families. (You can find a variety of versions for free online; choose the ones that work will best for your students.) Ask students to print and cut out their cards before the next class meeting.

At the next meeting, tell students to lay out their cards in front of them. Share emotional scenarios with students and invite them to hold up the card that best describes how they would feel in the situation. Discuss how everyone reacts to situations differently and how the same scenario can cause two people to have different emotions.

• Animal adaptations

Prompt students to discuss whether Playing Possum is a fictional story or an informational text. After they identify it as fiction, ask students if there are parts of the story that can be informational. Use this discussion to launch into learning about animal adaptations and self-defense behaviors and to read informational books on the subject. I recommend Showdown: Animal Defenses by Jennifer Kroll and Animal Defenses: How Animals Protect Themselves by Etta Kaner.

• Mindfulness routine

Ask students how humans can “play dead” or “curl up” like Alfred and Sophia. Share strategies we can practice when we feel nervous or scared, then lead them through a mindful breathing exercise. Begin and end your next few virtual class meetings with a mindful breathing routine.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Get ready to return to the classroom with four picture books that capture the excitement, trepidation and curiosity of the first day of school!

Southwest Sunrise
by Nikki Grimes,
illustrated by Wendell Minor

Jayden is not happy about his family’s move from New York City to rural New Mexico. With his baseball hat pulled over his eyes, he pouts for the entire plane ride. He falls asleep under a picture of Lady Liberty, convinced there is nothing great about New Mexico. When he wakes up the next morning, he is surprised by the beautiful mountain outside his bedroom window. Guidebook in hand, he ventures out for a walk and his preconceived notions about the his new home begin to change as he discovers colorful flowers, towering rock structures and desert creatures. Lyrical language and sweeping illustrations will capture children’s attention in this story of how unexpected change can be surprising and beautiful. Southwest Sunrise will help students cultivate wonder and an appreciation for new circumstances.

• Reframe our perspective

Jayden did not want to leave New York City and move to New Mexico. Ask students if Jayden’s emotions reflect how they feel about virtual learning, cancelled plans or separation from their friends and teachers. Let each student share something that makes them sad, frustrated or disappointed. Using Google Slides, Padlet or another online learning space, record students’ disappointments. Share your screen so that your students can see one another’s responses.

Revisit Southwest Sunrise and Jayden’s experience with his new home. Ask whether Jayden’s new environment was as terrible as he had anticipated it would be on his plane ride. Invite students to shift their perspective on remote learning by sharing positives about this new way of learning. Record these responses and share your screen with the class.

• Google Earth explorations

Google Earth can be a fantastic virtual learning resource. While sharing your screen, show students some well-known streets in New York City, such as Broadway, Fifth Avenue and Canal Street. Then “fly” to the New Mexico desert and let students help you hunt for some of the wildlife that Jayden discovered on his nature hike.

• Otherworldy visitors

Ask students to consider your region of the country. What are some features that make it unique? Remind them to consider climate, geographical features and wildlife. Give students this writing prompt:

You are an alien from another planet, and you have just landed in [your hometown]. You stay here for two months. Write a letter to your friends back home describing your vacation in [your hometown]. Be sure your letter includes the unique features of our region.

Invite students to type their letters on a shared class document. Encourage them to include photographs to support their writing.

Our Favorite Day of the Year
by A.E. Ali,
illustrated by Rahele Jomepour Bell

On his first day of kindergarten, Musa is skeptical when his teacher says, “Look around the room. You don’t know them now, but these faces will become your closest friends this year.” He guesses that Moises, Mo and Kevin, the other students at his table, are also doubtful about this proclamation. For show-and-tell, each student is asked to share their favorite day of the year so that the class can celebrate it with them. The children become close as they learn about favorite days including Eid al-Fitr, Rosh Hashanah, Los Posadas and Pi Day. Brimming with energy and cheer, Our Favorite Day of the Year is a classroom story celebrates diversity, acceptance and friendship.

• Favorite day bags

Ask students to think about their favorite day of the year. It can be an official holiday, but it can also be an informal day like the first day of school, the birthday of a personal hero or a specific observance such as National Pancake Day.

Have students to fill a brown paper lunch bag with items that explain or represent their favorite day. For the next few class meetings, allow students to virtually share their favorite day bags and explain why this day is special for them and their family. Encourage students to add music or movement to their presentations.

• Celebration days

Students (and their teachers) love daily class routines. Make every day a holiday by starting each class meeting with a slide that explains the significance of the day. Like the favorite day bags, each day doesn’t need to be an official holiday. Include the birthdays of significant historical figures, international cultural celebrations and quirky observations. It’s a festive way of marking each day and exposing students to a wide variety of new information.

Ordinary city life becomes extraordinary when seen through the eyes of talented author-illustrators Chris Raschka and Christy Hale.

Two-time Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka’s In the City celebrates the joys of newfound friendship. Two girls, one Black and one white, make their way separately through a city while pigeons circle overhead. “Could a friend be waiting for me?” they each wonder.

As the girls walk, pigeons soar above and settle down to roost on a statue in a park. The girls sit on the same park bench and watch the birds. “Now we see them one for one,” the text says, highlighting differences among the birds, including gleaming rainbows of colored feathers. A turn of the page finds the girls facing each other, reaching out to hold hands as the flock takes flight around them. Raschka asks, “How do two friends find each other?”

Raschka’s watercolor city teems with color and movement. Reddish buildings give way to park trees in myriad shades of green. He unites the girls and the birds through a similar shade of blue, seen on one girl’s glasses, the other girl’s hair scrunchie and the pigeons’ neck feathers. Raschka’s plain-spoken prose forms rhyming couplets that never feel forced, and his refrain evokes the coos of pigeons and is sure to be echoed by engaged young readers.

Combining all the ingredients for a perfect read-aloud picture book, In the City is a visual feast and an introspective meditation on the rewards of noticing what’s right in front of us.

The streets of Brooklyn snap into focus on the very first page of Christy Hale’s Out the Door, a salute to the daily routines that define our lives. A girl walks down the front steps of her home, heads down the sidewalk with her father and rides the bustling subway to school. Minimal text and bright, cheerful illustrations reveal every step of the journey. Tree branches arc overhead as she walks down her street. She crosses beneath a traffic light, walks down the subway station stairs, waits on a crowded platform and strolls past shops and skyscrapers.

The book’s prose is spare. “Through a tunnel in the dark” is the only text on a page with a cross section of the city, depicting the girl’s train as it travels beneath the streets. Hale styles prepositions in bold and uses different colors to set them off from the rest of the words, emphasizing the motion of the girl’s journey. Her collage illustrations initially appear as deceptively sparse as her prose, but a closer look reveals skillful use of pattern, texture and detail that brings the city to life as the girl travels through it to school and back home again.

There’s great comfort to be found in such routines, and youngsters will be riveted by the sights and sounds of Hale’s city. Out the Door is a charming read that will prompt readers to reflect on their own daily rituals.

Tips for Teachers is a monthly column in which experienced teacher and children’s librarian Emmie Stuart shares book recommendations and a corresponding teaching guide for fellow elementary school teachers.

In his sometimes overlooked but oh-so-good collection, On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature, C.S. Lewis writes,

“The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by ‘the veil of familiarity.’ The child enjoys his cold meat, otherwise dull to him, by pretending it is buffalo, just killed with his own bow and arrow. And the child is wise. The real meat comes back to him more savory for having been dipped in a story . . . by putting bread, gold, horse, apple, or the very roads into a myth, we do not retreat from reality: we rediscover it.”

The lives of the protagonists in these three picture books are changed when they are visited by the fantastical. Children understand that an alien spaceship will never land in a forest. They know that unicorns don’t exist and that the likelihood of a bear befriending a balloon is slim. But it’s through these mythical elements, through story, that truth is uncovered. The veil of familiarity lifts, and by looking through the lens of the imaginary, children can see the impact that one individual can have on the life of another. Each of us can add light, beauty and direction to someone else’s path, whether they’re someone we see every day or someone just passing through our life for a short season.

Lights on Wonder Rock
by David Litchfield

Young Heather, who has “read all about outer space, and how sometimes aliens came down to Earth and took people away in their spaceships,” longs to be taken away herself, so she sits on Wonder Rock and beams her flashlight into the night sky. Her wish is fulfilled when a flying saucer, bursting with light and radiant color, descends, and a friendly alien shuttles her off into space. But when she catches a glimpse of her worried parents on the ship’s monitor, Heather decides to return home. But she can’t forget her extraterrestrial encounter, and for decades, Heather continues to visit Wonder Rock in the hopes of reuniting with her alien friend. She tries various methods of signaling to the vessel, but all her attempts are unsuccessful. Just when Heather, who is now a grandmother, has lost almost all hope, the flying saucer reappears. As she catches the alien up on all the ways her life has changed since childhood, Heather realizes that hiding behind the veil of familiarity is the true magic of family and the love of her children and grandchildren.

• Gratitude jars

The Stoic philosopher Epictetus is said to have written, “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not but rejoices for those which he has.” Share this with students and ask them to share their thoughts. Define the words grieve and rejoice for younger students. Ask open-ended guiding questions to help students form connections between Epictetus’ sentiment and Lights on Wonder Rock.

Invite students to create a gratitude jar. Provide ribbon, buttons, markers and other art supplies so they can personalize their jars. Designate “gratitude jar” time each day. Turn on soft music and let students write something they are grateful for on a small slip of paper. Provide examples so that students understand they can write something big and intangible, like the love of a family member, or something small and tangible, like finding a special rock during recess. Encourage children to write something different each day. At the end of a month, let students open their jars and read all their slips. This daily exercise will cultivate a mindset of thankfulness that will last students a lifetime.

• Illustration narration

Several of the pages in Lights on Wonder Rock are wordless, so readers must “read” the illustrations. If possible, display a few panels or wordless spreads and let students narrate aloud what they think is happening in the illustration. Invite them to elaborate using prompts such as, “What makes you say that?” or “Tell us more about . . .” This simple organic visual thinking exercise build students’ oral, comprehension and inference skills.

• Extra-extraterrestrial

Provide time for older students to research aliens and society’s endless fascination with all things extraterrestrial. With younger students, read additional science fiction picture books that feature UFOs and aliens.

Margaret’s Unicorn
by Briony May Smith

When her family moves “to a faraway place, to a cottage in the mountains, to be near Grandma,” Margaret is unsure about her new home with its different smells and empty spaces. While her parents unpack, Margaret ventures out to explore the area around the cottage. On her return journey, she discovers a baby unicorn tangled in the weeds and takes it home. Over the next year, Margaret and the young unicorn become close companions, experiencing all the delights of their small mountain village together. They chase waves along the rocky beach, decorate a Christmas tree, build snow unicorns and enjoy picnics under the apple tree. With each passing season, Margaret feels less lonely and becomes happier in her new home. When spring returns, the unicorn’s mother comes back for him and the two friends must say goodbye. As she hugs her small friend, Margaret whispers, “Please don’t forget me.” Readers will be delighted to discover that he doesn’t. Margaret’s Unicorn is a warmhearted and timeless story that shimmers with the magical power of companionship.

• Relationship reflection

The baby unicorn helped Margaret adjust to her new surroundings. Ask students to think about a time when they felt lonely or scared and they were comforted by a family member, friend or animal. Begin a discussion that leads children to understand how loneliness or fear of the unknown can be assuaged by the presence of a companion. Pair students up and let them share a time when someone or something else helped them feel less alone.

• Imaginary adventures

Living in the country and finding a baby unicorn who eats flowers and drinks water touched by moonlight was the stuff my dreams were made of when I was in elementary school (and let’s be honest, are still). Invite students to create the imaginary friend of their dreams.

Use this as a creative writing exercise for older students. Encourage them to include details about their friend’s appearance, appetite, sleeping habits and personality. For younger students, provide a plethora of art supplies and let them create a visual representation of their friend. Extend the activity by asking students to describe four meaningful seasonal activities they will do with their friend.

The Bear and the Moon
by Matthew Burgess,
illustrated by Catia Chien

A red balloon catches the attention of a young black bear cub. Fascinated by its light, buoyant movement, the bear grabs hold of the balloon’s string and ties it to a stone. When the sun rises, the bear gives his new friend “a tour of his whereabouts.” After the pair climbs a tree, rolls down a hill and sits next to a waterfall, the bear hugs the balloon and it pops. Grief-stricken, the bear feels guilt and shame (“Bad Bear, he thought”) until he is touched by the light of the moon and the moon tells him, “Good bear. Kind bear. Don’t worry, bear,” and his heavy heart is lifted. Simply told but deep with transcendent truth, The Bear and the Moon demonstrates the value of shared grief and the importance of forgiving ourselves.

• Balloon play

The Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori famously declared, “Play is the work of the child.” Provide a helium-filled red balloon on a string to each student and have some fun emulating the bear’s balloon play.  

• Paired reading

After sharing The Bear and the Balloon, share Komako Sakai’s Emily’s Balloon. Ask younger students to articulate first some similarities between the two books, then some differences between them. Create Venn diagrams with older students and ask them to compare the two books independently.

• Mindfulness

Bear’s grief turned into feelings of guilt and shame and negative internal dialogue. Begin a discussion by asking, “Why is being kind and forgiving of ourselves important?” and “How can we practice overcoming negative thoughts about ourselves?”

Bear’s internal thoughts are reset and his spirit is restored by the moon. Remind students that sometimes self-doubt and despair can’t be overcome solely through our own efforts, and when we have a “heavy heart,” it’s important to reach out to a family member or a friend. “Good bear. Kind bear. Don’t worry, bear” is the moon’s message for the bear. Help students create a short mantra they can recite to themselves when they are feeling self-doubt or sadness.