Celebrate National Poetry Month with two picture books that serve as engaging, accessible introductions to the world of verse while paying tribute to the Japanese poetic form of haiku.
In Fran Nuño’s The Dance of the Bees, translated from the Spanish by Jon Brokenbrow and featuring exquisite illustrations from Zuzanna Celej, a woman recalls walking in the woods as a girl with her grandmother. As they walked, her grandmother taught her about bees—how they pollinate flowers, provide honey and are “important for life on our planet.”
Nuño sets the story in the Japanese countryside, and the book has a classical, almost formal design. Each spread contains an illustration on one side and text on the other, both framed within gently hexagonal borders. On nearly every spread is a haiku, printed vertically next to a small symbol of nature. For instance, an early spread includes this evocative haiku: “Along the way / the buzzing of bees / and our footsteps.” Underneath is a small bee within a crimson-colored border.
In this lovingly designed book (which is printed on environmentally friendly paper with an appealing heft), Celej’s muted, earth-toned cut-paper illustrations are spare, textured and feature the elegant lines of traditional Japanese art. In one image, she offers a close-up view of a bee in flight. Papery gossamer wings carry the insect, described in the accompanying haiku as a “tiny mystery,” beneath a branch with delicate cherry blossoms.
Midway through the story, the girl, now a grown woman, visits the same wooded spot with her son. The pair follows a bee, which lands on a pile of stones. Underneath the stones, they find a notebook of 12 haiku written by the grandmother: “I kept them in a secret place where I was sure you would find them one day, thanks to the dance of the bees,” the notebook reads. Now the woman can share her grandmother’s poetry with the next generation.
Mark Karlins’ Kiyoshi’s Walk, illustrated by Nicole Wong, is also an intergenerational tale. Effortlessly knitting together themes of creativity and family, it’s an exploration of the source of poetic inspiration, as seen through the eyes of Kiyoshi, a young boy spending the day with his grandfather Eto.
When he sees Eto write a haiku with a brush and ink in traditional Japanese calligraphy, Kiyoshi is intrigued. “Where do poems come from?” he asks. Wisely, Kiyoshi’s grandfather decides to show (not tell) the boy and invites him for a walk. As they stroll through the city, Eto occasionally stops to compose a haiku.
Kiyoshi is observant as he seeks out what inspires his grandfather. If a heap of oranges outside of a market—and the cat who topples those oranges—inspires a haiku, then Kiyoshi figures poems must come from seeing things. But then Eto writes a haiku after hearing pigeons and their “whir of feathers,” so the boy amends his statement: “Oh, you find poems by listening.” The gears in Kiyoshi’s head spin as he spends the day with his grandfather, eager to solve the mystery. Eventually the boy discovers that everything can contain poems—“the faces of the people, the sound of the river, the moon breaking from the clouds.”
Karlins grounds Kiyoshi’s Walk in the tangible details that grandfather and grandson experience, ordinary moments that become extraordinary when seen through the eyes of a poet. The way the sun shines from behind a cloud, the flowers that grow out of sidewalk cracks, an abandoned house with a child’s toy left behind, a fleeting feeling of loneliness—observant eyes and open hearts know that any of these things can inspire a poem. Wong brings it all to vivid life with warmly colored, terrifically detailed illustrations of the pair’s walk through the city.
Celebrate National Poetry Month with two picture books that serve as engaging, accessible introductions to the world of verse while paying tribute to the Japanese poetic form of haiku.
Climb a tree, splash in a creek, dig in the dirt, bask in the sun—and take these wonder-filled books along as you discover all the marvels of nature and explore our responsibility to preserve and protect this beautiful planet.
Once Upon Another Time
To introduce a child to Earth’s natural splendor, start with Once Upon Another Time. This poetic ode, written by Charles Ghigna and Matt Forrest Esenwine, is short on text but packs an understated, powerful punch about stewardship. Without an ounce of sanctimony, it vitally conveys how humans have transformed Earth’s landscape.
Opening with idyllic scenes of snowy mountain peaks, rivers running through golden canyons and wild animals grazing in a lush valley, the book pivots to show how humans have filled these vistas with highways, skyscrapers, smog and machinery. Andrés F. Landazábal’s luminous illustrations span the long sweep of history, depicting everything from the cosmos, when “Earth and moon / and stars awakened,” to a modern cityscape observed by a child through their apartment window.
Once Upon Another Time concludes with a stirring call to action, urging readers to “take a step outdoors. / Breathe in air that once was shared / by monstrous dinosaurs!” Scenes of kids playing in a city park, exploring a meadow and camping under the stars will appeal to readers’ senses, urging them to hold an oak leaf, taste the rain, smell the clover and listen to the bees. This stellar book is sure to send kids outdoors equipped with new ways of observing and appreciating their surroundings.
Hello, Earth!
For readers ready to dig a little deeper, Hello, Earth! Poems to Our Planet is the perfect next step. In a collection of appealing and accessible poems, Newbery Honor author Joyce Sidman examines geology, the solar system, natural history and geography. Several pages of back matter, including short scientific explanations of each poem and website links and suggestions for further reading, complete the package.
Sidman’s verses zoom through our planet’s long history, with stops in a jungle teeming with wildlife, a seemingly barren desert and more. In “Big and Small,” Sidman writes, “We need to figure out / the way / we fit together.” Many of the poems gently speak to the need for respect: “Earth, / you are our ship / through light / and darkness. / We will honor you.”
Miren Asiain Lora’s art depicts vast spaces in which humans are small figures amid wide-angle landscapes, a subtle but effective reminder of our place in this big world. Her spreads are bathed in slate blues and earth tones, so splashes of warmth from erupting volcanoes or the beams of a lighthouse really pop. Hello, Earth! is an excellent handbook for the youngest of Earth’s caretakers.
★ Wonder Walkers
Yearning to transform an ordinary day into an extraordinary adventure? Micha Archer’s Wonder Walkers is an exceptional, radiant tribute to the power of curiosity.
On a bright, sunny day, a girl and a boy lounge inside on the couch and pose a magical question: “Wonder walk?” This is their code for a special journey they’ve obviously taken many times before. Once outside, they ask—but don’t answer—a series of “wonder” questions that are guaranteed to perplex and delight: “Is the sun the world’s light bulb?” “Are trees the sky’s legs?” “Is the wind the world breathing?”
Archer’s exceptional collage illustrations are full of vibrant colors and textures, from striations in underground rocks and roots to swirling clouds at sunset. This book is about not only observing and pondering but also actively exploring, and on page after page, the young explorers peer into a cave, climb a massive tree, run through a valley and sink their toes into a sandy beach. Wonder Walkers is chock-full of joy, beauty and creative thinking, certain to encourage young readers to head straight outside and dream up their own imaginative questions.
★ Fatima’s Great Outdoors
For the ultimate outdoor adventure, nothing beats a camping trip. In Fatima’s Great Outdoors, Fatima Khazi is looking forward to her first such expedition after a difficult week at school dealing with microaggressions from her classmates and culminating in a bad grade on her math quiz. On the drive to the campground, excitement builds as Fatima, her parents and her older sister snack on homemade samosas and belt out Bollywood tunes.
Once the family arrives at the state park, things don’t exactly go smoothly. Fatima’s father puzzles over tent setup until Fatima suggests they read the instructions, and then she has a hard time falling asleep after spotting the frightening shadow of a spider. Despite the setbacks she encounters, Fatima’s time spent in nature, which includes wilderness chores like gathering kindling, makes her feel like a “superhero” and reminds her of “how she used to feel in India: She had fun, she didn’t feel sad or scared, and she loved how adventure was around every corner.”
Ambreen Tariq’s writing is buoyant and full of wonderfully specific details, such as Papa’s “bear claw” hand on Fatima’s shoulder and Mama’s fearlessness in the face of creepy-crawlies. Stevie Lewis’ illustrations make each page sing, and her background in film animation especially shines when depicting the Khazis’ emotive faces. Lewis’ use of light is also splendid, from the golden glow of late afternoon sun through the trees’ canopy to the tiny sparkles of fireflies under the gleaming moonlight.
A closing spread shows the Khazis posing for a photo on a beach near a group of people holding a banner that reads, “Brown People Camping,” a real organization founded by Tariq to promote diversity in the outdoors. Fatima’s Great Outdoors seamlessly combines a celebration of adventures in nature with the story of an Indian American family navigating their new life in the United States.
Treaty Words
Treaty Words: For as Long as the Rivers Flow is an unusual book. At 60 pages, it’s longer than most picture books, and with minimal text, it takes its time in a quiet, purposeful way, just like the flowing river at the heart of its story about an Indigenous girl and her Mishomis (grandfather) who spend a day together by the river in front of his home.
The granddaughter is a city girl, but her Mishomis’ small parcel of land is “the closest thing to home for her.” Not only is her Mishomis an outdoorsman, backpacking for six weeks each spring, but he’s also actively involved in a host of environmental projects, including sturgeon restocking and territorial mapping. On this spring day, as they listen to the sounds of trees rustling, geese honking overhead and ice breaking on the river, the girl recognizes the “privilege to be there in that moment, witnessing this intense transition.”
Author Aimée Craft’s language is exquisitely lyrical. An Anishinaabe/Métis lawyer in Manitoba, Canada, a professor at the University of Ottawa and a leading researcher on Indigenous law, Craft writes beautifully about our responsibilities as Earth’s caretakers and the importance of treaties, which Mishomis calls “the basis of all relationships.”
Anishinaabe illustrator Luke Swinson uses seemingly simple shapes filled with gentle gradients of color; there’s a stillness to them that perfectly complements Craft’s text. This contemplative book is reminiscent of a great sermon, providing a springboard for deep thought. As Craft writes, “Every person was born with a set of spiritual instructions or understandings, my girl. It’s what we do with it that defines us as human beings.”
The Outdoor Scientist
Imagine having a chance to roam around with Temple Grandin, a Colorado State University professor renowned for her pioneering research on animal behavior and her work as an autism spokesperson. That’s exactly the treat in store for readers of The Outdoor Scientist: The Wonder of Observing the Natural World. This unique book is memoir, science guide and activity book all rolled into one. Perfect for independent readers, it’s Grandin’s personal invitation for children to become citizen scientists while exploring nature. The many projects she suggests (seashell wind chimes, pine cone animals and so on) are straightforward, with no fancy equipment required.
“I’ve always been curious about pretty much everything in nature, especially when some sleuthing is required,” Grandin writes. As a kid, the outdoors were her sanctuary, “away from everyone trying to make me catch up in reading and writing.” Grandin’s childhood stories are fun as well as fascinating, as she describes hours spent unsupervised, playing and exploring with her siblings—and family photos are included.
Discussions in each of the book’s six chapters (rocks, the beach, the woods, birds, the night skies and animal behavior) are wonderfully far-reaching, spanning everything from the pet rock craze of the 1970s to whether marbles are made of marble. Each subject transitions effortlessly to the next. Short sidebar biographies touch on other relevant scientists as well, emphasizing their childhoods and including kid-friendly facts. Did you know, for instance, that Charles Darwin was seasick nearly every day during the five years he spent aboard the Beagle?
Grandin’s enthusiasm for citizen science is contagious, and readers of all ages will adore spending time with The Outdoor Scientist. After all, as Grandin reminds us, “You don’t have to be a professor or a professional” to make a difference—“just someone who cares about the environment.”
Climb a tree, splash in a creek, dig in the dirt, bask in the sun—and take these wonder-filled books along as you discover all the marvels of nature and explore our responsibility to preserve and protect this beautiful planet.
Chapter books offer engaging opportunities for children to become confident, independent young readers. Two new chapter books, each the first in a series, combine all the heart and narrative complexity of middle grade novels with the brevity and supportive illustrations that are the hallmarks of great chapter books.
Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly’s first chapter book, Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey, introduces an endearing heroine that readers will root for from the very first page.
Marisol longs to climb the big magnolia tree in her backyard, which she has named Peppina. (Marisol believes in the importance of naming objects, from Buster Keaton the refrigerator to Charlie the family car.) Though Peppina seems like a perfect climbing tree, Marisol wouldn’t know because she’s afraid of heights. Marisol’s best friend, Jada, loves to climb Peppina, and so does Oz, Marisol’s big brother. But all Marisol can do is gaze at Peppina, imagine what it would be like to see the world from on high and wonder why she feels so scared.
As Peppina looms in her thoughts, Marisol plays with Jada, tolerates the dual annoyances of Oz and a nemesis at school and thrives under the care of her loving mother, a Filipina immigrant, and her father, who works far away but visits via the computer screen.
Kelly’s third-person narration is simple and clear as it captures Marisol’s perspective, allowing readers to see the world through her eyes. Black-and-white illustrations on nearly every page bring Marisol’s imagined scenarios to life while also breaking up the linear text for young readers. Yet Kelly cleverly incorporates speech bubbles and labels within the illustrations for additional textual engagement. Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey will encourage readers who fear the possibility of failure to look forward to a brighter future.
In Jo Jo Makoons: The Used-to-Be Best Friend, author Dawn Quigley creates a sparkling portrait of an Ojibwe girl and her life on a fictional reservation. Full of personality, Jo Jo is frank about her strengths (math and drawing) and her weaknesses (language arts), but her biggest challenge is feeling secure in her friendships. Her first best friend is her cat, Mimi, whom she hopes to protect from the veterinarian. Her second best friend is her classmate Fern, but since Fern hasn’t been sitting with her at lunch lately, Jo Jo is afraid that Fern doesn’t want to be best friends anymore.
Over the course of an adventurous day, readers come to know Jo Jo’s quirky perspective, her insecurities and her cultural identity, which informs how she sees the world. Jo Jo has a sense of humor and a playful attitude, and she also misinterprets dialogue and body language, all of which is sure to lead to plenty of giggles. Jo Jo’s family, teachers and friends keep her on her toes, learning and growing.
Quigley’s first-person narration is fast paced, witty and engaging, while illustrator Tara Audibert’s black-and-white cartoon-style illustrations assist with character development and deepen the story’s setting. An author’s note and glossary provide context about the Ojibwe people and the Ojibwe and Michif words used in the text, which will be familiar to readers once they’ve finished reading this delightful book.
Two new chapter books, each the first in a series, combine all the heart and narrative complexity of middle grade novels with the brevity and supportive illustrations that are the hallmarks of great chapter books.
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.
Every year, I read Peter Spier’s People with my second graders. I have a class set of this classic picture book, which means each child can hold their own copy as I read aloud. They follow along with me and study each detailed page. Spier organized his book so that the similarities and differences between countries and cultures are highlighted. He touches on topics including clothing and hairstyles, holidays and celebrations, and diets and delicacies, revealing what makes every person unique and special.
Each time we come to the spread about world religions, I’m reminded how ahead of his time Spier was in how he presentated faith and spirituality to children. “We practice nine main religions—and there are thousands of others as well,” he writes. “Many people believe in one God . . . and millions of others believe in many gods. And millions more do not believe in anything at all.” It’s an informative, inclusive perspective without a trace of didacticism.
I believe it’s important to discuss religion and spirituality with children. Students need a space where they can share their families' beliefs, traditions and celebrations with each other. As they share, they’ll begin to understand the beautiful variety of religious and spiritual beliefs that many people hold.
I wish the four picture books in this column had existed when I was in elementary school. They all convey important information in the context of beautifully illustrated stories. As spring unfolds and we make our way through all the religious observances and holidays it brings, these are wonderful books to share with students to equip them with knowledge they’ll carry far beyond your classroom walls.
In My Mosque By M.O. Yuksel Illustrated by Hatem Aly
A little boy welcomes readers to his mosque. “In my mosque, we are a rainbow of colors and speak in different accents. As-salaamu alaykum—I greet my friends and newcomers too. Everyone is welcome here,” he explains. In straightforward prose, author M.O. Yuksel conveys how the mosque serves as a place for prayer, worship, study and play. It’s also a center for community, where people gather to hear “stories of living in harmony together as one,” snack on “naan, samsa, and sweet melon slices after prayers” and “learn to help others whenever we can.”
Hatem Aly’s cheerful jewel-toned illustrations incorporate intricate calligraphic patterns as they depict an ordinary day at a mosque. The book’s extensive back matter contains information about well-know and historically significant mosques around the world and a glossary for the Arabic words that are included throughout the text. Informative and joyful, In My Mosque is a strong introductory source that will provide vital context for further exploration of Islamic traditions and holidays.
Mosques around the world
Aly’s illustrations depict a variety of geographically and architecturally diverse mosques. Use Google Earth to create a tour of locations or Google Images to create a slideshow of photographs of the historic mosques that are listed in the book’s back matter. As a class, compare the photos with the book’s illustrations to identify which mosques Aly depicts.
With older students, photocopy the pages in the back matter and hand them out to each student. Again using Google Earth or a photographic slideshow, show students one mosque at a time and see if they can identify it using the descriptions from the back matter.
Same, same, but different
Explore the similarities and differences between the little boy’s mosque experiences and your students’ experiences in their mosques, churches, synagogues, cathedrals or other community gathering places. My second graders filled up a large sheet of chart paper with similarities and then recognized just as many differences. It’s rewarding for students to realize how different faith traditions can be and yet how many common features they can also share.
Saint Spotting By Chris Raschka
Author-illustrator Chris Raschka draws on his childhood memories to create a picture book that pays tribute to the “light, not scary, and even kind of floaty” way he and his mother liked to visit new churches. By visiting and identifying each saint in the church, then telling their story, Raschka’s mother transformed a weighty, unknown place into a space of familiar faces and stories. As the pair begins in the back of a cathedral and works their way forward, they encounter a host of saints, from kind Saint Anthony to generous Saint Nicholas. When they reach the altar, they pause to gaze at Jesus, “the reason for churches being around at all.”
Raschka uses warm, bright colors in his watercolor illustrations to evoke the transcendent ways saints are usually depicted, but his pictures have a simplicity that brings his divine subjects a little closer to earth. Sincere, warmhearted and accessible, this story of stories is an excellent introduction to the concept of saints.
Sharing saint stories
Begin with a simple explanation of the concept of saints, then read a few stories aloud. In my class we read Tomie dePaola’s Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland, then we read a few stories from Carey Wallace and Nick Thornborrow’s excellent Stories of the Saints. We read about Saint Francis in Katherine Paterson and Pamela Dalton’s Brother Sun, Sister Moon and about Saint Nicholas in Demi’s The Legend of Saint Nicholas, and we ended by taking a few class periods to relish Margaret Hodges and Trina Schart Hyman’s Caldecott Medal-winning Saint George and the Dragon.
Personal symbol portraits
Raschka’s mother teaches him to use the saints’ icons and symbols to identify them. A saint’s icon often represents an aspect of their life. Encourage children to choose a symbol or an object that reflects their personal interests or life. Use artistic depictions of saints as inspiration and invite students to draw, paint or collage a self-portrait that incorporates their chosen symbol and uses colors and other design elements intentionally to reflect their personality and identity.
Reading buildings
Once Raschka learned to “read” churches, they became less intimidating to him. Use his experience as a springboard to learn about other buildings. If possible, invite an architect from your community to come and speak to your class. Read sections from Speck Lee Tailfeather’s Architecture According to Pigeons and David Macaulay’s Built to Last, then show students photographs that illustrate some of the concepts they encountered in those books.
To Carnival! By Baptiste Paul Illustrated by Jana Glatt
On the island of Saint Lucia, Melba is excited for Carnival, a multiday celebration that takes place before Lent, the 40 days of sacrifice and penance leading up to Easter Sunday. On her journey into town, Melba meets Misyé Francois the steel pan drummer and a host of friends who are all headed joyfully down the mountain to join the Carnival festivities.
Illustrator Jana Glatt’s bold primary colors convey the celebratory atmosphere, and the book’s Caribbean setting is full of tropical foliage and island animals, including two bright green jacquots, the national bird of Saint Lucia. The book’s back matter includes personal notes from the author and illustrator, a glossary of Saint Lucien Creole words used in the story and further information about Saint Lucia and Carnival celebrations around the world. To Carnival! captures the spirit and cheer of an exciting holiday.
Travel itinerary
Download and print copies of this Saint Lucia travel brochure created by the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority. In pairs or small groups, students can use the brochure to plan a hypothetical three- or four-day trip to the island. Instruct students to include details such as where they will stay, what they will eat and how they will explore the island.
Creative kites
Melba’s friend Kenwin flies a colorful kite on his way to Carnival, and Melba helps him untangle it from a tree branch. The book’s back matter explains that a kite-flying festival is held in Saint Lucia every year on Easter Monday.
Cut large, kite-shaped diamonds out of pieces of 11-inch by 17-inch poster board. Provide colorful construction paper and tissue paper shapes so that students can design their own kites. Use rolls of crepe paper for the tails. Hang the kites from your classroom ceiling or along a classroom clothesline.
The Passover Guest By Susan Kusel Illustrated by Sean Rubin
Muriel, who lives in Washington, D.C., during the Great Depression, loves springtime, when she can “feel Passover in the air.” But Passover will be different this year because Muriel’s father, “like so many others,” is unemployed, and there isn't enough money to buy food for their Passover seder. During her walk home on the first night of Passover, a man juggling in front of the Lincoln Memorial catches Muriel’s eye. After she puts her only penny in his hat, the man encourages Muriel to hurry home because Passover is about to start. “You don’t want to miss your seder,” he says.
Confused, Muriel rushes home to find her parents sitting sadly at an empty table. As they get up to go find another home where they can celebrate, the mysterious stranger appears at their door. Suddenly their home is transformed, filled with candles and mountains of food, enough to provide a feast for their entire neighborhood. The rabbi declares the abundant meal a true Passover miracle. When Muriel realizes they forgot to leave the door open for the prophet Elijah, she discovers that his cup of wine is completely empty.
Inspired by Uri Shulevitz’s 1973 picture book, The Magician (which itself is an adaptation of Polish writer Isaac Leib Peretz’s 1904 Yiddish short story of the same name), this atmospheric and hopeful retelling is filled with warmth and rooted in the specificity of Washington, D.C.’s historic Jewish community.
Passover perspectives
I read my students a few informational books about Passover history, customs and traditions before we read The Passover Guest together. Click here for a selection of the titles we explored. We also looked at historical Passover objects and photographs from the Jewish Museum’s online collection and watched a short video. We recorded Passover vocabulary and traditions on two pieces of chart paper so we could refer to them while we read The Passover Guest. Building a solid foundation of information enabled students to grasp the story with deeper meaning and insight.
Tell it again
The Passover Guest was adapted from a short story that has inspired several picture books. Listen to Renée Brachfeld’s retelling of the short story and show students illustrations created by Uri Shulevitz and Marc Chagall. Compare Brachfeld’s recording to The Passover Guest. Ask students to articulate how they can identify the place and time of its setting. List similarities and differences between the two versions of the tale.
Next, guide your students through writing a new retelling of the original story. Older students can do this exercise individually or in pairs. My students chose 1960s Nashville for the setting of our retelling and enjoyed deciding which familiar landmark our magician would be spotted at. Our cowboy boot-clad magician was playing a guitar on the steps of the Parthenon in Nashville’s Centennial Park when the protagonist noticed him.
Every year, I read Peter Spier’s People with my second graders. I have a class set of this classic picture book, which means each child can hold their own copy as I read aloud. They follow along with me and study each detailed page.
It’s always important to let Mom know how much you love her. Two picture books celebrate what makes moms magnificent, putting Mom on the proper pedestal. One sings of the sacred connection between mother and child, while the other is packed with sass, silliness and ceaseless devotion.
If you’re searching for the perfect gift for someone’s first Mother’s Day, look no further than I Sang You Down From the Stars. Rooted in Indigenous traditions and cultures, it beautifully expresses a mother’s hopes, dreams and love for her newborn.
A Cree and Trinidadian writer living in Manitoba, Canada, author Tasha Spillett-Sumner conveys much with few words, particularly in the lines that open and close the book: “I loved you before I met you. Before I held you in my arms, I sang you down from the stars.” A pregnant woman addresses her unborn child as she collects items such as an eagle feather and a river stone for a medicine bundle. It’s “something that the child can carry and lean on through their life journey,” Spillett-Sumner explains in an author’s note.
Exquisite illustrations by 2021 Caldecott Medalist Michaela Goade (We Are Water Protectors) contain a blend of earthly and ethereal touches. As we see the mother prepare for her child’s birth and then hold her newborn, and as friends and family welcome the new arrival, Goade surrounds each scene with a starry “swoosh” that depicts the “flow of energy that connects all living things.” This understated but omnipresent magical swirl leads readers from page to page. Rich, saturated shades of blue, purple, green and vermillion lend worldly weight to the text’s celestial themes.
I Sang You Down From the Stars marvelously conveys not only the bonds between mother and child but also the multitude of connections that await every child—connections to family, community and Earth itself.
What happens when that newborn bundle of joy grows up to become a real, live kid? What does it take to be a modern mom? Your Mama is an exuberant ode to supermoms everywhere. Author NoNieqa Ramos transforms “your mama” jokes into a series of poetic tributes from a daughter to her mom. For instance, “Your mama so strong, she like a marine. Up three flights of stairs, carries the groceries.”
Indeed, this cool mama is as comfortable showing her daughter how to fly a drone as she is wearing a flowing dress and high heels at parents’ night at school. She can sew costumes, plan spectacular parties and become a tour guide on rip-roaring road trips. Her adoring daughter knows all too well that this mama is her “A-Team.”
Ramos never forgets to include reality amid all the adulation. Even after the daughter messes with her mother’s makeup, uses the couch as a trampoline and makes her mother “cray cray,” her mama is still “so forgiving, she lets you keep on living.” Mama also instills important values in her daughter, taking her along every time she votes and reminding her that true wealth means “rollin’ in” friends, family and “you, her gold.”
Jacqueline Alcántara’s illustrations are as lively as Ramos’ text. They burst with bright colors, strong outlines and movement, whether Mama is marching into the library with a stack of books or jumping sky-high on the couch with her daughter. Humor and happiness fill every page, from a scene of highway karaoke with a hairbrush microphone to a spread in their kitchen in which Mama offers her daughter a lick from the cake mixer as Ramos muses, “She’s the cinnamon to your tembleque, the tres leches to your cake.”
Your Mama hits the perfect note of sweetness, without an ounce of treacle.
It’s always important to let Mom know how much you love her. Two picture books celebrate what makes moms magnificent, putting Mom on the proper pedestal.
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.
One of my favorite movies is John Crowley’s 2015 film, Brooklyn, adapted for film by Nick Hornby from Colm Tóibin’s novel of the same name. It’s the story of Eilis Lacey, a young woman played by Saoirse Ronan, who leaves her home in a small Irish village for a new life in New York City in the early 1950s. It’s tender, unassuming and deeply moving.
In the final lines of the film, Eilis gives some advice to another young woman who’s making the same journey that she did from Ireland to America:
"You'll feel so homesick that you'll want to die, and there's nothing you can do about it apart from endure it. But you will, and it won't kill you. And one day the sun’ll come out. You might not even notice straight away, it'll be that faint. And then you'll catch yourself thinking about something or someone who has no connection with the past, someone who’s only yours. And you’ll realize that this is where your life is.”
These lines, delivered in Ronan’s Irish brogue, kept running through my mind as I read these books aloud with my students.
Leaving home is hard and, as Eilis experienced, many immigrants feel caught between two places and struggle to define what home means. As they validate how challenging adjusting to a new home can be, these three picture books offer hope for children who have immigrated to a new country and light for all those still in the opening chapters of their life’s story.
Home Is in Between By Mitali Perkins Illustrated by Lavanya Naidu
“Goodbye, home!” Shanti shouts as she waves to her grandmother, Didu, and the familiar surroundings of her village in India. When her plane lands, she discovers that her new home is “a town with cold rain / And orange and yellow leaves.” Adjusting is challenging. Shanti celebrates Indian traditions and customs and learns new American ones, always “remembering the village. Learning the town. Again and again. In Between.” At first, Shanti skips buoyantly through new experiences, such as Hollywood movies and Halloween, but eventually Shanti becomes exhausted from traversing between two cultures. “Where was she from? Village? Town?” she wonders. Resting in this question restores Shanti’s spirit and reminds her that perhaps the best home is actually in between. Accessible and sincere, Shanti’s story shines a light on the challenges and joys of inhabiting, embracing and celebrating two cultures.
Illustration conversations
Discuss the concept of a picture book’s gutter, the vertical seam between the left (or verso) and right (or recto) pages formed by the book’s binding. Share examples of books that effectively use the gutter to extend the narrative or to add meaning to the story. I used Chris Raschka’s Yo! Yes?, Matthew Cordell’s Hello! Hello!, Jon Agee’s The Wall in the Middle of the Book and Suzy Lee’s Wave.
Reread Home Is in Between and let students articulate how Naidu uses the gutter to differentiate between the two cultures depicted in the book. Naidu places Shanti’s apartment, full of keepsakes and reminders of her life in India, on the left side of the gutter, while on the right are Shanti’s experiences in her new American town. Ask students, “What do you notice about Shanti’s position on the pages? What does this tell us about Shanti’s thoughts about her two homes?”
Classroom celebrations
Shanti calls her family in India on the day of the Holi festival. Read aloud an informational book about Holi and invite students to share ideas for how Holi could be celebrated in the classroom. Next, divide students into small groups and provide books or online resources that explain a variety of cultural celebrations and holidays. Each group will choose a celebration to present to the class. Presentations must include information about the history of the celebration and where and how it is celebrated. Each group will also plan two to three ways to acknowledge the celebration in the classroom and choose a date that the celebration will occur.
Goodbye pictures
When Shanti leaves India, Shanti tells her grandmother goodbye, but she also waves goodbye to “warm monsoon rains. And the green palm trees of her village.” Before dismissing children for the day, gather them together and tell them that their homework is to notice what they especially love about their community, town or geographical region. Show them a few pictures of places that are significantly different from your area (I used pictures of the Arizona desert and the Australian coast). Ask them to draw on their five senses and brainstorm about what they know and love about their corner of the world. What are two things they would miss if they had to move away from this area? The next day, invite students to share their brainstorming and provide paper for them to write and illustrate their goodbyes on.
Watercress By Andrea Wang
Illustrated by Jason Chin
A young girl is annoyed when her parents pull their car over to the side of the road in the middle of an Ohio corn field to gather watercress. The uncomfortable, tedious process transforms the girl’s annoyance into disgust and embarrassment. When the watercress is served at dinner that night, she crosses her arms and refuses to eat. But when her mother shares the heartbreaking story of the famine that took her brother’s life during her childhood in China, the girl views the watercress on her family table with new understanding and deep appreciation. Using a single event to illustrate the misunderstandings that can happen between first-generation immigrants and their children, Watercress illuminates the importance of knowing, embracing and valuing cultural heritage.
Food recollections
Watercress is much more than just a vegetable to the girl’s mother. It brings back memories and is a “delicate and slightly bitter” symbol of her childhood in China. Invite students to consider a food or dish that symbolizes a family tradition or holds strong memories. Give them time to free write, then guide them through turning their thoughts into a short essay rich with sensory language. This exercise is a good opportunity for teaching students how to incorporate figurative language into narrative writing.
Word meanings
The girl’s mother praises watercress for being free, but to the girl, “Free is bad. Free is hand-me-down clothes and roadside trash-heap furniture and now, dinner from a ditch.” Lead students in a discussion about the word free. Based on the mother’s story and the history of China, what do they think free symbolizes for her? Write the word at the top of a piece of chart paper and make a T-chart. Making inferences from the book's text and illustrations, fill one column with the mother’s definition and thoughts about the word and the other column with the daughter’s ideas and connotations.
At home with culture
Though the family lives in Ohio, the girl’s parents are intentional about honoring their Chinese heritage. Take a picture walk through the book and ask students to identify specific details in the illustrations that signify the family’s heritage. My classes found several examples in the dining room scenes. Encourage students to notice cultural elements present in their own homes or in the home of relatives. Invite older students to journal about the ways their home decor or family routines reflect their heritage or their family’s values. If time allows, read books that contain pictures of homes around the world and discuss similarities and differences.
Miguel loves his life in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He loves flying kites by el Morro, the old fort; playing baseball with his friends at the park; buying quesitos, his favorite treat, from the bakery; and listening to his abuelo’s stories. Most of all, he loves his pet frog, Coquí, who accompanies him on all of these activities, because he is “part of the familia.” When Miguel’s parents tell him that they will be moving to the U.S. mainland, Miguel worries about missing all his favorite things, but most of all, he knows he will miss Coquí, who must stay behind. When Miguel and Mama venture into their New York City neighborhood for the first time, Miguel is overwhelmed by “the newness of everything.” His spirits lift when they find a park and he discovers familiar sights and sounds, including a pond with several frogs. On the journey home, they pass a bakery selling quesitos. Drifting off to sleep that night, Miguel realizes that San Juan will always be a part of him. Though some things are “definitely different in New York,” other things are “just the same.”
Venn diagram
This book offers a wonderful opportunity to introduce young students to Venn diagrams. As a class, create a Venn diagram that compares Miguel’s life in San Juan and New York City. Be sure to leave enough room in the overlapping section in the center to list similarities. Use the diagram to spark a conversation about similarities and differences between cities around the world. If any of the students in your class are immigrants themselves, invite them to share experiences and traditions they remember from their home cities and to reflect on which experiences are different and which are “just the same” as their experiences in the United States.
Further reading
There is an abundance of wonderful books about children who leave home and move to another place. Extend Miguel’s experience by sharing more immigration stories with students. My favorites include Junot Díaz and Leo Espinosa’s Islandborn, Aliki’s Marianthe’s Story, Riki Levinson and Diane Goode’s Watch the Stars Come Out and Thrity Umrigar and Khoa Le’s Sugar in Milk. For older readers, I recommend Jasmine Warga’s Other Words for Home and Bette Bao Lord and Marc Simon’s In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson.
Leaving home is hard and many immigrants feel caught between two places and struggle to define what home means. As they validate how challenging adjusting to a new home can be, these three picture books offer hope for children who have immigrated to a new country and light for all those still in the opening chapters of their life’s story.;
Who are Americans, and what do they believe? How does our history shape our future? Six exceptional picture books explore our complicated, captivating country and offer meaningful perspectives on these vital questions about the great American experiment.
America, My Love, America, My Heart
In the author’s noteof America, My Love, America, My Heart, Daria Peoples-Riley recalls growing up as “the only brown girl” at school, which made her feel like she wasn’t “free to be myself. . . . My country, America, didn’t feel free to me.” Her book is a glorious gift that will reassure children that they don’t have to change to accommodate people who don’t love every part of who they are.
In spare text accompanied by powerful images, Peoples-Riley conveys big, beautiful ideas. The first page depicts the narrator, a Black boy in a red shirt, his arms outspread, standing in a spotlight and looking down at his eagle-shaped shadow. “America, the Brave. America, the Bold,” writes Peoples-Riley.
From this striking opening, the book launches into a series of questions the boy asks his country. “Do you love me when I raise my hand? My head? My voice? When I whisper? When I SHOUT?” he wants to know. Complex legacies of injustice and activism are embedded in every question.
Peoples-Riley’s muted spreads contain splashes of red, white and blue that pop with pride on every page. Her illustrations portray people of various ages and many different skin tones. She employs a variety of settings, including vast fields, towering cityscapes and the interiors of churches and classrooms. The book builds toward a resounding challenge to embody the American ideal of inclusiveness: “America, Land of the Free. America, ’Tis of Thee. America, I am you. America, you are me.”
America, My Love, America, My Heart is exquisitely wrought and provides a perfect first glimpse at patriotism and equality.
We Are Still Here!
In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Indian Appropriations Act, which effectively declared that Native tribes and nations were not sovereign entities with whom the federal government could form treaties. Indigenous people often disappear from American history curricula after this event. “We are still here!” is the resounding refrain of Traci Sorell and Frané Lessac’s excellent informational picture book, We Are Still Here!: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know.
Sorell, who is a dual citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the United States, has created an amazing repository of Native American history and presents it in an engaging, accessible manner. The book is her second collaboration with American-born Australian illustrator Lessac; their first, We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga, received a Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award Honor in 2019.
The book’s title page shows a diverse group of students and their families entering the Native Nations Community School, where a clapboard by the door reveals that they’re celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Subsequent spreads represent student reports on topics such as assimilation, relocation and tribal activism. This framing device is a clever way to address many issues, with bright, colorful and kid-friendly illustrations depicting both the historical topics and the school scenes. Detailed back matter—which includes further information on each topic, an extensive timeline, a glossary, a bibliography and an author’s note—reveals the careful research that informs each spread.
An excellent resource, We Are Still Here! is an important book that highlights the sovereignty, strength and resilience of Native American peoples, tribes and nations despite centuries of mistreatment.
Areli Is a Dreamer
Areli Morales describes her personal experience growing up as an immigrant who came to America without legal permission in Areli Is a Dreamer: A True Story, a heartwarming, thoughtful and accessible introduction to contemporary immigration issues. The book will be simultaneously published in a Spanish-language edition, translated by Polo Orozco.
Morales excels at gently conveying the emotional challenges of her story. Readers meet young Areli when she and her older brother, Alex, are living with their abuela in Mexico. Areli’s parents, who have already immigrated to New York, have “been away so long, they felt like strangers.” When Areli finally joins them, she is heartbroken at leaving her grandmother and friends behind but thrilled to be reunited with her family.
However, Areli’s new city is intimidating, and her classmates tease her and call her “an illegal.” When her mother explains that without legal documentation, Areli can be sent back to Mexico and can’t become a citizen, she struggles to understand. She begins to grasp the significance of her journey during a field trip to Ellis Island. In a memorable spread, Areli gazes at the Statue of Liberty and envisions a boat full of immigrants. “She did not feel illegal,” Morales writes. “She felt like she was part of something very big.”
Despite the hardships and uncertainty that Areli experiences, Luisa Uribe’s illustrations portray scenes of Areli’s family, as well as her changing surroundings from Mexico to New York, in a lively, reassuring way. An energetic scene of July Fourth fireworks conveys Areli’s feelings of acceptance in her new home, while a visual motif of stars highlights her hopes and dreams for a bright future.
Areli Is a Dreamer speaks to the fears and difficulties of immigration in a well-told story that never loses sight of its young heroine’s hopes and dreams. It’s a touching portrait of a loving, determined family as they deal with uncertainty and discover what it means to be American.
A Day for Rememberin’
A Day for Rememberin’ is a fictionalized account of the incredible events that occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 1, 1865. In one of the first known observances of Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day, 10,000 formerly enslaved people, along with other members of the community, decorated the graves of 257 Union soldiers who died and were buried at a racetrack that had been used as a Confederate prison during the Civil War.
Leah Henderson tells this story through the eyes of 10-year-old Eli. In lively prose, she incorporates details about Eli’s family at this critical juncture in American history. Eli’s parents had been enslaved. His mother secretly taught herself to read and tells her son that he has the “hard-earned right to learn and what it’s gonna get you beyond.” On this special day, Eli is proud to be chosen to lead a procession of children to the graves because he’s “fastest at learning [his] numbers and letters.”
Using warm sepia tones, Coretta Scott King Award-winning illustrator Floyd Cooper brings the newly freed people in Eli’s community to life, filling their faces with expressions of determination, remembrance, mourning and celebration. Henderson’s writing is specific and energetic, from the roses and hawthornes carried by Eli’s classmates to his mother’s calico dress to Eli’s description of leading the parade: “Right out in front, I stomp, knees high.”
A Day for Rememberin’ relates a fascinating, little-known historical event with a moving story about slavery, freedom and the importance of honoring those who sacrifice their lives for others. Sumptuously told and illustrated, it’s likely to be long remembered.
Twenty-One Steps
“I am Unknown. I am one of many,” declares the narrator of Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Author Jeff Gottesfeld writes from the perspective of the first soldier to be interred at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. His book describes the monument’s history, the rigor of the highly select group of people who serve as guards and the meticulous changing of the guard ceremony.
This is by no means an easy subject for a picture book, but Gottesfeld navigates the tricky turf well. Though his focus is on the Tomb itself, the specter of “combat’s vile fury” hangs over many of the spreads. In an appropriately elegiac tone, the text delicately evokes a range of emotions and images, including the horrors of World War I’s bayonets and mustard gas, the grief of surviving family and friends, and the admiration and remembrances of those who flock to the monument to “marvel at our sentinels.”
Illustrator Matt Tavares knows his way around American history, having previously illustrated books about Benjamin Franklin, Helen Keller, John F. Kennedy and even the Statue of Liberty. He begins with an engaging close-up of a framed photograph of a Black soldier, suggesting what the unknown soldier interred in the Tomb might look like. His illustrations show the Tomb during the day and at night, in snow, sleet and under bright skies, emphasizing the unwavering presence of its guards.
Twenty-One Steps is such a vivid tribute that readers will practically hear the rhythmic click of the guards’ heels as they walk back and forth, a measured reminder of the loss and sacrifice the Tomb represents.
This Very Tree
Native New Yorker Sean Rubin tells the story of a Callery pear tree that survived the September 11 terrorist attack on his city in This Very Tree: A Story of 9/11, Resilience, and Regrowth, transforming the tree’s story into a beautiful allegory about trauma and healing.
Writing from the tree’s perspective, Rubin describes the moment of the attack in plainspoken language: “It was an ordinary moment. Until it wasn’t.” A multipanel spread shows glimpses of stunned onlookers’ faces, the pants and shoes of people running away, debris, smoke and flames, followed by a spread that shows the tree buried beneath a mountain of twisted black and gray metal. “Around me it was dark and hot and close. Did the sun even exist anymore?” the tree recalls. After being pulled from the wreckage, the tree is taken to a nursery, where it spends nine years healing. Ultimately the tree is returned to the plaza at the Sept. 11 memorial.
The process of excavating, rescuing and bringing the tree back to life is likely to fascinate young readers. A spread of eight panels reveals parallel stages in the construction of One World Trade Center and the tree’s regrowth. Rubin’s text often includes emotional details that will help readers relate to the tree’s journey. As it’s transported back through the city, the tree reveals that it’s worried. “What if something bad happened again?” Rubin keeps the story simple and focused, relying on ample back matter to provide curious readers with further information. It makes for a stirring story of hope and healing in the aftermath of immense tragedy.
Six exceptional picture books explore our complicated, captivating country and offer meaningful perspectives on these vital questions about the great American experiment.
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.
The months of May and June are greeted with joy and relief by teachers and students alike, because they mean that summer break is just around the corner. As spirits and temperatures rise, so too does students’ energy. Every school year eventually reaches a point where typical classroom routines become a thing of the past, when attempting to stick to focused lessons is a recipe for frustration.
I like to capitalize on this restless year-end energy with art projects, nature walks and library scavenger hunts, but these activities are far more than mere time fillers. They are always extensions of a book. I’ve spent much of the past week cleaning our library tables after art activities, and my white cardigan is now dotted with green and blue. My students’ colorful tissue paper collages (inspired by Eric Carle’s The Tiny Seed), watercolor and pastel nature scenes (inspired by Barb Rosenstock and Mary GrandPré’s Mornings With Monet) and colored pencil flowers (inspired by Shawn Harris’ Have You Ever Seen a Flower?) fill my heart with happiness.
These three picture books introduce women who used their artistic gifts to showcase the simple things in life, raise awareness about important issues and add beauty to the world. I can’t wait to share their stories with my students and invite them to share in that beauty through creative projects.
“Wherever in our world / we want to go, we go— / Pa and me,” declares young Henriette Wyeth, the oldest child of illustrator N.C. Wyeth. In lyrical first-person prose, author Beth Kephart narrates a day that Henriette spends outdoors with her father. The pair slips away from the rest of their family to explore the land around their Pennsylvania farmhouse, taking time to notice and paint the foliage, creatures and vistas. Pa encourages Henriette to sense deeply and “love the object for its own sake.” Gentle and reflective, this poetic book introduces students to a renowned family of artists and showcases the power of noticing nature’s unassuming beauty.
Nature still life
Take students on a nature walk around the school grounds. Encourage them to collect pieces of nature that they find beautiful. When you return to the classroom, read the page from the book where Pa reminds Henriette to “love the object for its own sake.”
Give each student a small stack of index cards. Provide many different art mediums, such as crayons, graphite pencils, markers, watercolors, washable paint and colored pencils. Invite students to depict their object in as many ways as possible. Encourage them not just to use different mediums but also to vary their approaches to perspective, color, symmetry, line and so on.
Wyeth family art study
Read aloud Kephart’s author’s note, which identifies Pa as N.C. Wyeth, who was an American painter and one of the most well-known illustrators of the golden age of illustration. Discuss the story’s historical time period and look at Wyeth’s iconic illustrations of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe’s Kidnapped and more. Display an illustration and ask students to describe what they see and then ask them to write a short one-paragraph story about the illustration. This exercise helps students understand that illustration is a narrative art, filled with story.
Provide oversize books that showcase Wyeth’s artwork or create a slideshow of some of his most recognizable paintings. Take a picture walk through And I Paint It and see whether students can identify settings or landscapes that are drawn from Wyeth’s paintings. Finally, look at paintings from all five of the Wyeth children and encourage students to articulate similarities and differences between them.
Make Meatballs Sing: The Life & Art of Corita Kent By Matthew Burgess Illustrated by Kara Kramer
As a child, Frances Elizabeth Kent loved to sneak away from her five siblings to draw and daydream. After college, she decided to pursue a religious life as a nun. Now known by her monastic name, Sister Mary Corita, she began teaching art at Immaculate Heart College, where she encouraged her students to “see the sacred in the everyday.” Her work soon became inspired by new techniques and perspectives, such as screenprinting, mass media and advertising, and she used her art to bring awareness to injustice, including poverty and racism.
Illustrator Kara Kramer’s bright, graphic, neon-hued illustrations reflect Corita’s bold art style and add energy to this story of a nun’s relentless pursuit of justice. Unexpected, inspiring and fun, Make Meatballs Sing is a joyful account of Corita’s life that captures how art can create awareness, spark change and convey messages of goodness, beauty and truth.
Cardboard finders
In one of her art classes, Corita “asked her students to cut a small window into a piece of cardboard to make a FINDER.” She led her students down Hollywood Boulevard and encouraged them to use their finders to see the beauty and detail in ordinary things.
Use thick card stock and a square punch to make finders. Give students time to decorate their finders, then take them on a walk around the school grounds. When you return to the classroom, ask students to draw or share the details their finders revealed in ordinary objects.
Word art
Corita was inspired by the words and imagery found in billboards, magazine ads and street signs. She often made art by rearranging shapes, text and colors into something new. Provide old magazines and other ephemera for your students and let them create art with the words and images that inspire them. Inspired by Kramer’s illustrations in the book, I gave my students graph paper to use as their canvas.
Postage stamps
In 1985, the United States Postal Service commissioned Corita to design a postage stamp. She created a rainbow that symbolized love, hope, kindness and unity. Invite students to consider what message they would want to share with the world through a small postage stamp and give them time to experiment with various designs. After they have settled on their design, let them create a polished, colorful version. Once every student has shared their stamp, display the stamps together on a bulletin board.
Joyce and Judith are sisters who do everything together. Their mom even says they’re “two peas in a pod.” But when it is time to begin kindergarten, Judy must stay at home because she has “what will come to be known as Down syndrome.” Joyce is devastated when Judy is sent to an institution and visits her faithfully for years. When saying goodbye becomes too hard, Joyce arranges for Judy to come live with her family in California. Joyce enrolls Judy in a local art class, and after her initial disinterest, Judy begins creating sculptures out of fiber, yarn, wood and other found objects. Exquisitely illustrated, Unbound is a tender, moving and personal tale of sisterhood that depicts the power and importance of loyalty and individual expression.
Found object art
Judith’s art incorporated many found objects, or items not normally considered to be art. Ask students to articulate why they think these items are classified this way. Invite them to collect found objects from their homes or the classroom. Allow them time to share their objects with a small group or the class.
Provide a variety of found objects and other supplies, such as tape, yarn, fibers, stationery, paper, cardboard, colored pencils, pastels and so on, so that students can create their own works of art. Display photographs of Judith Scott’s sculptures on a bulletin board, and display students’ sculptures on a table or shelf nearby.
Sculpture study
Readmore about Judith’s life and art, as well as about the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California, where she created her art. Make a slideshow of her sculptures. Show them to the class one by one and generate discussion by asking open-ended questions that encourage and foster visual literacy. Here are some examples of questions you can ask:
What do you see here?
What else do you notice?
What do you wonder?
How does this make you feel?
What do you think is going on here?
What do you notice about color, line, symmetry and size?
Do you think a story influenced this sculpture? What is it?
Three picture books introduce women who used their artistic gifts to showcase the simple things in life, raise awareness about important issues and add beauty to the world.
In two middle grade fantasy novels, each set against a mythology-inspired backdrop, girls battle monsters that are bent on destroying everything they love. These books are perfect for readers who dream of worlds far beyond what we can see with our own eyes.
In Josephine Against the Sea, Barbadian author Shakirah Bourne introduces 10-year-old Josephine Cadogan. Josephine lives in the small town of Fairy Vale with her father, Vincent, who works as a fisherman. Still reeling from the loss of her mother five years ago, Josephine spends her time playing with her best friend, Ahkai, who has autism, dreaming of glory on the cricket pitch and running off any of her father’s potential new “friends.” She’s successful, too, until her father meets Mariss.
Mariss is beautiful, elegant and charming, and everyone instantly loves her—even Ahkai, who is normally pretty shy. Josephine doesn’t initially suspect anything unusual about Mariss, despite how many unexplainable events seem to surround her. A deep cut on Mariss’ hand vanishes without the trace of a scar. One night, Josephine is mysteriously unable to wake Vincent until Mariss does it with a single word. And Ahkai’s cuddly cat, who is only ever aggressive toward a tuna can, tries to attack Mariss every time he sees her. But when a cricket ball headed straight for Josephine’s bat stops in midair and changes direction during a match Mariss is watching, Josephine can’t ignore the signs. She and Ahkai must unravel the truth about who Mariss really is and what she wants with Vincent and Fairy Vale before it’s too late.
Josephine is a grounded and realistic heroine. She’s still grieving her mother’s death and is blindingly possessive of her father’s love. She’s also incredibly stubborn and willing to go to extreme lengths to have her way. In a hilarious scene, Josephine uses a well-aimed cricket ball and a bucket of fish entrails to let Vincent’s latest “friend” know exactly what he smells like when he comes home from a long day of fishing. But her loyalty to her father, her friends and her town is touching and the driving force behind this emotional story. Debut author Bourne skillfully draws on Barbadian folklore to create a suspenseful adventure that will keep readers guessing until the very end.
Josephine’s story is firmly planted on Earth, but Kiki Kallira’s is out of this world. The 11-year-old heroine of British author Sangu Mandanna’s first middle grade novel Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom crashes into a world of her own creation, where she discovers that her actions could either save or destroy everyone in it.
Kiki’s anxiety is getting worse, and her fixation on worst-case scenarios is becoming overwhelming. Sketching is the only thing that helps her clear her mind. She’s deep into a series of drawings based on the defeat of Mahishasura, a demon from a book of Indian folklore her mom gave her. In the story, Mahishasura becomes so powerful that no man or god can kill him. He conquers the beautiful kingdom of Mysore but then is defeated and banished by a goddess.
As Kiki keeps drawing, strange things begin happening in her London home, and one night, she awakens to her desk on fire and a demon standing in her room. When she chases after it, Kiki meets Ashwini, the heroine of her drawings, who tells her that her art has created a world that allowed Mahishasura to escape. Ashwini pushes Kiki through her sketchbook and into the kingdom of Mysore, where only Kiki has the power to stop Mahishasura. Kiki must fight against forces inside her mind as well as in Mysore to rescue the kingdom and return home.
Kiki, like Josephine, struggles with the relatable disconnect between who she truly believes herself to be and who she thinks she needs to be in order to win her battles. Mandanna, who has written several science fiction novels for teens, excels at depicting how Kiki navigates feelings of fear, anxiety, mistrust and, eventually, self-awareness. Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom is a breathtaking rush through Kiki’s growing understanding of herself and the worlds, both real and fantastical, around her. Any kingdom that springs from the mind of an 11-year-old is sure to contain twists and surprises, and Kiki’s does not disappoint.
In two middle grade fantasy novels, each set against a mythology-inspired backdrop, girls battle monsters that are bent on destroying everything they love.
All aboard! Anchors aweigh! These inventive picture books are your tickets for two fantastic voyages as they capture the fun of transforming your world using nothing but your imagination.
A girl escapes onto a make-believe train in Michael Emberley and Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick's I Can Make a Train Noise, which creatively sweeps readers right alongside her on an adventure that’s bursting with rhythm and energy.
As she enters a city coffee shop with her family, the girl spots a commuter train rushing by on an elevated track. Intrigued, she quietly says, “I can make a train noise.” Once inside, she repeats her statement a bit louder. No one notices, so she stands up on her chair and adds an emphatic “NOW!” In the next spread she leaps off her chair and plunges into her own imagination.
A swoosh of brown and white paint signifies that the girl is transforming the coffee shop into a traveling train, with herself as its engineer and her family and other customers as its passengers. Tabletop condiments and salt and pepper shakers become skyscrapers that the train speeds past before heading into the countryside. The red train and blue sky provide splashes of color amid muted sepia spreads, emphasizing the shifting landscape and giving readers a sense of change and motion.
Through the book's exquisitely minimal text and repeated titular refrain, readers feel the clickety clacks of the train's acceleration, as variations in lettering size and layout highlight changes in momentum and direction. “TRAIN-NOISE-TRAIN-NOISE-TRAIN-NOISE . . .” appears in a small, straight line across a spread that shows the train chugging through a grassy prairie. And “Now!” becomes the train’s whistle, at one point appearing in huge letters on a curved baseline—"NOOOOW!!"—as the train whooshes through a tunnel.
The result is a fully choreographed, immersive journey. Readers will see and hear the train rumble along the tracks, then feel it stop abruptly with a jumble of passengers when it pulls into the station. The book ends with an enticing invitation that breaks the fourth wall in irresistible fashion. Deceptively simple, I Can Make a Train Noise is a perfect choice for reading aloud. Young readers will eagerly hop aboard again and again.
All it takes is a sturdy wooden crate for a determined red-haired girl to turn an uneventful afternoon into a grand adventure in I Want a Boat!. Through a series of spare declarative statement pairings, the girl dreams up an exciting sea voyage and sets sail right from her bedroom.
“I have a box. / I want a boat,” the girl announces on the first page as she stands before an empty wooden box, hands on her hips. On the next page, she declares, “I have a boat. / I want a rudder,” while seated inside the box, smiling. The action continues to build in this fashion as she uses ordinary objects to fulfill her seafaring needs. Stuffed animals become her crew, and a toy whale swims beside her in the imaginary ocean. The girl also yearns for and creates excitement, including the danger of a raging storm, the peril of stuffed-animal sailors gone overboard and the thrill of a safe return—happy, tired and ready for dinner.
Author Liz Garton Scanlon’s step-by-step approach to the story doesn’t just create an effective narrative arc that’s perfect for preschoolers. It also provides a road map for young readers inclined to envision their own imaginative expeditions.
Kevan Atteberry’s cheery and animated illustrations practically leap off the pages. He’s a master of using simple strokes to convey great emotion, whether it’s the girl’s exuberance as she sails the high seas or her stuffed animals’ astonished expressions as she sets off.
In tandem with the story’s exciting ebbs and flows, white margins frame each page, becoming slimmer as the girl grows more engrossed in her voyage. When the girl declares, “I have the wind. / I want the world,” the margins give way to full-bleed spreads, only to reemerge as she returns home. It’s a wonderful homage to a similar technique employed by Maurice Sendak in his ultimate imaginative adventure story, Where the Wild Things Are.
In I Want a Boat! dynamic illustrations and tightly focused prose combine for a boatload of high-seas fun.
All aboard! Anchors aweigh! These inventive picture books are your tickets for two fantastic voyages as they capture the fun of transforming your world using nothing but your imagination.
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 feel the generational gap most strongly when I ask my students about their plans for their summer vacations. Consider a few of this year’s responses: “I’m going to eight different camps!” “Swim team in the mornings, baseball practice for my travel team in the afternoons and then we’re going on a trip out west!” “Summer school, art camp and two overnight camps with my entire Girl Scouts troop!”
My fondest and most vivid childhood summer memories are not from camp or swim team practice. They are from unstructured moments. I remember climbing the white stairs of Nashville’s downtown public library, giddy with the anticipation of new-to-me books and audiobooks waiting to be discovered inside. I remember endless afternoons under the backyard pine trees playing Roxaboxen (inspired by Alice McLerran and Barbara Cooney’s picture book of the same name, in which a group of children create an imaginary town together). I remember wading, catching crawdads and looking for pottery the pioneers left behind in the creek at the bottom of the hill.
Who else is in these memories? My sister, brother and parents. I know neighbors and friends were also there, but they are hazy figures in my mind’s eye. However, I can clearly recall my sister meticulously lining her Roxaboxen bakery with pinecones, my brother peering under a rock to discover the creek life hiding beneath and my mom loading stacks of our library materials into our red and white tote bags.
Unstructured family moments are at the heart of these three books. They remind me of the importance of creating a classroom environment that fosters child-centered creativity, play-based learning and genuine friendships among my students.
“Down the mountain, across the creek, past the last curve in the road” is the ramble shamble house where five children—Merra, Locky, Roozle, Finn and Jory—live together. They each have their own responsibilities. Merra tends the garden and tells bedtime stories, Locky and Roozle chase off the blackbirds and fetch the carrots, Finn feeds the chicken and gathers the eggs, and infant Jory looks after the mud. Happiness presides until they discover “what a proper house looks like” in the pages of an old book. They set to work fixing up their own house, only to find that the upgrades and changes strip the house of its personality and comfortable if slightly chaotic atmosphere. Reflective of children’s tendencies to imagine a life independent of adults, The Ramble Shamble Children is a warm story filled with meadows, mud and simple moments.
Loose part play
What are loose parts? A key element from pedagogical philosophy called the Reggio Emilia Approach, loose parts are items that can be moved and manipulated. The versatility of these items creates space for creativity and provides opportunities for kinesthetic learning. My students look forward to loose-part lessons, and I’m always impressed with the innovation that occurs as they build and manipulate the objects.
Give each student a sturdy paper plate and invite them to gather a variety of loose-part materials from a central table. After reading The Ramble Shamble Children, we used wooden cube blocks, mulch chips, large pieces of wood, small pebbles, sea glass, small shells, buttons, acorns and small pinecones. I provided brown sandpaper to use as a base. Students used the materials to create their own ramble shamble house and garden.
Meal planning and prepping
Each child in The Ramble Shamble Children has a specific job in preparing meals. Divide students into groups of two to four. Provide cookbooks or recipe websites. Together, the students will plan a meal and determine who will be responsible for each part of the meal. Encourage students to create a list of the ingredients they will need for the meal. Older students can present their meals to the class in the form of a visual and oral presentation. Let the class vote on which group’s meal sounds the most enticing.
Ramble shamble collage
Provide a variety of home decorating, landscaping, travel and architecture magazines, along with scissors, glue sticks and oversized paper. Lead a discussion on different types of homes, houses and decorating styles. Let students flip through the magazines and cut and paste images creating personal “ramble shamble” houses.
When My Cousins Come to Town By Angela Shanté Illustrated by Keisha Kramer
“Every summer my cousins come to visit me in the city,” says a girl with round red glasses and gold beaded braids. She is the youngest cousin and the only one who doesn’t have a nickname in their family, but she hopes her cousins will give her one as a gift for her birthday at the end of summer. As each cousin arrives, she attempts to emulate the characteristic that earned them their nickname. From cooking with her cousin Lynn (nicknamed “Spice”) to racing around the block like her cousin Sharise (nicknamed “Swift”), the girl’s efforts only result in frustration, and she worries that another birthday will pass without receiving a nickname. Comical, poignant and richly illustrated, When My Cousins Come to Town honors the importance of identity and the value found in family traditions.
Narrative writing
The girl loves the summer traditions she shares with her cousins. Invite students to think of a favorite tradition in their family. Remind them that it can be something as simple as watching a movie together each year, like how the cousins in the book watch The Wiz every summer.
Lead a brainstorming exercise in which students list every detail they can remember about the tradition, including sounds, smells and tastes. Next, ask students to turn their list into a piece of narrative writing that uses the first-person perspective. Remind them to include a strong opening and closing and descriptive details so that readers can clearly imagine the tradition.
Where are the adults?
Generate a discussion about the role of adults in imaginative play and child-centered problem resolutions by asking the following questions:
Why do you think the authors chose not to include adults in the books When My Cousins Come to Town and The Ramble Shamble Children?
How would adults have made the stories different?
Why do kids need time to play without adult direction?
In When My Cousins Come to Town, cousin Wayne’s nickname is “The Ambassador.” What role does he play?
Have you ever helped your friends work through a problem?
What are some ways that children can be peacemakers?
“Once, out in the country, someone knew right where to build a house.” Over the years, the white wooden house is home to many families, along with their games, bedtime stories and birthday parties, until eventually it sits empty. Without a family living within its walls, the house feels different. It wishes to be a home again. Families come to look at it, but they all decide that it’s too small and too quiet. One day, the house is visited by a family with children who exclaim, “This one! This one! Please, can we live here? Please?” Working together, the family “fix what needs fixing and paint what needs painting,” restoring the house’s beauty and bringing life back to its rooms. Suffused with warmth and possibility, The House of Grass and Sky offers a unique perspective on houses, homes and family memories.
Ask students to think of a favorite memory that took place at home and to describe it from their home’s perspective. Remind them to include not just the events, but the home’s emotions as well.
Pattern play
E.B. Goodale uses digital collage in her illustrations, which include some lovely patterns for the house’s wallpaper, curtains and linens. Ask your local hardware or paint store if they have any wallpaper books or samples you can have. (If not, patterned paper works well, too).
Provide students with watercolor paints and watercolor paper. Ask them to create a painting of a room in their home or of an outdoor setting around their house. After the paintings dry, give students paper punches and scissors so they can create small accents out of the patterned wallpaper or paper. They will glue these patterned accents into their watercolor paintings, emulating Goodale’s illustrations in The House of Grass and Sky.
I feel the generational gap most strongly when I ask my students about their plans for their summer vacations.
We all inherit legacies: stories, traditions and skills passed down through generations. Some legacies tie us not only to our ancestors but also to the natural world. These two picture books honor such legacies and the invaluable lessons we learn from those who come before us.
Written by Newbery Medalist Patricia MacLachlan and illustrated by Chris Sheban, When Grandfather Flew is a tender story of a grandfather whose love of birds creates a lasting connection with his grandchildren.
Binoculars in hand, Grandfather teaches his grandchildren the names of birds. But even when they aren’t out birding, Grandfather has wisdom to offer, which he shares when he tells stories of their late grandmother, helps an injured chickadee and explains why eagles are his favorite birds.
MacLachlan gently touches on themes of aging and loss, approaching the topic of death with both a child’s simple honesty and the hard-earned wisdom of a long life lived well. Her narration is plain-spoken, conversational and earnest.
Sheban illustrates on rough paper using soft, blurry pastels, with linework in watercolor and graphite. Every inch of his full-bleed artwork is filled with color and texture. There’s a hazy, faded feeling to his images that echoes Grandfather’s failing eyesight and fits the story perfectly. However, like details we don’t forget even as our memories wane, a few images stand out: a piercing hawk’s eye, a kestrel in flight. Easily the most striking image in the book is an eagle winging high above the landscape, soaring over barns and trees. When Grandfather Flew is not a tear-jerker, but this moment left me feeling overcome.
When Grandfather Flew is a moving and intimate book with an underlying sense of gravity. For anyone who’s ever looked to the sky as they remembered someone they loved, it will be a story that resonates.
Some legacies are passed from one family member to another, while others carry the weight and traditions of generations. The First Blade of Sweetgrass: A Native American Story, written by Suzanne Greenlaw and Gabriel Frey and illustrated by Nancy Baker, tells the story of a grandmother teaching her granddaughter to pick sweetgrass—just as her own grandmother taught her.
It is a day of firsts for Musqon. It’s her first time seeing the ocean as well as her first time picking sweetgrass with her grandmother. But Musqon has a lot to learn, so Grandmother patiently shows her how to find the sweetgrass that they will weave into baskets. While they work, Grandmother shares stories of their ancestors, of her own childhood and of the sweetgrass’s importance.
Co-authors Greenlaw and Frey, who are citizens of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and Passamaquoddy Nation respectively, write with generations of tradition and culture behind them. Their prose has a calm, patient tone that echoes Grandmother’s gentle ways and is rich with descriptive language, including lush portrayals of the book’s marsh setting and poetic lines like “the grass gave itself to her hand.”
In an afterword, the authors share a brief description of sweetgrass itself and discuss its history and importance to the Native people of the Wabanaki Confederacy. A glossary of Passamaquoddy-Maliseet words used in the book rounds out the back matter.
Illustrator Baker uses soft, muted earth tones to create artwork that feels ageless and conveys a sense of history, purpose and connection to the land. Her lovely wind-swept landscapes are full of detail without ever seeming harsh or sharp. Images that depict Grandmother’s past and the ancestors who came before are set off in frames made of sweetgrass braids.
The First Blade of Sweetgrass is full of meaningful messages, but particularly poignant is Grandmother’s reminder: “If we never pick the first blade, we will never pick the last one. We must make sure there will be sweetgrass here for the next generation.”
We all inherit legacies: stories, traditions and skills passed down through generations. Some legacies tie us not only to our ancestors but also to the natural world.
Backpack? Check. Crayons? Check. Positive attitude? Check. Having the right mentality when you set out for the first day of school is just as important as remembering to bring all your supplies. These books will ensure that students approach school with confidence and kindness and enter their new classrooms fully prepared for success.
Becoming Vanessa
First days don’t always go smoothly, as one girl discovers in Becoming Vanessa, a vibrant story about first-day jitters and feeling confident in new situations.
Vanessa carefully curates her own first-day outfit—a tutu, yellow feather boa, polka-dot leggings, shiny red shoes and a jaunty green beret—in the hopes that her new classmates will “tell right away that she [is] someone they should know.”
But Vanessa’s initial delight in her ensemble turns to dismay when her boa keeps shedding feathers, her shoes hurt and the student seated behind her complains that he can’t see past her hat. When she realizes that even her name makes her stand out, Vanessa wants to change that, too. “My name is Megan now,” she tells her teacher.
The next morning, Vanessa picks out a more Megan-ish outfit, until her mom tells her that Vanessa means metamorphosis. “I gave you a name that would help you become whoever you want to be,” she explains. Vanessa heads to school with newfound assurance in her outfit and her identity.
Author-illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton’s collage artwork is a visual feast that sizzles with color, pattern and movement. Vanessa’s school is full of lively and diverse characters with big, engaging facial expressions. Careful observers will enjoy noticing clever details in the illustrations, such as ledger paper used for the classroom rug and newsprint and dictionary pages for the desks.
Brantley-Newton also wonderfully incorporates the theme of metamorphosis throughout the book. One especially beautiful and touching full-page spread depicts Vanessa, who has gone to bed in tears, wrapped up in a patchwork quilt that strongly suggests a chrysalis, floating on a deep blue, star-filled background. Inspired by Brantley-Newton’s personal experiences, Becoming Vanessa is paced just right and squarely addresses real fears and emotions in a compelling, empowering way.
Norman’s First Day at Dino Day Care
It’s OK to feel shy, a young dinosaur named Norman learns in Norman’s First Day at Dino Day Care, a sweet saga with a delightful prehistoric setting guaranteed to appeal to the pre-K crowd.
Author-illustrator Sean Julian’s dinosaurs come in all shapes, sizes and colors, but Norman is among the smallest. The adorable yellowy orange fellow is so good at hiding that when he’s introduced, one of his classmates asks, “Is Norman an invisible dinosaur?” Norman’s kindly teacher, a purple pterodactyl named Miss Beak, reassures him that his shyness “is a special part of who you are” and adds that the afternoon’s group activity will allow everyone to “discover what other amazing qualities you have hidden inside.” Norman’s partner, a large pink dinosaur named Jake, feels just as shy as Norman, but together they devise a creative way to overcome their fears.
The day care setting will show young children what a warm and welcoming place school can be. Readers will delight in finding Norman’s many hiding spots. (Hint: Norman’s tiny tail often gives away his location.) Julian’s dinosaurs are cute and friendly, and Miss Beak is exactly the sort of teacher every parent and new student would hope for.
Norman’s First Day at Dino Day Care is a much-needed rejoinder to the well-intentioned advice “don’t be shy.” This gentle tale suggests an alternative approach: learning to recognize and accept who you are, while also discovering how to use those qualities to be part of a team.
I Can Help
Author Reem Faruqi’s exceptional I Can Help commands attention from its very first sentence: “Just when the leaves are thinking of changing colors to look like the spices Nana cooks with, school starts.”
Narrator Zahra explains that she enjoys helping Kyle, a classmate who excels at drawing and drumming but needs help reading and writing. Faruqi establishes their strong bond in a series of scenes brought to life by illustrator Mikela Prevost, who depicts them sharing cookies at recess and wonderfully mimicking each other’s facial expressions in the classroom. The vignettes exude youthful fun as well as Zahra’s pride in helping her friend.
But poison lurks in the background, in the form of classmates Tess and Ashley. Prevost introduces them in an expertly composed spread in which Zahra swings blissfully high into the treetops while Tess and Ashley denigrate Kyle below, calling him a “baby” and “weird.” Zahra overhears their words, which awaken her own “mean voice” and ultimately destroy her friendship with Kyle—even as she yearns to do the right thing.
One of this story’s many strengths is its authenticity. Zahra’s narration captures how easily we can be filled with unkind thoughts and conflicting emotions. Notably, the situation between Zahra and Kyle is never resolved, because Zahra’s family moves away, though she chooses a different path when a similar situation arises at her new school.
An author’s note reveals that I Can Help is based on an experience from Faruqi’s own childhood. “I regret my actions to this day,” she writes in a striking disclosure. In her own note, Prevost adds that her diagnosis of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis caused her peers to see her differently and that she is thankful to those who “risked looking ‘weird’” to help her. I Can Help is a memorable story about the rippling and lingering effects of cruelty and the redeeming power of kindness.
Henry at Home
Going to school can be tricky not just for the new student but also for the sibling left behind. In Henry at Home, a boy is completely gobsmacked to discover that his big sister and best buddy, Liza, is abandoning him to go to kindergarten. Henry is so angry that he stomps on Liza’s new crayons and roars after she hops on the school bus.
A wonderful sequence shows all the experiences the siblings have had together, including scaling the furniture, capturing imaginary leopards and getting haircuts and even flu shots together. Most of all, they enjoyed swinging and relaxing at their gnarly Twisty Tree, bathed in sunlight and shades of green, gold and brown.
Author Megan Maynor uses crisp, precise prose to capture the passions of these young siblings. Readers will readily identify with the book’s cascade of emotions. Alea Marley’s luminous illustrations convey the creative play and the bond that Henry and Liza have shared, as well as Henry’s anger and Liza’s excitement. Her warm tones provide a sense of security and help readers understand how lonely and abandoned Henry feels when things change. The illustrations completely focus on the siblings and their world, pointedly depicting only the legs and feet of a few adults.
Henry gradually learns to have fun on his own, and soon he and Liza are back at their Twisty Tree, happily reunited. Henry at Home is an excellent reminder that precious relationships can survive great change and that independence can strengthen, not threaten, a special bond.
Backpack? Check. Crayons? Check. Positive attitude? Check. Having the right mentality when you set out for the first day of school is just as important as remembering to bring all your supplies.
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Maria Ressa’s book is a political history of the Philippines and an intimate memoir, but it’s also a warning to democracies everywhere: Authoritarianism is a threat to us all.
Sean Adams has dialed down the dystopian quotient from his first satirical novel, The Heap, but that element is still very much present in The Thing in the Snow.
Once Upon Another Time
Hello, Earth!
Treaty Words
The Outdoor Scientist
In My Mosque
Saint Spotting
To Carnival!
The Passover Guest
Home Is in Between
Watercress
Coquí in the City
Make Meatballs Sing: The Life & Art of Corita Kent
Unbound: The Life and Art of Judith Scott
The Ramble Shamble Children
When My Cousins Come to Town
The House of Grass and Sky
Becoming Vanessa
Norman’s First Day at Dino Day Care
I Can Help
Henry at Home
