BookPage Children's Top Pick, September 2018

Grace Lin fans know that the moon is a common subject in her work. The Newbery Honor-winning author and illustrator pays tribute to this celestial sphere once again in her latest picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star. In this modern folktale, wordless endpapers depict a mother and her daughter, Little Star, baking a giant mooncake—a Chinese treat usually made for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

As the story opens, Mama places the Big Mooncake up into the night sky to cool and reminds her daughter not to touch it. Little Star heeds her mother and gets ready for bed, but when she wakes in the middle of the night, she only remembers the delicious Big Mooncake in the sky and not her mother’s words. Who wouldn’t want a nibble? Night after night, Little Star sneaks tiny bites, and the cake slowly disappears to mirror the phases of the moon. When Mama notices that there’s nothing left but “a trail of twinkling crumbs,” she leads Little Star into the kitchen to bake another cake.

Lin’s vibrant gouache paintings are a stellar fit for this story. The luminous mooncake and the stars from the girl and her mother’s matching star pajamas glow against the book’s black background. As in many of her previous picture books, Lin offers clever visual treats: a clock adorned with small phases of the moon; a tipped bottle of milk spilling its contents in a spiral pattern; and Little Star’s bedtime book, which readers will recognize as one of Lin’s previous folktale retellings.

Whether you’re celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival or putting little ones to bed, this is a gentle, beautiful book for all.

This article was originally published in the September 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Deceptively simple at first glance, Cori Doerrfeld’s Good Dog is more than your average dog-finds-a-home story. When a little girl passes by the park on the back of her mother’s bike, one small stray dog sees her and suddenly knows exactly where he belongs—if only he can find her again. Readers will cheer as this plucky, determined pup dashes, dodges and digs himself home.

Narrated with only 27 words, Doerrfeld’s images imbue this story with heartfelt and earnest sentiment. Gentle, muted colors create a world that is kind and welcoming and populated with the most endearing expressions—both human and animal—and the soft, thick lines are distinctly kid-friendly. 

However, Good Dog isn’t an exercise in saccharine sloppiness. While there is plenty of sweetness, Doerrfeld also fills her pages with people of many backgrounds and families of all kinds, creating a strong sense of community and purpose. And Doerrfeld doesn’t ignore the canine population either; seeing-eye dogs, a pup with a wheelchair, working breeds and lap dogs frolic through the story. 

An overwhelming sense of belonging and contentment makes Good Dog a perfect bedtime story and will become a favorite with young readers. But whether you read with your two-legged little ones or your four-legged furry ones, Good Dog has a worthwhile lesson for all of us: When friendship and love rolls by, chase after it.

British children’s book illustrator Russell Ayto charms in his debut as both author and illustrator in Henry and the Yeti.

Young Henry is more than fond of yetis. He loves yetis. But do yetis even exist? No one knows for sure, not even Henry’s father.

So Henry decides to go on an expedition to find a yeti. He asks the school principal for permission to make the trip, and the principal—a yeti skeptic—approves Henry's plan, but tells him to bring back evidence. When the principal announces Henry's plan to the rest of his schoolmates, they laugh and mock him.

Undaunted, Henry packs his compass, telescope, hammock and climbing rope and sets off.

Henry begins his long journey by following a sign pointing to the mountains and peaks where the yetis live. All the while, he follows his father’s one admonition, “No staying up late.” For days, Henry scales one mountain after another but finds nothing. Not a single suspicious footprint.

Having seen no signs or tracks, Henry begins to have doubts. He considers heading home.

Luckily, at last, Henry stumbles upon his yeti, who is much bigger and friendlier than expected. All goes well until Henry realizes he has left his camera behind. But Henry's new yeti friend might just help him save face with the skeptics back at school.

With Henry and the Yeti, Ayto’s spare text and clever drawings take young readers on an epic romp across the world in search of something to believe in.

We all need a little make-believe sometimes, and in Cat Wishes, author Calista Brill teams up with artist Kenard Pak to create a fairy tale fit for feline lovers everywhere.

The story begins with a hungry cat who wishes for something to eat. The cat soon finds a tasty-looking snake who offers the cat three wishes in exchange for sparing his life. “No such thing as a wish,” declares the cat. “Sure of that, are you?” asks the snake. And so the skeptical cat finds himself making wishes anyway. He would certainly love a fish. And then, when it begins to rain, a house with “a roasty, toasty fireplace” would be very nice. And most of all, in the lonely, shadowy night, a friend would certainly come in handy. All of these wishes are fulfilled.

There’s a sweet twist to Brill’s tale. The cat discovers he’s not the only creature who has benefited from the snake’s three wishes. Just as the cat wishes for a friend, a girl appears, claiming that she made a wish for a friend, too.

Cat is an endearing hero whose adventures are never too scary for young readers. With Pak’s gentle pastel illustrations and Brill’s simple message, Cat Wishes is a lovely bedtime story that will also delight toddlers exploring the magic of friendship.

This article was originally published in the August 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

We don’t know much about Adrian Simcox, except that he is messy, poor and absolutely doesn’t own a horse. At least, that’s according to his assertive classmate Chloe.

Convinced that Adrian has been lying about his pet horse, Chloe loudly attempts to sway other students to adopt her opinion. It takes an evening walk and an accidentally on-purpose encounter (contrived by Chloe’s mom) at Adrian’s small home for Chloe to take the first steps toward friendship.

Earnestly written by Marcy Campbell, Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse is a creative and honest look at compassion. Campbell puts us inside Chloe’s mind, where her journey toward kindness is real and intimate. Chloe’s mother proves a clever teacher, gently encouraging Chloe to look deeper. Another artful lesson comes in Adrian’s open-hearted bravery as he takes the first steps toward forgiveness.

Corinna Luyken illustrates with precision and grace. Detailed, expressive faces and Chloe’s orderly house stand in contrast to the lavish gardens that burst across the page when Adrian imagines his horse. Hidden in the foliage are the rough outlines of the horse, so beautifully and artistically rendered that they are easily missed. Look carefully; they are worth finding.

School curricula that focus on acceptance and compassion will benefit from incorporating this story, which reminds all readers to look at others with empathy, because they may find a friend.

This article was originally published in the August 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

BookPage Children's Top Pick, August 2018

Evan, a bright orange anthropomorphic fox in gardening overalls, and his dog are constant companions. They enjoy many hobbies, but more than anything else, the best friends love to work together in Evan’s garden. One moment they are relishing their time outdoors in their lush garden space; the next, Evan’s dog has passed away. Evan is devastated.

With his best friend gone and grief at the wheel, Evan loses his passion for gardening. In fact, he destroys his plants and tears angrily at the ground with a hoe. Weeds soon take over, but this is fine with Evan, as he wants the barren earth to reflect how he feels inside. But when a pumpkin begins to grow in his yard—despite all the weeds—Evan’s heart expands, and he begins to carefully tend to it. When Evan’s pumpkin grows large and wins third place at the county fair, he turns down the grand prize—a free puppy. But after bravely taking a peek inside the pen, he’s soon driving home with a new furry friend.

With tender restraint (the dog’s death is handled well, with merely six words and a poignant, but not graphic, image), author and illustrator Brian Lies has crafted a deeply felt story of new hope and healing after loss, one that altogether avoids excessive sentimentality. The pacing is flawless, and the emotions are never forced. Lies’ eloquently rendered illustrations play with light and shadow on full-bleed spreads that invite readers into Evan’s grief and his eventual journey from sorrow to newfound happiness.

Understated yet powerful, The Rough Patch is a story that stays with you.

This article was originally published in the August 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In this inspiring companion book to the award-winning Trombone Shorty, published in 2015, Grammy-nominated jazz musician Troy Andrews, who performs as Trombone Shorty, re-visits his childhood in magical New Orleans.

As a child, Shorty played jazz with his group of friends in the Tremé neighborhood of the city. They called themselves the 5 O’Clock Band. Recalling his neighborhood and its culture with deep reverence, he describes an afternoon of getting “so lost in his own music” that he forgets to meet his band and is left pondering what precisely makes a good bandleader. As he strolls through the city streets, he talks to the friendly faces he passes—a musician, a chef and the chief of the neighborhood Mardi Gras Indian tribe—who give him advice on the subject. A love of tradition (knowing where the music comes from) and a dedication to the craft: These are the things that make a bandleader, he learns.

The use of repetition and the dialects local to his neighborhood (“WHERE Y’AT?” people call to Shorty) add flavor to the lengthy text. Andrews shares abundant details and leisurely paces the story, as if readers are walking along with him. Capturing the sights, sounds and smells of the Tremé neighborhood—the red beans and rice, the steamboats along the banks of the Mississippi River—both he and illustrator Bryan Collier bring this New Orleans neighborhood to vivid life. Collier’s kinetic and stylistic mixed-media illustrations use energetic lines and rich colors to bring the music and the people of this community to the page.

The 5 O’Clock Band is an unforgettable journey.

Julie Danielson features authors and illustrators at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, a children’s literature blog.