In Fear the Bunny, Richard T. Morris offers an amusing riff on William Blake’s famous poem “The Tyger,” insisting that it is bunnies, not tigers, that strike such a fearful figure. 

For his part, Tiger can’t help but laugh when he comes upon a tangle of his fellow forest-dwelling animals reading about “Bunnies, bunnies, burning bright.” But when Tiger tries to tell them that they have it all wrong, that they should fear him, a tiger, not some fluffy, cuddly bunny, the animals push back. In their forest, they tell him, no animal is quite so fearsome as the bunny.

Frustrated, Tiger tries to explain. Tigers are the ones with dagger-sharp teeth and deadly claws. But he gets nowhere. The others are distracted. Something stirs ominously in the distance. The animals flee to shelter, and though it seems silly to Tiger, he eventually heeds their desperate pleads and hides in the forest’s lush foliage.

But when Tiger spies the bunny from whom they’ve so diligently hidden, he can’t contain his disdain. He mocks the bunny, and the other animals’ cowering, that is until he sees the horde of bunnies that lay in wait.

With its witty premise and attractive illustrations, Fear the Bunny will amuse children and parents alike.

Like Fear the Bunny, the latest from Caldecott Honor author and illustrator David Ezra Stein, Hush, Little Bunny, takes its inspiration from a popular source. But where Fear the Bunny draws inspiration and then dashes off in a totally unexpected direction, Hush, Little Bunny hews closer to the original material. 

Stein takes the popular lullaby, “Hush Little Baby,” and reworks it for all the bunny lovers out there. Accompanied by his gorgeous watercolors, Stein takes us along with Papa Bunny and his little one as they bid winter goodbye and welcome spring with all the new experiences it brings—both frightful and exciting.

The portrayal of familial love that emerges is both moving and engaging, and, as always, Stein’s delightful brushwork is worth the price tag alone.

In author and illustrator Nicola Killen’s The Little Rabbit, Ollie can’t wait for the rain to stop, so he can go play in the puddles. Before the wind has settled, Ollie races out the door with his umbrella and favorite stuffed animal, Bunny, in tow.  

As soon as they’re outside, a golden petal settles onto Bunny’s nose and something astonishing happens. With a twitch of his nose, Bunny springs to life, hops out of the basket and darts off with a pack of wild rabbits. 

Ollie calls and calls, but can’t find Bunny anywhere. Just as the sky darkens and the rain returns, Ollie spots him. He’s stranded in a puddle of quickly rising water. With the aid of an inspired gust of wind, Ollie hops aboard his upturned umbrella and sails through the puddle to rescue Bunny. 

Next, Bunny leads Ollie up to the treehouse. But when Bunny climbs higher up the tree and jumps towards the clouds above, what will Ollie do?

With each turn of the page, The Little Rabbit grows increasingly fantastical, reminding readers of the wonder-filled realm between reality and make believe that young children inhabit with such glee. With its beautifully stark watercolors and the occasional gold-embossed magic petal, The Little Rabbit is as visually charming as is its text. 

Children see the world through their unique lens. Their innate creativity and innocent imaginations give them a pure perspective on the world. But in the era of smartphones, I wonder if the artistic language of photography—line, color, texture, balance, lighting—is being lost. Do children know that photography goes beyond selfies and Instagram filters? Do they understand what makes a quality photograph? Do they realize that a photograph can move people to action? The following three books address these questions and show children the history, power and beauty of photography.

The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the First Book of Photographs by Fiona Robinson 

Author Fiona Robinson tells the story of photography pioneer Anna Atkins in The Bluest of Blues. Raised by her scientist father, Anna Atkins developed a love for the natural world early in her life. She became a collector of flowers, ferns, insects and shells. In her early 20s, Anna began cataloging her collections and dedicates herself to creating a herbarium with thousands of dried botanical species. She wanted to share her work with the world, but she didn’t have a “quick, accurate way to copy her collection” until she was introduced to the cyanotype print. Using its chemical reaction process, Anna started to document her collection and later published what is considered the first book of photography. As a lifelong lover of sun prints, I love using this printing process with my students, but I have always stumbled when attempting to explain the chemical process. Robinson’s blue watercolor and pencil illustrations provide a strong foundation for students’ forays into cyanotype art. 

• Nature Notebooks—Charlotte Mason, a British educator who lived around the time of Atkins, believed that children need to observe nature and record their observations in a notebook each day. Make or order blank books for your students. Explain that for the next few months, they are going to be observing nature and recording their observations through drawings and notes. In my experience, colored pencils and watercolors work best for nature drawings. Set up a nature table in your classroom with shells, pinecones, magnifying glasses, rocks, dried flowers, botanical books, etc. Create a few pages in your own nature notebook to show students. As time allows, take students outside and let them spend time observing and sketching. When students come inside, let them look for answers to the questions (there will be many) that arise from their time spent outside. 
• Cyanotype Prints—Provide students with the opportunity to emulate Atkins by creating their own cyanotype prints. Purchase chemically treated sun paper at an art or photography store. I like to have enough paper for each student to create multiple prints. Ask students to bring in one small treasure from home. Gather buttons, old keys, blocks, jewelry, plastic letters and other small objects. Before beginning the project, take students outside and let them collect leaves, acorns, flowers and rocks. (I have classroom ferns and ivy plants and their leaves work well.) Let students spend time designing their cyanotype and then put them in the sun for five minutes. Come back in and soak the prints in water. Hang the cyanotypes up around the classroom to dry and then let each student pick out one of their prints to contribute to the class book. 

This is My Eye: A New York Story by Neela Vaswani 

Neela Vaswani’s story of a young girl living in New York City is told with photographs “taken” from the girl’s perspective. “My dad says it’s not what you look at—it’s what you see,” she says at the beginning of the story. From there, the photographs on each page illustrate the city’s subway stations, rainy days and people as seen through a peephole. Vaswani’s powerful photographs and spare text offer a glimpse of what it’s like to be a 9-year-old living in New York. Storytelling through perspective photography can be a tough concept for children, but this is the perfect gateway for classroom photography projects. 

• Figurative Language—This book is filled with figurative language. Briefly review personification, similes and metaphor, then read the book again and write down the examples of each on three sheets of chart paper. Print several photographs of cities and show them to students one at a time. Let students write their own sentences with figurative language to go along with the photographs. After they have composed several sentences, ask them to write their favorite on an index card. Hang each photograph on the board or bulletin board and let students come put their index card around the photograph that it describes. 
• City Stories—As a class, discuss the meaning of the sentence, “Walls tell stories and stories are everywhere.” Encourage students to talk about the stories they see in the coordinating photographs. If possible, use Google Earth to show your students images of murals in your city. Using the Socratic seminar method, have a class discussion about the stories behind the murals and what they symbolize. If there are not enough murals in your city, use historical or interesting local buildings. My 4^th graders and I did this exercise and the students were so interested that many of them did further research and shared their findings with the rest of the class. Inquiry-driven local history at its best! 
• Camera Walk—Write the phrase, “It’s not what you look at, it’s what you see” on the board or a piece of chart paper. Give students time to think about the meaning and then reread the book. Assign partners and then take students on a walk around the school’s campus. Their mission is to take 10 photographs while keeping the phrase “it’s what you see” in mind. Upon return to the classroom, give students time to write sentences to go along with their photographs. Extend the project by asking students to take photographs around their homes or in the local community. Have them email you the photographs and then share these with the class. 

Dorothea Lange: The Photographer Who Found the Faces of the Depression by Carole Boston Weatherford and Sarah Green 

Dorothea Lange knew from a young age that she wanted to be a photographer, and she became one of the leading photographers of the 20th century. But it wasn’t until she was in her late 20s that she had an awakening and realized that “She was meant to photograph people—not just the wealthy but from all walks of life.” Her newfound purpose led Lange to document the reality and suffering present around the country: breadlines, migrant workers, internment camps. She was focused on sharing reality and considered herself “a storyteller with a camera.” Insight into some of Lange’s famous photographs and her social activism led my students to have discussions about the power of photography, and they began to understand that a photograph is indeed worth a thousand words. 

• Historical Context—Lange’s work is best understood in historical context. Spend time discussing the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, migrant workers and internment camps. Read aloud portions of Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley, Children of the Great Depression by Russell Freedman, Blue Willow by Doris Gates and Write to Me by Cynthia Grady and Amiko Hirao. For older students, study primary sources including maps, song lyrics and posters. Using their new knowledge, ask students to write a first-person journal entry as if they are a child of the Dust Bowl or Great Depression. 
• Visual Literacy Lange considered herself a “storyteller with a camera.” Show students a few of Lange’s most well-known photographs including Migrant Mother, Breadline and Dust Bowl Refugees. Give students the tools they need to “read” the stories in these photographs. Let them practice by filling out a Reading Photographs graphic organizer. 
• Compare Photographers—Lange knew she was meant to photograph people. Read Antsy Ansel: Ansel Adams, A Life in Nature by Cindy Jenson-Elliott and Christy Hale, Polka Dot Parade: A Book About Bill Cunningham by Deborah Blumenthal and Masha D’Yans, and Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America by Carole Boston Weatherford and Jamey Christoph. Each of these photographers felt called to a certain type of photography. Look at examples of their photographs. Create a four column T-chart comparing and contrasting their lives and works.

Author Richard Louv’s 2005 book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder shifted my entire teaching paradigm. As classrooms continue to move toward technology-based learning, Louv’s nature-deficit disorder continues to explain why children no longer enjoy spending time outside. “If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature,” he writes. For 80 percent of children living in urban areas, exposure to nature is often overlooked or limited. In these three picture books, distinct urban settings and unique storylines remind city-dwelling children that there is beauty and purpose to be found in interacting with the natural world. 

When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree by Jamie L.B. Deenihan and Lorraine Rocha 

What do you do when your birthday wish-list reads, “robot dog, drone, computer, phone, remote control car, and headphones,” but Grandma shows up with a lemon tree? In Jamie L.B. Deenihan’s picture book, the little girl’s initial disappointment is palpable. After reading a few care instructions for the tree, the girl begins to take an interest. Bright illustrations from Lorraine Rocha show the young girl nurturing the tree throughout the course of a year. Finally, the “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” adage is made literal as the girl finds great joy in setting up a lemonade stand outside of her urban apartment building. In a twist ending, her lemonade stand profits are used to purchase more plants which add color and beauty around her apartment building. The celebration of community and nature, spunky set of characters and colorful illustrations make for a cheery read-aloud that shows students the gratification that follows patience and hard work. 

• Classroom Lemon Tree—As a class, research lemon trees. Show students how to use climate and growing zone maps to determine if a lemon tree can survive in your area. (The answer is yes, lemon trees can be grown anywhere in the country.) Hold a discussion about the things the class needs in order to get a classroom lemon tree. Make a list of the students’ questions and then allow time for individual research. Knowing how to research for the purpose of answering questions is a valuable skill. These two lemon tree sites were informative and perfect for my second and third graders. Invite students to use their lemon tree research to write a letter explaining why the class needs a lemon tree and their plans for taking care of it.
• Entrepreneurship—An old-fashioned lemonade stand is a crash course in economics and marketing. With your students, discuss the concepts of advertising, supply and demand, capital resources and profit margins. Lemonade in Winter by Emily Jenkins and G. Brian Karas is an excellent read-aloud for budding entrepreneurs. Have students decide on a good or service to “sell” to their classmates. Spend a few weeks guiding students as they make a marketing plan (including a brand name and logo) and create a budget. After the planning is complete, celebrate their work with a Class Market Day. 
• Further Reading—Create an entire unit by reading more books that celebrate children bringing beauty to an urban community. Write the question, “How Can We Bring Beauty to Our Neighborhood?” on the board. Tell students that over the next three weeks, they will be hearing stories of children who improve their community. Read The Gardener by Sarah Stewart and David Small, Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isobel, Teresa Howell and Rafael López, The Curious Garden by Peter Brown, A Bus Called Heaven by Bob Graham and City Green by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan. These stories have young protagonists who see a need in their urban neighborhood community, create a plan and take action. After reading each book, record students’ own community improvement ideas. 

The Chickens Are Coming! by Barbara Samuels 

Siblings Winston and Sophie live in a big city apartment building with a small backyard. Walking home one day, they spot a lamppost sign advertising five hens. “You don’t need to live in the country to raise chickens,” their Mommy declares. Just a few days later, “THE CHICKENS ARE HERE!” Initially, the chickens and children are unsure of each other. Sophie and Winston are worried when the chickens don’t immediately lay eggs, and their various attempts to persuade them into laying eggs (performing a skit about Easter eggs, playing music, reading them a bedtime story) are unsuccessful. However, the children soon learn the habits and personalities of their unconventional family pets. Based on real families who raise chickens in Brooklyn, Samuels’ lively story and expressive illustrations celebrate the possibility of bringing a small piece of the country to the city. 

• Hatch a Plan—In her author’s note, Samuels, a New York City resident, shares that chickens are the “cheapest and easiest farm animals to raise in a backyard.” Tell students to pretend that grocery stores have decided to stop selling eggs and so their family (or your classroom) will need to start raising chickens. They will need to decide which breed is best for their needs and neighborhood. Ask them questions: How many chickens? What type of cage is best? What will they feed their chickens? What type of eggs will their chickens lay? How much of a starting budget will be needed? Students are extra motivated when presented with projects that connect to the real-world. Create guidelines for final presentations and invite students to create visuals with photographs and their gathered information. Backyard Chicken Project and Backyard Chickens have a wealth of information for budding urban farmers. 
• Animal Breed Chart—On the back endpapers is “Sophie’s Chicken Chart,” a five-column chart with information about each chicken’s breed, weight, country of origin and egg size/color. Let children choose an animal (dogs, horses, cats, lizards, etc.) and create a similar breed comparison chart.  

Noah Builds an Ark by Kate Banks and John Rocco 

In this nonreligious retelling of the story of Noah’s Ark, a young boy named Noah peeks over his backyard fence toward the city and sees a storm on the horizon. “It’s going to be a beauty,” his dad says as he boards up the windows on the house. But Noah looks at the creatures in their garden and devises his own plan. Using his tool caddy and planks of wood, Noah repurposes his old red wagon and makes it into a makeshift ark. While his mother and sister fill water jugs and gather candles for the family, Noah furnishes the ark with food and furniture. The storm arrives, and it rains for four days. Noah and his family stay safe in the house while the animals ride out the storm in the lovingly prepared ark. When the storm passes, the animals exit the ark into the backyard which is framed by a rainbow. With attention to “the least of these” at its heart, Noah Builds an Ark gently reminds children that they, too, have the responsibility and privilege to care for the natural world. 

• Natural Disaster Preparation—Ask students what type of storm they think is coming to Noah’s city. Create a list of other natural disasters that can occur (hurricane, tornado, floods, forest fires, etc.), and then select three that are most relevant for your geographic area. Spend time reading books and learning about these natural disasters. After studying each one, help students create “I’m Ready” books. Give students fact sheets with the information the class learned in your research. Visit “Be Prepared” websites that explain how to prepare for these natural disasters. Invite a member of the local Red Cross chapter to come speak to your class. Students will record ways to prepare for natural disasters as well as family emergency plans and information. Providing information and guidance can help ease children’s fears as well as give them a strong emergency preparedness foundation. 
• Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt—Noah Builds an Ark is filled with vivid vocabulary. As a class, go on a vocabulary scavenger hunt. Identify the words that help readers visualize and understand the mood of the story. “Dreary,” “drizzling,” and “popped” are all words that create pictures in our minds. Discuss the meaning of the words. Then, encourage students to look through their independent reading books to find more vocabulary words. After the scavenger hunt is complete, students can share one of their favorite found words with the class. Chart these words and challenge students to use one of the words in their own writing.

People of all ages are fascinated with outer space and the largely unexplored frontier it is, but children are especially curious about the mysteries the universe holds. Two new picture books capture this wonder, and both stories are, in more ways than one, out of this world.

The smart twist at the end of author-illustrator Tom Sullivan’s Out There relies entirely upon his use of silhouette throughout the book. On the first spread, readers see what they assume are human children here on Earth—we see them from behind, shadows pointing up at a starlit sky—wondering if extraterrestrials exist in the universe. We see what we assume is an owl in a nearby tree. We also see the shadows of waving, alien-esque tentacles, but we figure they’re a figment of the children’s imagination; they are, after all, wondering about aliens. Before the big reveal, the children ponder what an alien planet may look like. “It could be filled with the strangest creatures,” Sullivan writes; the creatures pictured on the next page are all from Earth, albeit some of the most bizarre ones that exist (a blobfish, a flapjack octopus).

But at the book’s close, the children’s backs no longer toward us, we see that they themselves are the aliens, complete with green skin. We’ve been on another planet this whole time. What we thought was an owl in the tree were two alien creatures standing atop one another. And those tentacles are, well, actual tentacles! Out There is a book that reminds us of our humanity by revealing our own alienness from another perspective. And it reminds us that our planet—the bizarre, beautiful world we call home—is one worth taking care of.

Move over, Ms. Frizzle. In John Hare’s wordless picture book debut, Field Trip to the Moon, students hop on a lunar bus and take off into the darkness of outer space. Clad in astronaut suits, they land on the moon and follow their teacher on the surface, exploring and learning. One child who carries a sketchbook and crayons is always falling behind the class, and when they stop to do a drawing of Earth from the moon, they fall asleep. After waking just in time to see the school’s lunar bus depart, the dejected child sits and (what else is there to do?) draws some more.

When ashen-faced, one-eyed lunar creatures quite literally pop up out of the moon’s surface, they delight in watching the small human draw. Upon discovering them, the child shares their crayons and paper, and the whole group draws on the surface of a lunar rock nearby. When the bus finally returns, the alien creatures flee, and the happy, relieved teacher hugs the child, but the teacher is quick to scold the student for doodling on the surface of the moon.

Hare’s acrylic illustrations, occasionally divided into vertical panels to accelerate the action, are textured and expressive. He communicates emotion effectively via body language, given that this is a wordless tale and that all the humans characters are concealed in space helmets. It’s not until the last page that we see the protagonist without a helmet, and with medium-length, shaggy brown hair, it could be a boy or girl. This is a field trip that won’t soon be forgotten.

Julie Danielson conducts interviews and features of authors and illustrators at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, a children's literature blog primarily focused on illustration and picture books.

Vincent van Gogh famously said that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day. Two new picture books about imaginative nighttime adventures prove the validity of this claim.

If it wasn’t already clear from award-winning team Philip and Erin Stead’s previous books, Music for Mister Moon demonstrates that these two really get introverts. In the first pages, we meet a cello-playing girl named Harriet Henry with long bangs hanging in her eyes. She loves playing her instrument, but only for her stuffed animals. She’d rather not play for crowds, thanks very much.

One night she strikes up a conversation with the moon after inadvertently knocking him from the sky with a teacup she throws in frustration at a loud owl. Mister Moon sometimes tires of being the moon and would like, for once, to float on a lake. With great determination, as well as the help of some friends (including the owl with whom she makes amends), Harriet makes that wish come true. After hauling the moon back up to the sky, Harriet plays her music for “no one but Mister Moon.”

With monoprint illustrations done in oil inks, along with additional flourishes in colored pencil, illustrator Erin Stead subtly anthropomorphizes the moon and creates exquisitely expressive characters and indelible images, like Harriet pulling the massive Mister Moon in a small wagon and rowing him in a frail boat on the lake.

Although she has help, it is the resourceful Harriet who primarily moves the story forward, and author Philip Stead gives her tremendous agency (and a sharp imagination). She makes herself a ladder to retrieve the moon, and she makes the wagon used for transporting him. She can even “change her room into a little house” so that she can make her cello sing. With a superb balance between text and art, Music for Mister Moon is a vivid journey into a child’s nuanced inner world.

David Zeltser’s tale of adventure, The Night Library, is inspired by Patience and Fortitude, the lions sculpted from pink Tennessee marble that guard the main entrance of the New York Public Library. The story—rendered by illustrator Raúl Colón with reverence, energy, cool blue hues for the night sky and warm earth tones for indoors—is told from the point of view of a young boy on the eve of his 8th birthday. He is disappointed when his parents give him a book, but later that night, he is greeted by a lion named Fortitude who stands outside his bedroom window. They take off together on a night journey into the “heart of the frozen city” and to the library, where the boy meets the second lion and tours the building with his new feline friends.

In the children’s section, the books fly off the shelves and form themselves into iconic book characters, such as Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor. The boy is moved to see another set of books form itself into the shape of his grandpa, reading to him. Before the boy heads home on the back of Patience, the boy spends quiet time in the library falling in love with literature, reading books he once shared with this grandfather. He writes it off the next day as a dream—until he finds a new library card, just for him, on the doormat outside his home.

Children’s books about the importance of reading are a dime a dozen, but The Night Library resonates on another level as it is also the story of a boy’s lingering grief following the loss of his grandfather. But sometimes richly colored stories can provide healing as well as adventure.

Julie Danielson conducts interviews and features of authors and illustrators at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, a children's literature blog primarily focused on illustration and picture books.

Two new picture books with expertly crafted illustrations encourage young readers to venture off the path.

In Susanna Mattiangeli’s The Hideout, a young girl named Hannah decides to live in the park. Topping off her orange hair with a raccoon hat, Hannah sets up a shelter amid the dense foliage. She’s not alone, though. After finding an Odd Furry Creature, she shares her secret hideout, making them each a bed out of leaves and matching capes out of feathers.

Together, they relish their time in the wild, eating biscuit cookies, roasting pigeons on the campfire and collecting caterpillars, sticks and other bits. But what does this Odd Furry Creature even look like? Illustrator Felicita Sala’s intriguing watercolor and colored pencil illustrations slowly reveal its unusual features, from its talon fingers to its fluffy blue tail. Sala also conveys the differences between the quiet and increasingly overgrown vines of the hideout and the bustling activity in the rest of the park.

Although Hannah enjoys her undisturbed time with the Odd Furry Creature, she also realizes that time spent with dogs, balloons and people is also important. She leads her new companion out of the thicket and into the brightly lit park, but when an adult calls to her again, the story ends with Hannah back in her bedroom. With a fine blend of imagination and friendship, Hannah’s adventure is reminiscent of Where the Wild Things Are.

Once there was a river that flowed through a forest. But it didn’t know it was a river until Bear came along. When Bear’s tree-trunk perch snaps, it sends Bear floating down the river on the log, but he doesn’t know it’s the start of an adventure until Froggy hops on him. Thus begins Richard T. Morris’s uproarious Bear Came Along. The fun continues as Bear and Froggy are joined by the Turtles, Beaver, the Raccoons and Duck. Encouraged by the river’s twists and turns—and Beaver’s captain skills—they don’t know to be cautious until a waterfall comes along.

As the woodland animals hold onto one another, they survive the fall, enjoy the ride and realize that although they sometimes live separately, they all rely on one another. Illustrator LeUyen Pham’s watercolor, ink and gouache illustrations show the animals’ exaggerated expressions, which add to the hilarity and tension leading up to the waterfall, and the details in the patterned landscape offer an enriched reading experience.

The opening endpapers offer a black-and-white panoramic view of the story ahead. As children turn the pages, they’ll notice more and more colors as each animal arrives. The final scene and endpapers burst with colors as nature thrives together. Many humans will find plenty to learn about friendship and community from these spirited animals.

I recently bought a house. After 12 years of moving around a total of 13 times, when I finally moved into my new house, I had the process down to a science. Always focused on the details of the move, I was never emotional about leaving one dwelling and moving to another. Filled with frequent change, the 20s and 30s are naturally transient times in the lives of many adults, and we can forget how emotionally hard moving can be for young children. Moving houses, cities or states means that a child’s sense of place, routine and familiar touchstones are significantly altered.

The following three picture books validate feelings children experience during the moving process. Offering affirmation and encouragement, these are excellent vehicles for opening up classroom discussion about life changes—moving or otherwise—with your students.

Home Is a Window by Stephanie Parsley Ledyard and Chris Sasaki

Using simple and lyrical prose, author Stephanie Parsley Ledyard reflects on what it is that turns a house into a home as a girl prepares to move. “Home is a window, a doorway, a rug, a basket for your shoes . . . a table, with something good, and the people gathered there,” her young protagonist explains. But what happens when you must leave the safety and comfort of your home? As the girl discovers, home is more than just a physical dwelling. It’s the people, shared experiences and seemingly trivial routines that make a home. With understated perceptiveness and vivid language, this is a powerful book that is sure to prompt discussion about the qualities that turn a physical structure (house or classroom) into a home.

• Five Senses Poetry
  The little girl discusses both tangible and intangible things that are “home.” Discuss the differences between tangible and intangible. As a class, reread the book and chart the tangible and intangible items on a piece of chart paper. Briefly review the five senses, and draw a picture (for younger grades) or write the sense next to each thing listed on the chart (long quiet = sound, lamplight = sight). Give students a graphic organizer with a box for each of the five senses. Allow time for children to quietly reflect on their own home and the tangible and intangible things that make it special. Give students another five senses graphic organizer for them to fill out when they are home. Encourage them to spend time intentionally noticing the sights, sounds, smells, textures and tastes of their home. How does home make them feel? Students will use their graphic organizers to write their own “Home is . . . ” poem.
   
• Urban and Suburban Art
  As a class, look at the front and back endpapers. The front endpapers and title page show a distinctly urban city block, and the back endpapers show a more suburban neighborhood. Ask students to tell you what they notice about each endpaper, and jot down their observations into a T-chart graphic organizer. Discuss similarities and differences between living on a bustling city block and living in a suburban neighborhood. What are the pros and cons of each? What are the sounds, sights and smells of each? Provide 11” x 14” sheets of paper, colored and patterned paper cut into various sizes of squares, rectangles and triangles, and oil pastels or markers. Students will use the paper and pastels to create an urban or suburban block. On the back of their paper encourage them to write the sights, sounds and smells that they imagine in their picture.
   
• Text Sets: Home
  Extend the idea of “home” by reading more books with home at their heart. Read aloud This Is Our House by Hyewon Yum, Home by Carson Ellis, A House Is a House For Me by Mary Ann Hoberman, Let’s Go Home: The Wonderful Things About a House by Cynthia Rylant and Town Mouse, Country Mouse by Jan Brett. For nonfiction books about houses, read If You Lived Here: Houses of the World by Giles Laroche and House and Homes by Ann Morris. As I was reading these books aloud, students kept shouting wait, go back! so they could study the illustration details.

When You Are Brave by Pat Zietlow Miller and Eliza Wheeler

As her family drives away from their old home, a girl looks at a photo album and nostalgically reminisces about the house, friends, school and town that she is leaving behind. Instead of wallowing, she remembers that “some days are full of things you’d rather not do. Like plunging into a pool all by yourself, hoping you’ll swim and not sink. Or standing alone, in front of a crowd, searching for one friendly face.” By the time her family arrives at their new seacoast home, the girl has a renewed sense of confidence. Warm and vivid mixed-media illustrations reflect the girl’s emotional journey, further emphasizing the idea of bravery in the face of uncertainty and change.

• Simile Illustrations
  The text begins with several strong “Brave as . . . ” similes. Teach or review the simile, and remind students how writers use similes to add depth and richness to their stories. Allow time for students to brainstorm their own similes. When students have written 3 – 4 similes, let them choose their favorite. Pass out watercolor paper, and tell each student to write his or her brave simile on the top, and then illustrate it using watercolors. Combine the simile illustrations into a class Brave book.
   
• Art: Expressing Emotion Through Color
  Beginning with deep blues and golds and ending in a full-color palette, Wheeler’s illustrations expertly use color to reflect the young girl’s emotional journey. Show students different colors and shades, and give them time to discuss what feelings and thoughts they associate with these colors. Read Emily’s Blue Period by Cathleen Daly, My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss or The Noisy Paint Box by Barb Rosenstock. Provide various forms of colored art materials. Play classical music, and give students time to use color to create a piece of artwork that reflects their feelings.

A New Home by Tania de Rigil

Written in dual narration, a young girl and young boy share their hesitations and fears about moving cities. The girl is moving from Mexico City to New York City, and the boy is making the opposite transition. As each child reflects on what he or she loves about their current city, it becomes obvious that the two cities are more alike than different. The illustrations extend the text, offering readers insight into each city’s cultural traditions and landmarks. Tackling both big-life concepts—fear and sadness that accompany moving—as well as geographic and cultural concepts, it’s an excellent read-aloud that will provide a solid foundation for further classroom learning.

• Reflective Writing
  Tell students to pretend that they have just gotten the news that their family is moving to another country. Ask them to list the things that they will miss about their current neighborhood or city. Younger students may need help with the names of landmarks or buildings. Remind students to consider the climate, people and culture of their current city. Older students can take their lists and craft them into a piece of reflective writing, a love letter to their current neighborhood and city.
   
• City Similarities
  Create a three-column chart, and label the columns “Experience,” “New York City” and “Mexico City.” Reread the book aloud while taking pauses to fill in the chart. With each experience (after-school snacks, sporting events, etc.), write down the specifics for each city. The chart will show students that although the specifics are not the same, the cities and cultures are more alike than different. The back of the book has excellent information about the places in each city. Use Google Earth to visit a few of these landmarks.
   
• Cross-Cultural Pen Pals
  Connect your students with the world! Use an established site to register your students with an international pen pal. Communicating virtually via email is a quick option, but snail mail is my preference. Writing to their international pen pals is exciting for students and provides a real-world opportunity to practice letter writing and communication skills. Connecting with an international school via Mystery Skype is another activity that brings the world to your classroom. Prepare a list of questions beforehand. Afterward, create a City Similarities chart (see above), highlighting the ways the other students’ lives in the other country are similar to life in the United States.

Around the world, fairy tales have been passed down for centuries. They’re used to share traditions, reflect culture, teach lessons and entertain. The old stories are timeless; newcomers simply add beauty and breadth to this beloved genre. Two new picture books, The Great Gran Plan and Little Red Reading Hood and the Misread Wolf, prove there are still clever, undiscovered ways to find your happily ever after.

The Great Gran Plan, written by Elli Woollard and brilliantly illustrated by Steven Lenton, begins when the smart pig (the bricklayer) discovers the bad wolf’s granny-guzzling to-do list and hops in his van to save Little Red Riding Hood’s grandma. However, our unlikely hero becomes bogged down by his search for supplies, gets caught in a case of mistaken identity, and may need some rescuing of his own.

The Great Gran Plan boasts fairies and poison apples, glass slippers and wishing wells. References to countless fairy tales are craftily tucked into each page, and readers will have a blast discovering the Three Bears’ “Just Right” store (where everything comes in three sizes) and “Peep’s Bo-tique” (staffed by a helpful sheep named “Baarb”). Lenton’s imaginative images will have readers inspecting every page for sneaky details in a hysterical who’s-who of fairy-tale land. Keep an eye on the cat, who ends up a little worse for wear every time the pig gets in the van. Bonus points if you spot Captain Hook.

Woollard’s narration rhymes and rolls with alliteration and assonance, building momentum and hilarity and making it an ideal read-together. Full of beloved characters and witty predicaments, The Great Gran Plan will become a delightful new bookshelf favorite.

While wolves usually play the bad guy, recent fairy tales have recast the big, bad dude as misunderstood, misrepresented or maligned. Written by Troy Wilson and illustrated by Ilaria Campana, Little Red Reading Hood and the Misread Wolf turns this familiar fairy tale on its head with an intelligent and literary twist.

Wilson and Campana’s book has all the familiar tropes: a sneaky wolf in spectacles, a missing Grandma and a strong woodsman. But Wilson’s Red is brave, bright, well read and has no desire to be eaten. Wilson’s narration is laid-back, humorous and an effortless read-aloud. Readers will laugh when the granny-impersonating wolf loses his cool with an “Oh, forget it!” and gasp when the woodsman charges in, ax ready. Campana’s illustrations are vibrant and sharp with a cartoony feel that will appeal to children.

Much less grim than the original (nobody gets eaten or attacked with the ax), Little Red Reading Hood and the Misread Wolf invites us into a timeless world that has just the right amount of spooky. It’s a classic tale with modern sensibility that gives new life to a very old story.