Here is a book that exemplifies that happy combination where words and pictures carry equal weight and yet somehow create a whole that defies arithmetic. A Sick Day for Amos McGee is the first collaborative effort by the husband-and-wife team of Philip and Erin Stead, and even their dedication is intertwined as each acknowledges the other in a never-ending circle of words. Their overlapping partnership produces illustrations and text in easy harmony for this understated tale sprinkled with subtle humor.

Amos is an elderly zookeeper who lives alone and methodically follows his daily routine. He schedules time to interact tenderly with each animal according to its need. In turn, when he doesn’t show up for work, the animals reciprocate by taking the bus to check on their sick caretaker. They know just what he needs and gently modify their activities to adjust to his condition. With their friend on the mend, they all fall asleep in a friendly huddle.

The background scenery is as orderly as Amos’ life. The visual rhythm of the uncluttered illustrations reinforces the simple pattern of his day, but the pictures hold some surprises of their own. Cleverly embedded numbers, an errant balloon and stowaways in the periphery all invite a closer look. The unusual mixture of pencil drawing and softly colored wood block printing enhances the peaceful tone and introduces a new look to picture books.

This is a heart-warming story, comforting without a lot of fuss. It’s an obvious choice as a reassuring read on a child’s sick day or before bedtime, but it would also be one to keep in mind for any time a quiet break is in order.

The Steads’ expressive depiction of mutual caring has me anxiously anticipating future installments from this new team. 

With a bouncy rhyme scheme reminiscent of This Is the House That Jack Built, Susan Meyers takes children on a delightful journey of a lost teddy bear in Bear in the Air. As a mother pushes her young son in a stroller along a boardwalk, his beloved teddy bear falls out of sight. Oh, “how Baby cried,” yet the mother continues on her way when she can’t locate the stuffed animal.

The teddy bear is soon found, first by a beagle that tosses him high in the air and leaves him on the sandy shore and then by a wave that pulls him out to sea, where a sailboat captain almost captures him in his net. The bear is not long lost again when a seal finds him, plays with him deep in the ocean and deposits him in some seaweed, where he is scooped up by a pelican and flown higher than he’s ever been before. He doesn’t enjoy his ride long before a breeze causes the bird to sneeze and send him tumbling back to the ground, where a lady scoops him up and hangs him to dry on her clothesline. “Along came Baby—what a surprise!/ Mother could scarcely believe her own eyes,” when the two spot the flapping bear as they finish their walk.

Bringing the jaunty rhymes to life are Amy Bates’ endearing pencil-and-watercolor illustrations in soft, seaside blues, greens and golds. She makes the baby and bear equally adorable with similar sizes, stances and big round eyes. Out on his own, the teddy bear’s expressions reflect his new experiences, from surprise at playing underwater with a seal, to curiosity at the fish that look at him, to fear from falling from the sky, then finally joy when reunited with his boy. Although the little boy and his mother never know about the bear’s action-packed journey, a tiny crab follows him everywhere, reminding readers of the bear’s secret adventures. An illustrated map at the end allows children and their parents to recap all of the escapades.

While Bates’ artwork reflects an earlier era through the clothing, the baby buggy and boardwalk vendors, it also reflects the timeless love that develops generation after generation between children and their teddy bears. Children will relish Bear in the Air for its summertime excitement with a happy conclusion. Adults will enjoy reminiscing about their own childhood keepsakes and sharing them with the next generation of teddy bear huggers.

Angela Leeper still has her first teddy bear in the attic of her Richmond, Virginia home.

Just as a family plants a tree in the backyard of their Brooklyn neighborhood, another family in Kenya plants a tree, a reflection of the country’s Green Belt Movement, created by environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.

In simple yet poetic and inspirational text, Diane Muldrow shares stories describing how trees, whether in Central Park or Paris, New England or Africa, on a Midwest farm or along the Mediterranean coast, provide a multitude of benefits for the earth. After buds burst open and leaves appear, these leaves and the sun combine to give trees their food. In turn, trees provide shade, clean air, fruit, sap for syrup and food for animals. They prevent erosion, which makes the soil healthier and allows people to grow and eat their own nutritious vegetables.

Bob Staake’s computer generated, cartoon-like characters evoke nothing but joy as they interact with the trees and their offerings. Some trees, like the one that holds up a girl’s swing set and spans two pages, become the focus of the illustrations, while other trees, such as the ones that form the perimeter of a baseball field, blend into the background of a playful afternoon. In one scene, in which birthday preparations are underway at a seaside home, the illustrator gives a nod to two of his previous books. He incorporates lemon trees, evoking The Red Lemon, and the delivery of a cake by a rotund baker, like the character in The Donut Chef.

Staake depicts the refrain “We planted a tree and it grew up” by showing both trees and children growing up together until a second generation takes pleasure in a picnic beneath a lush tree that now blocks the view of the Brooklyn Bridge, and around a shady tree amidst a plentiful Kenyan garden.

In We Planted a Tree, Muldrow emphasizes that only one tree is needed to reap rewards. For motivation to plant that first tree, this is the one book families will need.

Angela Leeper always enjoys a shady afternoon at her home in Richmond, Virginia.

Spring is just around the corner, and reading Kevin Henkes’ latest picture book is an excellent way to anticipate the change in seasons. In My Garden, the author of classics like Kitten’s First Full Moon and Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse blends the beauty of nature and the power of imagination for an appealing, if quiet, story.

After helping her mother work in the garden one day, Henkes’ young heroine has decided opinions about what will—and will not—grow once she has a garden of her own. “Tomatoes will be as big as beach balls, and carrots will be invisible, because I don’t like carrots,” she announces confidently. She also lends her green thumb to cultivating more sugary delicacies. Plant a jellybean? Grow a jellybean bush! And the only rabbits allowed are chocolate.

Colorful watercolor and ink illustrations adorn every page, bringing the garden in the little girl’s mind to life. One memorable spread shows her surrounded by butterflies and birds, “so that the air was humming with wings.” This fanciful tale is a sweet and simple read for the nature-loving dreamer in your family.

RELATED CONTENT
Interview with Kevin Henkes
Illustrated Q&A with Kevin Henkes
Review of Kitten’s First Full Moon
Kevin Henkes’ website

This comforting, lyrical story focuses on the mystery and beauty of an approaching storm. As wind whistles through the treetops and lightning brightens the darkening sky, a mother and her watchful daughter participate in a gentle, lilting call-and-response dialogue. Joann Early Macken’s story works as both a delightful educational introduction to the various aspects of a rainstorm, as well as a feather-light reassurance to a child who is curious and fearful about the weather.

The mother’s replies are printed in italics, while her daughter’s questions appear in a large, bolder font. These are consistent throughout the tale, making it easy to distinguish the voices of the two characters. The mother’s answers, compassionate and comforting, lend a lullaby-like quality to the text, while Susan Gaber’s lovely depictions of the emerging storm, some on two-page spreads, offer views of the mother-daughter bond, as well as portraits of contented and cozy animals and humans who are safe at home.

As they experience the drama created by the storm, the mother’s soothing explanations calm her daughter. Watching and pondering, dashing between raindrops, both have witnessed the beauty and power of nature. Detailed illustrations offer little ones the opportunity to explore, observe and appreciate the wonders of the natural world. A lovely rhapsody of shared fascination, Waiting Out the Storm is a delight for both young readers and listeners.

Freelance writer Andrea Tarr is a librarian at Corona Public Library in Southern California.

A word of warning to dads: your young daughter is likely to adore this book, but you might want to watch your wardrobe!

Violet, a bunny, is the exuberant hero of Pink Me Up, and she has been invited to the 3rd Annual Pink Girls Pink-nic. She is already adorned in her favorite color, so she lays out a pink-tastic wardrobe for her mother, who is soundly sleeping, her head covered with a pillow.

Unfortunately, Mama wakes up covered with pink spots, so Violet's best day ever suddenly turns to the worst day ever. Daddy comes to the rescue, but Violet announces, "Boys are NOT pink!'

Daddy manages to pull out a pink tie from his closet, which Violet believes is hardly enough. With some creative collaboration (including markers, tape and stickers) Violet soon has Daddy looking pink-errific.

Author-illustrator Charise Mericle Harper has filled this book with energy and fun, and her simple acrylic illustrations shout modern style and vibrant colors—not all of them pink. (For the record, Harper reports that her favorite color is "sad blue," but there is nothing at all sad in this book, except for that brief moment when Violet fears she can't go to the Pink-nic.) The artist's bird's eye views are particularly effective, as we get an overhead look, for instance, at Mama trying to hide under the covers, and, a bit later, at Violet, who has thrown herself on the floor when she realizes Mama is ill.

Pink Me Up is a vivacious choice for a bedtime, library or school read aloud for young audiences, but be sure to have your audiences "pink" themselves up beforehand.

Alice Cary thinks pink at her home in Groton, Massachusetts.

Did you ever wonder how photographers get those fabulous pictures of birds? If you have ever tried to take a picture of any moving thing in nature, you’ve probably been perplexed by the work of the pros. I have trouble getting a good photo of a hanging leaf and can’t imagine how anyone could record photos like the ones by talented artists in magazines. Turns out, modern nature photographers have a thing or two to learn from Richard and Cherry Kearton, who invented the concept of bird photography.

Biographies for young children tend to be of familiar folks. But, like the Kearton brothers themselves, Rebecca Bond has taken a risk by writing a picture book biography about obscure brothers with a dream. Bond did her research and has created In the Belly of an Ox: The Unexpected Photographic Adventures of Richard and Cherry Kearton, a lovely, compelling story with wide appeal. The cover shows younger brother Cherry carrying a full size bull on his head! Any typically curious child will want to know what in the world is going on.

Richard and Cherry grew up in a large family in Yorkshire and loved their sheep, the hills and all things rural. Bond’s poetic prose about these young nature lovers draws the reader in: “They especially marveled at the architecture of living things: The structure of nests. The lattice of webs. The shapes of prints. The patterns of play. The camouflage of nature. The designs of flight.” Watercolor richly captures the tone and beauty of the outdoor life the brothers loved. One can imagine Bond, camped out like plein-air artists of the mid-1800s, capturing the green and blue tones of the Yorkshire countryside.

Even though the brothers moved to London as adults, they were drawn back to the moors they loved as boys. And it is here that the story becomes really amazing. The boys, inspired by Cherry’s new camera, decide to photograph a thrush’s nest. They have to be sneaky and clever to capture a good shot of the bird, so they design “hides,” contraptions for camouflage. First, they sew blankets together. Then, they hide in moving bales of hay, inside a hollow tree trunk covered with leaves and even inside a taxidermied ox! Imagine the laughter when young readers see the picture of Cherry, upside down in the ox, when a strong wind blows him over! Such ingenuity and dedication lead the brothers to become famous naturalists and writers, and to lead the lives they loved.

A full spread of period photographs and fascinating author notes rounds out this marvel of a story. Modern photographers with their teeny digital cameras will be inspired to follow the Keartons’ lead and find new ways to capture nature in photography

Robin Smith occasionally catches a slow spider in her camera’s lens, but never a bird.

Jerry Pinkney’s latest picture book is an absolutely gorgeous example of book making and pictorial storytelling, a wordless book readers will “read” over and over again, each time noticing new treasures in the pictures. The dust jacket places the lion and the mouse head-to-head, the lion on the front cover, the mouse on the back. Take off the dust jacket, and there are additional images: the lion and the mouse on the front cover, still eyeing each other, and on the back cover an African Serengeti group portrait. In the front endpapers, the animals are up, out of their group picture, wandering the Serengeti, the big lion yawning amidst his family.

Turn the page, and the mouse is introduced, standing in a lion’s footprint. And the story proceeds, succeeding brilliantly in what the best picture books are all about—the drama of the turning page. An owl scares the mouse, the mouse runs off and ends up dangling upside down in the clutches of the great lion. This is not a completely wordless book, as there’s a “Grrr” and a “Squeak” here, and other animal sounds and the “putt-putt-putt” of a jeep elsewhere. In a full-page spread, the lion contemplates the mouse, and in the following spread he lowers his paw and lets the mouse return to her family. In the meantime, poachers set their trap, the lion steps into it, and the mouse’s chance to be courageous and repay the lion’s kindness is set up.

In an artist’s note, Pinkney discusses how he was able to capture on the book’s jacket the “powerful space and presence” of both the lion and the mouse. That phrase perfectly captures what makes this book so striking—the space and presence the characters command on the page, and by the end of the tale, the meek mouse and the mighty lion, two spirited creatures in their own ways, have some good family time together, the back endpapers depicting the mouse family hitching a ride on the lion’s back for a stroll on the Serengeti.

Dean Schneider teaches middle school English in Nashville.

Never underestimate your mom. When she threatens to buy you a blue whale if you don’t clean up your room, she means business. If you second-guess her about having a blue whale delivered overnight—after all, they are the biggest animals in the world—she’ll show you who’s boss. And before you know it, you have a sizable dilemma on your hands, because whales make rather difficult pets.

That’s the comical and cautionary tale behind Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem, marking the impressive debut of author Mac Barnett. After Billy shirks his chores one too many times, he wakes to find the large aquatic mammal at his doorstep, delivered by who else but Fed Up: Delivering Punishment Worldwide. He tries to go about his day, towing the whale to school on the back of his bike, squeezing him into the classroom and defending his new pet against the playground bully. It’s exhausting, to say the least, and his troubles don’t end when he returns home. As Billy drags himself upstairs, his father pulls out a copy of the Blue Whale Owner’s Manual, complete with instructions on washing and waxing your whale, not to mention feeding him. “The manual says they eat krill—tiny shrimps things that they find by gulping ten-thousand-gallon mouthfuls of seawater.” But where will Billy find that much seawater?

He heads to the sea, of course, tossing water into the beast’s mouth by the bucketful. That’s when he has a revelation that might just give him an insider’s perspective on his blue whale problem.

This picture book, with its oversized humor and gentle lesson about responsibility, will surely find an enthusiastic audience. Fantastic illustrations by Adam Rex burst from each page and his sympathetic depiction of the nonchalant whale is completely charming. In the midst of the hilarity are plenty of facts about blue whales that readers will have no trouble digesting. Needless to say, it’s a whale of a tale with a new twist.