We’ll close with a sweet new board book edition of a 2001 picture book: Little Tree, by Caldecott-winning illustrator Chris Raschka. The book starts with the e.e. cummings poem that inspired Raschka’s text. The poem is a poignant look at a tree from its days in a forest to its new holiday home with a family. With lines like, you are so little/you are more like a flower, it’s short and simple enough that even the youngest children can appreciate the warmth and wonder that cummings expresses. Raschka does the poem proud, presenting his own tale based on it. His version begins, The little tree had a little dream. The little tree dreamed of being a Christmas tree, a beautiful Christmas tree in a city, far, far away in a place he’d never seen but only dreamed of, with his own little family in his own little house. Raschka’s illustrations are always enormously popular, and they’re just right in Little Tree. His almost childlike artwork is colorful, cheerful, modern and energetic, and will no doubt inspire young artists. One final word: This little board book is not just for babies and toddlers it’s also perfect for beginning readers.
Valiant Women is a vital and engrossing attempt to correct the record and rightfully celebrate the achievements of female veterans of World War II.
