Two Picture Books Worth Noting

There are two picture books in the current crop of new books that I think are worth noting.



Stick by Steve Breen is about a little frog who wants to do everything by himself. This leads him on a remarkable adventure. The story is told mostly through the illustrations. There are few words. It is a delightfully funny story and the illustrations are terrific -- simple but evocative. Note the expressions on faces and some of the detail shown in various reflections -- in the rearview mirror, on the water, in the shiny paint on the side of a car. The author and illustrator won the Pulitzer Prize for his comic strip "Grand Avenue."



Allison, he used to live and work in New Jersey -- alas, no longer. He would have been great for the festival in September.



Sky Sweeper by Phillis Gershator and illustrated by Holly Meade is a completely different sort of book. It is about Young Takeboki who needs a job and finds one as Flower Keeper in a temple. He is encouraged to find a better job, to make more money, to visit faraway places and to marry. But he finds fulfillment in his sweeping and gardening. The illustrations are collages using Japanese papers -- beautifully done. Very Buddhist!



The author was a children's librarian in Brooklyn -- but apparently now live in the US Virgin Islands.