Picture Book Worth Looking At

Chicky Chicky Chook Chook by Cathy MacLennan is one of our new picture books. I think it would be terrific read aloud for 2, 3, 4 year-olds. It reminds me a bit of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. The illustrations and mood are different. The repetition of sound, the fuzzy chicks the simple story line are all delightful.

A Family Tradition

I recently read Pass It Down: Five Picture-Book Families Make Their Mark by Leonard S. Marcus, currently shelved with new non-fiction. As a librarian still fairly new to children's literature, I found it quite interesting and helpful to learn how some very famous picture book authors and illustrators came into their careers and how their children ended up following suit. Discussed are Donald Crews, Ann Jonas, and thier daughter, Nina Crews; Clement and Edith Thacher Hurd and thier son, Thacher Hurd; Walter Dean Meyers and his son, Christopher Myers. Jerry Pinkney and his son, Brian Pinkney; Harlow and Anne Rockwell and their daughter, Lizzy Rockwell. What a fun way to grow up!

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.

Illustrations

Reading though the new picture books I found one with lovey illustrations. Half a World Away is by Libby Gleeson and illustrated by Freya Blackwood. It is a simple, sweet story about the power of friendship. The illustrations are water colors -- fairly monocromatic and simple but the use of red on each page focuses one on the important detail. The children's faces are sweet and a tad melancholy -- appropriate to the story line.

New Picture Books

Of the current new batch of picture books I found a few I thought were worth noting.

1) The Pink Refrigerator by Tim Egan tells the story of Dodsworth. Dodsworth spends his days doing as little as possible -- running his trift shop, visiting the junkyard to find new things for his store, napping, and watching TV. One day he finds a pink refrigerator with a note clamped to the front with a powerful magnet. The note contains a mysterious message. Soon Dodsworth is living a very different, far more interesting life. Great message about living life to the fullest.

2) Wolf! Wolf! by John Rocco is the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" from the perspective of the hungry old wolf. Nice resolution. The illustrations have a Japanese quality (-- and I don't mean anime.)

3) Silly Billy by Anthony Browne is about a boy with too many worries. The solution proposed by his grandma? Worry dolls! Soon that poses a new problem. But a stronger Billy finds a solution to this new problem on his own.