Seeing the author was a treat! The message about grief is universal!

 I was fortunate to see Michael Hall speak at our WLA Conference in the fall of 2025. The theme of the conference was BE THE CHANGE. Michael spoke about his creative process and how his art has evolved through the years. He started his career by creating brands as a graphic designer. He shared those with us and they were recognizable. Also, Michael has a distinctive style which has switched over to his children's book illustrations. 

This is his most recent book. It is so lovely and surprising. The description in Infosoup says it best:

Badger, Frog, Moose, Elephant, and Bear are best friends. But when Badger experiences a personal loss and his emotions are too big to contain, he goes looking for trouble and takes his sadness out on his friends. He trips Frog, shoves Moose, kicks Elephant, and pokes Bear with a shovel. So Bear gathers the others, and they come up with a plan to teach Badger a lesson. Only that lesson is not what Badger--or readers--expect. In fact, Badger's friends treat Badger with kindness, offering him what he needs the most to sooth his raw emotions--a surprising turn of events that Badger takes to heart when Bear needs a little comfort in return.

A quirky book with a lot of heart

    I have been doing some story times about the mail and the post office. I found this beautiful watercolor book in Infosoup that I was immediately drawn to because of the Scottish flavor. The book is said to be set on the island of Struay---that is fictional but it IS based on the real life ISLE OF COLL which is in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.

     We began by talking about how it would be to live on an island and have the mail brought there by boat. Our protagonist, Katie, is told to deliver the mail by her parents. Katie's younger baby sibling is cutting a tooth and they have their hands full! Katie has 5 packages to deliver. One is for her grandmother. That is easy because it has a red tag on it. It contains a part that is needed to repair the grandmother's tractor. The other four packages are labeled. Katie has an accident where she falls in the water and the packages lose their delivery information and are all mixed up!

     Katie delivers each package to the stoop of own of the known recipients but she gets all of them wrong. Last call, she goes to her grandmother. Katie explains the accident to her grandmother. Grandmother repairs the tractor and takes Katie to each location once more to check on the deliveries and recitfy the mistakes. 

     The sweet ending is when Katie is delivered home by her grandmother and her grandmother tells them how wonderful Katie is without telling on her. I love this intergenerational story about problem solving and fixing one's errors. 

Copyright: 1984 and apparently part of a beloved series!

I want to note here, too, that a grandma at story time is the mother of a postal worker. (We are rural.)

She told me that for some people on her daughter's route, the mail delivery is their ONLY human contact during the day. Wow! What a (tragic) concept!

I mean, look at that plaid skirt! Look at those sheep!

 Story map I developed for the story.

2026 book by Mychal Threets and Lorraine Nam, a celebration of the joy created by libraries!

 

This is a very fine celebration of libraries—the people who use them and the people who work in them to create the best possible learning experiences. ALL ARE WELCOME! The lovely Mychal Threets uses positive words that jump off the page, and the illustrator Lorraine Nam brings the words to life with charming illustrations. This is such a happy, colorful book. It is perfect for American Library Week or any day!  

A sweet introduction to "chapter books"

 

This is a sweet book in three chapters. Kids can say that they read a “chapter book.”

Each story involves the main character, Chick, and a secondary character, Old-Auntie who is a hen. Chick has questions and Old-Auntie has answers!

Chapter 1—The Carrot That Would Not Grow—Chick learns to be happy with the result of a small but beautiful carrot.

Chapter 2—The Kite That Would Not Fly—Chick learns the components for great kite flying—a windy day and a hill to run up. I thought the leaf as a kite was so clever.

Chapter 3—The Starry Night—Chick learns that it is better to leave a favorite star in the sky where it belongs.

A fun April Fools' book!

This book talks about April Fools’ Day and makes nods to other things that happen in the approach to spring. For example, the characters are groundhogs. The headline of the paper they are reading, Woodchuck Weekly, is “Shadows! Why do they scare us?” The running of the maple sap is mentioned. A freak blizzard happens. We are familiar with these things in Northeast WI! This was a fun story with additional content to be discussed. 

 

One of those WEIRD days but better when you can sort it with a friend!

 This book seemed like it was written for last week in Seymour, WI!  Bear (Jeff) and Hare (Anders) have power outages at their homes. When they each go outside to check out the world, their doors blow shut and they are locked out. They each have spare keys with each other but they are both locked out! They face a bunch more problems together (including HAIL which we also experienced last week) and end up having a terrific laugh together to break the tension! Another way they break the stress is to go spend time in the water. Yes! My personal favorite way... to wash it all off! At the end of the book they conclude, "Good friends are like inner tubes. They keep you afloat through life's twists and turns." Hooray! 

A winner for teaching about how a bill is passed in our state government

I found this amazing book in Infosoup. It is appropriate for middle school readers. In this book, Mr. Tiffin (the educator) gets his students interested in creating a bill for a state cookie. There are a lot of steps to deciding such an idea and those are explored in the story. Among them are the committee process, the debating process, and the voting process. It is hard to come to consensus! What a good lesson! Ideas can come from any citizen, no matter what their age. Crafting a good idea means getting input from a lot of people and being willing to compromise. The state cookie they came up with reflects that: Apple Cinnamon Maple Syrup Oatmeal Cookie

Overarching lesson: Our state governments represent who we are. It is important to be a knowledgeable and active citizen. 

Fact: In Alabama, the Trinity Presbyterian School's (fourth grade class) cookie bill passed into law in 2023! The official state cookie is called the Yellowhammer. It has oats, brown sugar, and lots of pecans. Oat and pecans are grown in Alabama. 

 

A little lesson about how books can share a title!

Lovely book about the farm animals having a barn dance with scarecrow as the fiddler. The language in this book is rich. The "skinny kid" who joins in the dance is so cute and the kiddos laughed that he was going to bed in the MORNING (after). 

Look at the cover and realize that pig, horse, and sheep are going to have some accidents during the barn dance. Hovering owl will have something funny to share at the end of the book. 

It was fun to show participants at story time that books can share a title! Two children's literature GIANTS were the creators: Bill Martin Jr. and Pat Hutchins. 

 

Perfect, we all have been there!

 That situation where you think you have a brilliant idea and many people are discouraging (including one who does not have enough time for you) but you triumph because your idea "clicks" with just the right person it was meant for!
Yes, that is basically the gist of this fabulous picture book. I love picture books written on two levels: one for the child readers and one for the (accompanying) adult readers!

Yum!

 My personal craving for fruit in winter drew me to this fantastic book! In it, the reader learns about 9 fruits that are not native to the United States. What a cool way to learn about other places and climates! It is fun to learn the 9 names (and descriptions) and how they might be available in a Chinatown market near you. Fun!

MLK Jr. tie-in

 I was glad to learn about this piece of history. The attention paid to finding the cart and making it beautiful was so touching. All of the people who attended Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral surely showed how beloved and respected he was. We learn about the mules who pulled the cart named Ada and Belle. A small ordinary story that has layers of meaning--how extraordinary positivity and kindness and attention to detail can be!
*The Dreamscape 7 minute video based on this book was lovely, too. c)2013

Wow--neat story!

 This book is cool because it teaches three things in a neat package of a story. The illustrations practically jump off of the page! The book is written in the style of haiku.

At the beginning of the book there is a "billboard" featuring the three lessons.

1) Haiku: A short form of poetry from Japan consisting of three lines, with a 5/7/5 syllable pattern.

2) Kaiju: A Japanese word meaning "strange creature".

3) Ah-Choo: A word used to represent the sound of a sneeze. This type of word is also called onomatopoeia.

A beautiful version of THE MITTEN

 

There are many versions of THE MITTEN. I was happy to discover this one which is Ukranian. The pastels used in the illustrations are gorgeous and evoke the feeling of deep winter. There are six animals in the story and they cleverly named. These are fun to say with readers as they help retell the story: 

Mistress Mouse~Frog Limpyleg~Rabbit Fast-on-Foot~

Fox Goldenfur~Boar Flatnose~Master Bigfoot

Reminders of vibrant colors during the "white" time of the year

I love this series of books. The pictures are always very colorful and inviting! In this case, the reader learns the customs of CHINESE NEW YEAR with a focus on the different colors seen during that celebration! Definitely, after reading this book, you will want to seek out the nearest Chinatown! 

                                                                  🏮🪁🐲🐉💸🜚