Romping of animals makes us happy!

 

Julie Flett is a Cree-Metis author and illustrator. This gorgeous book is a celebration of animals--their movements and antics--and how humans enjoy playing, too! Cree words are introduced in this book. The pictures are very inviting in this pretty, inclusive book.

Adorable!

 

Adorable! Gertie is a small yak and wishes she was big. Her mother explains to her that “being big” is not just about being large. Gertie is invited to rescue “the teeniest yak” and she is able to accomplish the task because she is small. This teaches her the lesson about liking the size she is and working with that. When Gertie is devising a GROWING-UP PLAN she decides to read books. This is my favorite quote from the story:
“And she read lots of books to make her thoughts grow (because grown-ups have big things to think and to know).” Too true!
The pictures are delightful with wonderful, comical expressions on the faces of the yaks!

 

We are all connected, what a super book coming up on the holiday of Thanksgiving!

This beautiful book is a companion to THE INVISIBLE STRING. It is about how all life is connected to each other. This is written and expressed so that it resonates with all of us. The dedication is to "the REAL worldwide web." I love that!

This beautiful book is about how all of our invisible strings of love connect us, even to the people who have gone before us. An inexplicit message about grief makes this a sweet book for a collection on that topic. 
 

The Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award 2021

 Fantastic! Tuning into the sense of hearing, this book follows a little girl named Lina as she experiences snow in different ways. She is on her way to visit Sitti who has low vision. By the end of the story, she discovers that Sitti's sense of hearing is heightened, too. The friendship between Sitti and Lina (grandmother and granddaughter) is delightful. They spend time working on a family tradition of making warak enab and enjoy each other's company. This is a debut book for the author! Congratulations! This book has won the 2021 The Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award in Wisconsin. Well deserved!

Just love!

 This beautiful book celebrates the birds that are all around us. The main character is a girl who loves birds. The book begins with birds sitting on lines with ribbons of their names wrapped around their necks. There is a page spread about nests which reminds me of the bird nests built around the library under our security cameras! The change of seasons is marked by migration (fall) and then winter is shown as a time that bird feeding can be a great hobby! The ending is perfect where we see the girl dreaming about birds and dreaming about flying (my favorite dream!).
Thanks to publisher HarperCollins for permission to read this aloud during Covid year 2021, on video, for a classroom.

Beautiful for this day!

This is a beautiful book. I love the play on words in the title...rather than opposites attract it is "opposites abstract". The spreads are beautiful and thought provoking. I love abstract art so I clearly recognize the opposites. I wonder how this would work as a read aloud? My favorite spread is inclusion and exclusion. Excellent!
Mo Willems worked on this during 2020. It is a testament to the fact that the arts always save us! And art can be created amid chaotic, uncertain times. We NEED it! Thank you Mo Willems!
 

An afternoon of art webinar, provided by Booklist

 Today I learned about these 6 picture books from the illustrators themselves...Fantastic!