THE WONDER OF PICTURE BOOKS
Picture books have overflowed my bookshelves for as long as I can remember. Reading to my three children as they grew was a joy. A time to snuggle, connect and learn. I plan to read these old favorites to my grandchildren from board book through chapter book.
This past year an abundance of picture books have blown me away. Their rhythm, rhyme, structure, content and illustrations intrigue my senses, and my heart.
This blog will feature a sample (6) of these picture books. It was so difficult to choose which of my favorites to share with you. I will relate why and how each book impacts me, and provide a brief summary.
Enjoy
We Are Water Protectors
Written by Carole Lindstrom, Illustrated by Michaela Goade
This lyrical, gorgeous book, my favorite of 2020, won the Caldecott Medal and the Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text. Inspired by the many Indigenous-led movements across North America, Carole Lindstrom issues an urgent message to stand together to protect the Earth’s water.
The gorgeous cover, illustrated by Michaela Goade, immediately drew my attention. (The pictures here do not do the illustrations in the book justice! Borrow or buy the book and enjoy.) She swirls blue, green and purple watercolor throughout the book to represent water. It comes alive, a character itself. Ms. Goade uses negative space, (no paint), to connect with ancestors, creating a spiritual presence.
The girl on the cover is standing in water, protecting it, and being protected by it. The crescent moon by her head represents the feminine. In Indigenous cultures women care for the water. The floral pattern also represents the female, and is laced throughout the book. In the background of the cover humans of different generations hold hands in a line. Hand-holding is seen throughout the book, representing unity, diversity, and that we are all connected through water.
The story begins: One young water protector states “The river’s rhythms runs through my veins, runs through my peoples’s veins.”
When a black snake threatens to poison their water and destroy their land,
(note the dead flowers and skeletons on half the bird and fish)
the indigenous people (the water protectors) stand together to protest the pipeline.
(note the water lilies and fish in her hair)
“Water is the first medicine. It affects and connects us all . . .
_____________
An Author’s Note at the back of the book explains the history of the water protectors. Here you will also find a Glossary and Illustrator Notes.
Carole Lindstrom is Anishinaabe/Metis and is tribally enrolled with the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. She lives in Maryland and is a “fierce” water protector.
Michaela Goade is of Tlingit descent and is tribally enrolled with the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.
I Talk Like A River
Written by Jordan Scott, Illustrated by Sydney Smith
This amazing, lyrical, powerful, stunning book is drawn from the author’s personal experience. It won the Schneider Family Book Award and the New York Times Best Children’s Book of the Year 2020.
This story begins:
“I wake up each morning with the sounds of words all around me. And I can’t say them all.” Pine trees grow roots in his mouth, a crow sticks in the back of his throat. He is laughed at when he speaks at school.
On a bad speech day his Dad picks him up at school, and they walk along the bubbling, churning, whirling, crashing river, and the smooth river beyond the rapids. “See how that water moves? That’s how you speak.”
A beautiful double page fold-out spread illustrates the moment when the boy begins to think of himself in a new way. Closed pages show the boy’s face as he studies the movements of the river.
Open pages show the expanse of the river in the bright sun, and the boy plowing through the current, and freedom.
The next morning the boy tells his class about his favorite place in the world. “I talk about the river. And I talk like a river.”
Jordan Scott wrote this book to honor his father who taught him to think about his stutter and to speak in a generous and natural way.
His powerful story reminds us that we are all like a river in some way. We are never on a smooth, perfect path, but one that swirls, churns, bubbles and crashes as it flows.
Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith, illustrator, collaborated to create an amazing story with soft, moving illustrations that enhance the text. The murky water color wash used by Smith reflects the boy’s feelings about his stutter.
I Talk Like a River is an important book for any child who feels lonely, lost or that they don’t fit in.
A tie with We Are Water Protectors for my favorite book of 2020 and beyond for it’s written and illustrated beauty, and messages of love, understanding, and strength.
The UnDefeated
Written by Kwame Alexander, Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
The heart and soul of The Undefeated emanates from the cover, and drew me in. This nonfiction history of black life in the United States, is written in verse, for ages 6 – 12. The poem was first performed for ESPN’s Undefeated in 2016. The picture book is a Caldecott Medal winner, and is described as “a love letter to the black life in the U.S.” It highlights the trauma of slavery, the “faith and fire” of the civil rights movement, the “grit, passion and perseverance” of some of the world’s greatest heroes in sports, music, literature, politics, and through recent police shootings.
Kadir Nelson illustrates with oil paintings that stand out against a stark white background. This photorealistic style is his trademark. The close-up photo-like pictures compliment the powerful text.
The illustrations at the beginning of the book depict black Americans in subtle shadow. These disappear toward the middle and end of the book, showing the brilliance of generations of black American heroes emerging into the bright light.
It has been noted in reviews that the illustrations are “striking, unsettling, and also give you pause. This really happened.”
The Stuff of Stars
Written by Marion Dane Bauer, Illustrated by Ekua Holmes
I am mesmerized by the astonishingly beautiful artwork and simple, lyrical text of this picture book, that describes the birth of the Universe and of each of us. It won the 2019 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award.
The momentum-building repetition in the text transports the reader to the birth of the universe. The narrator tells a beloved child, there were “no oceans, no planets, no hippopotami.” Finally, in a magical combination of conditions, that “starry stuff turns into mitochondria, . . . jellyfish, . . . spiders.” Eventually “YOU burst into the world”
Ekua Holmes uses swirls of marbled paper to represent the ebb and flow of cosmic matter.
The Women Who Caught the Babies
Written by Eloise Greenfield, Illustrated by Daniel Minter
The unique, lyrical illustrations in sync with the poetry of this historic text left me turning the pages again and again, in awe. This emotional history of African American midwifery, written for ages 9 – 12, begins in prose with archival photos. Seven poems follow, with stunning illustrations, creating vignettes from the lives of midwives during slavery and emancipation, through today. The first poem, “Africa to America” is of the trans-Atlantic slave journey. Elder women taught younger girls the knowledge and skills to “Catch the Babies”. “Emancipation 1863” expresses the great joy of parents whose children were born free from slavery.
One of my favorite illustrations, described by Kirkus Reviews, is of five women connected by “sinous draping robes, heads bowed in concentration, “gentle-loving’ hands at the ends of muscular arms guiding babies into the world.”
The poem that ends this gorgeous book, “Miss Rovenia Mayo”, is about Ms. Mayo, the midwife who caught newborn Eloise Greenfield (the author).
Mother Bruce
Written and Illustrated by Ryan T. Higgins
Humor. This adorable book is giggle and laugh-out-loud, with funny text and hillarious illustrations.
Bruce is a grumpy black bear who only likes eggs that he cooks into fancy recipes. The illustrations of Bruce’s antics and facial expressions are comical and draw the reader into Bruce’s dilemma. When the eggs he found for cooking hatch, the goslings believe he is their mother. Bruce tries again and again to get rid of them, but he is stuck with the goslings and tries to make the best of it. The illustrations are detailed and tell the tale. My favorite picture is of the goslings being carried by Bruce in a front pack. Read on to the surprise ending.
Ryan T. Higgins has written a series of 7 Mother Bruce Books, Little Bruce Books, and others.
Books I celebrated today:
->We Are Water Protectors, by Carole Lindstorm
->I Talk Like a River, by Jordan Scott
->The Undefeated, by Kwama Alexande
->The Stuff of Stars, by Marion Dane Bauer
->The Women Who Caught the Babies, by Eloise Greenfield
->Mother Bruce, by Ryan T. Higgins