"Aunt Flossie's Hats" and "Mossy"

Both of these picture books look toward the past.

Aunt Flossie's Hats (and Crab Cakes Later)
5 stars
Author: Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard
Illustrator: James Ransome

My grandparents had stories of their lives. Perhaps yours did too. How many of them did someone write down? Or are they lost now?
This picture book is about stories Aunt Flossie told about some of her collection of hats. Each hat had a place in history.
The illustrations are paintings of the story. They bring the story and the hats to life.
After the story, the author urges people to ask, listen to and record their family stories. These stories tell us who we are and where we came from. Too often they vanish along with the people.

Mossy
5 stars
Author/Illustrator: Jan Brett

For many years amateur naturalists collected interesting geologic and biologic specimens. At the time many new things were being found from places around the world and finally looked at around home. Some of these collections were later shown to the public.
Two such collectors find Mossy, a turtle with a garden of mosses and wild flowers growing on her shell. They create an indoor place for Mossy where the turtle is a popular attraction. But, is it right to keep the turtle caged?
The illustrations are exquisite. These are not only the main one on a page, but the sidebars and the margins. Each page has a different type of objects in the margins: rocks, shells, plants, insects and more as would be in such a collection of the time. The amount of detail in each illustration rivals a photograph and is reminiscent of the illustrations found in scientific papers of that time.