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January 2022: Picture Books Published in 2021
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Love it! ;-)
I also had to LOL about the strategically placed fried eggs. Haha!
Well, I can't imagine most kids even finding that, let alone noticing/caring what it was -- they'd probably think it was just a silly bathing suit. Unless, of course, the parent made a big fuss about it.
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Love it! ;-)
I also had to LOL about the strategically..."
If you spend your time combing through cluttered picture books in order to find depictions of nudity, it is YOU who have problems.
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Considering how often our Rottweiler nabbed things the tulip scene would make me smile.
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Also copied to the Outstanding Women thread:What Isabella Wanted: Isabella Stewart Gardner Builds a Museum
let me say I am not the audience for this book. I "met" Isabella Stewart Gardner at a local library program some years ago and heard her story. My parents and everyone else in the area have been to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
The story is cute. It emphasies what a forceful personality Isabella Stewart Gardner was. She got everything she wished for. It tells the story of the creation of her museum in the Fens simply. The prose is fresh and fun with the refrain of "exactly as Isabella wanted." I think kids would have fun saying the last line in advance once they realize it. The story also discusses what happened after Isabella died and mentions the great art heist of 1990 which still has not been solved.
The illustrations, while cute, are horrendous and dreadful for a book about ART! Especially classical art. My other complaint about the illustrations is that Isabella is shown, at the end, wearing her scandalous black dress from the John Singer Sargeant painting but the text doesn't explain anything about the dress or the scandal. It's another example of "exactly as Isabella wanted." (It features a low neckline showing bare shoulders and throat.) The portrait was Isabella's attempt to trump the scandalous Madame X painting. Jack Gardner asked his wife not to publicly show the portrait again while he was alive. The portrait was placed in the Gothic Room, which remained private until Mrs. Gardner’s death.
The backmatter contains a three page note on Isabella, complete with adult bibliography and quotation sources. It also features the painting but no explanation or any of the other paintings JSS did of Isabella.
If you don't know Isabella yet, DO read this book and then it will pique your curiosity to find out more!
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Empathy and other points-of-view and diverse perspectives... yes to all of the above! And in a math book yet, wow!
(Older books and hard to find, but I love Rumpelstiltskin/a Deal Is a Deal: A Classic Tale and all the other POV stories from Alvin Granowsky.)
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What Isabella Wanted: Isabella Stewart Gardner Builds a Museum[bookcover:What Isabella Wanted: Isabella Stewart Gardner Builds a Museum..."
I see another reviewer points out that there's something under the dust cover... did you notice?
I don't know anything about this person or the stories about her so I will have to check out the book.
Cheryl is busier irl atm. wrote: "I see another reviewer points out that there's something under the dust cover... did you notice?No, my library copy is sealed under plastic. I don't see anything though, just a reflection of the cover.
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Hope at Sea: An Adventure Story
I cannot understand why this fabulous book was not on the ALA Notable Children's Books list this year (2021). The ink and watercolor illustrations were glorious and the story very exciting as a young girl stows away on her father's ship (1800s).
Crowbar: The Smartest Bird in the World
Wendell Minor's paintings of the crow are excellent and the story of a family helping to raise an orphaned baby crow is fascinating. Even more fascinating is how smart that little crow is!
Little Red and the Cat Who Loved Cake
I loved the artwork and the wordless story. This almost wordless picture book has fun with fairy tales and nursery rhymes. A cat who loves cake stalks Little Red who has been commissioned to take a cake to his grandmother. Along the way are many sights to see, sheep to count, and businesses to pass (Humpty Dumpty Insurance, 3 Pig Realty, etc.). Young readers will have fun finding the many characters and objects from fairy tales and nursery rhymes.
Book's Big Adventure
Actually, the book description in Goodreads is incorrect. The book does not belong to a little girl, it is a public library book, and the first little girl may be the first one to check it out. Then other children check out the book. The book lives for several years in the public library until it is worn out, and then it is withdrawn and donated to a book give-away program, where it becomes the beloved treasure of another child. I loved the illustrations! The text was short, to the point, and infused with feeling.
Rectangle Time
What a fun story! Told from the cat's point of view, the cat loves joining in at reading time, when the dad reads to the boy, and when the boy starts reading on his own. But, the cat can't understand why the young boy doesn't want the cat lying across his eyes, when he is trying to read! Quite funny, and the kind of cat every cat lover loves! Appealing illustrations depict a white, orange and black kitty.
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This is a strange, but very interesting and heart-warming story of a wooden robot and princess who turns into a log at night, who are brother and sister. The princess, in log shape, is accidentally thrown out the window, the her brother, the wooden robot purposes to find her. The author/illustrator is known for his graphic novels, and the illustrations here remind me of woodcuts, with intricate details on some of the pages.
All Along the River
Two rabbit brothers and their sister chase their toy rubber duck down a succession of streams and rivers and out to the sea to retrieve it. Readers are invited to look for the rubber duck and a variety of different characters on each page. Sort of like Where's Waldo, but the illustrations are so much better and more appealing.
A Vote for Susanna: The First Woman Mayor
The story begins in 1937 with a Grandma Dora baking her famous birthday cake. Her grandson wants to help but he isn't sure boys should be baking because that's what his friends say. Grandma Dora tells him the story of Susanna Salter who accidentially became the first female mayor of Argonia, Kansas in 1887 after the sexist men thought they would nominate her as a joke to prove women didn't know anything about governing. The joke was on them because Susanna actually did go to college and study government and did her job as mayor quite well. She didn't seek reelection but supported the right of women to vote and raised a family all at the same time.
This story was new to me and somehow escaped my study of independent women in the West. It's a brief and fascinating look at how men viewed women in the 19th-century and how one woman was able to overcome the prejudice to win the election she wasn't even supposed to be in!
While the digital illustration on the cover didn't draw me in, the interior illustrations portray Grandma Dora's home as warm and cozy and vintage although not specifically 1930s. All the products in the back have squiggles for names and don't look like 1930s packaging. Dora is a sweet, grandma lady.
The 19th-century scenes are bright and eye-catching but reflect the brownness of the Kansas plains with wide open skies, few trees and brown dirt roads. The outfits on the people look authentic enough but their faces resemble the wide-eyed animated cartoons children enjoy these days.
The author did a deep dive in the archives and interviewed Ned's children to learn more about Dora. She read family letters and attempted to capture Dora's voice. I really appreciated that, as an archivist and historian! She included a note on Dora and a link to her website where readers can find Dora's favorite cake recipe.
This book is simple enough for young listeners of about 5-6 and the framing of the story with Grandma Dora telling it to her grandson makes it more appealing that a traditional biography.
Home schoolers and teachers can download a teacher's guide and coloring pages, Girl Scouts can earn badges and classrooms can write to the USPS to nominate Susanna Salter to appear on a stamp.
https://www.karengreenwald.com/
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The story begins in 1937 with a Grandma Dora baking her famous birthday cake...."
I'm going to look for this one!
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This is a strange, but very interesting and heart-warming story of a w..."
We enjoyed All Along the River, too -- my youngest loves the search and find books, though we had read one we loved a lot more just prior to that, so I think All Along the River paled a bit in comparison, we might have been more into it had we read it first.
A Vote for Susanna: The First Woman Mayor
Found it on Hoopla. The text is a little small but can be zoomed. I can't believe yet another 19th-century woman's story hasn't been told before a picture book writer discovered it. The story is so inspiring. I really want to know more. We need a full biography with Susanna's letters, photos, recipes and family stories!
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A bull who owns a china shop (LOL) has to try to curb his temper when other animals make fun of him. He uses counting, chanting, yoga, and some other techniques to try to keep from getting angry with these bullies. They ultimately push too many of his buttons and he loses it. Everything ultimately ends happily. The book is good for helping children find techniques to keep from losing their tempers.
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From the silly title/author name combination to the funny cartoon illustrations, this book has hilarious written on every page, but also heart-warming.
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Children's Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Chez Bob (other topics)Clovis Keeps His Cool (other topics)
A Vote for Susanna: The First Woman Mayor (other topics)
The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess (other topics)
All Along the River (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Bob Shea (other topics)Alvin Granowsky (other topics)
Helen Yoon (other topics)
Yuki Ainoya (other topics)
Janet Costa Bates (other topics)
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IF i remember correctly, I believe there was one woman ..."
Oh how horrible, lol.