Two for the Show

A Few Tall Tales from the Land of Rampaging Zucchini

August 31, 2016 1 Comment

Jackie: Phyllis, the zucchini seeds you gave me have grown into a plant that knocked on our back door this morning. I gave it coffee and it retreated to the yard, heading toward the alley. When I was a kid one of my favorite stories was the tall tale of Paul Bunyan. I laughed at the exaggeration, the total wackiness of an ox so large his footprints made the Great Lakes.… more

Tomi Ungerer: Far Out Toward the Heart

July 27, 2016 No Comments

Phyllis: Tomi Ungerer has written and illustrated over 30 books for children, along with over 100 other books. I didn’t know much about him until Jackie suggested we do a blog on him, and I’m so glad she did. I came home from the library with a stack of his books, which range widely from the ridiculous to the mysterious.… more

Gardening and Farming Delights

June 1, 2016 2 Comments

Jackie: At last — we made it to spring and all the usual accoutrements have shown up — lilacs, violets, the smell of apple blossoms, and thoughts of sprouting seeds and growing vegetables. How could we not look at picture books about gardens and farming this month? I have to confess, Phyllis, I did not know of Miss Jaster’s Garden, written and illustrated by N.… more

Spring, Where Are You?

April 27, 2016 No Comments

Phyllis: Each year, as soon as the snow melts, I’m eager to go search for native wildflowers. Two of the earliest flowers bloom in two different protected places a car ride away. And every year, I go too early — either the ephemeral snow trilliums aren’t even up yet or the pasque flowers are still such tiny, tight, furry brown buds that they’re hard to spot in the dried grass on the hillside where they grow.… more

The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats

Celebrating Ezra Jack Keats

March 29, 2016 3 Comments

Jackie: This is the time of year when I read the Travel Section of the Sunday paper. I just want to go away from gritty snow, brown yards and come back to Spring. Well, there are no tickets on the shelf this year so Phyllis and I are taking a trip to the city created by Ezra Jack Keats. And why not?… more

Feeling Cranky

February 24, 2016 1 Comment

Phyllis: February is the month for lovers and for love. And it’s the month where some of us also get a little grumpy. Gray slushy snow — no good for skiing or building snow people — lines the streets. The weight of winter coats wears old. And even though we do love February, we thought we’d look at books about grumpiness — just in case anyone else might feel a little, well, cranky once in a while.… more

That Lovely Ornament, the Moon

January 26, 2016 No Comments

by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Phyllis Root Jackie: We’ve passed the Solstice but we still have more night than day. We can watch the moon with our breakfast and with our dinner. We thought we’d celebrate this season of the moon by sharing some stories featuring that lovely ornament. Phyllis: And Christmas Eve we saw an almost full moon casting shadows on the snow before the clouds blew in. Moonlight… more

Two for the Show: Winter Stories

December 23, 2015 1 Comment

by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Phyllis Root Jackie: Ah winter. Season of holidays and snow. Such a richness of stories. Phyllis: I have a shelf full of favorite Christmas books. What most of them have in common is story, not just about Christmas itself but also about families celebrating their connection to each other. They meet my own test for a good Christmas story — take away Christmas from the setting and the story still has a strong heartbeat about love, family, community, and caring for each other. … more

Chair of Honor for Vera B. Williams

November 11, 2015 2 Comments

by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Phyllis Root Jacqueline Briggs Martin: Some writers teach us craft. Some writers inspire us. Vera B. Williams does both. As part of celebrating her wonderful life and career we want to take another look at her lovely stories and her busy life. One of the many remarkable things about her books is that they “erupt” (as she said) from the activities of her life.… more

Two for the Show: What Scares You?

October 14, 2015 4 Comments

Note to readers: we are trying a new format this month. We want to make our blog more conversational. Let us know what you think. Phyllis Root:
What scares you? How do you deal with that fear? And why do so many of us like to scare ourselves silly, as long as we know that everything will be all right in the end?… more

September 9, 2015 5 Comments

by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Phyllis Root We want to start by saying that we are loving the chance to look at forgotten books or wonderful classics from the past that this blog has given us. And this time, when we were thinking of what we might look at, John Steptoe came to mind— maybe because we were considering possibilities in August and he died in August of 1989.… more

Two for the Show: How Does Your Garden Grow?

August 12, 2015 2 Comments

by Phyllis Root and Jacqueline Briggs Martin It’s high summer in the garden, with an abundance of vegetables to harvest and flowers abuzz with pollinators. Crunchy carrots, leafy kale, sun-warm tomatoes, garlic bulbs, green beans, zucchini (some gigantic) all offer themselves to the gardener. But more grows in a garden than plants. People grow, too, and connections between people take root and blossom.… more

Two for the Show: Three Books on the River

July 16, 2015 No Comments

by Phyllis Root and Jacqueline Briggs Martin Summertime. And whether we live by water or only dream of living by water, reading about river adventures is fun. We are fortunate to have a number of wonderful books that take us out onto the water. We are unfortunate that only one of the books on today’s list can easily be found at a library.… more

Going Wild

June 10, 2015 1 Comment

By Phyllis Root and Jackie Briggs Martin Who doesn’t go a little wild when spring finally arrives? And even though we set out to choose pairs of books to write about, this month we couldn’t resist a hat trick of three books. At the heart of each is not only wildness but also how those around us react when our wild natures leak out.… more

Two for the Show

May 5, 2015 3 Comments

by Jackie Briggs Martin and Phyllis Root We both love finding forgotten treasures in the “removed from circulation” sections of libraries or in second hand bookstores. Some of these books call to us because we remember them from our childhoods: the Babar books written out in longhand, the Flicka, Ricka, Dicka stories about Swedish triplets, Marcia Brown’s Stone Soup.… more

A Few Tall Tales from the Land of Rampaging Zucchini

Tomi Ungerer: Far Out Toward the Heart

Gardening and Farming Delights

Spring, Where Are You?

Celebrating Ezra Jack Keats

Feeling Cranky

That Lovely Ornament, the Moon

Two for the Show: Winter Stories

Chair of Honor for Vera B. Williams

Two for the Show: What Scares You?

Two for the Show

Two for the Show: How Does Your Garden Grow?

Two for the Show: Three Books on the River

Going Wild

Two for the Show

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