Robert Lawson Gave Me Animals
Is there anything finer than a middle grade book with interior art? Yes, a middle grade book about woodland animals with excellent interior art.
Picture Books
This Biographer and Her Living Subject
I wonder how often a picture book biographer has been friends with her subject for several decades and then worked closely with that person to get her manuscript just right.
Connecting with Nature
While experiences in the natural world are beneficial to both children and adults, they are especially crucial for young people. This selection of Caldecott Honor books invites readers to explore and appreciate the natural world.
Finding Family: The Duckling Raised by Loons
The Loon Project, based in Minnesota and Wisconsin, discovered a loon family caring for a mallard duckling. Finding Family relates that story ...
This is the Planet Where I Live
Illustrating a book written by K.L. Going, This is the Planet Where I Live, Debra Frasier works with collage that exuberantly celebrates our connections to everything on this earth.
Let It Snow!
In the far reaches of the northern hemisphere, snow graces the winter landscape and shapes the activities of the season. Picture books set in winter typically feature snowy backdrops. This column takes a look at five Caldecott Award-winning snow stories.
Fabulous Food
There are so many terrific books about food! I could go on and on with selections and recommendations but these are a few of my favorites.
Art Will Out
This month we have been thinking about the mysteries of the visual arts—how some artists must create, no matter the circumstances.
Death and Grief
For those who are mourning the loss of a relative, a pet, a friend, a teacher, these books for young and old are recommended by our subscribers.
Winter!
Now that snow has fallen in many places throughout the land, it's time to celebrate the frozen crystals in picture books, nonfiction, and early chapter books.
One Winter Up North
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, stretching for 150 miles along the Canadian border, is the setting for John Owens’ newest wordless picture book.
Abecedaria, Part 2
Not all alphabet books are for the purpose of early literacy, nor do they meet the criteria for traditional alphabet books ... Still others are thematically connected, as are the following Caldecott Honor ABC books.
Abecedaria, Part 1
Traditionally, alphabet books, or abecedaria, serve as beginning literacy instruction for babies and young children to promote letter, sound, and word development. But, greater potential than instruction exists in this form of picture books.
Celebrating Black Women in the U.S.
We feel called this month to celebrate the many accomplishments of Black women in this country — some of whom are historical icons, too many of whom we have we have never heard of.
Transportation, Part II: Riding the Rails
In the second part of our Transportation series, we look at Caldecott Award books that consider trains from different vantage points, from the outside or inside, from a real or fantastical world. Climb aboard!
Refugees
Heard on the news: “No one wants to be a refugee.” Here's a look at four picture books that share the refugee experience with young readers.
Transportation, Part I: Hitting the Road
From an early age, children are captivated by “things that go,” from climbing on trucks in a Big Rig library event to racing bicycles along a park path. This article offers a line-up of Caldecott Award books that feature various modes of land transportation.
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson: Voices from History
Books have been a part of Vaunda Micheaux Nelson’s life since the day she was born. “My mother found my name in a novel she was reading,” Nelson says. Books and family and history form a thread through many of Nelson’s award-winning picture books.
Picture Book Illustration
In picture books, the illustrations often carry half, or more than half, of the narrative. Increased understanding of illustration techniques can enhance your appreciation and pleasure when reading and sharing picture books.
Picture Book Parade
This season, if you visit Minneapolis’ Midtown Farmers Market, you’ll stroll by a harvest of picture books by Minnesota authors: Picture Book Parade—a new initiative by children’s authors Sarah Warren and Catherine Urdahl.
Julius Lester
Julius Lester loved language and he loved story. Language, Lester wrote, is not just words and what they mean; music and rhythm are also part of the meaning. Just reading his books for children makes us want to read them out loud to hear that music and rhythm along with his gift for putting words together.
Catherine Urdahl and Her Reading Team
It’s been a month since I’ve seen my grandchildren, who live five hours away—a month since we’ve snuggled up with our favorite books. For me, a month is a long time.
Carole Boston Weatherford
Carole Boston Weatherford has been writing since she was in first grade. Her father taught printing and was able to publish those early stories. Weatherford has written dozens of picture books for young readers — and all readers. We cannot be exhaustive here, but we can introduce you to this wonderful writer.
Ten Ways to Hear Snow
When you grow up in Minnesota, snow is a part of your world. From playing in it until your feet are so cold and wet that your grandmother will scold while you drink hot cocoa to lifting your feet high as you trudge through knee-deep snow to a bus stop that’s farther away than it has ever been, snow is a fixture in your thoughts.
Ashley Bryan: Brave for Life
Ashley Bryan's life has been so full of making children’s books and there are so many wonderful children’s books that we can only call out a few—a few enticements, and encourage you to take yourself on a wonderful journey into Ashley Bryan’s world.
Revisiting the Moon
A full moon on December 29 ended the year 2020. New year, new moon, and we are thinking once again about moon books – we’ve looked at some of these before, but good books, like the moon, keep coming back.
In the Neighborhood of Eloise Greenfield
Eloise Greenfield
In this season of gift-giving we want to look at the gift of poetry, specifically the poetry and writing of Eloise Greenfield. Since publishing her first poem in 1962, she has written more than forty-five books for children and was the recipient of the 2018 Coretta Scott King Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Helen Oxenbury: A Life in Illustration
When Marsha Qualey began this column six years ago, she had us all on the lookout for books about children’s literature. What would add to our understanding of this very particular community of educators, students, collector, and creators? This book about Helen Oxenbury by Leonard Marcus is a gem, filled with the wisdom of a revered author-illustrator as well as her illustrations and delicious photos that help our understanding.… more
The Range Eternal
I am delighted by the re-issue of The Range Eternal, a picture book that reaches back into history and connects with our senses, our families, our fears, and our reassurances. I have read all of Louise Erdrich’s books for adults and children. She never fails to bring me new ways of looking at the world. So it is with this book.
Catherine Urdahl and Her Reading Team
December 2020
Raising Star Readers is delighted to introduce a new Reading Team, this one led by children’s book author Catherine Urdahl. Here, Catherine shares some heartwarming reading moments, with enough book-love and remembered summer sunshine to take the chill out of the coldest of December winds:
Juni and Catherine
I read to my daughters from the time they were infants, and now I have the joy of reading to my two-year-old granddaughter Juni and my new grandson Colby.
Books about the Night
Nighttime is a magical time for kids. It’s a time for exploring the night skies. It’s a time for dreaming cozy dreams. It’s a time of mischief when it comes with the thrill of being allowed to stay up late.
Nighttime picture books have always had an allure for me because of the topics they explore and the amazing and varied art by illustrators challenged with the task of drawing the dark.
You Should (Not) Read These Books
I remember my neighborhood friends standing on opposite sides of a driveway, angry, yelling loudly at each other. I don’t recall why, but I can still feel those emotions. That’s how strong feelings are. Our children deal with a multitude of emotions every day.
You were probably remembering similar instances from your childhood. And what happened afterward? Most likely you were all friends again, because you needed to be.
Javaka Steptoe
Though our focus this month is on Javaka Steptoe, we want to begin this column with another book by his father, John Steptoe, Daddy is a Monster…Sometimes. This book is narrated by two children, Bweela and Javaka, who begin, “We are Bweela and Javaka and we have a daddy. He’s a nice daddy and all, but he got somethin’ wrong with him… .”
Anita Dualeh and Her Reading Team
October 2020
It’s always fun to catch up with one of our Reading Teams and see what titles have become new favorites for them. This month, however, Anita Dualeh and her sons are revisiting OLD favorites: picture books that were once beloved by Anita’s boys, but that they have now outgrown at ages 10 and 12. Below, Anita describes what happens when her Reading Team reexamines these childhood favorites through their more “grown-up” eyes:
One evening a few months ago, I came down to our office to find my son Adam finishing up The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.… more
Picture Books Minus the Age Stereotypes and Ageism
Modern day children’s books riddled with negative stereotypes of age? Sadly yes, they are all too easy to find.
Picture Books Minus the Age Stereotypes and Ageism
Modern day children’s books riddled with negative stereotypes of age? Sadly yes, they are all too easy to find.
John Steptoe’s Beautiful Books
This month we want to celebrate the work of John Steptoe, brilliant artist and writer, who was born on September 14, 1950. His work is a year-round birthday present to all of us.
Ann Angel and Her Reading Team
September 2020
As our Raising Star Readers column kicks off another school year, educators and caregivers both continue to face the kind of challenges few of us could have imagined last fall. Here, Ann Angel describes how her Reading Team is countering the “pandemic bubble” by adding nonfiction books to their list of favorite reads:
Hey there, parent or grandparent, raise your hand if you’re a pandemic teacher.… more
The Very Amazing Eric Carle
Phyllis: Spring is finally here, and the pollinators are buzzing in the blossoms, so we thought we’d write about bugs this month. Plus, we’ve just finished a book with our good friend and fellow writer Liza Ketchum about the rusty-patched bumblebee, the first bumblebee to be listed as endangered. Once we started looking for buggy books, we found so many by Eric Carle, from very hungry caterpillars to very grouchy ladybugs to very lonely fireflies that we decided to look at his body of work.… more
Ann Angel and Her Reading Team
May 2020
In this Raising Star Readers update, Ann Angel shares how reading aloud helps carry on her family’s heritage of storytelling. Here’s how Ann describes it:
With Stay-at-Home a requirement in most states, mine included, I only see some of my grandkids via Skype and Zoom. But I have a daughter and grandson living with us. That means we’re balancing work and Teddy’s school, so, of course, I get involved.… more
Deb Andries and Her Reading Team
April 2019
We’re especially delighted to celebrate with Deb Andries (a.k.a. Grammy) this month as she launches her newest Reading Team. Here’s how Deb describes the experience:
My heart has always felt this “explosion of love” when we’ve welcomed a grandchild into our family. I vividly remember when our grandson Parker, now 14, was born, and the pure and elevated joy I felt.… more
Books about Baking Up Family Time
Jackie: We decided to honor the nation’s newfound love of baking with a column on picture books focused on baking. We still don’t have libraries (a great benefit of this confinement is the reminder of how special and necessary are libraries in our lives) so we are limited to books we can find read aloud on Youtube.… more
Lesa Cline-Ransome
Author Lesa Cline-Ransome is known for her picture book biographies of poets, anti-slavery crusaders, musicians, athletes, and mathematicians. Her novel Finding Langston received a Scott O’Dell Historical Fiction Award and a Coretta Scott King Author Honor. We impatiently waited for the companion novel, Leaving Lymon, which was published in early 2020. Lesa is a wonderful storyteller and a stellar nonfiction researcher and author.… more
A Blizzard of Snow Books
We’re snowed under right now, what with teaching and writing and, well, snow, so we thought we’d offer up a blizzard of books about the white stuff that falls from our skies. Curl up with a child, a cup of warmth, and enjoy winter in the pages of a book.
The Snow Party by Beatrice Schenk De Regniers and Bernice Myers
A lonely woman who lives with her husband on a Dakota farm wishes for a party. … more
Ann Angel and Her Reading Team
January 2020
Raising Star Readers relishes this chance to catch up with Ann Angel and her multigenerational Reading Team. For this entry, Ann was especially focused on how the words and visual art in picture books lead kids to think and to dream. Here’s how Ann describes it:
Long before I had kids and grandkids, I thought I’d grow up to be a visual artist.… more
Celebrating Winter Celebrations
Phyllis: Winter has come down like a snowy blanket, and animals in our world have migrated, hibernated, or are shivering their way through the months ahead. But animals in picture books have other ideas. Why not be a part of December’s celebrations of Hanukkah, Christmas, Solstice or help a friend in frozen need? These books make us feel as cozy as a cup of tea, a lighted tree.… more
A to Zåäö
A to Zåäö is an alphabet book, a museum exhibit catalog, an introduction to the Swedish language, and a picture book illustrated by a mother's watercolors and her son's pen-and-ink drawings.
Cookies
Jackie: November is a month to celebrate food and family, to celebrate making meals and eating together. Phyllis and I both love pie. And we often review pie books in November but we are running out of pie stories. (Writers out there: more pie stories, please.) So, this year we decided to look for cookie stories. Who doesn’t love a cookie?… more
McDuff Moves In
When I was young, my mother and I lived in a succession of apartments, none of which allowed pets. I had a fervent hope for a dog or a cat, an animal friend to love. Every year for Christmas, I received a new stuffed animal, usually a dog because my mother didn’t care for cats. I still have those stuffed animals, but I’ve never had a pet. Even when we finally moved into a house 20 years ago, we were traveling so much that we wouldn’t have made a good home for an animal.… more