July 21, 2010
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Interlude
The more I work with children and the more I play in my garden the more important I think it is to share with children the connection between “all creature great and small.” Yucky Worms by Vivian French and illustrated by Jean Ahlberg is one of this year’s picture books that make that sharing easier. First it is a story of a boy and his grandmother working in her garden. (I love the grandmother, by the way. She is blond and young looking and carries a coffee cup! I have the coffee cup part down.) When the child, as children are wont to do, finds a worm and says, “Yuk! Throw it away!” it gives Grandma the perfect opportunity to talk about the benefits of having worms as friends. In a different font from the story, worm facts and information sprinkle through the pages. And Grandma talks about worm poop. What’s not to love about a book like that!?
I am a sucker for watercolors. I love the translucence, the movement, the softness. Watercolors are like wrapping up in a 500-thread count sheet that has been washed a million times, like butter gliding onto toast. I adore Elisha Cooper’s newest book Beaver Is Lost because it combines two of my favorite things. First it is almost wordless, if you count four words being “almost” and second the illustrations are breathtakingly rendered watercolors. Beaver really is lost and he escapes a dog, a crocodile, a zoo, traffic, a sewer and who knows what all to find his way home. Cooper builds the tension perfectly, and I found myself turning the pages faster to see if Beaver was going to make it, even though I knew he would, and I was really tired at the end because Beaver and I swam a long way. Find this one at a library near you
The watercolor ecstasy continues with Karen Ritz’s Windows with Birds. This is a book that made all of us a little teary and brought forth a chorus of “Awww” after each reading. It’s a lovely 32 pages about the heartache and loneliness of moving and the joy of settling in. Grab the book and grab a child and grab a tissue and snuggle up for a wonderful experience. (If you have to, you can skip the child.)
Two of my favorite artists team up for City Dog, Country Frog. Mo Willems wrote the story and Jon Muth did the illustrations in, you guessed it, WATERCOLORS! The story follows the seasons as Dog and Frog becomes friends. They play frog games in spring, dog games in summer and in the fall they remember. Dog waits for frog all the long winter. Still waiting a new friend finds City Dog and life and the seasons continue. These are 32 pages that speak volumes, from the simplicity of the text to the play of light across the pages. Willems dedication tells the story best, “For the seasons, and all things that change.” Ah! This one is magic.
And so it goes.
Comments (2)
Oh look – I’m checking out three of the four of these books … except my library doesn’t have at least one of them
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Yucky Worms sounds especially timely in this age of trying to reconnect people to the land, to local food production, and to better environmental stewardship. Thanks for recommending it.