Picture Book Review: Some Questions About Trees by Tony Yuly (3/22/2022)

 Quick Booktalk

A little girl expresses curiosity about various questions related to trees.

About the Illustrations 

Each page has a white background with clean, simple figures done in mixed media (crayon, collage, etc).  The girl at the center of the book is drawn as a pair of dot eyes, a few lines for hair, a splotch with arms to suggest a shirt and a simple outline of legs and feet. These simple, abstract illustrations suit the thoughtful, philosophical text. 

Story Time Possibilities 

This is a quiet book, filled with rhetorical questions. For some audiences, this will be perfect. For others, it will be an invitation to give increasingly silly responses to questions that don't require any answers. It could fit a few interesting themes, including trees, questions, and nature. I'm considering it to round out a story time plan about trees that could really use a quiet book like this to balance it out. 

Readers Advisory

The title of this book makes it sound like it might include more factual information than it actually does. The text is really more of a poem that invites readers to think creatively about ordinary things than any sort of fact-based narrative about trees. It would be a great book to inspire a class or homeschool writing project. 

Disclosure 

I received a review copy of Some Questions About Trees from Atheneum in exchange for an honest review.

Picture Book Review: Interrupting Chicken: Cookies for Breakfast by David Ezra Stein (11/9/2021)

Quick Booktalk

Chicken brings cookies to her dad as breakfast in bed, and he begins to read some nursery rhymes, but Chicken can't help but interrupt with cookie-related commentary.

About the Illustrations

Though perhaps they aren;t quite as distinctive as they were in the original Interrupting Chicken, the pictures in this volume are done in the same style as all the others of the series. Fans of the earlier books will instantly feel at home in this one. 

Story Time Possibilities

I find these books difficult to read aloud effectively because of how much is happening on each page. I think to do it well, you'd either have to do very distinctive voices to separate the main text from the nursery rhyme text inside Chicken's book, or you would need two readers. The pictures are also difficult to understand from much of a distance so it might work in a virtual story time or with a very small group, but otherwise, there are better options on the nursery rhyme theme.

Readers Advisory

I flagged a few things in this book that parents might want to know. One is that the story repeatedly identiifes cookies as unhealthy foods. I know a lot of parents don't like to label foods in that way because it can lead to issues with eating. Another thing I noticed this time is how utterly annoying Chicken's interruptions really are. I have five kids, and I don't really want to send the message that interrupting is cute or funny. There is also a lot of obnoxious early elementary school humor that I also prefer not to encourage. 

Disclosure 

I received a review copy of Interrupting Chicken: Cookies for Breakfast from Candlewick Press in exchange for an honest review.

Marshmallow Clouds: Two Poets at Play Among Figures of Speech by Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek, illustrated by Richard Jones (3/15/2022)

Quick Booktalk

This is a collection of poems inspired by the four elements and accompanied by original pieces of abstract art.

About the Illustrations 

The cover is so appealing, and the illustrations inside have the same vibrant, inviting look. This is a beautiful book to flip through.

Story Time Possibilities

Poetry can always be added to a story time, and I wouldn't hesitate to borrow a poem or two from this book to toss into a preschool or early elementary program. It would be a bit much to read the whole book in one go, but it could be an ongoing read-aloud during a weekly class visit, or the focus of a poetry month display or activity. I am thinking about using it in our homeschool as our daily poetry read-aloud for the summer. 

Readers Advisory

The poems in this collection really demonstrate how to effectively write poetry that does not rhyme, and how to use figures of speech well. Each of these poems is beautifully written, with a calming, gentle, and contemplative tone, and yet wholly accessible to readers who might not be that comfortable with poetry. 

Disclosure 

I received a review copy of Marshmallow Clouds from Candlewick Press in exchange for an honest review.

Take Off Your Brave: The World Through the Eyes of a Preschool Poet by Nadim, illustrated by Yasmeen Ismail (3/22/2022)

Quick Booktalk 

This is an illustrated collection of poems by a four-year-old boy.

About the Illustrations

The pictures in this book are fine. There are  diverse skin colors and styles of hair and clothing  and the pictures suit the whimsical tone of most of the poems.

Story Time Possibilities

This is probably not a story time book for most settings. It could work as an ongoing classroom read-aloud, perhaps as part of a project to inspire preschoolers to compose their own poems.

Readers Advisory

I'm a little unclear about the point of this book. It was hard to discern what was so remarkable about this particular four-year-old's poetry that it warranted being published. I think I was expecting more of a Mattie Stepanek phenomenon - a kid who used his poetry to further a particular message of hope duirng a time when he was undergoing great suffering. This ended up being just a collection of four-year-old thoughts, similar to the snippets of dialogue collected by Ruth Krauss, but without the careful curation that makes her books classics. I think the poems are cute, and I'm sure the author is a lovely child, but as a book, I think this only would have worked for me had his poems been included to illustrate how adults can foster a love of language in preschoolers. Otherwise, I prefer to have kids get their poetic inspiration from the great poets, not from their peers.

Disclosure

I received a review copy of Take Off Your Brave from Candlewick Press in exchange for an honest review.