July 23, 2021 By Maria

Are you feeling sluggish, or should I say snailish, in the summer heat? I, for one, have been feeling the lethargy of heat and humidity and the slower, more open schedule of the summer. What I really want to do is bury myself in a book and curl up, preferably in a place that isn’t too warm or too frigidly air-conditioned. My eight-year-old has been living my dream this week. The kid has read through six or more books since the weekend. Hopefully, our bookshelves and library orders can keep up with his voracious reading appetite. Back to the sluggishness or rather snailishness. . .it is the feeling that inspired this post. Yes, I am writing all about snail picture books, and I will start with our favorite one.

We discovered our favorite snail storybook when browsing the library shelves one day. It is called Escargot, written by Dashka Slater and illustrated by Sydney Hanson. When I pulled up the Amazon link for Escargot, I discovered there is a second Escargot book! It’s already on our library hold list. My kids really enjoy interactive books, and they love Escargot! Escargot, the French snail, talks and interacts with the reader in a short story about confidence, self-worth, and trying new foods. My kids love to munch on carrots now. . .maybe it’s related? This book is entertaining to read out loud. (I attempt a French accent when reading it to my kids, which pulls them into the experience even more and gives my husband a laugh if he is in the room. My small percentage of French ancestry does come out in other ways, too, not just silliness.) My daughter recently drew a colorful snail and included his “shimmery trail,” which is “not slime,” as Escargot says. The book displays colorful illustrations and the cutest little large-eyed and well-dressed snail.

Next on my list is The Snail and the Whale by the famed Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, the illustrator of some of Donaldson’s most famous books including The Gruffalo. As usual Donaldson’s rhymes remain enchanting! This story lets those still stuck at home this summer travel about the world on the tail of a whale. In this book an adventurous young snail with an “itchy foot” sails the seas with her whale friend. When the whale runs into dangerous trouble, the small snail saves the day. The little snail not only goes on an adventure of her own but also inspires her snail community to seek more out of life than staying put on a rock, “black as soot.” We enjoyed visiting beaches and coral reefs from our couch with the snail and the whale. This might be a work of fiction, yet readers learn a bit about marine life rescue while enjoying the rhymes and illustrations. 

My last couple snail tales are non-fiction picture books. If you enjoy graphic novels and word bubbles, Snails Are Just My Speed! by Kevin McCloskey will be just your speed. This fun and engaging non-fiction text about snails performs well as a read-aloud and is a Toon Book that works perfectly for younger readers improving their proficiency. It contains lots of pictures and funny illustrations which give a laugh with the lesson. I actually learned a lot about snails by reading this book with my kids. In addition to learning through silliness, we love the Backyard Books series. We have read, enjoyed, and learned with most of the books in this series, though a few have still escaped us. Are You a Snail? written by Judy Allen and illustrated by Tudor Humphries, conveys just the right blend of information and engagement, and as usual, the illustrations of Tudor Humphries do not disappoint. This book contains additional information at the end, which adds to the reading experience. The extra facts are great for an older child who wants to learn more, but they can also be skipped when reading to a younger child if need be. Sharing and learning together can still be enjoyable. The interesting illustrations throughout the book offer opportunities for discussion, reasoning, and the beginnings of scientific questioning.  

Hopefully, everyone finds something interesting in this shimmery trail of shimmery, non-slimy snail books. Or, as Escargot wishes, maybe you will find a new favorite animal of your own, “perhaps the snail”? After reading these books, my kids noticed dried-up trails from snails, or maybe slugs, on the sidewalk around our house. We haven’t found any actual snails in our yards yet, but we did uncover a few slugs. It has been fun taking the learning experience from our books to the outdoors. These books work well together for a short study on snails. You can just add in your choices from crafts, experiments, coloring pages, worksheets, maybe charts like this snail anatomy one, and some outdoor nature studies. While writing this post, I also found this excellent snail lesson put together by Dawn Gunn on the BetterLesson website. In your own snail studies, maybe you’ll even take it as far as the parents of the sweet little snail in #7 from this Bored Panda article. You don’t have to force it; the learning will happen with fun and engagement. So, feeling snailish or not, keep making your shimmery trail of picture book reads this summer!

May 19, 2012 By Maria

I love picture books. I have many fond childhood memories that revolve around picture books and being read to by my parents. Those stories became a huge part of my imaginative canvas as a child and I see the same thing happening in my kids. Picture books are such a great source of storytelling, art and information, including nonfiction picture books.  As I grew older, I continued to check picture books out of the library as a teen and even as a college student. Susan, one of the librarians, started to recognize my interlibrary holds by the books I would select. I loved, and still do, feasting my eyes on the artwork and visual storytelling. Of course I continue to read and borrow picture books from the library, but now I read them to my kids. Sometimes, I do sit down after my kids are in bed for the night and pour over a stack of picture books. . . especially those new ones from the library. Through careful searching and checking library sales, I have slowly but surely curated a still growing and changing home library of children’s literature and picture books that my kids enjoy. We also always borrow a large stack of books from the library. Yes, I am that person. You know, the one who holds up the line at the circulation desk slowly feeding an enormous amount of books through the new covid safety plastic partition. I’m still not sure if the librarians are happy or annoyed when I approach the desk with my towering pile of books. They usually smile so I take that as a good sign.

Maybe you’re wondering why invest so much time, and library runs, into picture books? The simple answer is the artwork. Picture book artwork varies from exquisitely detailed and beautifully rendered to delightfully humorous and thoughtfully simple. Think about it, picture books prevail as children’s most frequent exposure to art. The artwork in those books is very important. Look at the detail and visual storytelling in Jan Brett’s illustrations and the extensive amount of work put into producing a graphic novel like Ben Hatke’s Little Robot which relies heavily on art to tell the story. A picture book relies on the artwork; the illustrations share the little details and emotions the text leaves out. My kids very quickly pick up on these small details and laugh with delight at the humor an illustrator indicates or form their own understandings and observations by looking at the pictures. Children, and adults, learn empathy through reading. For my kids the illustrations really help with that. Also children, especially younger children, have an easier time following stories if there are pictures to look at too. Sometimes they struggle when only listening with their ears because they do not have the same range of mental imagery that an older child or an adult may have. In a podcast interview from Sarah Mackenzie’s Read Aloud Revival site, I learned that in MRI studies the brains of children listening to a story with pictures operate optimally versus when just listening to a story with ears alone or watching an animation. See, I’m onto something, picture books are important and an illustrator’s work should not be dismissed. 

Since this post is about the importance of picture books and my personal warmth towards them, I decided to share a favorite picture book and author with you. I went to the bookshelf and attempted to collect a few favorite picture books to choose from and realized my stack was becoming heavy and contained close to twenty books. . .and I still wanted to add more! With hard decision making, I narrowed it down to one. 

A book I have enjoyed since childhood is The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. I chose Beatrix Potter even though I am sure almost every reader here has already come across her charming, but naughty, vegetable stealing rabbits. Her books may feel a bit archaic in this day and age, but they are universally understood by children.  Learning as an adult about Beatrix Potter’s life and how she wanted her books to be small so that children could easily hold them and the pricing to be low so that families could afford them, makes her and her delightfully tiny books even more dear. Beatrix Potter’s illustrations are beautiful! Her animals may be dressed in waistcoats and frocks, but they are real animals. When we read Peter Rabbit my daughter expresses concern about Peter being caught by Mr. McGregor and my son listens with wide eyes. Even though they know the story very well, they love traveling through the pages together and telling me that Peter is “not being a good listener.” Once during a silent point at church, my oldest who was around two years old at the time and very into Peter Rabbit, loudly yelled Mr. McGregor’s line, “STOP THIEF!” It was simultaneously hilarious and utterly embarrassing. I still think of that moment every time we read that part of the story. We have been adventuring through Beatrix Potter’s books for some time and there are still a few even I haven’t read yet. If you already know the popular characters, try one of her lesser known stories and enjoy! Beatrix Potter remains a personal favorite and an inspirational woman in the field of children’s literature and botanical art. 

Hopefully, you have been inspired to add some picture books to your library load this week. Don’t be afraid to show up at the library with two tote bags. . .or maybe even a crate. Try starting with a favorite author or illustrator and check out some of their books you haven’t read yet or search for a few Beatrix Potter books. Explore the picture book section. The significance of picture books remains the most important thing I hope you take away from this post. Picture books, besides great sources of literature and fun, are also great learning resources. My kids and I enjoy reading and learning together from picture book stories and biographies, science books and more. I look forward to delving deeper and sharing other favorites at a later time. Happy Reading! 

References:

• Beatrix Potter, British Author and Illustrator of Children’s Books (literaryladiesguide.com)
• About Beatrix Potter | Peter RabbitPeter Rabbit

March 14, 2021 By Maria

Snow. Something everyone loves or at least appreciates the beauty of even with the inconvenience it brings and the back breaking shoveling it can involve. Who loves snow most? Well, kids of course! And who loves reading about snow? Everyone. . . or at least I hope. Personally, I find stories set in cold and snowy settings give me a delicious cozy feeling like I’m really curled up in a warm blanket with a hot cup of tea watching snowflakes dance outside the window. When we had our first snow of the season, it was spectacular. . . minus the shoveling. The snow dusted trees were magnificently highlighted and every nook emphasized. The air felt still and peaceful and the white snow covered everything in a uniform beauty.  Without knowledge of the upcoming forecast, I read some snow books to my kids a few days before the snowstorm. I’d like to share some of them here. 

The first is a beautiful book called It’s Snowing! written and illustrated by Olivier Dunrea. The illustrations charmingly tell the story of a mother introducing her baby to snow for the first time. The text is simple and almost rhythmic. Painted in gouache, the pictures show the fur wrapped mother and baby exploring snow on a dark and cold night. They build a snow bear and a snow troll together. (Inspired by the book, my kids tried to build their own snow bear when sledding at my mom’s house.) Years ago I found this book by chance at our local library and I continue to check it out once or twice every winter. (Another of Olivier Dunrea’s books I recommend for beautiful snow paintings is a Christmas story called Bear Noel.)

 My two little ones cannot read on their own yet and they occasionally enjoy books without words like Fox’s Garden by Princesse Camcam from the Stories Without Words series. I am not familiar with the rest of the series, but hope to explore them soon. Even though this book does not contain text my kids usually prefer I tell them the story at least the first time we peruse it. The cut paper illustrated story takes place on a cold snow covered night in which a lone fox searches for a warm place to rest. After meeting rejection at every turn the fox receives a kind gesture from a young boy and in turn leaves him a token of her thanks. This book appears short and plain but the lesson of kindness and sharing can be easily recognized even by small children. I try to discuss the stories we read and ask the kids questions that help them comprehend and reflect on the books. Asking questions while reading is actually a new habit I am trying to form after listening to some virtual lectures over the summer about reading with children.

The third book in my snow book pile is Snowflake Bentley written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Mary Azarian. This book is a fantastic example of an educational picture book! It shares the life and passion of Wilson Bentley told in story form with charming woodcut illustrations and a side bar containing more biographical information. Wilson Bentley was a farm boy who pursued and observed nature with the eye of a scientist. His persistence after countless failures made him the first person to photograph a snowflake. Wilson Bentley’s book, Snow Crystals, remains the first source of those who wish to study this subject.  I read this book to all my kids, but the seven year old benefited most from it. Though suited better for an older child, Snowflake Bentley introduces younger children to the beauty and wonder of science even if the text needs some paraphrasing.  There are so many snow books I would like to talk about in this post, but to keep it from growing into an enormous snow drift I will stop at three for today.