Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
A year in the life of a two-year-old beaver is the story frame in the nonfiction picture book What Goes On Inside a Beaver Pond? by Becky Cushing Gop, illustrated by Carrie Shryock (Storey Publishing, September 2023). She leaves her childhood lodge in the Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary along the Yokun River (a real place
Build, Beaver, Build by Sandra Markle is a book about beavers at the largest beaver dam in the world. Sandra Markle is a name that I’ve come across many times in my years of reading children’s fiction. I have reviewed two of her scientific mystery books on this site: The Case of the Vanishing Little
Little One by Jo Weaver shows a mama bear and her little cub coming out of hibernation and into the world for a summer of adventure. The completely black-and-white pencil sketches are surprisingly detailed and engaging. In fact, they perfectly capture the simple details of learning to befriend little creatures, find food, and pad back through
My son and I enjoyed 999 Tadpoles by Ken Kimura dn Yasunari Murakami (May 2011) when we read it years ago, so I was excited to see the two sequels to it in our local library. 999 Frogs Wake Up (North South, 2013) is a fitting read for the beginning of spring. As the frogs
Secrets of the Apple Tree by Carron Brown and Alyssa Nasser. Secrets explore the various habitats for animals around an apple tree, from the birds in the nest and the worms in the ground, to the squirrels in the hollow space and the fungi growing on a fallen branch. As an educational book, it provides plenty
It’s so much fun to read picture books with my toddler. She simply loves reading, and although here books of choice often revolve around The Berenstain Bears and Clifford or Dora (none of which I enjoy all that much), sometimes I can get in some great books that I love too. As An Oak Tree
I personally love poetry anthologies, and I have searched for something my son would also enjoy so he could learn to appreciate poetry as I do. We may have found a winner! Julie Andrews’ Treasury for All Seasons: Poems and Songs to Celebrate the Year (Little, Brown and Company, 2012) is a poetry anthology organized
Bear Has a Story to Tell by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin E. Stead (Roaring Brook Press, 2012) is another distinctive picture book by the team that brought us A Sick Day for Amos McGee, Caldecott Medal winner in 2011. Ms Stead’s illustrations are likewise distinctive, but in a very different way from
And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano and illustrated by Caldecott Medal winner Erin E. Stead (Roaring Brook Press, 2012) is picture book celebrating a child growing a garden. In this case, the emphasis is on the child waiting for the brown to go away, waiting for the green to appear. I love the stark contrast
The children’s picture book Grandpa’s Garden by Stella Fry and illustrated by Sheila Moxley (Barefoot Books, 2012) follows a child helping his grandpa in, as the title indicates, caring for his garden. They plant the vegetables and fertilize them with compost. The boy waters the growing plants and waits to see the sprouts. Together, grandpa and
Summer Days and Nights by Wong Herbert Yee (Henry Holt, 2012) is a sweet story of a girl enjoying nature during some bright summer days. The illustrations are done with colored pencils on watercolor paper, and the soft feel adds to the relaxing feel of the girl’s summer day. I especially like the cycle through the
Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook Press, 2012) is full of lush illustrations celebrating the different colors of green, from forest green to pea green to faded green. Each page has a die-cut portion that looks on to a previous or subsequent page, thus emphasizing how different things (even “lime green” limes) are also
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