Ice Cycle by Maria Gianferrari, illustrated by Jieting Chen (Millbrook Press, 2022) is subtitled “Poems about the Life of Ice,” and I must say that, just as I had never considered the variety of animals living near icebergs, I had never considered varieties of ice on which those animals live! Yes, as Gianferrari shows in

Read Post

Water is Water by Miranda Paul, illustrated by Jason Chin (Roaring Brook Press, 2015). Although the subtitle is “A Book about the Water Cycle,” Water is Water provides a readable, poetic reminder about the various stages in which water accumulates on the Earth. The various forms water takes range from water to steam (technically, it

Read Post

When Cloud Became a Cloud by Rob Hodgson (Rise X Penguin Workshop, 2021). With very short chapters and simple-to-read text, Hodgson’s masterpiece about the water cycle manages to teach as well as entertain. It reads like a simple story, and even the illustrations seem friendly and childlike. Yet in his sparse text and deceptively simple

Read Post

Wait, is that snow I see outside? Nope, it’s the sprinkler and kiddie pool. But nevertheless, it’s time for a Christmas in July book review! Santa Clauses by Bob Raczka (Carolrhoda Books, September 2014) is a great book for the upcoming holiday season. With 25 different haiku poems, Santa prepares himself and his workshop for the

Read Post

Given the two feet of snow that fell on my community yesterday, I feel it’s appropriate to focus on some of the snowy day books my son and I have enjoyed lately.  Raisin loves snow and especially snowmen, so I searched out some potential favorites even before this week’s storm hit. In addition to those

Read Post

In The Snow Day by Komako Sakai a little bunny and his mommy are stranded at home and daddy’s airplane can’t come home because of snow. The bunny watches it snow, he plays in the snow, and finally Daddy’s plane comes home. How perfect is that parallel? The beautiful illustrations and well-spaced text perfectly captured the feeling

Read Post