I Hatched! By Jill Esbaum, illustrated by Jen Corace. 2014.
This is one of our brand new books. A fast rapid moving story of a killdeer chick- which are native to the United States, Canada, and Mexico and interestingly can’t fly until they are about a month old, so they expend that first month running around exploring their new world. We meet our killdeer chick on page two when he makes a grand entrance “Ta-Da! Hello, what’s new? ME”. I loved the fast pace and the selective placement of the text within the killdeer chick’s environment. The watercolors, pencil, and ink carry shades of greens and dark purples with bright yellow flowers and butterflies.
Paul Meets Bernadette by Rosy Lamb. 2013.
Bernadette brings Paul the gift of curiosity and adventure, of looking at things from a different perspective, and the desire to venture out of his little world. Paul, our little gold fish, has spent all his life happily content just swimming in circles until Bernadette shows up. Bernadette prompts Paul to look at the things around him with new eyes. What might seem like an ordinary vase fill with flowers turn to be a forest with trees of every color, a blue teapot is an elephant that you must not disturb when feeding (pouring tea into cups) her babies. The oil illustrations are closed enough for the reader to appreciate the strokes and the different colors. The backgrounds general shade of blue makes the reader feel like they are immersed in a pool or in this case Paul’s fish bowl. I love the idea that any of us could be Paul and the notion of looking at our surroundings with a different perspective.
Little Mouse by Alison Murray. 2013.
Those of us with kids have some sort of pet name or nickname for them, this little girl’s mom calls her “her little mouse” but as you quickly will see, she is nothing like a mouse. Each spread takes us through a parade of animals to show us how different she is from that little mouse. She is “brave” like a lion, and “tall” like a giraffe, and “strong” like a bull. I was drawn to this book’s illustrations and the quality of the print itself. The bright pastel colors with outlined characters and black text is perfect for a story time setting allowing everyone to see the details and the text. The curious reader will love finding the little mouse that follows our girls from page to page.
How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth by Michelle Robinson,
illustrated by Kate Hindley. 2013.
This practical manual will teach you in ten easy steps how to best wash your woolly mammoth. From getting your mammoth into the tub, which can be tricky to making sure he doesn’t get soap on his eyes- the consequences could be terrible and might require a strong trampoline. While not a true original idea- we have our share of dinosaurs and all sorts of robots around, this is one of those books kids will want to read over and over (at least my six year old did). The illustrations are a mix of digital media and collages using a palette of dark shades of red, blues, browns, and beautiful blue.
