Hey there, picture book peeps! Happy Friday! 🙂
I have such a lovely book to share with you today!
(It’s just a teensy bit possible that my choice was inspired by the fact that we’ve had nothing but gray skies, clouds, and rain for so long I’ve forgotten what the sun looks like and I’m hoping that maybe, just maybe, the sun will find its way to Susanna’s house 🙂 )
Title: How The Sun Got To Coco’s House
Written & Illustrated By: Bob Graham
Candlewick, September 2015, Fiction
Suitable For Ages: 4-6
Themes/Topics: nature, writing (personification), language (poetic)
Opening: “It had to start somewhere. While Coco slept far away, the sun crept up slowly behind a hill, paused for a moment, and seemed to think twice…before it plunged down the other side and skidded giddily across the water.”
Brief Synopsis: The sun comes up and takes a poetic journey across the world to Coco’s house.
Links To Resources: Warmth Of The Sun discussion and activity; Shadow Play classroom activity; measuring solar activity; info about the sun with 17 related links; sun coloring pages; Happy Sunshine Cookie recipe; Renewable Solar
Why I Like This Book: How can you not love a book that contains phrases like “skidded giddily across the water”? The whole story is a gentle, lovely, poetic description of how the sun comes up, travels across the world touching everything in its path with light and warmth, and finally arrives at Coco’s house to spend the day. It’s a very quiet book, but one that can be enjoyed for the beauty of the language, the deceptive simplicity of the art (wait until you see the pinks and golds), and the feeling of comfort bestowed by the fact that, come what may, the sun rises each morning and makes a new day.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂
For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.
PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week! Adding your themes seemed to work pretty well last week – woo hoo! 🙂
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂
P.S. The general opinion on Wednesday seemed to be in favor of reinstating Oh, Susanna! (your picture book questions answered 🙂 ) Since the first Monday of May happens to be in about 12 minutes, if anyone has a question they’d like to submit for an answer, please send it right along!!!
Susanna, what a great book. I can’t wait to read it. Thanks for introducing me to it.
That opening stanza is honey!
I’ve seen this one, Susanna, and LOVE it! A great choice for these gray, gray days!
What a beautiful opening. I’m sold on this one already. I love quiet, contemplative stories. The illustrations sounds lovely.
Quiet books have made a comeback! I have a soft spot for Graham’s books )it’s warm and cozy and comes with a cup of tea!).
I will definitely send wishes for the sun to find it’s way to your house, Susanna…in any case, you provide lots of sunshine with your posts…so excited that Oh Susanna! will be coming back.’
This looks like a lovely book! And I just wanted to say what a joy it was to finally get to meet you at NESCBWI! 🙂
You had me at the title. I’ll be looking for this. Thanks for the great recommendation.
Thanks for sharing this one, Susanna. The language sounds absolutely lovely and lyrical. I’ll check it out!
What a beautiful opening. I’m sold 🙂
Oh I can’t wait to read this one. Love the language.