Guess what today is?
If you guessed Friday, a point for you!
If you guessed Perfect Picture Book Friday, 10 points for you!
If you guessed last Perfect Picture Book Friday before summer vacation, you get a Gold Star! ⭐️
Yes, my friends, it is time for the annual Perfect Picture Book summer hiatus.
I know a lot of you continue through the summer, so you are welcome to keep adding to the link list posted on today’s post, or to add your summer of books to the first PPBF in September!
But now it is time for my perfect Perfect Picture Book to send you off on summer vacation, It’s a beautiful one!
Title: The Golden Glow:
Written & Illustrated By: Benjamin Flouw
Publisher: Tundra Books (PRH), May 15, 2018, Fiction
Suitable For Ages: 4-8
Themes/Topics: nature, hiking, perseverance, preservation
text and illustration copyright Benjamin Flouw, 2018, Tundra Books
Opening: “Every evening, sitting in his armchair, Fox likes to leaf through old botany books,
looking for the next new plant to add to his collection.
What’s this? A page with no picture?
The golden glow is a plant from the Wellhidden family.
It is very rare and only grows high in the mountains.
No specimen has ever been described.
“This sounds like a fabulously fascinating flower!
Tomorrow, I’m off to the mountain in search of it!””
text and illustration copyright Benjamin Flouw, 2018, Tundra Books
Brief Synopsis: When Fox, who loves nature, discovers that a rare flower exists that has never been described, he sets out on a journey to find it.
text and illustration copyright Benjamin Flouw, 2018, Tundra Books
Links To Resources: the book lists several types of trees – take a walk around where you live and see if any of them live near you. If not, what kind of trees do grow near you? What kinds of wild animals live in your neighborhood? What kinds of flowers do you see? Try sketching trees, animals, and flowers to make your own nature journal of the world around your home. If you live in a city, perhaps there’s a park nearby you can work from! Collect leaves and flower petals and take photographs – they can all go in your journal. Record temperature and weather conditions. Do you see animal tracks? You can draw those too and then try to identify what animal left them!
text and illustration copyright Benjamin Flouw, 2018, Tundra Books
Why I Like This Book: There are so many things to love about this book it is hard to know where to start. Fox is a nature-lover. When he comes across the mention of a rare flower that has never been captured in a book, he sets out on a quest to find it, first packing a back pack with everything he’ll need. Like all things that are worthwhile, it is not easy. The journey is long and arduous. But along the way he meets many woodland friends (pictured), is able to identify many of the trees he knows (listed), and examines the structure of a flower (diagrammed), so that young readers received an introduction to a lot of interesting information almost without realizing they’re learning. The art is absolutely gorgeous. The early morning he sets out on his journey, the wildflower meadow, and the sunset above the clouds are among my favorites. But perhaps the best part is the end when [SPOILER ALERT] Fox finds the rare flower and it is so beautiful just where it is that he decides not to pick it for his collection, but rather to draw it, which he does in such careful detail that he will always be able to remember the flower. This is a lovely book!
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 blog 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!
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! And I’ll officially wish you a wonderful summer as well! Although we still have to finish up the Mix ‘n’ Match Mini Writing Contest, and there are quite a few Tuesday Debuts scheduled, so it’s not really goodbye for the summer! 😊
Susanna Leonard Hill 
You had me at the title, Susanna! I love this slightly otherworldly book! And funnily, my Perfect Picture Book Friday is also about journeys of a sort…in the realm of dreams and imagination.
Susanna, I love the way it incorporates information organically. And I love that he draws instead of picking the flower. This one is new to me and I can’t wait to find it. Thanks! And my #PPBF is an emotional journey.
Thank you, Susanna, for bringing this book to our attention. It’s priceless for any future botanist (in the making)! And for anyone who doesn’t know that they might be, it unlocks a whole new world! I’m ordering this book today!
This looks lovely!
A little off topic, but this review brought to mind MISS BENSON’S BEETLE by Rachel Joyce is a British historical fiction adventure story about a quest to find a certain insect. Will have to find this book so I can further compare! Happy Summer!
Wow, I love the illustration style with all of the angles! And the story contains information related through the lens of Fox’s passion. I, too, love that scene above the clouds. It feels zenlike and magical. And artistic details like how that partially folded map is depicted leave me gobsmacked!
The perfect summer sendoff; thank you for always hosting PPBF and including us in your gorgeous collection of picture books!
Great intriguing title. Thanks for sharing this lovely book with us. 🙂
The illustrations are unique and so detailed! Looking forward to reading this PB.
It appears to contain so much information as well! 🙂
PS Thanks for sharing PPBF! Have a super Summer! 🙂
This sounds so lovely! It sings to my nature-loving heart! Thanks for sharing, Susanna!
What a lovely summer send off!
A beautiful choice and one I definitely want to read and study. Thanks so much, Susanna, for another great title. Happy summertime!
Wow. just reserved from the library. thank you for sharing. I can’t wait to see this. 🌟🦊
Oh my – what a wonderful book about nature and so much more!