Tag: picture book

Perfect Picture Book Friday – An Apple Pie For Dinner

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Today is a special day.

Yes, it is Perfect Picture Book Friday, which is always special 🙂

But today is also my Brown Dog’s birthday!

Here she is when she was tiny:

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And here she is now that she is 10!

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She is the best Brown Brownie in the whole wide world – my loyal, devoted friend who has stayed by my side during some of the toughest times I’ve been through, warm and comforting and kind.  I feel so lucky to have her.  So we will celebrate her 10th birthday tonight with a party, complete with yellow cake with vanilla icing so she can have some 🙂  Happy Birthday, my faithful, loving friend!

I guess I should have chosen a Perfect Picture Book for today that was about birthdays or dogs or cake…  I chose one about pie… that has a dog in it… (I mean the story has a dog in it, not the pie! 🙂 ) and ends with a party 🙂

apple-pie-pb

Title: An Apple Pie For Dinner

Retold By: Susan VanHecke

Illustrated By: Carol Baicker-McKee

Two Lions (Amazon Children’s Publishing), August 2009, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 5-8

Themes/Topics: resourcefulness, kindness, persistence, folktale retelling

Opening: “One day, Old Granny Smith wanted an apple pie for dinner.
She looked around her cozy kitchen.
She had flour and butter.
She had sugar and spices.
But there was one thing she didn’t have.”

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Brief Synopsis: Granny Smith wants to bake an apple pie, but she doesn’t have any apples.  So she fills her basket with plums and sets out to see if she can trade.  She swaps plums for feathers, feathers for flowers, flowers for a gold coin… but will she ever find her apples?

Links To Resources: Apple pie recipe at the back of the book; author notes about the retelling and illustrator notes about how the three-dimensional mixed media art was created are also included at the back of the book; An Apple Pie For Dinner dedicated website with related activities

Why I Like This Book: This story has such a cozy, friendly feel.  Granny is so sweet.  She goes along, patiently hoping to find apples for her pie, doing good for everyone she meets and making their days better even though time after time she fails to get the apples she needs.  The story is cheerful and comes full circle to delicious ending 🙂  The mixed-media illustrations are delightful in their 3-D, stand-out-from-the-page, sunny, colorfulness.  An all-around satisfying read complete with an apple pie recipe to try at home!

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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!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Mother Bruce

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Happy First Perfect Picture Book Friday of 2017, Folks!

There’s really nothing like Friday, is there?

Not only do we get a brand new list of Perfect Picture Books to enjoy, we have the prospect of the whole weekend stretching before us in which to read them, hopefully by a cozy fire with a cup of hot chocolate, or tucked under a warm quilt with a pajamaed youngster or two or three eagerly anticipating the stories to come 🙂

If you haven’t yet read this Perfect Picture Book, you’re in for a treat!

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Title:  Mother Goose Bruce

Written & Illustrated By: Ryan T. Higgins

Disney Hyperion, November 2015, fiction – an Ezra Jack Keats Honor Book

Suitable For Ages: 5-8

Themes/Topics: humor, determination/perseverance

Opening: “Bruce was a bear who lived all by himself.  He was a grump.”

Brief Synopsis: Bruce is a grumpy bear who lives alone and likes to cook fancy egg recipes he finds on the internet.  But when the eggs he procures hatch, he’s in for a whole lot of trouble – a bunch of goslings who think he’s their mother and WILL NOT LEAVE! 🙂

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illustration copyright Ryan T. Higgins 2015

Links To Resources: Geese Fun Facts For Kids; 15 Fun Facts About Geese; goose coloring pages

Why I Like This Book: This book made me laugh out loud!  It’s clever and funny.  Bruce is stubbornly determined to maintain his loner living status, and the goslings are equally determined that they will never leave their “mother” 🙂  And the art is amazing!  Bruce’s grumpy expressions, the adorable goslings, the beautiful backgrounds and details – such fun!

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illustration copyright Ryan T. Higgins 2015

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!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

Perfect Picture Book Friday – The Biggest Smallest Christmas Present

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Hurray!  It’s Perfect Picture Book Friday!

I have a cute one for you today 🙂

Along with a heads up that this is probably the last Perfect Picture Book Friday of 2016.  By next Friday the Holiday Writing Contest will be underway… as well as the Friday after…and then we will all be up to our ears in holiday preparations – cleaning, sampling the gingerbread    baking,tasting the Christmas brownies shopping, wrapping, greeting, entertaining the little angels who are on school vacation,sustaining ourselves with Something Chocolate traveling, spending time with friends and family – far too busy for blogging!

But I hope you’ll like today’s pick – a little reminiscent of Eloise to my mind!

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Title: The Biggest Smallest Christmas Present

Written & Illustrated By: Harriet Muncaster

G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books For Young Readers, October 18 2016, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-5

Themes/Topics: Holidays (Christmas), ingenuity, perseverance, making the best of things

Opening: “Clementine lived in an ordinary house on an ordinary street with her ordinary mom and dad and brother, Charlie.
But there was one extraordinary thing about Clementine…”

Brief Synopsis: Clementine is not an average-size girl.  She’s so tiny she bathes in a teacup.  Santa keeps bringing her presents that are much too big.  How can she get him to bring her a present that’s the right size?

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text and illustration copyright Harriet Muncaster 2016

Links To Resources: The 5 Best Toys Of All Time (or how to let kids use their imagination and creativity as Clementine does 🙂 ); 25 Easy Christmas Crafts For Kids

Why I Like This Book:  Clementine is cute and spunky.  She may be tiny, but she finds ingenious and creative ways to use the gifts she receives that are too big for her.  She can’t use the xylophone sticks to play the instrument… but they make great stilts!  And the xylophone itself? Well, she can play it by dancing on it – making her own music!  The fairy slippers are too big to wear… but one of them makes a perfect bed.  Still, she longs for a present that’s just the right size.  She does her best to explain this to Santa, but her first two attempts are foiled.  I love the ending because of the ambiguity.  Did Santa really get her message?  Or has he known all along that she would get more out of presents she had to find her own way to enjoy?  The art is delightful and engaging, showing Clementine’s disporportionatly big personality.  A fun, fresh read for Christmas time!

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text and illustration copyright Harriet Muncaster 2016

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!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Waiting For Snow

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Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, Everyone!

You know, there’s nothing the WeatherFolk like better than drama!

They are never happier than when they can use words like “hurricane”, “tornado”, and “polar vortex”!

They love prompting you in urgent tones to make sure you’re stocked up on batteries, bottled water, canned goods, flashlights, and toilet paper 🙂  (I don’t know why they never mention chocolate… seems to me that should be right up there at the top of the list!)

They love predicting that holiday travel will be nightmarish.  It warms them to the cockles of their weather-beatin’ little hearts 🙂

So, in  my neck of the woods, the headlines for the next couple days read:

SNOW IN NORTHEASTERN US AS TEMPERATURES PLUNGE UP TO 50 DEGREES THIS WEEKEND!!!

As writers, we can all appreciate the WeatherFolks’ use of exaggeration evocative verbiage 🙂  I believe the content of the article suggests that some places may see a dusting of snow and it’s going to be a wee bit colder over the weekend than it was this unusually warm past week 🙂  But it just sounds so much more interesting when they say the temperature is going to “plunge 50 degrees,” doesn’t it? Kinda makes you want to stock up on toilet paper… in case you need to wrap yourself in it to stay warm… 🙂

Anyway, speaking of snow, look at this wonderful book!

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Title: Waiting For Snow

Written By: Marsha Diane Arnold

Illustrated By: Renata Liwska

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, November 1, 2016, fiction

Suitable For Ages: publisher says 4-7… I think 3-6/7

Themes/Topics: patience, seasons (winter), snow, friendship

Opening: “Hedgehog found Badger staring at the sky.
“What are you doing, Badger?”
“Waiting for snow.  It’s winter and I haven’t seen one snowflake.””

Brief Synopsis:  Poor Badger is desperate for snow, but no matter what he does the weather won’t cooperate.  Hedgehog assures him that everything comes in its own time, but oh! it’s so hard to wait!!!

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text copyright Marsha Diane Arnold 2016, illustration copyright Renata Kiwska 2016… a glimpse of ways the friends try to pass the waiting time… 🙂

Links To Resources: waiting is hard, and kids have to do a lot of it!  Have your kids/students make a list of things they have to wait for, or draw a picture of something they’re waiting for;  10 Ways To Play With Kids While You’re Waiting; 12 Games To Play While You Wait

Why I Like This Book: If you’ve ever had a kid… or been a kid… or, well, you’re anyone living life on this earth 🙂 you’ve had to wait for things and you know how hard it is!  (er, ahem, writers… agency and/or publishing contracts…!  Am I right? 🙂 )  This sweet, funny, and beautiful book is about a little badger who is waiting for snow.  He and his friends try everything they can think of to hurry it along but, as is so often the case when you really want something to happen, nothing works.  What he learns in the meantime is the value of good friends.  What he learns in the end is that everything happens in its own time.  I think we can all take a lesson from Badger’s experience 🙂  The soft, fuzzy art is the perfect complement to the text – endearing, engaging, sweet!

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text copyright Marsha Diane Arnold 2016, illustration copyright Renata Kiwska 2016

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!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Before Morning

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Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, Everyone!

Oh my goodness do I have a beauty for you today!

I read a lot of picture books.

Many of them are excellent.

But every now and again I read one that is just so perfect, so magically written and illustrated, that it takes my breath away, knocks my socks off, and makes me whisper to myself, “Man!  I wish I’d written that!”

Today’s selection is one of those 🙂

The Halloweensie Contest is over.

Thanksgiving is coming.

And that means, before you know it, the skies will be swirling with flurries of snow!

My Perfect Picture Book today is all about that most coveted of childhood days – the peaceful, happy, special perfection of snow days 🙂

before-morning

Title: Before Morning

Written By: Joyce Sidman

Illustrated By: Beth Krommes

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, October 4 2016, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 4-7

Themes/Topics: seasons (winter), snow, snow days, invocations, language fun (rhyme, word choice)

Opening: “In the deep woolen dark, as we slumber unknowing, let the sky fill with flurry and flight.” (These few words actually cover 5 spreads, some of which are wordless.)

Brief Synopsis: Although there is much going on in the busy, busy world, a small child wishes for just one day to be a delightfully snow-covered pause.

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Links To Resources: the final page of the book explains invocations and invites young readers to come up with their own; make paper snowflakes; snow recipes; make your own snow!

Why I Like This Book: Oh my goodness!  What’s not to love?  This book is beautiful in every way!  The rhyming text is written by Joyce Sidman (you know what a huge fan I am of Red Sings From Treetops!) and it is gorgeous and poetic and spare.  How can you not love a book that begins “In the deep woolen dark”?! 🙂  The entire book is 66 words, so expertly chosen and crafted together that as a writer I can only feel awe.  And the art is scratchboard and watercolor, exquisitely done, showing the little girl’s hopes that while she sleeps the world will turn white, allowing for a hushed, snow-covered morning that keeps her family home for a leisurely breakfast, some extra time together, the chance to go sledding and make snow angels, and come home to dry wet mittens.  It is everything we all love about snow days, and every child’s prayer for one to come to their house!

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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!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

P.S. One little side note: my email service is msn, which has recently switched its Outlook mail platform.  I am having TERRIBLE trouble getting my email!!!  So for people who have contacted me about the Halloweensie Prizes, or people who are in my writing class, or anyone else who may be emailing me, if I don’t get back to you right away, that’s why!  I can’t receive, read, or send email with any kind of reliability.  A serious problem in the world we currently live in!  If anyone else has experienced this problem and found a work-around, PLEASE let me know!!!

 

Perfect Picture Book Friday – 1 2 3 Dream

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Darlings!

Do you know what day it is?

If you said “Friday” of course you are right.

If you said “Perfect Picture Book Friday” you are right AND a person of above average intelligence and superior interests 🙂

But it is ALSO (and I know this will really make your day) National Collect Rocks Day!

I am not making this up.

Although I think I could have.

I could have woken up in the still darkness that is once again 5:25 AM (I’m already missing the light at that hour and it’s only September!) and said to myself, hmmm….what ridiculous thing could I come up with to celebrate today?  But I didn’t even have to, because, well, it’s National Collect Rocks Day.  Need I say more?

But it turns out that is a perfect day for it to be because my Perfect Picture Book for today is all about counting.

And what better to count than a rock collection?!

See how neatly that works? 🙂

But seriously, this is one of the most beautiful books I’ve seen in a while.  Really stunning.  Have a look!

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Title: 1 2 3 Dream

Written & Illustrated By: Kim Krans

Random House Children’s Books, September 27 2016, nonfiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-7

Themes/Topics: concept (counting), language (alliteration)

Opening: “1”

Brief Synopsis: A visual celebration of counting alliteration!

Links To Resources: take a walk and find things to count – ROCKS 🙂 or acorns or seashells, cars or houses or fire hydrants, dogs or squirrels or pigeons 🙂 ; think up other examples of alliteration with counting/numbers (e.g. one onion, two tomatoes), or with other word combinations like adjectives and nouns (e.g. purple parrot) or names (e.g. Peter Pan); enjoy with companion book ABC Dream also by Kim Krans; this book itself is a resource with a search and find feature at the back that invites you to pore over the beautifully illustrated pages and find a heart-shaped stone, a spiderweb, a forked tongue, and many more.

Why I Like This Book: One owl.  Two turtles.  Three thistles.  Four foxes… but no written words.  Not one!  Just the numbers 1-20 and gorgeous detailed illustration after gorgeous detailed illustration that invite you to say what you see and then hear the alliteration your words produce.  Seven starfish.  Eleven elephants.  Fifteen fireflies….  As you know, I’m usually more inclined to choose books on the basis of their words and story, but this one is enjoyable for the illustrations alone.  A true feast for the eyes.  The pen and ink drawings are exquisite.  I’m a writer but words fail me to describe how beautiful this book is!  So I’ll show you a couple spreads 🙂

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Illustration copyright Kim Krans 2016

 

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Illustration copyright Kim Krans 2016

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!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

(And should you feel an irresistible urge to collect rocks, now you’ll know why 🙂 )

Perfect Picture Book Friday – President Squid

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It’s a brave new world, darlings!  We are going where no technomoron has dared venture before… into the Land of Google Forms!

In my ongoing quest to find a way to get our Perfect Picture Book Link List to show up in the actual blog post, I asked my talented web designer (who made this beautiful new website for me) if he had any bright ideas.

He did.

A Google Form.

So we’re going to try it today and see how it works and how we like it!  Please feel free to share your thoughts on this new system in the comments.

All you have to do is fill in your Perfect Picture Book title on the line that says “Title” (for example, The Opposite Zoo) and then copy and paste your post-specific url into the line that says “link” (for example, https://susannahill.com/2016/03/11/perfect-picture-book-friday-the-opposite-zoo/), and then scroll down a smidge within the form box and hit the Submit button.

In an ideal world, your title and link will then show up on the list below!

Wouldn’t that be awesome?

I’m not sure if it will work instantly… or if you’ll have to refresh your browser to get it to show up… or exactly what will happen…

But that is why we are so daring!  We shall try it!  If it works, wonderful!  If it doesn’t, we’ll move on to Plan J or whatever we’re up to at this point… 🙂

Here is MY Perfect Picture Book for today – tons of fun!  Then we’ll get to the newfangled Google Form and see if all of YOUR Perfect Picture Books line up nicely and behave 🙂

President Squid

Title: President Squid

Written By: Aaron Reynolds

Illustrated By: Sara Varon

Chronicle Books, March 1, 2016, Fiction

Suitable For Ages: 4-8

Themes/Topics:  leadership, politics, responsibility, humor

Opening:  “I HAVE REALIZED SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT.  Something that changes everything!

No giant squid has ever been president before!

Which means I will be the first.

President Squid!

Now that has a nice ring to it.

I WILL BE THE GREATEST PRESIDENT WHO EVER LIVED!

Wanna know why?

Here are five important reasons.”

Brief Synopsis: In a persuasive style reminiscent of campaigning politicians, Squid presents the compelling reasons why he should be president… until he decides maybe there’s an alternative.

Links To Resources: US Government For Kids (K-5); discuss with your children or students whether or not they would like the job of president.  How would they go about campaigning?  What kinds of things would they like to change, and how would they go about creating the change they’d like to see?  Write letters to the president and tell him in what ways you think he’s doing a good job and what things you’d like to see him do if he’s able (or she, given that it’s an election year 🙂 )  Write a letter or give a talk in which you present 5 reasons why you’d be very good at something, or why you should be chosen for something (persuasive writing exercise)

Why I Like This Book:  Very simple: it’s funny! 🙂  And Squid has a very believably childlike twist to his personality in that he is absolutely sure he wants something, totally committed to getting it, right up until the moment he decides…actually…he wants something else 🙂  The story is clever, light-hearted and fun, and teaches a good lesson about making sure you know what it is you’re asking for because you just might get it!

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

Okay, PPBF peeps!  It’s time!  Please leave your post-specific links in the brandy-spandy-newfangled google form below so we can all come see what fabulous books you’ve chosen this week!  Fingers crossed it works! 🙂

 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂