I picked up Patrizia Levi‘s 2024 picture book The Flying Circus for one reason: it was new. I had heard nothing about it, and didn’t know Levi’s work. I will say this: I will definitely look for Levi’s work in the future, and for books illustrated by Laura Barella. The Flying Circus is a stylish […]
Meeting Miss Rumphius
Miss Rumphius is a 1982 picture book, written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Cooney won Caldecott Medals in 1980 (for Ox-Cart Man) and in 1959 (for Chanticleer and the Fox), Like those earlier books, Miss Rumphius feels like it belongs to another age in many ways. It is wordy for a modern picture book, and […]
Hanukkah Pajamakkahs
I recently read Hanukkah Pajamakkahs, a 2024 picture book by Dara Henry. I picked it up because I’ve been intentionally casting my picture book net wide, looking for and at books in different categories, or books that tackle different challenges. In this case, I was curious about picture books that include an element of religious […]
Wild about Wild About Books
It is easy to see why Wild About Books won an E.B. White Read Aloud Award. Judy Sierra’s 2004 picture book has a perfect picture book premise: a librarian driving a bookmobile accidentally drives it into the zoo. Once she’s parked there, librarian Molly McGrew sets up shop like usual, opening the bookmobile to the […]
Today I “read”…
Today I “read” Unspoken, a 2012 picture book by Henry Cole. I use the quotation marks around “read” because it is a wordless picture book: except for a few words that appear within one image, Cole tells the entire story with just drawings. And he does a great job of it. Unspoken will not be […]
Duck on a Tractor
I love David Shannon’s David books so much, I wanted to see what his other works are like. So, I picked up his 2016 picture book Duck on a Tractor. The pictures are wonderful. Any kid–shoot, any adult–will enjoy seeing this vivid images of farm animals riding on a tractor (with the duck driving, of […]
Wonderful, Wicked, and Whizzpopping
How’s that for a title! If you’ve got a good ear and memory, you might remember “Whizzpopping” from BFG. If not, you might have to read the subtitle to get a real sense of this book by Stella Caldwell: “The stories, characters, and inventions of Roald Dahl.” I know, I know. Dahl aims at an […]
Today I read…
Today I read Short Dog, Long Dog: A Book of Opposites by Anna Hrachovec (2025). As the subtitle suggests, this book is intended to teach simple concepts, all built around opposition. There are a lot of books out there teaching on this level. My local library has a standard sticker they put on the spine, […]
Noodles?
Some books about other times or other countries plod. They are so clearly educational that they weigh themselves down with purpose. Thankfully, the opposite is true for Noodles on a Bicycle (2024). Author Kyo Maclear tells a story of a striking and dynamic scene–perfect for picture books she saw daily in Tokyo as a child […]
If You Want a Librarian To Like You…
If you want a librarian to like you, check out “R” is for Research. (Mine stopped checking out my books to look over, and gently caress, this book.) “R” is for Research is–wait for it–an introduction to research that is also an alphabet book AND a rhyming book. Author Toni Buzzeo starts with “A” for […]