Guess Who? by Margaret Miller

Greenwillow Books, New York, 1994.
Hardcover edition, 32 pages, ISBN 0-688-12784-3.

Margaret Miller produces another photographic classic featuring common community occupations. A picture question is posed on one page ( Who flies an airplane?), and the reader is presented with four silly photo replies on the next (A bus driver? A statue? A turtle? A baby?). The true answer is presented on the next double page spread with gender and ethnically diverse subjects pictured ( a woman pilot).

Children will enjoy thinking through and responding to the absurdity of the false answers, as well as affirming the correct choice. The photos are arranged artfully in color and composition with clear depictions of the activity being performed as well as an engaging performer.

Do You Know What I'll Do? by Charlotte Zolotow

Illustrated by Javaka Stepton, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2000.
Hardcover edition, 32 pages, ISBN 0-06-027879-X.

A doting older sister regales her brother with a series of endearing promises to shower him with love and affection in many small ways throughout their lives together. The text takes the form of a rhythmic question and answer:

"Do you know what I'll do when it snows? I'll make you a snowman....
Do you know what I'll do at the seashore? I'll bring you a shell to hold the sound of the sea."

The boldly-colored 3-dimensional painted wood and fabric collages stand out against the stark white pages of the book. The emotional bond between the characters is evident not only in their expressions, but in their intertwined intimacy.

This story can be used as an easy reader due to the repetition and simplicity of the text, but is enjoyable to read aloud at a family storyhour.

Gracias-Thanks by Pat Mora

Illustrated by John Parra. Lee & Low Books, Inc., New York, 2009.
Hardcover edition, 32 pages, ISBN 978-1-60060-258-0.

Parra's rosy-cheeked boy leads us through a busy day filled with gratitude for graces large and small, crucial and zany, beginning with:  "For the sun that wakes me up so I don't sleep for years and years and grow a long white beard, thanks." The paint on wood of the illustrations, the colorful exotic flowers, and Hispanic decor give this modern story an old world feel.

Each double page spread features Spanish text on the left page and English text on the right. An author's note, also bilingual, exhorts the reader to look for things to be thankful for, and enumerates the author's own blessings. She adds, "Listing what I'm thankful for always makes me happy."

Helping children live a life looking on the bright side is of great social and personal benefit. This book reminds us that our American Thanksgiving holiday is not the only time to be grateful, but that every day we have a fresh opportunity to remember the good things.

ALA Notable Book, 2010
Bank Street Best Children's Books of the Year, 2010
Texas Library Association 2X2 Reading List, 2010
CCBC Choices, 2010
Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration, 2009
Belpré Illustrator Honor Book, 2010
Booklist Starred Review

Before John Was a Jazz Giant by Carole Boston Weatherford

Illustrated by Sean Qualls, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2008.
Hardcover edition, 32 pages, ISBN 978-0-8050-7994-4.

A Song of John Coltrane, jazz legend, saxophonist extraordinaire....

Weatherford and Qualls create a seamless stream of music with lyrical text and visual sound pictures which flow from page to page. Qualls' imaginative evocation of sound using bubbles, ribbons, and streaming shapes depicts both the audible and the moving transitory aspects of music. John is shown as a child, listening, considering, absorbing, remembering, internalizing the melodious, rhythmic harmonies of the world around him.

"Before John was a jazz giant,
he picked up that horn,
blew into the mouthpiece, pressed his fingers on the keys, and breathed every sound
he'd ever known into a bold new song.
Before John was a jazz giant,
he was all ears."

A full page biography of John Coltrane is provided in an Author's Note, with a facing page containing a limited discography, and a short bibliography of further reading materials both in print and online.

This book begs to be read with Coltrane's music playing softly in the background. It would be a terrific centerpiece for a program on music or sounds for preschoolers, and lends itself to discussion of sounds around us.

Coretta Scott King Award, Honor Book
ALA Notable Children's
Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year
CCBC Choice Book
NCSS-CBC: Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People
Golden Kite Honor Book for Picture Book Text
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best
Michigan Great Lakes Great Books Award Master List

Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say

Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1993.
Hardcover edition, 32 pages, ISBN 0-395-57035-2.

A sense of belonging and a sense of place are very powerful in the human experience. Say's lovely, nostalgic, and poignant book captures our humanness, quite apart from country, race or culture. As a young man, Say's grandfather traveled from his home in Japan to America. He fell in love with the amazing and varied wonders of the land, the cities, and the people. He returned to Japan for his bride, but the new world called him back. His daughter was raised in California, yet again the homeland called. Throughout the years in reality and through the power of transmitted memory, his family has had feet in both worlds. "So I return now and then, when I can not still the longing in my heart. The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other."

Say's watercolors have the pastel, tintype look of the era of his grandfather, with faces sober, in posed portraits like photographs of that time. The formality of the pictures belies the emotional struggle of the sense of duality of belonging which both he and his grandfather experience.

This story will resonate with many of our patrons in this multicultural and highly mobile society. Younger children may not be able to process the full impact, but still take in a basic understanding of the journey in relation to the experience of their own families. Good for preschool storytime.

Caldecott Medal Winner, 1994
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Picture Book, 1994
Iowa Children's Choice Award, 2007

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

The Viking Press, New York. 1962.
Hardcover edition, 40 pages, ISBN 0-670-65401-9.

Peter awakes one morning to discover that a snowfall has "covered everything as far as he could see." He goes outside in his little red snowsuit with the pointed hood to explore. First he makes tracks this way and that in the crunchy snow, then he drags a stick in the snow to make a different track. Wisely not joining a snowball fight with the bigger boys, he wanders off to create a snowman and then some snow angels. He climbs a giant snow mountain and slides down the other side. He packs up a nice firm snowball to put in his pocket for tomorrow.

At home, he tells his mother all about his adventures in the snow, takes a warm bath and thinks about them for a long time. He discovers that his snowball is missing and is sad. In the morning, even more snow has fallen, and he calls a friend to explore the "deep, deep snow" with him.

Keats uses an interesting combination of collage and watercolor to depict the mountainous snowbanks which dwarf Peter and give the sense of being in an alien landscape. The quiet progression of the text as Peter meanders about the neighborhood alone depicts the muffled silence of a snow-covered world.

A wonderful addition to snow stories for toddlers and preschoolers. Most children in areas which are subject to snowfalls will find Peter's activities familiar. Those from southern areas will see the possibilities for play. A track making activity may be an enjoyable accompaniment to this winter tale.

Winner of the Caldecott Medal, 1963.

So Much by Trish Cooke

Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. Candlewick Press, Cambridge, MA, 1994.
Hardcover edition, 48 pages, ISBN 1-56402-344-3.

Cooke takes us on an affectionate, lighthearted romp through the individual arrivals for a family party, with each member (auntie, uncle, cousin, nannie, gran-gran, and daddy), all greeting the baby with an exuberant burst of love.

"I want to kiss him,
I want to kiss the baby,
I want to kiss him
SO MUCH!"

Between each arrival, the colors of Oxenbury's resting, waiting characters become muted and almost washed out, mimicking Cooke's text:

"They weren't doing anything,
Mom and the baby and Aunt Bibba,
nothing really..."

As each new family member enters, the colors brighten, reflecting the joyous atmosphere and energy generated by Cooke's zestful language.

Great for toddler storytime.

Have You Seen My Cat? by Eric Carle

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Children, New York, 1991.
Hardcover edition, 28 pages, ISBN 978-0887080548.

Carle's signature watercolor collages serve as the focal point of a small boy's search for his missing cat. The end papers depict eight types of cats from the most familiar lion to exotic subspecies such as puma and jaguar. On each double page spread, the boy repeats his simple query, "Have you seen my cat?". The responder, in a unique cultural setting and dressed in appropriate garb, merely points into the distance. On the following page, is a cat indigenous to that setting. The boy replies, "That is not my cat!" After ostensibly traveling around the world, the boy finally locates his cat with a tumble of kittens around her, the unspoken reason for her disappearance being giving birth. "This is my cat!"

This makes a fun read at a toddler storytime about cats or animals. Paint brightly colored exotic cat pictures a la Carle.

Aids in vocabulary building by identifying different types of cats, and promotes discussion of the geographical and cultural settings where they live. Narrative skills can be enhanced by having a child tell the "untold" story hinted at by the pictures. Due to the limited, repetitive nature of the text, beginning readers can easily memorize and develop sight word knowledge, and "read" the entire book themselves.

Grand Prix des Treize selection, 1973.

Pig-Boy: A Trickster Tale from Hawai'i by Gerald McDermott

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, 2009.
Hardcover edition, 32 pages, ISBN 978-0152165901.
In the source notes for this tale, McDermott details the history of the mythological character from which the Pig-Boy is drawn, the oral tradition from which it sprang, and the first transcriptions and publications in the Hawaiian language in the mid to late nineteenth century. He also acknowledges the expertise of scholars who advised him in researching and re-telling the story.

I am familiar with McDermott’s previous trickster characters, Zomo the Rabbit, Coyote, and Raven, but had not yet encountered this charming, insatiable swine. Pig-Boy’s adventures unfold in the rhythms of transcribed speech, following him through hunger-driven theft of the king’s chickens, a frightening encounter with the goddess Pele near her volcano, and capture by the king’s men, all of which he manages to thwart with clever shape-changes.

Pig-Boy is portrayed in purple, which immediately sets him apart from “real” pigs, and prepares the reader for some magical doings to come. The illustrations exhibit simply-detailed foregrounds colorfully drawn against soothing green backgrounds. He is not depicted as a wise-cracking, fiendishly clever, wily villain or clown as are other trickster characters such as Anansi or Coyote. This endearing piglet begins and ends the story sweetly enfolded in his beautiful, loving, Hawaiian grandmother’s arms, making it a good introductory trickster tale for 2-3 year-olds who may as yet be unable to decipher complexities of humor or trickery.