Each month, I read stacks of picture books. Not just because I want to stay on top of what’s new from week to week and month to month, but also because, when I teach classes about writing picture books, I like to share new favorites with students.
Those of us who write them know that picture books are deceptively hard to get just right. On top of that, there really is no end to the many shapes and forms of successful picture books. For that reason, I’m always trying to better understand what makes a book work structurally as well as how authors create stories that resonate with young readers and the adults who read to them. Recently, as part of a assignment, a student shared BRAVE LITTLE BEAR with our class. I was smitten!
It’s the end of winter and Arlo’s sister, Eva is awake and eager to explore the world beyond their cave. Arlo prefers things just as they are. He likes to “curl up and fall asleep next to Eva and his mother…” But all this will change because “today, the three of them would travel from the only home Arlo had ever known.”
When Arlo’s mama whispers in his ear, “Follow me, my brave little bear,” Arlo isn’t sure. He wants to be brave, just like Eva, but will he be able to find enough courage for his first adventure into the unknown?
This sweetest of picture books, written and illustrated by Steve Small, is a heartwarming and cozy read, as well as reminder that we are all braver than we think. For writers, BRAVE LITTLE BEAR is also the perfect study of a character-based picture book with a strong emotional throughline.
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Enjoy these Activity Sheets to accompany Brave Little Bear, and this Read Aloud with the author:
It’s been busy times around here. Last week I attended the annual National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference in Columbus, Ohio and being there among so many passionate educators, librarians, authors, editors, publishers, publicists, and booksellers is one of the reasons I’m feeling especially grateful this season.
Rather than sharing about one book this week, I thought I’d share a few photo highlights from the conference, along with a number of books that I picked up or plan to add to my collection in the near future.
This was my second time presenting at an NCTE conference, and my fourth attending, and I have to say that this year topped all the years that came before. One reason was the opportunity to present with two stellar poets, authors, and friends: Jyoti Rajan Gopal and Megan Litwin. It’s hard to believe we’ve only known each other for a couple of years, and entirely online, no less. We worked on Zoom for a good many months and had a great time putting together our presentation, The Promise the Poetry:Building a Connected Community of Learners through Poems and Picture Books. We’re already thinking ahead to next year!
Enjoy these highlights!
(And… if you happen to be reading this on your phone, you’ll notice the text and images are not mobile friendly! I had to disable that plug-in, but change is coming very soon and, when it does, things will line up again. Thanks for your patience!)
Here we are, right before we began our presentation.
And afterwards, with a few of the poets and writers who attended.
Then, we were off to Jyoti’s signing of her newest book, Desert Queen.
While in Columbus, we visited the most enchanting bookstore — COVER TO COVER.Their speciality?
Books for kids! We signed our books and bought a few new favorites to bring home.
Today is a BIG day. It will be the first time little Juanito gets to help his papi at work! Juanito’s father is a landscape contractor. Today Juanito will learn to “shape and trim bushes”, and “mow perfect lines in the grass” at Mrs. Tarbe’s house. There, Juanito sees his classmate, Alex at the window pretending not to see him. Juanito feels awkward and uncomfortable… Just then, Papi calls him to look at a nest of baby birds chirping in the middle of a bougainvillea bush. Juanito pulls out his sketchbook and starts to draw. Oh, how Juanito loves to sketch.
At lunch, Juanito is still thinking about Alex. He asks his papi if he likes his work. “You know, ‘mijo, being your own boss is the best thing in the world. You have to work hard and sometimes you are treated like you are invisible.” His father continues, “when you do something you love and get to be creative, you feel proud.”
Juanito knows this feeling of pride. Throughout the day, he draws and works, works and draws. He’s becoming a fine artist!
At the end of the day, the last stop is at the home of a couple who have a big project in mind. And Juanito? He has the perfect design to transform Mr. and Mrs. Carroll’s overgrown yard into a beautiful landscape. Hours later, lost in his work, drawing, thinking, and adding color, Juanito creates the perfect plan.
Juanito knows that he will use his art “to tell the stories of hardworking, passionate people who make the world more beautiful.” In an author’s note, Parra writes that he is Juanito – “The story of the little landscaper is the story of my childhood.”
I generally don’t post about board books on ReaderKidZ, but I do very much admire the variety and skill of the authors who “own” the genre. And when it comes to humorous board books, there’s really no one quite like Sandra Boynton.
It takes a certain kind of skill to write a well-paced, satisfying, (and rhyming!) story of only 102 words. And Sandra Boynton has done just that in EEK! Halloween!
There’s a big round moon
in a dark, dark sky.
The chickens are nervous.
If picture books are like compact poems, board books are its tighter, flash fiction cousin. Short and sleek, EEK! Halloween!is this and more. Pitch-perfect timing, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, along with all manner of silly animal antics — from nervous chickens who scare easily to ducks with “ridiculous feet” — Sandra Boynton books have much to recommend them.
Do you have a favorite Sandra Boyntan book?
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If you’re looking for stellar examples by other authors, try these!
“Georgia Ann Thomspon weighed only three pounds at birth on April 8th, 1893.
Everyone called her Tiny, and the nickname stuck.”
At the age of six Tiny had to begin working in order to help her family. The work was hard, the days long. Her young life had become an endless cycle of poor working conditions and menial tasks.
In spite of the difficult challenges, at the end of the day, Tiny “would climb to a treetop to get away… and imagine rising UP…, far away from fields and mills.” She had big dreams and those “dreams gave her hope.” Even so, she had little reason to believe her life would change significantly.
Then, in 1907, while attending the North Carolina State Fair, she “watched a hot-air balloon rise in the air…, a man balancing on a trapeze underneath it” and she got an idea. She wanted to rise in a balloon, just like the World Famous Aeronaut, Charles Broadwick, had done.
A year later, at the 1908 State Fair, Tiny’s dreams began to take flight. But that was only the beginning. By 1913, Tiny had became the first woman to parachute from an airplane. And In 1914, her courage and quick reactions allowed her to make the split-second decision that saved her life. Not only did she cut the static line after it had become tangled in the tail of a plane, but she also managed to find and jerk at the nub of line – while freefalling – thereby breaking the strings that covered the parachute. The piece of line she pulled would later become known as a rip cord.
Tiny Broadwick wearing a backpack-type parachute. (NASM)
DIANNE: It’s been a thrill to finally hold your book in my hands! In some ways, this is a book of your heart, about a daring woman – Tiny Broadwick – who had a dream that she wasn’t afraid to pursue. Can you talk a little bit about the initial spark that set you on path to writing this book?
CANDY: Thank you, Dianne, for giving me this opportunity to speak to my writing process in general and to talk a little about TINY JUMPER! I love to write historical fiction. This book is my first non-fiction picture book biography. Generally, I become obsessed with a subject after I visit an intriguing place or read about an amazing event or person, especially if that place or event or person is little-known. Daily, Monday through Friday, I receive a blog from the Office of the State Archives of North Carolina entitled “This Day in North Carolina History.” That’s where I first read of Tiny Broadwick, who was born in 1893 just 44 miles from where I currently live in Raleigh, North Carolina. I could not get out of my mind that poverty-stricken, uneducated girl who lived with such joy and courage and determination that she changed the world of parachuting forever!
DIANNE: I imagine that finding the throughline for a picture book biography can be one of the most, if not the most, significant decisions a picture book writer needs to make. But we both know that writing picture books can often be a circuitous journey. Double that when you add in all the decisions inherent in writing a biography. Questions like – should this be a birth to death story, or a story about the subject’s most important milestones? What will you keep in? What should you leave out? Can you talk about some of the decisions you considered as you worked on TINY JUMPER?
CANDY: Whew! My first draft of TINY JUMPER covered her life in detail from birth to death. It had to have been 2500 words. When I learned I needed to get the manuscript under 1,000 words, I almost gave up. Right away, I knew I had to concentrate on the years Tiny Broadwick was actively parachuting. But she had accomplished so many firsts in those years – not only parachuting from hot-air balloons at an early age, but becoming the first woman to parachute from a plane, the first woman or man to parachute from outside a hydroplane, and the first woman to make a water jump from a plane. And then she made her near-disasterous jump in her demonstration of a pack parachute to the US Army that resulted in her creating the rip cord to save her life. After many revisions, I zeroed in on her two most important accomplishments which changed the world of parachuting forever – the first woman to parachute from a plane and her courage to cut away from a static line and pull open the parachute’s covering herself as she hurtled toward earth at 80 feet per second.
DIANNE: Numerous reviewers of the book have mentioned the wonderful quotes you included throughout Tiny’s stories. I know it happens that first-hand accounts aren’t always readily available. But you were able to track down some marvelous quotes that give readers a picture of Tiny’s mindset and her adventurous spirit. Can you briefly talk about the research you did? Any surprises? Any challenges?
CANDY: In my research, I was blessed to find a biography of Tiny Broadwick, written by Elizabeth Whitley Roberson and published in 2001. She included an extensive bibliography at the end of the book, which also included pictures and quotes from people who knew Tiny well. A great resource for quotes came from a personal interview conducted in the later years of Tiny’s life by the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. They were kind enough to share the interview with me and even more gracious to review my manuscript for authenticity.
DIANNE: TINY JUMPER is a beautiful book and I know you’ll be keeping very busy over the coming months, sharing her story with readers in North Carolina and beyond. What are you looking forward to in the months ahead? What do you hope your young readers will take away from TINY’s amazing story?
CANDY: In the months ahead, I will be speaking at the North Carolina Museum of History on Sunday afternoon, December 10, 2023. The museum has one of Tiny’s parachutes, and it will be on display along with some other artifacts. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that a paratrooper from Fort Liberty’s 82nd Airborne will join us to demonstrate a modern parachute. Then in July 2024, dates TBD, I will Zoom on a Friday and speak on a Saturday, from the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum.
I hope young readers will understand the determination and perseverance that Tiny Broadwick used to make her life what she wanted it to be, and that in that life she found fulfilling joy. Physical attributes made no difference in Tiny’s drive and focus to achieve her goals. Tiny Broadwick proved that a brave, hardworking girl is a strong and powerful force who can change the world!
DIANNE: Thanks for stopping by ReaderKidZ, Candy, and for sharing Tiny Broadwick’s amazing story! 🪂
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Don’t miss this Tiny JumperACTIVITY KIT to accompany the book!
“In the night garden, fireflies look like fallen stars.
Moonflowers unfurl and release their intoxicating perfume….
bats swoop and glide in the bluing sky.”
There’s something magical about gardens, and when that garden becomes the nighttime setting of a picture book, mystery and magic combine to create a place of wonder where crickets sing, streams murmur, and owls soar. If you’re lucky, you might even witness a falling star. There is more than enough to see, hear, and explore in a night garden.
Illustrated by hand with cut paper collage from “found ephemera and scraps of paper, including ticket stubs, receipts, and ancient ledger books,” Carin Berger has created a nighttime garden of luminous blues and greens, orange-reds, and creamy shades of white. Gorgeous spreads invite the reader to accompany a cat on an ambling stroll of discovery, as the magic of the garden after dark unfolds until, eventually, …sleep calls.
This stunning book makes for a beautifully soothing read right before bedtime.
Pair this book with other books about the night:
Dark on Lightby Dianne White, illustrated by Felicita Sala
“On Fridays, there’s Assembly.” Mr. Ross makes announcements. Sometimes there’s a guest, sometimes not. And if the kids are good, one of them “gets to do something for the whole school. A performance… called ‘Sharing Gifts.'”
One week a student plays the tuba. Another week, there are magic tricks. Another jokes.
“He put on a white leotard.
He put on black pants.
He put on black slippers.
Then he was ready.”
Mr. Ross makes another anouncement. The kids sing a song. And all the while, the reader feels the tension rising. How will the kids react when John steps out from behind the curtain and begins to dance?
The curtain moves and there is John, in first position, hands carefully poised in front of him. Some of the kids laugh. Mrs. K shushes them, but John looks worried. As a reader, I worried, too…
JOHN’S TURN by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Kate Berube is a book about facing your fears, the courage it can take to share your passion, and the importance of following your heart and being your true self.
For writers and illustrators, this book is a master study in using the picture book format to build anticipation, and make powerful use of the page turn and wordless spreads to build emotion. Warm and tender illustrations in ink and paint pair perfectly with this exquisite text.
I loved this book so much and highly recommend it for every classroom and home library.
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Enjoy this interview with author Mac Barnett talking about vulnerability, art, and picture books:
Mission Statement
To provide teachers, librarians, and parents with the resources and inspiration to foster a love of reading in kids, K-5.
