You can count on any book by Phyllis Root to surprise and delight, maybe stop you in your thinking tracks. PLANT A POCKET OF PRAIRIE … what is this you might ask, a book about planting a prairie? Yes! This is a lyrical, thoughtful and inspiring book about all that a prairie offers – butterflies and bugs, bison and blooming flowers. The illustrations by Betsy Bowen feel as fresh as spring. Each page introduces and invites the reader to look closely and then listen to what might happen if one does plant a bit of prairie.
Imagine “all the things a prairie could do” if you protected a bit of prairie or planted a few seeds – “Plant butterfly weed.” And with the summer sun, watch butterflies, even monarchs, in your pocket of prairie. “Plant sunflowers, and goldfinches might dine upside down.”
I asked Phyllis (while having coffee and glancing outside at Minnesota’s deep snow still frozen in the way-below freezing temperature), “Why did you write about the prairie?”
Phyllis answered, “ What you don’t know about, you cannot care about. Of the ten or so bio-systems in the Midwest, the prairie is the most endangered. Hardly any real prairie remains.” Phyllis described that while researching and writing about bogs (BIG BELCHING BOG) she discovered another amazing ecosystem – the prairie. She was startled at the diversity of wild grasses, flowers, insects, birds and mammals that thrive in prairies, little ones, big ones, new ones, old ones. In PLANT A POCKET OF PRAIRIE, Phyllis introduces the reader to many of these plants and animals. And then Phyllis added, “I fell in love with the prairie and I hope kids will too!”
Enjoy this new book along with old favorites written by Phyllis Root. I still love reading aloud her rambunctious ONE DUCK STUCK. Phyllis explained that even though it is a simple picture book with humor and rhyme, she was careful – as with all her books– with accuracy. All the animals “belong together” in the book’s “eco-system” and setting. Phyllis’ words, rhyme, and rhythm are magical. In BIG MAMA MAKES THE WORLD the down-home creation of the universe sings out with a powerful pleasing voice and story that was honored with many awards including the Boston Globe-Horn Book award.
Enjoy reading and sharing with a young listener Phyllis Root’s wonderful books- from stuck ducks to belching bogs or her latest, the blooming buzzing prairie. University of Minnesota Press, May 2014
Blieka’s been given a ball. It’s big. Round. And red. It’s hers. Forever and always. Blieka doesn’t care if her friends keep asking to borrow it. She won’t share and, worried that someone might take the ball without asking, Blieka carries it with her EVERYWHERE.
Of course, something happens. The ball goes flat and Blieka realizes that if she wants her friends to help out, she’ll have to do her part and give sharing a try. It’s not easy at first, but it gets easier with practice. And the good news? Everyone brings their toys to share with her!
Ollie and Claire are best friends. A tightly knit pair, as close as hot buttered biscuits and jam. “They frolicked by day at the park and the bay, where they yodeled and yoga’d and swam.” For a long time, the two are inseparable. Then, Claire becomes bored. She needs a change!
Out and about, she spots a sign announcing, “Travel Friend Wanted for Round-the-World Journey.” She can’t pass up the opportunity and, surely, Ollie won’t mind being left behind. Or will he?
Bink and Gollie are best friends, even though they don’t always see eye-to-eye. When Gollie discovers a photo of her old Aunt Natasha dressed like a queen, she suspects royal blood flows through her veins. Bink is not impressed. She likes the old Gollie. Who needs a “new” friend when the “old” one was perfect?
Never mind. Bink has her own problem to deal with. Her very own Acme Stretch-O-Matic should take care of it! After all, why should she be shorter than her friend?
The last chapter sees Bink and Gollie gathering a prize-winning collection in hopes of finding their way into the second volume of Flicker’s Arcana of the Extraordinary. It doesn’t happen quite as they planned, but these girls know how to make their own happy endings.
Somewhere between EZ reader, early reader, and picture book, Bink and Gollie offers a refreshing, quirky look at friendship.
The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig, illustrated by Patrice Barton, is an empathetic story about a little boy who feels invisible amidst his boisterous classmates. Brian is a quiet boy. On top of that, his busy teacher, Mrs. Carlotti, has so many children she has to contend with. Like Nathan, who uses his outside voice too much, and Sophie, who whines and complains when she doesn’t get her own way. Brian’s left out of birthday parties and games. He ends up playing by himself, drawing dragons and space aliens and pirates. At the beginning, in Barton’s beautiful, gentle illustrations, he’s drawn in black & white while everything around him is in color. That is, until a new boy arrives in class. Justin eats strange food at lunch with chopsticks. The other children laugh at him, but Brian draws Justin a picture and the two boys become friends. Then Brian bursts into full color and the children start to recognize and accept him for his own, particular talents.
A wonderful read-aloud story that will show children the power of empathy and the hurt of exclusion, The Invisible Boy, which got a starred review from SLJ, will be a welcome addition in any classroom or family. There are questions for discussion at the end, as well as a reference list of other books for the parents of children who may be having a hard time fitting in.
“Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun.” – Charles R. Swindoll.
Sometimes a good friend is hard to find, but here are some nonfiction books to remind us that the friend we are looking for can often be found in the most surprising places.
Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the True Story of an American Feud by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain with illustrations by Larry Day (Penguin, 2011) Thomas Jefferson and John Adams may have been complete opposites, but they were once friends who fought together for America’s independence. Differing political beliefs on how the new government should be run turned the friends into enemies. It took more than twenty years for the two great men to put politics aside in favor of friendship. Wonderful lessons for us even today!
For the older readers:
Dogs On Duty: Soldiers’ Best Friends on the Battlefield and Beyond by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent (Walker & Co., 2012) The photographs of these heroic dogs working side by side with soldiers are inspirational. Cairo, a Belgian Malinois, jumps from an airplane along side his Navy SEAL team member. Other dogs help find missing soldiers, act as messengers, or protect troops as sentries. This book is full of fantastic information about soldiers’ best friends, from training as puppies to serving our country as MWDs (Military Working Dogs).
“Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun.” – Charles R. Swindoll
Sometimes a good friend is hard to find, but these books remind us that the friend we are looking for can often be found in the most unlikely of places.
For the youngest readers:
A Splendid Friend, Indeed by Suzanne Bloom (Boyds Mill Press, 2007) Oh, how the goose wants to be friends with the polar bear and oh, how the polar bear just wants to be left alone with his book! In the end, the two mismatched pals realize that in each other, they have a splendid friend, indeed. Young readers will enjoy the simplicity of the story told completely through dialogue and everyone will love the yummy, color-saturated art.
For the transitional readers:
You Will Be My Friend! by Peter Brown (Little, Brown & Co., 2011) Lucy, the sassy bear-heroine from Children Make Terrible Pets, learns that making friends is not always as easy as approaching someone and declaring, “You will be my friend!” Lucy doesn’t give up hope, though, and she does find a friend who is as silly and tenacious as she is.
For the older readers:
Herbert’s Wormhole: a Novel in Cartoons by Peter Nelson and Rohitash Rao (HarperCollins, 2009) Alex is irritated when his mom arranges a “playdate” with his quirky next door neighbor, Herbert, but he’s beyond furious when he finds Herbert has messed with the motion-sensor bodysuit for his favorite video game. Herbert’s “invention” accidentally sends the boys through a wormhole, and together they forge an unlikely friendship as they battle aliens in alternate futures.
The Sevagram in India is dirty and dusty. Young Arun doesn’t like eating mushy, boiled pumpkin. He doesn’t speak Gujarati well, and he certainly doesn’t like sharing Grandfather with over three hundred and fifty followers. But he knows Grandfather is important because of his peaceful teachings.
For Arun, peace feels unattainable. He worries he’ll never make his grandfather proud. When an incident on the soccer field leaves Arun ready to strike, he runs away, ashamed, straight to his grandfather’s hut. There he discovers that everyone feels anger. Even his grandfather. Grandfather helps Arun understand how anger can be “like lightning, and split a living tree in two” or “a switch can be flipped, and it can shed light like a lamp.” Grandfather doesn’t force Arun to choose. But Arun does. He’ll be a lamp.
An enlightening story that is sure to bring about change and inspire the pledge “to live life as light.” The collaboration between authors and illustrator is nothing short of brilliant. Words and pictures work together seamlessly, a true testament to the picture book art form. For ages 3+
Knowing there were many more layers to her debut picture book, we asked Bethany Hegedus to stop by and chat more personally with us. Here’s what she had to say:
ReaderKidZ: What inspired you to write Grandfather Gandhi? Why do you think this story is important for young readers?
Bethany:Grandfather Gandhi became a personal mission of mine after hearing Arun Gandhi speak in the months after 9/11. I was a fire searcher for the company I worked for at that time and I was at the WTC that day. Arun’s talk helped me begin to heal. I wanted to put something good into the world. Seeing this story through became, for me, the reason I was at the WTC that day. It was a route to healing, not just for me, but for others as well.
The story is important for all readers I think, but especially for young readers. It’s an eye-opening moment – not just for Arun, but for readers, as well – when we learn in the book that Mahatma Gandhi, a world-leader known for his non-violent protests, felt anger. We all think anger leads to violence, to acting out, to losing control. But it doesn’t have to. Many kids today don’t know the work of Gandhi, let alone that anger can be used for good. If we listen to what makes us angry, to what hurts our feelings, and we make a choice to act – rather than react – anger can help us heal the world. Young kids want to make the world a better place. I hope this book gives them the tools and confidence to know they can.
ReaderKidZ: The story was co-written with Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Arun. Tell us about your writing relationship. What was the path to publication?
Bethany:Arun is the 5th grandson of the Mahatma. He is a world leader himself, traveling and speaking and sharing lessons and tools on how to lead a non-violent life. Arun and I began working on this book together when he was 68 and I was 29. It is now being released into the world, near Arun’s 80th birthday. We shaped the book through email interviews, phone conversations, and one in-person meeting at his home in Rochester, New York. Later in March, I will see him again when we speak together and share the book at Books of Wonder in NYC and other areas.
The path to publication for this book was rocky. We wrote and revised for 8 years before it was offered a contract in 2010. But now that this beautifully illustrated book is published, I don’t believe Arun or I would change a moment of the journey. On Facebook, Arun said, “Finally coming to fruition after 12 years of hard work. The fruits are sweet.” And, indeed they are.
ReaderKidZ: This story went through many revisions, how did you uncover the heart? And why did you never give up on the book?
Bethany:We always knew we were doing something special by offering readers a personal glimpse into the life of Mahatma Gandhi, helping readers see Gandhi as a grandfather. But it wasn’t until the story became fully Arun’s, a book about his shame over feeling anger and his desire to want to strike back, that the heart of the story was uncovered. As with all emotional truths, it takes time to peel back the layers and discover what is really at the center. Once we tapped into that shame, Arun’s journey from despair to healing was evident. We hope this journey can be felt by readers of all ages and our readers’ own journeys of shame-to-healing can be charted.
Giving up on the book was never an option. It would have meant giving up on myself and giving up on Arun and giving up on the work that Gandhi’s life illuminated. That thought never entered the picture. I am very grateful Arun Gandhi never gave up on me as the source to help him share this time with his grandfather and the lessons he learned while living at Sevagram.
ReaderKidZ: Evan’s illustrations are works of art. How did you respond when you first saw his vision dancing across the page? And what do you think his collaboration brought to this project?
Bethany: I can’t say it enough, our illustrator Evan Turk is a genius. This is Evan’s picture book debut. He did so much to bring the emotional truths in the book to life using his tactile and versatile art style of watercolor, paper collage, gouache, pencil, tea, tin foil and hand spun cotton. He captures the darkness and confusion of anger and the illumination of love and light in a way I never would have dreamed possible.
As I read through the book, on every spread I announce, “This one is my favorite.” When I shared the F&G’s with my family, my then 8 year-old nephew noticed Arun’s shadow in the prayer meeting sequence is jagged and all the others firmly cut. It is this attention to detail and the way his art conveys the emotional truths of a child, and in particular young Arun’s life, that make Evan an illustrator to watch.
How to make a friend? Little Old Lady Hu with her very opinionated cat, Muffins, moves in next door to very grumpy Old Man Fookwire who LOVES his bird friends. The weather is warming. The birds are just beginning to return from their winter’s journey. New neighbor, Muffins, loves to terrify the birds. He also wouldn’t mind nibbling a few. In this hilarious picture book, some new friendships are made; others are not. But nobody gets eaten. This book is a fun romp through the foibles of human behavior, cat behavior, bird and squirrel behavior, and the challenge of creating friendships.
In the end, “Old Man Fookwire never warmed up to his new neighbors. He was a grump, after all. But Little Old Lady Hu became good chums with the birds and squirrels. Each Saturday when the bakery was closed, Old Lady Hu brought all the unsold cakes and pies and cookies home. She set them out on her picnic table, and everyone gathered for a delicious, fun-filled feast.”
But not . . . Muffins, the cat, of course! Some friendships are just not meant to happen. Enjoy sharing this very funny book about the “delicious” and delightful aspects of friendship.
For Older Readers:
NIGHTINGALE’S NEST, written by Nikki Loftin, creates an entirely different type of mood and story about friendship. Based on the Hans Christian Andersen story, “The Nightingale,” Nikki spins an atmosphere of magical realism and adventure, wrong choices and then a fallen hero’s fight to redeem himself and rescue his friend. The unfolding of this story sometimes reminds one of the magical make-believe land in Bridge to Terabithia. In this journey Little John becomes friends with Gayle who is actually a magical nightingale embodied in the physical form of a child – an orphaned, foster child. Gayle’s foster family is downright nasty. In desperation Gayle escapes the foster home and runs away. But she does not run far. She hides in a sort of sheltering “nest” she builds in a tree on a nearby vacant lot. The property is owned by the very mean, very selfish and wealthy Mr. King. Little John and his father are employed by Mr. King as landscapers. When Mr. King hears Gayle’s beautiful, intoxicating singing, he decides he must have it – Gayle’s voice. He orders Little John to trick Gayle into coming to his home. She will be asked to sing and Mr. King will steal her voice. What can Little John do but agree? At what price will he sell friendship and betray his friend?
Nikki Loftin spins captivating “re-told stories” creating images that sing. Her first book, The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy, 2012, was recently released in paperback form. NIGHTINGALE’S NEST, just out in February 2014, has already made the Girl’s Life 2014 Must-Read List.
Mission Statement
To provide teachers, librarians, and parents with the resources and inspiration to foster a love of reading in kids, K-5.
I asked Phyllis (while having coffee and glancing outside at Minnesota’s deep snow still frozen in the way-below freezing temperature), “Why did you write about the prairie?”
Phyllis answered, “ What you don’t know about, you cannot care about. Of the ten or so bio-systems in the Midwest, the prairie is the most endangered. Hardly any real prairie remains.” Phyllis described that while researching and writing about bogs (BIG BELCHING BOG) she discovered another amazing ecosystem – the prairie. She was startled at the diversity of wild grasses, flowers, insects, birds and mammals that thrive in prairies, little ones, big ones, new ones, old ones. In PLANT A POCKET OF PRAIRIE, Phyllis introduces the reader to many of these plants and animals. And then Phyllis added, “I fell in love with the prairie and I hope kids will too!”
Enjoy this new book along with old favorites written by Phyllis Root. I still 
love reading aloud her rambunctious ONE DUCK STUCK. Phyllis explained that even though it is a simple picture book with humor and rhyme, she was careful – as with all her books– with accuracy. All the animals “belong together” in the book’s “eco-system” and setting. Phyllis’ words, rhyme, and rhythm are magical. In BIG MAMA MAKES THE WORLD the down-home creation of the universe sings out with a powerful pleasing voice and story that was honored with many awards including the Boston Globe-Horn Book award.
