Hedgehog is frazzled. He’s running late and he doesn’t like it one bit. In mid-grumble, he spots something on the ground. It is not an acorn or anything else he’d expect to find on his way to meet his friends in the meadow. It’s a letter:
“Friend,
You are a joy, a light,
a secret hope,
a safe goodnight…
a face that shines just for me.
When you go,
I miss you so.
Don’t you know
I love you?”
Hedgehog feels oddly… cheerful. Such a delightful surprise. A love letter, just for him!
Bunny notices the change right away. When she beats Hedgehog at leap log, he cheers her on. When she wants a friend to walk her home, he’s more than happy to oblige.
“She wasn’t in the habit of hugging Hedgehog, but today she gave him her best bunny squeeze.”
On her way home, Bunny, too, finds a love letter. It leaves her feeling oddly… helpful.
Soon after, Squirrel discovers a love letter! “Bunny loves me,” he says, feeling all at once … carefree.
THE LOVE LETTER by Anika Aldamuy Denise, illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins is a tender story of best friends, crossed paths, and a mysterious love letter that is sure to delight young readers and make the perfect gift for those you love at Valentine’s or any other time of year.
I’m currently teaching a class on picture books and one of the many things I love are the new books students bring to my attention. I’ve read and enjoyed other Chris Haughton books – Shhh! We Have a Plan and Oh, No George! – but I hadn’t seen his most recent – WELL DONE, MOMMY PENGUIN until a student included it on her reading list.
The concept of the book is simple: Little Penguin and Daddy Penguin are waiting for Mommy’s return.
Mommy slides down the snowy hill into the water:
“Oh! Where is Mommy going?” says Little Penguin.
I think she’s going to get dinner,” says Daddy Penguin.
“Come, let’s take a look. Maybe we can see her. “
Mommy joins the other penguins trying to catch fish.
swoosh
swish
swoosh
Little Penguin and Daddy see Mommy. She waves from the water!
As Mommy makes her way back to her family, she needs to be careful of the icy hill. And, there’s another dangerous challenge… a group of large seals are sleeping between the water and home. The tension mounts as readers see Mommy Penguin fall, fall, fall “all the way back into the sea!”
What will she do?
Pitch perfect dialogue reveals a sweet and tender relationship between Little Penguin and his mommy. I loved this book, and admire the way Houghton successfully pares down the text and illustrations to their most essential elements, while also managing to convey the deep bond between a mother and her child.
The night is dark, the moon is high, and everyone in the fire station is sound asleep until…
“…jingly-jang, the telephone rang. “
“Hello? Hello? It’s Firefighter Flo.”
In seconds the crew is up! STOMP! STOMP! On go the turnout suits and heavy boots. CLANG! CLANG! goes the bell. WOOOOOOOO! The siren whines as the whole team rallies to put out the fire. Even the station’s trusty Dalmatian barks a call for help. Flo rescues a trapped pup and everyone offers their thanks to the crew for a job well done.
Told in rollicking rhyme, FIREFIGHTER FLO! by Andrea Zimmerman, boldly illustrated by Dan Yaccarino in bright eye-catching colors is sure to delight young toddlers and preschoolers as their world of home and family grows to include their neighborhood and the community helpers who help to keep them safe.
Mrs. Badger has seen many things in her life. She knows which mushrooms are delicious in ragout, and which are poisonous. And when she happens upon a friend in need, she “helps the best she can…”
Each Sunday Mrs. Badger travels up the mountain. Along the way, she stops to say hello to Frederic, her friend the white-throated sparrow, she picks treats for her friend Alexander, she helps Turtle right himself before continuing on her way.
“Every Sunday is the same.” Or… almost. One day, as she makes her way up the mountain path, Mrs. Badger has the feeling someone is watching her! When she stops to have a snack, she invites the “someone” to sit down with her. “There’s enough for both of us, if you’re hungry,” she says.
“Is it true that you have climbed to the top of the mountain?” she asks Mrs. Badger.
“Yes, it’s called Sugarloaf Peak.”
“I’d like to go up there too,” says Lulu.
With warm, welcoming words, Mrs. Badger invites Lulu to join her. When Lulu remains uncertain, Mrs. Badger continues on her way. But it isn’t long before Lulu finds her courage and joins Mrs. Badger on the path to Sugarloaf Peak.
Lulu asks a lot of questions! Mrs. Badger is quick to answer, all the while teaching Lulu to pay attention to the beauty and creatures that surround them.
Originally published in French, UP THE MOUNTAIN PATH, written and illustrated by Marianne Dubuc is a story of emerging friendship, but it is more. A quiet, thoughtful book about kindness, mindful attention, and the ways in which the seeds of friendship grow.
In the tender story, WALKING GRANDMA HOME by Nancy Bo Flood, a young boy named Lee learns that his elderly grandmother is dying. “Little Lee,” she says, “I’m going away soon, going home.” Lee wonders – Isn’t Grandma already home? Just last summer at a family wedding, he had helped her “walk down the long aisle” as his cousin, Maria, “skipped and twirled” tossing rose petals. But since then, things have changed. Grandma has had a stroke and is not the same. Lee knows it’s serious. “Even lots of Band-Aids won’t help.”
As the time draws near, and the extended family gathers, Uncle Tony does not shy away from the truth: “Today, we are all here to say good-bye. Grandma is dying.” Lee is quiet and sad: “I don’t want to say that kind of good-bye.”
Flood’s sensitive text, warmly illustrated by Ellen Shi, provides a truly beautiful way for children to process emotions, talk through questions, and move through the grieving process alongside a caring adult, all while remembering and honoring the loved one’s life.
I’m so glad Nancy agreed to answer a few questions about her process in writing this book and for sharing how her personal experiences with loss led her to write a book that is a gift to parents, caregivers, and counselors who are looking for a way to help a child process the myriad emotions that accompany grief in a healthy way.
Dianne: Most of the stories we write begin with a small seed of an idea. Walking Grandma Home is a book you’ve wanted to write for some time, the idea rooted in your personal experiences with grief, both as a child, and as an adult. Finding the right way to tell such a story – and from the perspective of a young child – is not easy. Can you share briefly the decisions you made as you began to explore the story you wanted to tell?
Nancy: After several attempts to figure out how to begin, I realized that this story needed to begin with family and begin with “normal” and celebration. A wedding is a time of family and celebration. It also reflects the sense of cycles of life. I also wanted to show how the child is part of each cycle (helping Grandma walk down the aisle, helping with her cane), to show not only the emotional connection but in specific ways, how is the child helpful? How can children show their love and concern? And then, what are the child’s questions and how does family help the journey of understanding what is happening (asking Uncle Tony the questions many children want to ask but often are afraid to ask). Throughout the story, the child in different ways and with different family members, continues to be part of the journey, especially giving grandma her shawl (in case she is a little bit scared). Often a child wants to give the person who is ill, a favorite stuffed animal, book, or toy – a Lego figure he made, a card he decorated. Being allowed to show love and caring is an important way children can feel included and also can express feelings which reinforces a sense of connection.
I chose first person because I felt that this was every child’s story – including grown-ups as they remember past losses. I hope this encourages the reader to feel like these are their questions and in this book it is okay to ask, to challenge, to wonder. Death is a mystery. No one has all the answers and we all have questions.
Dianne: The title WALKING GRANDMA HOME is powerful. Both in the imagery and the comfort it offers as a way to think of death as a walk home. Was that a phrase in your head right from the beginning, or did it come later, as you worked on telling the story?
Nancy: “Walking Grandma Home”was the first phrase the echoed in my head when I began writing this book. As my mother was dying, it was her phrase – almost. Her last year of life she often said to me, “My work is done. My bags are packed. I’m waiting for the bus.” During her last week of life with all her children present, she repeatedly said, with such a positive sense of ready: “I’m going home, I’m going home.” Since then, I was told by several Hospice volunteers that they often hear this phrase. I was surprised to discover that those words are also spoken in other places, by people of other cultures.
Dianne: Writing for a young audience about a difficult topic is no easy task. And yet you have seamlessly woven a gentle and soothing story that opens space for conversations around grief and the loss of a loved one. At the end of the book, you provide some questions and activities that parents, caregivers, and counselors can use to approach the grieving process in child-appropriate ways.
For those readers who have not yet had a chance to pick up a copy of the book, can you offer a few tips to help parents who are currently navigating the waters of grief with their child or a young loved one (or who recognize they will be, at some time in the near future)?
Nancy:The unknown, the silence, is far more scary to a child than what is explained, what is the truth. If adults won’t talk about “something,” that “something” must be too awful to even name. Then a child imagines the worst.
Invite. Include. Don’t leave the child out. Don’t leave the child on the other side of the closed door, alone and wondering, hearing the whispering. Allow space for questions. Model with your own questions.
Be honest. Don’t pretend everything is okay. A child knows everything is not okay.
Be patient. Grieving comes with many different emotions – anger, fear, guilt, sadness, loneliness, and silence. Emotions are shown in many different ways – isolating oneself, striking out, misbehaving, being silly, denial, regression — do keep reasonable “boundaries of behavior.” Children also want to know that adults are still in charge, still holding their world together. Listen and reassure that time offers healing. Grieving is a journey that takes time. The sadness and pain gradually diminishes; the joy of remembering increases. Laughter shared is healing. Sharing memories and stories help us all, old and young.
Dianne: Thank you, Nancy, for writing a book that I know many will want to turn to if they have young ones in their lives who have experienced loss.
Once a year, during the month of December, librarian and School Library Journal blogger Betsy Bird publishes a set of posts she calls, “31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022”. Many books on the list are picture books, both fiction and nonfiction, but she also devotes a post to favorite board books, middle grade, audio books, poetry, and even, picture books in translation.
As an author myself, I do my best to stay up on the newest books in the kidlit world, but often, the newer books don’t arrive at my library for months, and sometimes, it takes multiple mentions of a book for me to finally add it to my holds.
Betsy Bird’s December post about Nonfiction Picture Books sent me back to the library with a long list of new titles I wanted to read, and one of those was GOOD EATING: The Short Life of Krill by Matt Lilley, illustrated by Dan Tavis. I’d been hearing about this book since it came out this time last year, but this was my first time reading it, and I can’t say enough good things. We all know that krill are “good eating” for many ocean animals, including the largest on earth, blue whales, but I, for one, had no idea that krill led such fascinating lives.
The story, told in an engaing apostrophe voice (the story’s narrator speaks directly to the krill), begins:
If only I’d had this picture book when I was a classroom teacher! Most kids learn that krill eat plankton and are very small animals that look something like tiny shrimp. But that’s about where it ends. GOOD EATING will fill in the gaps with fascinating details about the life cycle of krill and would be an excellent addition to an animal, life cycle, or ocean unit.
***
For more information, check out these links from the author’s website: Teacher’s Guide and a Coloring Sheet with art from the book
It’s here! My newest book, DARK on LIGHT is out in the world! A companion to the other “color on color” books I’ve published with Beach Lane/S&S (BLUE on BLUE and GREEN on GREEN), DARK on LIGHT is a picture book about that gorgeous space of time between dusk and dawn.
I’m especially proud of these books because, for me, one of the most exciting parts of the picture book process is seeing the way an illustrator expands my words. This has been especially true for these “color on color” books. The text of each of the three infers kids play a key role in the story, but the characters are not named or described in any way. Hints about the setting are included in the text, but there’s plenty of room left for the illustrator to imagine and interpret the setting in any way she likes.
Who are the people in the story?
Where do they live?
Why are they on a walk through a garden and beyond?
What will they discover?
These are the kinds of questions an illustrator asks herself as she begins to consider the work. (As a side note, I remember reading this interview with illustrator Beth Krommes shortly before my first book, Blue on Blue, came out. It was fascinating to learn that Beth wrote six pages of notes as she considered the various ways she could approach the illustrations.)
Most readers are unaware that much of the illustration process happens outside the author’s reach. Starting with initial sketches, the editor and illustrator work through several revisions as the above and similar story questions are answered. It’s this magical collaboration between editor, illustrator, and art director that make the book so much more than words alone – a marriage of images and text, words and sound, all working together to create a narrative experience that is more than the sum of its parts.
Isn’t this illustration by Felicita Sala, simply stunning?
Listen to this “Meet the Author” audio recording with Teaching Books for more of the back story behind the book, as well as a short introduction to the beginning of the story
