*Merry-Go-Round: A Book About Nouns (1990)

*Merry-Go-Round: A Book About Nouns by Ruth Heller (1990) is one in her World of Language series. The text and illustrations make for a masterpiece. Think about it; how would you go about such an open-ended task, both describing and depicting nouns?! Heller chooses wisely by referencing legend, nature, and treasure. And she does so with brightly colored, elaborate pictures that fill her pages, often with close-ups. She transforms this dry topic into a gloriously beautiful exercise of English. “SINGULAR NOUNS are always one—PLURALS two or more. Just add an S when there’s more than one. . . That’s the way it’s usually done. . .” Her illustration for this page shows daffodils, eyes, ears, beetles, bows, roses, ships, sails, cabbages, chrysanthemums, and noses. How, might you ask? As two people wearing elaborate hats! 

In the Snow (1995)

In the Snow by Huy Vodun Lee (1995) is a narrative introduction to the Chinese language. The first page lists  five Mandarin Chinese characters alongside pictorial representations, English translations, and pronunciations. The story is about a mother and child’s walk in a snowy landscape. “The ground is a canvas of white” on which Xiao Ming and her son practice writing. She begins with tree, then doubles this to write forest. Then “three strokes next to the character for forest” creates the word pond. This gentle stroll on a winter day gave me some appreciation for how different the English and Chinese languages are from one another. I wondered what effect language has upon how speakers perceive and think about the world. This is a large book and the illustrations fill every page with wide expanses of snow dotted by trees, children, and wildlife. The jacket flap indicates the pictures are cut paper art. 

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! (2006)

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!  by Lynne Truss (2006) illustrates how different messages delivered depending upon where a comma appears in sentences. On the first page, a librarian asks a panda why it entered the library, ate a sandwich, and shot two arrows into the room. The panda replies, “‘I’m a panda. That’s what it says we do.’” In an introduction, Lynn Truss writes, “Commas can create havoc when they are left out or are put in the wrong spot, and the results of misuse can be hilarious.” Bonnie Timmons illustrates 13 sentences Truss punctuates in different ways. The illustrations are colorful and cartoonish, probably intended to highlight hilarious consequences. “Eat here, and get gas.” Requires a different image than “Eat here and get gas.” Grammatical explanations for the uses of the comma take up two pages at the back of the book. 

Night of the Moonjellies (1992)

Night of the Moonjellies by Mark Shasta (1992) is a true story. It takes place in New London, Connecticut. Most of the story is about a refreshment stand called Mar-Gra’s owned by Shasta’s grandmother and her sister. Marc helps out during a long, busy day at the stand. He is a child, yet so his jobs are filling jars of condiments and straws while grownups prepare hamburger patties, fried clams, and lobster rolls. 

At the end of the day, at the end of the story, Mark and his grandmother “headed out to the dark sea” on friend Tyler’s boat, the Periwinkle. They’re in search of a tiny moonjelly that Mark found on the beach earlier in the day. Tyler knows where the stranded moonjelly belongs. Indeed, “Thousands of moonjellies stretched along the sea in every direction.” In the author’s note at the end of the book, we learn that the scientific name for moonjelly is Ctenophore. “They usually grow no larger than a child’s Riski and in New England are most plentiful in late summer. . . Moonjellies are harmless. They are also bioluminescent, meaning they are able to create light, like fireflies.” 

This book won the Marion VannettRidgway Honor Book Award in 1993. The paintings in this story fill every page with a soft, colorful narrative, appropriately representing the author’s fond memories. 

*Infinity and Me (2012)

*Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford (2012) is one of those daring picture books that tackles a numerical concept. It received a “Notable” book award from the Association for Library Service to Children. Uma is a young girl who looks up at stars in the night sky and wonders how many there are. “Maybe the number was as big as infinity. I started to feel very, very small.” After asking her peers and her grandmother what infinity means, she comes up with some metaphors of her own. Gabri Swiatkowska’s unique illustrations assist Hosford in bringing the idea of infinity down to earth and close to home. This is a brilliant book and reminded me of author/illustrator Mitsumasa Anno. Hosford and Anno invite young readers into the world of numbers. 

*Mr Archimedes’ Bath (1980)

* Mr Archimedes’ Bath by Pamela Allen (1980) is a brilliant book. There’s very little text and it’s in a large font. That’s ok because the pictures tell the story. Mr Archimedes puts “just a little water in the bath, as he always did, and this time he measured the depth.” He’s wondering why water spills out of the tub when he and his animal companions climb in. When they all climb out of the tub, the water level drops. Each animal takes turns not joining the others in the tub, and yet, the water still rises. He finally figures out that they are the ones making the water level rise and fall. “The friends had so much fun that night, jumping in and out, making the water go up and down, that they made more mess than ever before.” This is the Arcimedes’ principle.

The Tower of Life (2022)

 The Tower of Life: how Yaffa Eliach rebuilt her town in stories and photographs by Chana Stiefel (2022) is a true story. At the beginning of the book, we meet Yaffa as a young girl living in a small Jewish town called a shtetl. Life is good. Yaffa’s grandmother is one of the town photographers who took photographic portraits of many residents. “And on the eve of each Jewish New Year, people from all over Eishyshok would mail their treasured photographs to their families around the world with greetings for good health and happiness.” Then the German tanks and motorcycles arrived. Yaffa and her family escaped. Eventually, she married and moved to America where President Jimmy Carter asked her to help build a memorial for the Holocaust. Yaffa traveled the world searching for photographs of the former residents of her town. At back of the book is an illustration of Yaffa’s “Tower of Life “ in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum with references. Susan Gal’s illustrations present Yaffa’s story in somber colors that capture the seriousness of history. 

Patrick Gets Hearing AIDS (1994)

 Patrick Gets Hearing Aids by Maureen Cassidy Riski and Nikolas Klakow (1994) looks to be a self-published book. There is no ISBN. Riski dedicates the story to her brother, Patrick, who is hearing impaired. Her brother inspired Riski to become a pediatric audiologist. All the characters in this book are animals. Patrick is a rabbit. He doesn’t play with friends because he doesn’t understand what they are saying. He listens to the television at a very high volume. After getting a hearing test, he gets hearing aids and his life improves dramatically . He’s amazed by all the sounds in his environment. “Patrick was surprised at the songs coming from the birds! And the noisy cars! There was so much to hear." The colorful illustrations mimic the text. They do the job of illustrating life before, during, and after hearing testing. 

Mapping Sam (2021)

 Mapping Sam by Joyce Hesselberth (2021) at first glance looks like a book Sam the cat's night time  travels. And it is, partially. It's really about maps. It's a narrative introduction to many kinds of maps. After Sam's family is asleep, this tabby slips out the back door. We see her leap over a fence, trot through grass, roll across a yard, and climb her favorite tree. Turn the page and we see a top-down diagram of where's she's been, a map complete with compass and scale. Turn the page and there's a two-page spread of Sam's skeleton and internal organs, a map of Sam. Sam doesn't just smell a flower; this flower is labeled: stamen, petal, pistil, and so on--a map of the plant. The illustrations continue this theme to measure the depth of water, a water molecule, the earth, solar system, and so on. The illustrations contrast Sam's bright orange coat against shades of blue and green and fill every square inch of the pages. The final page has a glossary featuring thumbnails and descriptions of each map in the story. 

*Frank and Lucky Get Schooled (2016)

 Frank and Lucky get Schooled by Lynne Rae Perkins (2016) surprised me with its educational content. The story begins when Frank adopts a happy canine companion named Lucky. "Lucky could always help Frank with his homework, because Luck did a lot of learning on his own. For example, Lucky was very interested in Science." After Lucky wonders about ducks and so goes swimming, wonders about squirrels and deer and bees and porcupines, and rain, and mud. . .Frank learns bout Botany. Frank leans about the burdock and dog ticks that cling to Lucky's fur. Frank learns about Chemistry when experiments with products that will wash  skunk smell out of Lucky's fur. Here's a math puzzle: "Let's say a dog comes in from outside and gets one bisuit, but therea re three people in the living room. How many more biscuits should the dog receive?" This is such a fun book. And then Perkins ties up all her lessons into a brilliant bow at the end. 

Letting Swift River Go (1992)

Letting Swift River Go (1992) is another of Jane Yolen’s superbly crafted stories. It begins with an author’s note, “The Quabbin Reservoir is near my house.” Thus begins a very personal recollection of childhood by a now grown-up Sally Jane. She felt safe in her valley town. She walked to school, fished the Swift River, picnicked in the graveyard, and slept outside with her friends. Then “everything began to change.” Boston voted to “drown our towns that the people in the city might drink.” Barbara Cooney’s illustrations contrast the beautiful landscape of the Swift River Valley prior to its destruction with the vast barrenness required to create a reservoir. She finishes with the immense body of water that covered the towns of Dana, Enfield, Prescott, and Greenwich. As an adult, Sally Jane looks back and recalls her mother’s words, when a city girl visited with mason jars to capture fireflies. My resource focuses on the people who lived in the valley, not the construction of the Winsor Dam and Goodnough Dike. This story is read aloud online by Denver DiMarzio. 

My Picture Book Talk resource for this story is here.