Small Reads for Brighters Days
What Can a Crane Pick Up? by Rebecca Kai Dotlich ill by Mike Lowery Knopf, 2012 Rebecca Kai Dotlich is one of my favorite children’s poets! When Riddles Come Rumbling, Sweet Dreams of the Wild, and In the Spin of Things are a few of my favorites of hers. And recently, Bella and Bean, a […]
Thank you to everyone who took a guess at what animal will be featured on the cover of Water Can Be… when it publishes next year. There were so many good guesses–I especially love the idea of an elephant shower–is it too late for me to put that in the book? But the correct answer […]
I usually share single poems from collections here, but today I want to share a bit of Think Big!, Liz Garton Scanlon’s latest beautiful picture book (Bloomsbury, 2012). This is a fantastic celebration of all forms of creativity, told in terse verse. The art shows kids preparing for a school production, and the text names […]
I usually share stand-alone poems on Poetry Friday, but this week, I’m featuring a rhyming picture book called What’s Looking At You Kid?(Sleeping Bear Press, 2012). J. Patrick Lewis has a new take on riddles, one of his favorite forms, judging by Spot the Plot and Edgar Allan Poe’s Pie. This delightful picture book features […]
The House (Creative Editions, 2009) is a gorgeous poem/picture book by J. Patrick Lewis, stunningly illustrated by Roberto Innocenti (love that name). The house, built in 1656, is the main character of this story. The rhyming (but definitely not silly) poem tells the story of what the house experiences in the 20th century–alternating between one […]
OK, usually my One Book I Love posts are just a cover and a brief excerpt of a book I love (no surprise there!). But today, I have a special treat. You get not only some excerpts of a wonderful book but also an interview with the author, the fabulously creative Heidi Bee Roemer. I […]
I’ve been reading and rereading books by the other participants in the Poetry Blast (an upcoming event at ALA Chicago), and one new book I love is I’m Your Bus, by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Evan Polenghi. What a fun book! The narrating school bus has such a great voice, like a teacher who’s always bustling around […]
Nonfiction poetry has come up several times on the NFforKids Yahoo group that I’m on. And Cave, by Diane Siebert (illustrated by Wayne McLoughlin), is the closest thing I’ve seen to true nonfiction poetry (thank you, Elaine of Wild Rose Reader, for recommending Siebert’s books to me). Cave is a single, lengthy poem written […]
