take note

Erin Stead's second book was recently released.  I love her illustrations.  Even my husband, who does not like picture books all that much, thinks she's good.  Jules, over at 7-imp had another great interview with her last week about this book and another that she has been working on with her husband.

Stories From the Bible

During the season of Lent, I'll be focusing on religiously-themed books like Stories From the Bible retold by Alvin Tresselt (author of Roger Duvoisin's Caldecott award winner White Snow, Bright Snow and Caldecott honor Hide and Seek Fog) with lithographs by Lynd Ward (known for his Caldecott award winner, The Biggest Bear and Hildegarde H. Swift's fantastic The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge)

This book is full of beautifully rendered lithographs of:

The Twenty-Fourth Psalm

Noah

Abraham

Isaac

Joseph and His Brothers

Moses

The Ten Commandments

Samson

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

Ruth and Naomi

Daniel

Esther

David and Goliath

The Hundreth Psalm

 

I will focus my attention on the images of Moses since the Old Testament readings for the first 4 weeks of Lent come from Exodus.  "Israel’s exodus from Egypt to the Holy Land [is a] model of the Christian journey out of sin into the Kingdom of Heaven" (about.com)

Poetry Friday: The Naughty Boy

We've been reading our books about snow, one of our favorites being The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (see my previous post here; Katie recently posted images from her book at The Marlowe Bookshelf here.)  Since I've been looking at Ezra Jack Keats illustrations, I noticed this little book that is also illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats "in two-color collage":  The Naughty Boy, a poem by John Keats.

There was a naughty Boy,

A naughty boy was he,

He would not stop at home,
He could not quiet be--

(read the complete poem on-line here).

Some of these, along with a few more images are included in this Vintage Childrens Books flickr set.

Do You Know What I'll Do?

Do You Know What I'll Do? by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrated by Garth Williams is a sweet book showing the love between siblings.  I am interested to see how this page about Charlotte Zolotow's book turns out, comparing the newly illustrated version of this story to the classic Garth Williams illustrations.  Burgin reviewed this book, here.  I just wanted to add a few more of the lovely images from this out-of-print edition as we celebrate the gift of love on Saint Valentine's Day.

One day a little girl said to her little brother...

I'll bring you my baby to hug.  Like this.

Poetry Friday: A Children's Book Of Verse

We were watching Anne of Green Gables last weekend and when Anne recited (part of) The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes, I had to pull out A Children's Book of Verse illustrated by Eric Kincaid to show the full poem to my husband.   As I paged through this collection, I noticed a longer version of The North Wind Doth Blow than I shared last week and I couldn't find it on-line, so here it is:

The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the robin do then, poor thing?
   He'll sit in a barn,
   And keep himself warm,
And hide his head under his wing, poor thing!

The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the swallow do then, poor thing?
   Oh, do you not know
   That he's off long ago,
To a country where he will find spring, poor thing!

The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the dormouse do then, poor thing?
   Roll'd up like a ball,
   In his nest snug and small,
He'll sleep till warm weather comes in, poor thing!

The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the honey-bee do then, poor thing?
   In his hive he will stay
   Till the cold is away
And then he'll come out in the spring, poor thing!

The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the children do then, poor things?
   When lessons are done,
   They must skip, jump and run,
Until they have made themselves warm, poor things!

I found another poem about The Robin by Thomas Hardy along with many other wintry poems like Jack Frost by Cecily Pike, Winter the Hunstman by Osbert Sitwell, Jack Frost by Gabriel Setoun, The Eskimo Baby by Lucy Diamond and The Kitten in the Falling Snow by James Kirkup.

This is definitely a collection for slightly older children with many longer and more difficult poems by Tennyson, Longfellow, Wordsworth, Keats, Blake, and Coleridge along with nonsense poems by Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll.  There are also verses by  poets that I've seen in collections for younger children: Robert L. Stevenson, Eleanor Farjeon, and Christina Rossetti; and others that seem to fall somewhere between by Walter de la Mare, Eugene Field and Kenneth Grahame (from The Wind in the Willows - Eric Kincaid illustrated that too - I must update this post with some images). 

pretty end pages

Eric Kincaid also illustrated Tales of Magic and Make-Believe, which I wrote about here.  A lot of his fairies and giants and other creatures in this collection of poetry remind me those that he illustrated in that book, but in much softer colors, here.

back cover (The Dustman)

The BIG SNOW

Much to the children's delight, we finally had another big snow (though you won't hear me complaining about the warm weather we've been enjoying this winter).  We got about 6 inches of snow early in December, but with only and inch and a half of snow in January, the kids have been praying for more.  As the snow began to fall on Friday evening, we read the 1958 Caldecott Award winner, The BIG SNOWby Berta and Elmer Hader (what a lovely couple) along with some other winter favorites including, Katy and the Big Snowby Virginia Lee Burton (post updated with some images here).
 

In The BIG SNOW, "Mrs. Cottontail and the littlest rabbit" observe the wild geese flying south and we learn that winter is on it's way.  As the story continues we meet other animals who live on the big hill and learn how they are preparing for the cold winter months. 

The illustrations alternate between soft watercolors and detailed drawings of the animals on the hill.  When the BIG SNOW comes, there are animals who are safe and warm in their dens with their stores of food while the others begin to search for food in vain as the snow has covered the sources on which they rely.

When we woke up to almost 6 inches of snow covering everything (with more falling throughout the day for an official storm total of 9 inches), my girls got right outside to clear the snow off of the bird feeders and fill the bird bath with fresh water, like the little old woman and the little old man did in The BIG SNOW.  This is a lovely lesson in natural history with an example of kindness and beautiful pictures!

NOTE:  The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up February 17th-20th.  Here's my post from last year.  

Poetry Friday - poor little robin

It is raining now, and a lot of snow is on the way so I have been thinking of this verse from Mother Goose:

The kids are looking forward to the Snow and I will be feeding the birds like the child in this lesser known Mother Goose rhyme as well as the little old lady and the little old man in Berta and Elmer Hader's 1949 Caldecott winner The Big Snow (which is a beautiful book that I finally have a copy of and just might have to find some time to post about next week).

From Mother Goose: The Original Volland Edition; Arranged and Edited by Eulalie Osgood Grover, Illustrated by Frederick Richardson.  It is a lovely edition to have.  You can see more of it on-line here.