Picturebooks Non-Fiction

Who knew a seed could be so interesting and beautiful? Aston describes where seeds come from, their purpose, and how they get from one place to another. She describes different types of seeds and the different parts of a seed. What makes her descriptions so unique is that she writes about seeds as if they were baby animals or children. She personifies them, as the title indicates. She also describes seeds as being “naked,” “adventurous,” “inventive,” and “generous.” By using these adjectives she creates curiosity in the reader. How could a seed be adventurous?! Also, it’s true that people care about things they can relate to, so by personifying seeds, Aston gets the reader to care about her subject.

Long illustrations done in watercolor and ink are amazing. Sylvia Long magnifies the seeds and plants so you can see all the little details we usually miss when we look at something so small. Three words: big, beautiful, bold.

I’d also like to acknowledge the calligraphy by Anne Robin. I remember doing calligraphy (or trying to in ninth grade art class). Not easy. Calligraphy is an art in itself, and Robin’s is lovely.

Marie Soriano

In lyrical, brilliant rhymed couplets, Baer describes how and why we use words, how we play with words, and even how we enjoy words. She describes the amazing power of words to soothe and the power of words to hurt. Baer subtly warns readers to be careful about how they use words because words have the power to hurt others even when we don’t mean them to. Baer’s writing is perfect. None of the rhymes are forced, and neither is the moral lesson to watch what we say. Kyra Teis’s illustrations are realistic portraits, beautifully rendered. Each picture is a combination of portrait and colorful collage, which creates texture and a lot of movement. In addition, Teis’s has painted a variety of ethnic faces. Together, Baer’s words and Teis’s artwork make a lovely book.

Marie Soriano

In this lovely, powerful book about dealing as a child with illness and hospitalization, Bolthouse draws on her own experience. A healthy child, suddenly Henrietta finds herself in the big, unfamiliar hospital for an extended stay. There she experiences loneliness, but a nurse named Latisha says just the right things to enable her to use her imagination to get through the night. In warm prose, Bolthouse shows Henrietta not only using her imagination to think up enjoyable ways to pass the time, but depicts the young girl showing others in the hospital how to do the same. Henrietta even imagines with her doctor. This is a fine book for families dealing with similar problems, ones which are inherently difficult because they involve pain and suffering in the very young. It’s important to have books like these that not only help children but also their families.

A. Allison

Everybody loves Dolley Madison. She is beautiful, throws the most lavish parties, and her husband is James Madison: Fourth President of the United States of America. When war between Britain and America breaks out, however, and the President’s mansion is threatened, the soldiers left to guard the edifice flee, leaving Dolley behind with a difficult decision to follow suit, or to do something courageous. In a decisive moment, she rescues important government papers and oversees the removal and rescue of George Washington’s portrait—the Gilbert Stuart rendition that now hangs proudly in the White House in Washington D.C.

Though the climactic moment of rescue occurs midway through the text, the book reveals the struggles Dolley undergoes in her flight from the burning city of Washington including the spite of other women who blame her husband for the war. Brown completes the story with an author’s note on Dolley’s life and death, as well as an insight into the artist Gilbert Stuart. A bibliography is also added as a reference for moments where direct quotations are used in the narrative.

Depicted in pen and ink and watercolor, Don Brown chooses to depict Washington’s portrait with clarity of detail that contrasts the simplistic washes and muted palette of his other illustrations. Often, color is employed to create the ambiance of the particular environment or to reflect the vibrancy of character as Dolley stands in a scarlet dress to everyone else’s hue of brown.

Although the volume of text is larger than most picture books—possibly requiring an older reader to help—there are wonderful moments by which children may understand and learn about the history of America and the people who made it.

Ellen Nef

Each page of this book features wordplay with adjectives. Clearly defines adjectives, gives examples of them, and explains why we use them. The way he uses silly examples is entertaining and reminiscent of Dr. Seuss.

The illustrations work with the text wonderfully to demonstrate how adjectives function. Gable’s illustrations are zany and comical, featuring anthropomorphic animals in human dress and situations, for example, some wearing glasses, some wearing tuxedoes, some dressed like clowns, and some ice skating, etc. You get the picture. Pun not intended.

Gable’s pictures are not just comical as in funny, but also in the funny pages sort of way. The lines seem quickly drawn and a bit squiggly. He doesn’t use straight, hard lines. The colors are not color coordinated. He uses a combination of pastels and bright colors to make pictures that are not necessarily pretty, but are interesting to look at.

Marie Soriano

The $16.99 is worth it just for the photo on the back: Owen (a young hippopotamus) and Mzee (a 130-year old tortoise) are nestled asleep together like the trusting, lifelong, if highly improbable, soul-mates they are. They live in Haller Park, a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya. River floods, then a tsunami wiped out Owen’s family. When rescued, he couldn’t be put with the resident hippos at Haller Park, because the pods don’t take kindly to strangers.. Poor Owen! His fortunes change, though, when he’s put in an enclosure in which Mzee lives. Mzee is a big, old reptile, but somehow Owen becomes his child. The park personnel are amazed: “They often see Owen licking Mzee’s face, or Mzee resting his head on Owen’s broad belly. They seem happiest when they are together.” The young mammal and the old tortoise seem even to have created their own language. The photographs of the two animals are treasures, unforgettable. This is a fine sequel to the first Owen and Mzee book and, like that one, we highly recommend it.

A. Allison

This book is a celebration of Black girls and their hair, their hair in dread locks, in power puff afro glory, in its many textures and ways it’s styled. Dinah Johnson has written a life-affirming lyrical poem to honor Black hair, and photographer Kelly Johnson (no relation) has taken some of the most beautiful pictures of children I have ever seen.

Hair Dance! is a celebration of diversity and a fantastic book to read aloud to your kids. It might also be a pretty gift for the Black girl/s in your life.

Marie Soriano

Chronicle Book’s new Explorers series is an outstanding venture combining exciting topics, excellent content, and fine art. The series includes Animals Darwin Saw, Animals Christopher Columbus Saw, and Animals Robert Scott Saw.

Marco Polo’s story is of special interest to young readers, since he was very young when he set out from Venice with his merchant father and uncle on their long journey on the Silk Road, winding up years later at the palace of the great Kublai Khan in Cathay. The book mostly details the Polos’ second trip to China that began when Marco was 17. They stopped in Jerusalem, passed Mt. Ararat, were attacked by marauders in Persia, and joined a caravan to travel the Silk Road again. Along the way, Polo saw cultures and creatures he never heard of, described and illustrated at the bottom of the page. After crossing the Gobi and Taklimakan Deserts and the Mongolian Steppes, the Polos reached Kublai Khan’s Palace where they stayed for 17 years. His travels were recorded when he returned to Venice and circulated around Europe, stimulating more trade and adding to knowledge of the world.

Both text and illustrations are outstanding in this book; maps and a list of additional sources make this a fine book for classrooms and for the budding historian/geographer/student of cultures.

A. Allison

Economically, both vocabulary books use the same cheerful, watercolor illustrations and format of a large general scene, such as House or Living Room, with little picture panels at the bottom with more items and additional Hebrew (Hebrew letters and phonetics) and English words. With 150 words each and an inviting look, both books get youngsters off to good linguistic starts and stretch their young minds.

A. Allison

Samantha’s parents warn her that she’ll be sorry if she hits her brother, but she worries that she’ll be sorry if she doesn’t. And so she does (Smack. Waaaaaah!) What Samantha doesn’t reckon on however, are the amazing consequences that unfold as her little brother cries, and cries, and cries some more.

Schneider uses a primary palette of green hues which work well with the watery action, and the watercolor illustrations are full of humorous details that will delight children. Particularly engaging are the portraits on the wall that watch, and react to, the drama unfolding before them; one spread revealing a framed picture floating on water, and holding up an S.O.S sign as the water level climbs the stairs.

Characters here are represented as mice, and though the result of Samantha’s violence is somewhat fantastical, the message behind the humor is an important one. Once Samantha has apologized, she still feels she wants to now pinch her brother, but she has learned, from experience, the disastrous fallout of her violent urges. This book is a great tool in teaching children the consequence of their actions—especially for families in which hitting has become an issue.

Ellen Nef

The Girl’s Like Spaghetti is a picture book based on Truss’ adult book about grammar and punctuation. This fun, silly book helps readers (and writers!) understand that punctuation creates meaning in writing, and it is important.

In a short introduction Truss explains how and why the apostrophe is used. That is followed by pictures and sentences with and without apostrophes to show readers how an apostrophe and its placement can change the meaning of a sentence. For example, on one page below a picture the sentence reads, “Those smelly things are my brother’s” (Truss). The opposite page reads, “Those smelly things are my brothers” with a different picture to fit its meaning. In addition, at the back of the book are miniatures of the original illustrations and beside each is a detailed explanation for why the meanings change according to apostrophe placement.

So many people, both children and adults, learn visually. Bonnie Timmons’ cartoonish illustrations, as comic and zany as they are, both clarify and illustrate the ways we use apostrophes. They make learning grammar fun and demystify it. Even some adults are afraid to use, teach and learn grammar. This book is perfect for teaching readers that there is nothing to be afraid of.

Marie Soriano

Dan Yaccarino has written a lovely biography that honors the great oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. He describes Cousteau’s childhood and how Cousteau became interested in studying the ocean and its creatures. He also describes Cousteau’s accomplishments as a filmmaker. Did you know that Cousteau was the first person to make “the first full-length, full-color underwater film”? In the twenty-first century this accomplishment may not seem like such a big deal anymore, but he was like the George Lucas or Steven Spielberg of his generation.

Yaccarino’s book introduces the reader to both the wonder of the ocean and the wonder of what we can accomplish when we truly love our field of study or work. Maudlin? Perhaps. Some readers just might find it inspiring. Naturally, there is a conservationist message, but it’s not in-your-face or preachy but subtle. The conservation message is almost a by-product of learning about Cousteau’s love of the sea. He loved the ocean and therefore wanted to protect it.

Although it would have been neat to use stills from Cousteau’s films and real photos, Yaccarino’s illustrations are gorgeous. He uses bright colors and pastels as well as flowing lines to create bold, vivid pictures that take up the whole page, if not two pages, so the reader feels as though s/he too is underwater with Cousteau.

Marie Soriano

Shannon Zemlicka has smartly combined learning about color and learning about Chinese culture. Each chapter features a color, and a discussion of the color leads into historical and cultural information. For example, the author makes the connection between the color green and the green fields of rice plants. Zemlicka covers ten colors: green, red, tan, blue, orange, white, gold, brown, black, and yellow.

I like this book; I like that Zemlicka celebrates Chinese culture and yet deftly critiques Chinese politics at the same time. For the color yellow, for instance, she describes the Clear Brightness Festival that honors the dead, and she discusses the importance of family in Chinese culture—and the government’s influence:

“Family life has been important in China for thousands of years. Like other parts of Chinese life, it has changed under Communist rule. Before Communism, grandparents, parents, and children often shared a single home. Modern Chinese families must fit into small apartments that the government assigns” (22). Zemlicka isn’t necessarily critiquing communism itself, but she is bringing China’s government into focus for scrutiny. For the color gold, she dares to touch on the issue of Tibet and China’s invasion of the country (17). Needless to say, this is probably the kind of book that China would ban or censor.

Parents and teachers could use this book as a resource to teach children about world cultures and politics. I can see this book being used by grade school teachers, perhaps for 4th or 5th grade, for a social studies lesson and perhaps to start a discussion about loving one’s nation and needing to critique it in order to make it better. Too bad there isn’t yet a Colors of the United States book.

Of course, Colors of China wouldn’t be as good as it is without the illustrations by Janice Lee Porter. For each picture she uses watercolors and rounded, flowing lines. She mixes and layers the paints, creating depth and movement.

Other Colors of the World books include Australia, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Russia, and the Navajo.

Marie Soriano