MY LEAF BOOK

Name: MY LEAF BOOK
Author: Monica Wellington
ISBN: 978-0-8037-4141-6

by Monica Wellington ; illustrated by Monica Wellington ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2015

While its true usefulness as an identification guide may be questionable, there’s no doubt it will capture children’s...

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Wellington turns a leaf-identification book into a visual display of fall color and shape.

Readers learn along with a young redheaded girl as she visits an arboretum to collect leaves for her own leaf book. Alternating double-page spreads show each tree in the arboretum and the girl cataloging the leaves and sometimes doing something with them—leaf rubbings, drawing pictures, adding the leaves to her book. Readers are treated to a look at what she’s written in her book, and small fact boxes give further information about the leaf, its tree, and how to identify it, including some vocabulary—“simple,” “compound,” “leaflet.” The pictures are the real draw, however. Done with gouache, watercolor, and collages of rubbings, prints, and photocopies, they are a mix of realistic and whimsical. The illustrations of the full trees break down both the tree and its leaves into basic geometric shapes. Trees are represented as rounded, often circular or oval masses of leaves on skinny, rectangular trunks. Gingko leaves are triangles, sweet gum leaves are stars, and there are other familiar shapes as well; these patterns are writ small in the leaves and large in shapes that take up most of the trees’ canopies.

While its true usefulness as an identification guide may be questionable, there’s no doubt it will capture children’s attention and hopefully have them searching for their own specimens and creating leaf books of their own. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-8037-4141-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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EGGS FROM RED HEN FARM
by Monica Wellington ; illustrated by Monica Wellington

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DEAR BALLERINA
by Monica Wellington ; illustrated by Monica Wellington

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COLORS FOR ZENA
by Monica Wellington ; illustrated by Monica Wellington

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THE WATER PRINCESS

by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2016

Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...

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An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.

Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.

Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
ARE YOU LISTENING?
by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Juliana Perdomo

- BOOK REVIEW
WHO I AM
by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds

- BOOK REVIEW
CAN YOU SEE IT?
by Susan Verde ; illustrated by Juliana Perdomo

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)