The black and white illustration in this book is enchanting. The details on the dragonfly’s wings and the lovely pictures of nature demonstrate real artistic merit. Each page has a scene which is a story unto itself. The art is perfect.
Author: Sara Masarik
Curators of things Good, True, and Beautiful
The Stout-Hearted Seven: Orphaned on the Oregon Trail
Wow! What a story! I would have been impressed if The Stout-Hearted Seven had been fiction. To know that it is non-fiction is exhilarating and tragic all at the same time. Reading true stories like this makes things like Marvel movies seem ridiculous. True courage and fortitude are not found in superheroes with capes but in stout-hearted people with a will to follow God’s leading and their own conviction.
The Trumpeter of Krakow
Written in a style that reminds me of Lloyd Alexander and Tonke Dragt, this novel for young readers is a lovely example of historical fiction. As the quote from Louis Bechtel indicates, it blends true events and real people beautifully with legend and an interesting fictional story. Fifteenth-century Joseph Charnetski is the son of Pan’ Andrew Charnetski, a Polish noble from Kresy (modern-day Ukraine). The Charnetski family is fleeing their home because madman Peter Button-Face has burned their village to the ground under the orders of Ivan III of Russia (Ivan the Terrible). The family hopes to find refuge with their cousin, Andrew Tenczynski in Krakow.
Our Cat Flossie
This book celebrates the often humorous ways in which cats worm their way into our hearts. Flossie isn’t killing birds and catching fish. Rather, she has a hobby of “bird watching” and “fishing.”
Blizzard at the Zoo
This unassuming picture book by Robert Bahr is excellent. Written in 1982, it has the quality of an older science reader-type book but it captures the more modern event of the 1977 blizzard at the Buffalo Zoo in New York.
To Say Nothing of the Dog
To Say Nothing of the Dog is pure delight. Connie Willis’s writing is elegant and refined. But it is also deeply informed by theatre and movies.
The Thief
The Thief is exciting, creative, and intellectually satisfying. Every time I read it, I cannot help but feel like I am re-entering Lewis’s Till We Have Faces..
Torben Kuhlmann’s Mouse Adventures
Each of the Mouse Adventures has a perfect blend of wordless spreads and pages with engaging text. The art is spectacular!
Noah’s Ark
Spier kept the illustration full of whimsy and still very suggestive of real things. Two things struck me while I enjoyed Noah’s Ark…
Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat
Lovers of Anne of Green Gables and other Lucy Maud Montgomery stories will not want to miss Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat.
Echo
It is here that we begin to subtly get clues about the word “echo.” As one sister played the harmonica, the echo continued while the next sister played, and so on. Because this is an enchantment, that echo goes out into the world sending waves of magic with it. And as this blessed harmonica transfers from Frederich in 1933 Germany to Mike in 1935 Philadelphia and then to Ivy Maria in 1942 Southern California, the magic reverberates through many lives, possibly saving many souls. Until, at last, it works its final magic and the enchantment is broken.
Blueberries for Sal
If I were asked for the ten picture books that are not, for any reason, to be missed, this would always be on my list. The story itself is completely charming and a joy entirely on its own. The illustration, however, is not “as good as the story.” The illustration is in fact absolute perfection.
Landmark: Daniel Boone
What a way to open a book! John Mason Brown assumes that we know something of Daniel Boone. Because, honestly, what American in 1952 didn’t know something about Daniel Boone? Today, it is probably a different story, but that doesn’t make the opening any less exciting. Presuming that we have a sense that Daniel Boone is a frontiersman and a hunter (the cover alone suggests that), Brown makes us think that this first scene is that of a great hunting expedition. And, it was. But not the kind we are thinking of. Instead, he is telling us about young Boone (not yet 21, we are told) traveling with the British regulars and General Braddock to take Fort Duquesne from the French in the French and Indian or Seven Years War.
The Stray Dog, Caldecott Honor 2002
I understand that the Caldecott Medal is not awarded to the author for the text, but rather to the artist for the illustration. So, if the art is compelling, then the story is secondary in consideration. Illustrator Marc Simont is a thrice-honored Caldecott artist. In this offering, however, I am unimpressed. Some scenes are very winning, like the opening spread. Most, however, are just not that interesting. The people are cartoonish and most of the pictures are only adequate.
What is another way to organize and shelve picture books?
I gave most of my picture books away over the years. I kept the best ones for the future, but as my children aged out of them, I shared the rest with friends to make room for my growing collection of chapter and middle grade books. Because of that, when I set up my library, I decided to organize my picture books really differently than most of the other librarians I was following. And, so far, it’s been working really, really well for us.