What would you do if you woke up one morning and discovered that you had grown antlers? If the thought has never even crossed your mind, then you should read Imogene’s Antlers, written and illustrated by David Small (Random House, 1985). When Imogene wakes up on Thursday to find antlers on her head, it creates a few problems. Getting dressed is tricky. Getting out the door is trickier. Imogene’s mother is so shocked she faints clean away. The...
(First let me say, this photo does not do justice to these illustrations because they are rich and gorgeous. ) A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Eerdmans, 2008). is a picture book biography of the Imagist poet William Carlos Williams. Williams is considered one of the great American poets, and the pared down simplicity and strong images of his poems makes them accessible to children. Their very...
Have you ever lived far away from relatives? Wanted to go visit but couldn’t? Then The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman by Darcy Pattison, illustrated by Joe Cepeda (Harcourt, 2003) is a must read for you. The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman tells the story of Tameka from Redcrest, California. She writes her Uncle Ray in South Carolina and begs him to come for a visit. Uncle Ray replies that he can’t make it–he’s got to work all summer–but he’s...
If you love the art of Georgia O’Keefe, you’ll love the picture book My Name is Georgia written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter (1998, Harcourt). I picked this picture book up in Santa Fe when I was visiting the Georgia O’Keefe museum there. It’s a very simple biography of the artist from her days as a girl to art school in Chicago and then New York: “At school, I painted my teacher’s ideas. But when school...
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by DuBose Heyward and illustrated by Marjorie Flack tells the story of the five Easter bunnies. Yes, five. If you haven’t read the story, you probably didn’t know there were five. At any rate, a little country girl bunny decided that she wanted to grow up to be an Easter bunny. But all the fancy white bunnies and big Jack-rabbits with their long legs laughed at her. ”The little...
