tZen Shorts by Jon J Muth
2006 Caldecott Honor Book
Zen Ties by Jon J Muth
copyright 2008, no awards that I know about (but why not?)
I love these books! Making Zen philosophy accessible to young children is a mission worth having and to do this successfully is a sweet accomplishment. Plus, the illustrations are wonderful ink paintings and watercolor paintings. I love these books. My children love these books.
Zen Shorts introduces Stillwater. A giant panda bear that arrives in the yard of three children, Addy, Michale, and Karl, and befriends them. Each child goes to Stillwater and receives a story. The frame story is illustrated in watercolors. The traditional Zen stories are illustrated in black ink drawings.
In the authors note at the end he writes:
"When you look into a pool of water, if the water is still, you can see the moon reflected. If the water is agitated, the moon is fragmented and scattered. It is harder to see the true moon. Our minds are like that. When our minds are agitated, we cannot see the true world."
He has the most excellent way of explaining complicated ideas with simple clarity.
The stories have an easy pace and you just feel good reading them!
In Zen Ties Stillwater is back, and so is his nephew, Koo, who has come for a visit. Stillwater picks him up at the train station. Koo says
"Uncle Stillwater!
summer! I have arrived!
seeing you brings smiles."
"Hi, Koo!" And delivers a gift of balloons. The nephew responds:
"An uplifting gift!
could you carry my case,
generous uncle?"
The newphew speaks in Haiku! ("Hi, Koo!") tee hee!
Addy, Michael and Karl are back for this story, and Michael when Stillwater learns that Michael is anxious about an upcoming spelling bee, he invites them to come along to visit an old woman in the neighborhood named Miss Whitaker. The children know her as a cranky old lady. . . "That Miss Whitaker?" asked Karl. "She hates us! She's really old and she spits when she talks! Every time we walk past her house, she shouts at us. She scares me."
Stillwater says "She isn't feeling well and we must bring her something to eat.
So, they do. And in fact Miss Whitakers isn't feeling that well and IS a little cranky.
But more visits follow and it turns out that Miss Whitaker used to be an English teacher, she coaches Michael for the spelling bee, and everyone becomes friends. Michael wins the spelling bee "The judges were nothing compared to Miss Whitaker!"
"Yeah," said Karl. "Just this morning she was shouting at us again."
"Then why are you smiling?" asked Stillwater.
"She was telling us to get out of the street and play in her yard."
Have I mentioned I LOVE these books!? To have so many layers of values I care about presented to my children (and me!) in such an appealing gentle way is SUCH a gift!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Beautiful Blackbird
Beautiful Blackbird by Ashley Bryan
2004 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award
I love this author/illustrator, Ashley Bryan. He shows up at storytelling festivals sometimes because his reading/writing style is very much based on oral storytelling in the African tradition. He's a fun person to hear, and I have liked his books a long time. In fact he has had quite a few Coretta Scott King awards over the years, and when I checked and realized that he had NOT ever won a Caldecott Award, I was surprised.
Anyhow, Beautiful Blackbird is illustrated in brilliantly colored paper cuts. The story is told in both regular storytelling with little rhyming songs interspersed:
"Beak to beak, peck, peck, peck,
Spread your wings, stretch your neck.
Black is beautiful, uh-huh!
Black is beautiful, uh-huh!"
The story is based on a traditional tale from Zambia. It tells the story of how the birds got their markings. They started all the colors of the rainbow, but no markings at all, each bird was a single color "From the tops of their heads to the tips of the tails. . . " The rainbow colored birds all thought Blackbird was the most beautiful and asked Blackbird to color them black.
Blackbird said, "Color on the outside is not what's on the inside. You don't act like me. You don't eat like me. You don't get down in the groove and move your feet like me. But come tomorrow to the Sun-Up Dance. I'll brew some blackening in my medicine gourd."
And next morning he decorated them all. But before he did he said "We'll see the difference a touch of black can make. Just remember, whatever I do, I'll be me and you'll be you."
Fun tid bit---- the scissors that is collaged in with the paper cuts on the end papers is the scissors that his mom used when she was sewing and embroidering, and the scissors he now uses for his paper cuts.
If I had to recommend ONE Ashley Bryan book, this wouldn't be the one, but I do like it. Dancing Granny is my personal favorite and I don't think it ever won any awards at all! I also like Beat the Story Drum, Pum Pum.
2004 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award
I love this author/illustrator, Ashley Bryan. He shows up at storytelling festivals sometimes because his reading/writing style is very much based on oral storytelling in the African tradition. He's a fun person to hear, and I have liked his books a long time. In fact he has had quite a few Coretta Scott King awards over the years, and when I checked and realized that he had NOT ever won a Caldecott Award, I was surprised.
Anyhow, Beautiful Blackbird is illustrated in brilliantly colored paper cuts. The story is told in both regular storytelling with little rhyming songs interspersed:
"Beak to beak, peck, peck, peck,
Spread your wings, stretch your neck.
Black is beautiful, uh-huh!
Black is beautiful, uh-huh!"
The story is based on a traditional tale from Zambia. It tells the story of how the birds got their markings. They started all the colors of the rainbow, but no markings at all, each bird was a single color "From the tops of their heads to the tips of the tails. . . " The rainbow colored birds all thought Blackbird was the most beautiful and asked Blackbird to color them black.
Blackbird said, "Color on the outside is not what's on the inside. You don't act like me. You don't eat like me. You don't get down in the groove and move your feet like me. But come tomorrow to the Sun-Up Dance. I'll brew some blackening in my medicine gourd."
And next morning he decorated them all. But before he did he said "We'll see the difference a touch of black can make. Just remember, whatever I do, I'll be me and you'll be you."
Fun tid bit---- the scissors that is collaged in with the paper cuts on the end papers is the scissors that his mom used when she was sewing and embroidering, and the scissors he now uses for his paper cuts.
If I had to recommend ONE Ashley Bryan book, this wouldn't be the one, but I do like it. Dancing Granny is my personal favorite and I don't think it ever won any awards at all! I also like Beat the Story Drum, Pum Pum.
All The Things I Love About You
All the Things I Love About You by LeUyen Pham
copyright 2010
no awards that I'm aware of, but it's award winning at our house!
My daughter Makayla loves this book!
It is both loving and silly. The pictures are fun. It is a happy book! A great one to share with your little ones. A lot of the "I love you" books for kids are a little sappy (I actually like the sappy ones too), but this one has a little SPUNK to it as well. It's dedicated to mama's who love their little BOYS, but I'm pleased to report that Makayla (despite all her princess inclinations) seems to be spunky enough to relate just fine!
copyright 2010
no awards that I'm aware of, but it's award winning at our house!
My daughter Makayla loves this book!
It is both loving and silly. The pictures are fun. It is a happy book! A great one to share with your little ones. A lot of the "I love you" books for kids are a little sappy (I actually like the sappy ones too), but this one has a little SPUNK to it as well. It's dedicated to mama's who love their little BOYS, but I'm pleased to report that Makayla (despite all her princess inclinations) seems to be spunky enough to relate just fine!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Charlotte Zolotow Awards
The Charlotte Zolotow Award goes to the best picture book TEXT for that year (where as the Caldecott Award for picture books goes to the illustrator.) They have been giving this award since 1998, so it's a relatively recent award. I'm adding this to my list of books worth looking at!
Hot Air The (mostly) true story of the first hot-air balloon ride
Hot Air, The (mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride by Majorie Priceman
2006 Caldecott Honor
This story begins in France in 1783 at the sight of the first ever Hot Air Balloon launching! It details much about the city and spectators in the first few pages and then introduces us to the "first brave passengers" . . . A duck, a sheep, and a rooster.
After that the ride is all in pictures and from the point of view of these three animals. Which is fitting because the author heard the story "from a duck, who heard it from a sheep, who heard it from a rooster a long, long time ago."
It's a fun ride! And based (loosely) on a true historic event.
2006 Caldecott Honor
This story begins in France in 1783 at the sight of the first ever Hot Air Balloon launching! It details much about the city and spectators in the first few pages and then introduces us to the "first brave passengers" . . . A duck, a sheep, and a rooster.
After that the ride is all in pictures and from the point of view of these three animals. Which is fitting because the author heard the story "from a duck, who heard it from a sheep, who heard it from a rooster a long, long time ago."
It's a fun ride! And based (loosely) on a true historic event.
Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper
Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper freely translated from Charles Perrault and illustrated by Marcia Brown
1955 Caldecott Medal
My 7 year old daughter is seriously into princesses. Personally, I'm more inclined towards the active heroine in a story, so please understand that is my bias! The story of course will be familiar, but it is definitely refreshing to hear an interpretation that is directly translated from one of the first written sources. Pleasantly free of the very strong Disney stamp that is currently on the story!
The illustrations are line drawing with simple washes of color. Nothing too extraordinatry, but they carry the story well. The goodness of Cinderella comes across in text and pictures. . . although I find it a little funny that someone of such "good" character could also be deceitful with her step sisters when they arrived home from the ball (yawing and rubbing her yes as if she had just waked out of a sound sleep!)
I can't really rave about this book, but if you love Cinderella stories it should definitely be on your list.
1955 Caldecott Medal
My 7 year old daughter is seriously into princesses. Personally, I'm more inclined towards the active heroine in a story, so please understand that is my bias! The story of course will be familiar, but it is definitely refreshing to hear an interpretation that is directly translated from one of the first written sources. Pleasantly free of the very strong Disney stamp that is currently on the story!
The illustrations are line drawing with simple washes of color. Nothing too extraordinatry, but they carry the story well. The goodness of Cinderella comes across in text and pictures. . . although I find it a little funny that someone of such "good" character could also be deceitful with her step sisters when they arrived home from the ball (yawing and rubbing her yes as if she had just waked out of a sound sleep!)
I can't really rave about this book, but if you love Cinderella stories it should definitely be on your list.
A Tree Is Nice
A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry, illustrated by Marc Simont
1957 Caldecott Medal
I agree, a tree IS nice! This is a sweet celebration of trees. Makes me want to go out and plant one. Makes me want to go out and plant one with each of my kids. And I'd read it to the wee kids in our Outdoor Explorer (environmental education) program as well. Makes me want to think about all my favorite trees. We have a great one in our yard that my husband Holmes transplanted from the woods when he first moved there. It's a willow oak, and for years we called it "The Shade Tree" but it was a joke. It cast enough shade for a pair of dogs if they were strategic about where they lay down, and that was about it.
Now it really IS a shade tree, and the most EXCELLENT climbing tree as well. And during our summer camp sessions there are sometimes a half dozen kids or more all climbing at once.
This is a quiet book but I think it's still doing exactly what was intended when it was published more than 50 years ago! I was pleased to see that in the book jacket notes about the author she talked about spending a lot of time searching out a nursery where they could buy a Ombu tree---- a tree that grows rapidly to enormous size. They found one and planted it, and Ms. Udry reports it "grew nicely."
I like an author who lives their story!
1957 Caldecott Medal
I agree, a tree IS nice! This is a sweet celebration of trees. Makes me want to go out and plant one. Makes me want to go out and plant one with each of my kids. And I'd read it to the wee kids in our Outdoor Explorer (environmental education) program as well. Makes me want to think about all my favorite trees. We have a great one in our yard that my husband Holmes transplanted from the woods when he first moved there. It's a willow oak, and for years we called it "The Shade Tree" but it was a joke. It cast enough shade for a pair of dogs if they were strategic about where they lay down, and that was about it.
Now it really IS a shade tree, and the most EXCELLENT climbing tree as well. And during our summer camp sessions there are sometimes a half dozen kids or more all climbing at once.
This is a quiet book but I think it's still doing exactly what was intended when it was published more than 50 years ago! I was pleased to see that in the book jacket notes about the author she talked about spending a lot of time searching out a nursery where they could buy a Ombu tree---- a tree that grows rapidly to enormous size. They found one and planted it, and Ms. Udry reports it "grew nicely."
I like an author who lives their story!
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