When Blue Met Egg

When Blue Met Egg by Lindsay Ward
Illustrated by Lindsay Ward
Published by Dial Books for Young Readers
2012

     "One snowy morning, Blue was awakened by something extraordinary flying through the air."  Below, unbeknownst to her, a group of kids were having a snowball fight, and one of the snowballs had landed right on her nest, on a big tree in Central Park.  Blue packed Egg inside a bucket and immediately began her search for Egg's mother.  With Egg in its bucket, Blue traveled all over Manhattan visiting all the spots where she had seen other birds hang out. She looked all over Central Park, along the street cart vendors, and even atop skyscrapers, but no bird seemed to be looking for Egg. She even made flyers announcing she had found Egg, but no luck. As the days went by, Blue spent the winter enjoying Egg's company, playing in the park, visiting the Metropolitan Opera House, and Guggenheim.  But the weather was getting warmer, and it didn't seem to be siting well with Egg.
     When Blue Met Egg is lovely. Truly lovely.  It's a story of friendship, companionship, loss, and new beginnings. As the reader, your heart aches as soon as you realize Blue will eventually loose Egg forever as soon as the winter cold ends.  Ward found a wonderful way of providing an uplifting ending and a new companionship that will forever connect Blue and Egg.  The illustrations using paper collages and mixed media are fantastic. I found myself looking for all the little details hidden in the type of paper that Ward was using. By the way, I give extra points to Ward for having found a fantastic way of turning those dreaded answer sheets that schools use for high stakes testing into beautiful art.  Also, the fact that the story takes place in NYC gives it an extra touch, finding something as small and sweet as Blue, making her way through such a big place and just owning it.  When Blue Met Egg is definitely going to be on my favorites of 2012 shelf. Don't miss this one!

The Honeybee Man

The Honeybee Man by Lela Nargi

Illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker

2011

     Fred is a beekeeper.  He climbs up to the roof of his Brooklyn brownstone, and with the city all around him, he focuses his whole attention on another tiny city, one made up of three houses, each with three stories and thousands of rooms made of wax. Fred inhales the smells of a summer city morning: maple leaves and gasoline and the river and dust. He turns to the tiny city and inhales its smaller sweeter smell -a little like caramel, a little like ripe peaches. The bees are like a family to Freed, he knows everything about them and loves them.  He imagines himself flying over Brooklyn with them, looking for flower nectar.  When the bees have done their job, Fred collects the honey and pours it into jars to share it with his neighbors.  Fred loves the feeling of wonder and surprise he gets from each batch of honey, tasting its delicate sweetness and discovering what flowers have given it its special flavor each year.  This time around it is sweet, like linden flowers. It is sharp, like rosemary. It is ever-so-slightly sour. He's delighted to know his bees made it all the way to blueberry bushes to give their honey that special sweet and sour flavor.

     The Honeybee Man is a delightful example of realistic fiction.  While it reads like a story, it also provides tons of details about the beekeeper's job and the organization and behavior of a beehive.  The illustrations by Brooker are beautiful and offer and nice "view" of Brooklyn.  The Honeybee Man also offers students a different perspective on urban activities, showing that jobs associated with rural areas, like beekeeping, are actually also carried out within our urban landscape.  The end of the book offers a series of facts about honey, honeybees, and beekeepers.  It's a beautiful book to share at home and also to include in elementary classroom libraries.

A Good Night Walk

A Good Night Walk by Elisha Cooper
2005

     As night falls, a parent and child decide to go for a walk around the block. Each page of A Good Night Walk describes what they see as they walk down the street, "The leaves of the oak tree bend in the wind," "Squirrels chase each other from the telephone wire to the clothesline to the flag," "the screen door opens and shuts, echoing over the lawn."  The sky gets darker with each step and we see the street lamps light up as the walkers continue to describe the scene.  Eventually, parent and child turn around and see how the scene has changed as the moon comes up.
     A Good Night Walk is beautifully illustrated by Cooper.  I first learned of Cooper when I came across Beach and I've become a fan of his illustrations.  The descriptive text is great to use in the classroom.  In fact, this book can be used for text innovation where the students themselves take a walk around their neighborhood and recreate the story with their own descriptions.

Blackout

Blackout by John Rocco
Illustrated by John Rocco
Published by Hyperion Book
2011
Caldecott Honor 2012

     "It started out as a normal summer night.  The city was loud and hot." Inside an apartment building, a young boy reaches for a board game to play with his family. But they are all busy: his sister's on the phone, his mom's on the computer, and his dad's cooking. He climbs the steps up to his room and starts playing videogames when suddenly, "The lights went out. All of them." The whole city is dark and quiet at first. The family stayed inside for a while, playing with shadows on the wall and contemplating the idea of playing the board game together, but it got "too hot and sticky to sit inside." They went up to the rooftop and then they saw the lights (stars) and people from the neighborhood up on the roofs. "It was a block party in the sky." Downstairs, on the sidewalk, the party continued. A restaurant was handing out free ice cream, the fire hydrants were opened and people were making music. "And no one was busy at all." When the lights came back on "everything went back to normal." Until the young boy, to the delight of his family, has the brilliant idea of turning the lights off, and they all sat down to finally play the board game.
     Blackout is one of my favorite picture books to have been published this year. I love Rocco's illustrations and pacing. It captures perfectly what it felt like to be in New York City during the last big blackout. It was a block party! The sense of family extended beyond the walls of the apartments to include whole neighborhoods. We were almost sad when the lights came back on... Lovely book.

Madlenka

Madlenka by Peter Sís
2000

     Madlenka lives in an apartment in New York City.  One day her tooth begins to wiggle and she has to go outside to tell everyone.  In a city like New York, Madlenka gets to share the news with her friends for around the world: the french baker, the newspaper seller from India, the gelato maker from Italy, the storyteller from Germany, the grocer from Latin America, her friend Cleopatra from Egypt, and the store owner from Asia.  Madlenka tells us about each of her friends, where they come from and what makes their homelands especial.  They all share her joy.  When she finally makes it home again her parents are worried "Madlenka! Where have you been? Well...I went around the world. And I lost a tooth!"
     Madlenka is beautifully illustrated.  Each page captures the world and culture of each of Madlenka's neighbors.  At the end of the book, there is a world map pinpointing the places the characters came from. It's a New York book, a song to this wonderful city.

Melvin and the Boy

Melvin and the Boy by Lauren Castillo
2011

     A boy really wants a pet. He asks his mom and dad for a dog, a monkey, and a bird but they say no because the pets are either too big, too loud, or too much work.  When he sees turtle staring at him at the park, he knows he's found the perfect pet, and his parents agree.  He takes the turtle home and names him Melvin, "because Melvin is a good name for a turtle." The problem is that when he tries to play with Melvin, walk him like other pets, feed him pretzels or show him off to his friends, Melvin just hides inside his shell.  Melvin only seems to enjoy playtime in the bathtub.  The boy realizes that Melvin must be missing his friends because he "isn't having much fun at our house." "Maybe he wants to go back to the park."  The next day, when the boy brings Melvin back to the park and sees him swimming to the other turtles in the pond, he knows Melvin must stay there.  "But I make sure to tell Melvin I can't wait to visit him tomorrow!"
     Melvin and the Boy revisits the familiar theme of the child who wants a pet, but successfully finds the sweet and sentimental tone missing from most picture books on that topic.  The illustrations are beautiful and have a timeless feeling about them.  At the end of the story there is a series of facts about turtles to share with the young readers.   Melvin and the Boy will remind you of the classics.

You Can't Take a Balloon Into The Metropolitan Museum

You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum
by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman and Robin Preiss Glasser
1998

     In this beautifully illustrated wordless book a little girl and her grandmother head to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The little girl is carrying a yellow balloon and she's told she can't bring it inside the museum.  A guard offers to keep it safe until they're done with the museum visit.  As the girl and her grandma head inside the museum the balloon gets loose and begins its own adventure through New York City.  The balloon's encounters around the city mirror the scenes of paintings and sculptures the girl and grandma see inside.  One of my favorites is when the balloon makes its way into an Aida performance at the Lincoln Center at the same time as the girl and her grandmother are looking at the Egyptian wing of the museum.
     The detailed illustrations are delightful and the parallels between the art and the urban landscape are very interesting.  This book would be a really good way of introducing the Met to students before going to visit it.      

The Secret Box

The Secret Box by Barbara Lehman
2011

     Today at work, I had a conversation with a fellow ESL teacher about the power of wordless picture books.  We are both fans and have used them in our classrooms as teaching tools.  Wordless books are a wonderful source of writing starters, sequencing activities, descriptive writing and class discussion.  And of course, there are usually stunningly illustrated.  That's definitely the case with The Secret Box.
     A young boy waring knickers hides a box.  The box is hidden under the floorboards of a school's attic for decades until three kids discover it.  Following clues and a map they find inside the box, they find a path leading them to a magical place in a pier.  The Secret Box is a surreal story about time travel.  Lehman's illustrations are beautiful and captivating.  Kids and adults alike will enjoy flipping back and forth between pages to discover the changes in the landscape of a city as well as the little details that uncover the mystery of The Secret Box.

Natalie & Naughtily

Natalie & Naughtily by Vincent X. Kirsch
Illustrated by Vincent X. Kirsch
2008

     Natalie & Naughtily Nopps are twin sisters that live in house on top of a department store their family owns.  The two sisters might look alike, but they are very different. Natalie is more practical, while Naughtily is more out-there.  On a very busy day at the store, the  twins decide to help and so begins a busy day that will take them one floor at time throughout the whole store.
     The illustrations are very detailed and it's easy to get lost in the drawings for each level inside the department store.  It becomes a whole world to explore.  Natalie & Naughtily brought back memories of spending the day at the large department stores in Madrid.  I think it would be a great read to share with the kids after visiting one of the large department stores in the city.