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.

365 Penguins

365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental
Illustrated by Joelle Jolivet
2006

     "On New Year's Day, at nine o'clock in the morning, a delivery man rang our doorbell. I opened the box - a penguin!"  There was no sender's name on the box, just a note that said: "I'm number 1. Feed me when I'm hungry."  Next day, another package arrives with another penguin. The next day another and by week's end, 7 penguins are running around the house.  And the penguins keep coming, one a day, every day, for a whole year...365 penguins.  
     I love this book.  Maybe it's the fact that it has a math component to it; the family keeps finding ways to organize the penguins by dividing, calculate the new costs of living by multiplying, and packing the penguins in by calculating area. What else can a Math lover like me wish for in a picture book?  Now add to that the clever illustrations, the enlarged format, and the thrill of looking amongst hundreds of penguins for a special one with blue feet, and you have found a perfect book for me.   As a teacher, it's a great book to explore math concepts, calendars, but also science since there is an environmental discussion that arises from the premise of penguins being displaced because of global warming.  This is one of my new favorites!

My Friend

My Friend (Mon Amour) by Beatrice Alemagna
Illustrated by Beatrice Alemagna
2002

     "I am a most unusual animal. I have fur like a dog and I'm shaped like a sheep. But no one seems to know just what I am."  It doesn't know what it is, but it knows what it isn't. Everybody tries to figure out what kind of animal it is, but they never get it right. It isn't a cat, nor a monkey, nor a rat, nor a pigeon. Some thought he might be a lion, but again no. It isn't a dog, a beaver, or a hippo either.  The problem is that it can only define itself by saying what it isn't but it truly does not know what it actually is.  One day, another strange looking animal approaches him and asks if he would like to play with him?  "Don't you want to know what I am?" says our it. To which the other animal replies: "I know what you are. You are my friend."
     The idea behind My Friend is very sweet. It's a book for all the kids that have ever felt different, like they didn't quite fit in, to show them that true friends will find them and love them regardless.  The illustrations are mixed media and the animals are made up of fabric scraps, buttons and thread.  They are very interesting to look at, but I thought they were a bit confusing as well; since the fabric used to "draw" the main character doesn't remain consistent, it's hard to keep track of whether we are looking at the same character or at a new one.  Sweet story nevertheless.

Russell the Sheep

Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton
Illustrated by Rob Scotton
2005

     It's the end of a long busy day and all the sheep are getting ready to go to bed.  Soon, everybody is asleep except for Russell.  "No matter how hard he tried, Russell could not fall asleep."  He tried covering his eyes with his hat to make it darker, but it was too dark and it made him afraid.  He thought he might be too hot so he took off his wool, but then he got too cold.  He tried going for a walk to find a new spot but everywhere he went was either too cramped or too creepy. What if he tried counting things? His legs? No. The stars? Nope. Sheep? Finally!  Russell fell asleep counting sheep...too bad it was already dawn and all the other sheep were waking up.
     Russell the Sheep is a very cute bedtime story.  The best part for me are the illustrations.  Every time I read this book I'm captivated by the beautiful illustrations.  The wool seems so soft you just want to touch it, and the blues of the night are dreamlike.  And they are also funny! There's a little frog companion that shows up unexpectedly in some of the pages and it just cracks my boy up.  Russell rocks!

Just a Dream

Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg
Illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg
1990

     Last night I had the pleasure of being one of 500 people selected to spend all night inside the New York City Library.  We took part on an special event called "Find the Future."  It was a sort of scavenger hunt where we had to find 100 artifacts hidden all over the library,  and each time we found one, it would unlock a writing prompt on the game's website.  The goal was for all of us to collectively write a book overnight.  And we did it! They book will forever be kept at the library and if you're ever in NYC you can go check it out at the 42nd street library branch.  It was one of the most memorable nights of my life and one of the points we kept going back to was thinking about the future: where we'll be, what we'll have accomplished, what our hopes and dreams about the future are.  On that note, Just a Dream is a good pick for my book log tonight.
     Walter is on his way home and after finishing his usual afternoon doughnut, he throws away his napkin on the street.  Right before he walks into his house, he sees his neighbor Rose planting a tree she has just received for her birthday.  Walter makes fun of her and her gift and hope he is "not getting some dumb plant" for his upcoming birthday.  That evening, Walter takes the trash out but doesn't separate the recyclables and just dumps it all in one can so he can run inside to watch TV.  At night,  Walter falls asleep thinking about how much he would love to live in the future, with robots and personal planes...but instead of dreaming about that future, Walter starts having multiple dreams about a horrible place.  There are no trees because they are all chopped down to make toothpicks, fisherman cannot catch enough fish because the ocean is so polluted, his old neighborhood is completely covered with trash, smokestacks are everywhere and there is a Hotel on top of Mt Everest.  The next morning, Walter runs out in his pajamas, picks up the garbage, separates the recyclables and is thrilled to get a tree for his birthday.  In his next dream, he sees a future with luscious yards and beautiful trees.
     Here it to finding a future where we have learned to take better care of out planet!

What Pet to Get?

What Pet To Get?by Emma Dodd
Illustrated by Emma Dodd
2008

     Jack had an idea, he wanted a pet.  So he asked his mom if he could have an elephant. Not very practical. What about a lion? Well, too hungry and he might attack the mailman. A polar bear?  He won't really enjoy the central heating. A T-Rex? Extinct. A giraffe? A bison? A Shark?  Too exotic.  How about a puppy?  So Jack and his mother go to the pound to pick a new puppy...who turns out to be gigantic.
     What Pet To Get?is a fun book to read aloud to the little ones.  They'll love the silly situations created by Jack's pet ideas.  The illustrations highlight the crazyness of trying to have polar bears, elephants and even bisons as pets in the city.  The final picture of the dog is a fold out with ads to the drama and hilarity of the final resolution.

Dinosaurs Love Underpants

Dinosaurs Love Underpants by Claire Freedman
Illustrated by Ben Cort
2009

     The reason why dinosaurs became extinct is still not quite clear. But Dinosaurs Love Underpants offers and interesting theory.  In this funny rhyming book, we learn that dinosaurs were all wiped out because they were fighting amongst themselves over pairs of underwear.

It all began when caveman

Felt embarrassed in the nude.

So someone dreamed up underpants

To stop them from looking crude

     One day, as the caveman were walking outside the forest, the scariest and meanest of all dinos, the T-Rex, saw them and starting chasing them. But not to eat them, he just wanted their underpants.  Of course the underpants were not quite his size so they ripped and made him trip.  Soon, underpants fever spread through dino camp and all the dinos where running wild chasing after caveman to steal their underpants. When they couldn't get anymore from them, the dinos started fighting each other during The Mighty Underpants War.  "The fighting got so crazy, all the dinos were wiped out!"

So when you put your undies on.

Always treat them with great care.

Don't forget briefs saved Mankind.

They're not just underwear!

     Dinosaurs Love Underpants is a crowd pleaser, especially for with all those dino obsessed kids out there.  They'll get to see all their favorite types of dinosaur as well as some very entertaining illustrations.    Definitely a fun one.