This hat is not mine. I just stole it. I stole it from a big fish. He was asleep when I did it. And he probably won't wake up for a long time. And even if he does wake up, he probably won't notice that it's gone.
I think I enjoyed This is Not My Hat even more than Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back. In this adventure, a little fish steals a little hat from a BIG fish. Since the big fish was asleep, this little fish is quite confident that the big fish will never, ever know who took his hat. The little fish thinks he's safe...probably. This one is told from his point of view, the illustrations let the reader know more than the little fish. Much more than the little fish! I think this one is quite clever.
Because Amelia smiled, coming down the street...Mrs. Higgins smiled, too.
She thought of her grandson, Lionel, in Mexico and baked some cookies to send to him.
Because Mrs. Higgins baked cookies...Lionel ate one of the cookies. He decided to share the rest with his class...and teach them an English song about cookies. Because Lionel taught his class a song...
A little smile, a little kindness can go a long way. In fact, it may even travel around the whole world. Because a little girl, Amelia, smiled, she brought happiness and cheer to many, many people--almost all of them strangers. Little acts of kindness do matter. And you're never too small to make a difference. It is a sweet, inspirational story. I definitely enjoyed it.
Marisol was an artist. She loved to draw and paint, and she even had her very own art gallery. Not all her art hung in a gallery. Much of it she shared with the world.
Marisol is so excited to be painting part of a mural. She's volunteered to paint the sky. But when she realizes there isn't any blue paint to be found, well, she's not sure HOW she'll paint the sky after all. But a bus trip home, an evening watching the sun set, and a rainy morning inspire her to think differently and realize that many, many colors that could rightfully be called sky color! Peter H. Reynolds has written a handful of art-friendly picture books in addition to Sky Color. These include ISH and THE DOT. All three have been newly packaged together to form a "creatrilogy."
Mile by mile, pigs motor west.
Brick by brick, pigs build a house...
and piece by piece, it becomes a home.
Neighbor by neighbor, pigs say, "Welcome!"
Arm in arm, new friendships begin.
Then row by row, pigs plant a garden.
I really enjoyed Susan Gal's Day by Day. Readers follow a pig family as they move west, build a home, become part of a new community; a hard-working family that at last takes time to celebrate all together with food, dancing, family...and mud. I just love the illustrations! There are so many great spreads in this one, but I think my favorite is the pigs in their underclothes!!!
Unspoken is a wordless picture book for older readers. It is historical fiction, a story about the underground railroad. The heroine of this story is a young girl who sees someone hiding--a runaway slave--what she does next, silently, carefully--communicates everything that needs to be said. It is so difficult to review a wordless picture book, because the whole story is conveyed by illustrations and it is all left to be interpreted by the reader. But I think this one is worth reading even if you don't usually read picture books.
© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
1 comment:
I just discovered Unspoken last week. What a wonderful book! I immediately brought it home from the library to share with my kids, who are happily still willing to sit and enjoy a picture book, despite being "too old" for them.
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