Summary: Scary noises are coming from the creepy attic door in Eduardo’s bedroom. His imagination goes wild! When Eduardo finally gathers the courage to investigate, what does he find? This book is designed to build a child’s literacy skills and empower them to succeed. Inside the book, you will find developmentally appropriate activities to use with your young reader.
Do you have a children’s picture book coming out soon? I’d love to wish it a Happy Book Birthday here on Frog on a Blog! For more information, CLICK HERE.
Girls reign in these two lovely picture books, each uniquely illustrated and overflowing with color and character (and animals!).
Harriet’s Reflections, written and illustrated by Marion Kadi, was originally published in France in 2021, but has since been published in the US, in 2024, by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. This unusual book earned starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and BookPage. The story starts on a sad note, the death of a lion, but soon turns light-hearted when we see that the lion’s reflection has a life all its own. The reflection, feeling bored, sets off in search of someone new in order to be their reflection and comes upon the spunky Harriet. Harriet accepts him, forgetting all about her own reflection, and, with a lion as her new reflection, Harriet heads off to school feeling more confident than ever. She has the best day, but, by the second day, things take a turn when her wild side takes over, getting her into trouble, and she begins to miss her old reflection. Now Harriet has to learn to balance two reflections, which we come to understand represent two sides of her personality.
There’s a subtle message here about self-reflectance, recognizing and accepting the different parts of ourselves. One day, we might feel confident, ready to take on the world, and the next, we might feel like being alone, and there’s nothing wrong with either. All people, kids included, experience changing moods and lots of big, or small, feelings, and no one has just one side. As quiet as the concept of self-reflectance may seem, the brightly colored acrylic illustrations in this book really jump off the page and are full of life and movement. Harriet’s classmates are a diverse group of children, and different animals can be seen throughout the book. You’ll want to spend some time “reflecting” on each page, as the pictures are imaginative and cleverly done. Marion Kadi did a fantastic job showing the “fluid” lion reflection in various puddles and mirrors.And the art on the endpapers is gorgeous!
Sourgrass, written by Hope Lim and illustrated by Shahrzad Maydani, was published by Beach Lane Books in 2024. This sweet story introduces readers to best friends Sofia and May who meet everyday at the gate that separates their two yards. Sometimes they play in Sofia’s yard and sometimes in May’s yard. Eventually, they discover the beautiful fields beyond their yards, which are spilling over with wild sourgrass flowers. They have even more fun playing in and racing through the fields and rolling down the yellow, flower-covered hills, until, one day, May moves away, leaving Sofia to play by herself, which, of course, just isn’t the same. But they keep in touch by letter, and that reassures Sofia that May will never forget her, that they will never forget each other and the days they spent playing together in the fields of sourgrass.
This is a story about friendship, about childhood, about a time when life was simple and days were spent playing, without worries or cares, until a life-changing event happens–your very best friend in the world moves away. Something like that can deeply affect a child. I mean, their whole world can be turned upside down. That’s why I like that Hope Lim chose to include the letter writing so the girls could keep in touch and have a long-distance friendship, which brings comfort to Sofia. And a little hint of happier days ahead is depicted on the last page. This book also has a lot going on in the art. Shahrzad Maydani’s chalk pastel and watercolor illustrations are so dreamy, colorful, yet blended and, at times, muted, perfectly expressing playful memories that melt together under the summer sun. The pictures are a feast for the eyes, inviting the reader to linger on each page. Kids will have a joyful time discovering the various animals “hidden” throughout and noticing that even Sofia and May’s stuffed animals seem to come alive.
Though different, these charming books have some similarities and would make a great pairing.Both are worthy of repeat readings, too, and I love how you can discover new animals with each new viewing!
A male African Lion’s roar can be heard up to five miles away.
Please welcome kidlit friend Jami Gigot to Frog on a Blog! Jami is an author, an illustrator, and a Texture Supervisor at LucasFilm’s Industrial Light & Magic. I recently featured a Happy Book Birthday post for Jami’s brand-new picture book The World In Our Backyard, which was published in May. I also interviewed Jami way back in 2015 when her book Mae and the Moon came out with Ripple Grove Press shortly after my book did.
I’m excited to welcome Jami back during the month of July, which happens to be Park and Recreation Month, to talk about The World In Our Backyard. This lovely and imaginative book is all about spending time and having fun in the great outdoors, especially our own backyards, and features a diverse group of kids from the city, the suburbs, and the country. It’s perfect for summer reading! Let’s hear more from Jami, and be sure to read to the end for details about how to win a copy of her book!
Congratulations on the publication of your beautiful new picture book The World In Our Backyard! Tell us the inspiration behind the story.
JG: Thank you so much! This book was inspired by my love of nature and my constant awe of our incredible world. One of my favorite things about writing for children is putting my mind back in the state where I try and think like I did as a child, and it was wonderful to revisit my own childhood memories and feelings of exploration and play. I had the thought, what would the world look like to a group of insects? It dawned on me that a clover patch would seem like a forest to them, and I made a sketch, which eventually became the first spread of the book. From that initial image, the rest of the story began to unfold. I thought, well, if there is a forest in a backyard, maybe there is a mountain, or a desert, or an ocean and so on. It was important to me to also explore the idea of backyards themselves and expanded the definition to include not only suburban households, but balconies, city parks, community gardens, or wherever we find joy exploring outside.
What was your process like when creating the illustrations for the book? And what’s your favorite spread?
JG: Whenever I start illustrating a book, I first sketch out a very rough version of the book in its entirety in pencil or on my tablet, blocking out the layout and text on every page. This helps me feel the pacing and overall balance of the book. In terms of final art, I never know exactly how it will work, but it usually ends up being a collage of traditional and digital mediums. Often I will use watercolor or colored pencil and then mix that with digital painting and do the final layout in photoshop. For the spread with the kids making chalk drawings, I incorporated some photos of the chalk art my children and I drew on the street behind our home.
What do you hope kids will take away from reading the book?
JG: Kids already have incredible imaginations, and I hope this book reminds them of all the joys and wonders around us in our natural environments and encourages them to explore creatively. In a time when we have so much stimulation from screens and electronic devices, I think it’s more important than ever to get outside and play.
What outdoor activities do you and your kids enjoy doing together?
JG: I have always been very active with the kids, and we spend a lot of time exploring outside. We have done things like making a bed for a fairy out of a chestnut shell, or making art from leaves we collected. When they were very small, I would plop them in a baby carrier to go snowshoeing or push the double stroller around on my rollerblades through the city. Now that my kids are a little older (12 and 14), we do a lot of activities like playing lawn games, hiking, and stand-up paddle boarding, but we are still very curious and love spotting slugs or collecting shells and rocks.
Can you give us a sneak peek of any projects you’re working on right now?
JG: I’d be delighted to show a little sneak peek of my next project! I am currently working on a humorous picture book called A BIGFOOT FIELDGUIDE TO CAMPERS (and other mysterious creatures), which will be published by Kids Can Press next Spring 2025. It is a story about not being afraid of the unknown and listening to your heart and is written in a guidebook format where the words and pictures completely contradict each other, so makes for a very fun read aloud!
Jami has generously offered a copy of her beautiful book The World In Our Backyard to one lucky person who comments on this blog post! For your chance to win, just leave a comment on this post by July 15th. I will choose a winner at random and connect them with Jami. This giveaway is limited to residents of the US and Canada only.
Jami Gigot is the author-illustrator of many books for children, including Starboy: Inspired by the Life and Lyrics of David Bowie, Imagination Vacation, Seb and the Sun, Mae and the Moon, and The World in Our Backyard and the illustrator of My Daddy Can Fly!. She is also a Texture Supervisor at LucasFilm’s Industrial Light & Magic, and has worked on many award-winning films. In her free time, she can be found in a hammock in her small and lovely backyard, bird-watching and listening to the buzzing of bees. She lives in Vancouver, BC, with her husband, two children, and a big orange cat.
Title: Moon Choo-Choo: A Tale of Imagination and Sibling Adventure
Author: Mona Voelkel
Illustrator: Nancy Kincade
Publisher: Arigna Press
Release Date: May 30, 2024 (National Creativity Day)
Format: Paperback, Hardcover, and eBook
Summary: Everybody, time to play. What should we pretend today?
Destination: The Moon
Engine, Engine, Number 3
Shooting through the galaxy.
If our train gets lost in space,
Stars will help us find our place.
Where will imagination take you?
Take a rollicking ride with Moon Choo-Choo and three siblings as they blast off on a journey of imagination. What will they play today? Will they be engineers? Astronauts? Their imagination powers up Moon Choo-Choo. They journey into space, have a lunar lunch, and, despite being low on fuel and threatened by asteroids, make it back home safely.
Moon Choo-Choo, a 200-word rhyming picture book for ages 3-6, is a joyful celebration of sibling bonds and imaginative play.
*Join Mona and Nancy for their 30 minute “First Read and Review Zoom Party” on May 30, 2024, at 7PM EST: https://forms.gle/ygMC9MntfzNVCnd69
Do you have a children’s picture book coming out soon? I’d love to wish it a Happy Book Birthday here on Frog on a Blog! For more information, CLICK HERE.
Summary: As children play together, a sandbox becomes a desert, sidewalk chalk drawings become an art gallery, and everything that can be dreamed up is within reach. From forests to hike and mountains to climb, oceans to sail and castles to build, creative little ones don’t have to look any farther than their own backyard for wonderful things to be discovered!
“Sprightly, colorful digital illustrations and spare but stirring text brim with childlike creativity and wonder. There’s lots of fun to be had in your own backyard—and in this lively book.” – Kirkus Reviews, 4/15/24
Do you have a children’s picture book coming out soon? I’d love to wish it a Happy Book Birthday here on Frog on a Blog! For more information, CLICK HERE.
Of Note: Rhyming text, interactive illustrated overlays, and color photographs
I love trees of all shapes and sizes, so it’s my pleasure to share today, just in time for Earth Day and Arbor Day, which are both this week, two children’s picture books that take our relationship with trees to the next level. Before I tell you more about these books, let me back up just a bit. I mentioned that I love trees, but so do kids! There’s an interesting fascination that kids have with trees. Maybe it’s because trees are so big and kids are small. Or maybe it’s because trees come in many shapes and sizes and even colors. Trees are fun to climb and play in or play under. And trees often hold surprises, like birds and nests, squirrels and nuts, and pinecones and flowers. Let’s not forget the trees that change color in fall, like maples and oaks, and provide piles of crunchy leaves to jump in.
Yes, kids love trees, and that’s a good thing because trees are so very important in many ways. They remove carbon dioxide from the air we breathe, filter water, slow flooding, provide shade, support wildlife, and supply food and even medicines. My hope is that kids will take their love for and fascination with trees into adulthood and always appreciate them and find ways to protect them and our environment. In the meantime, picture books, like the ones I’m sharing today, will help kids love trees even more.
Hello, Treesis a lyrical story that follows a little girl through the seasons from spring to winter and back around to spring again. The kind, unnamed girl clearly cares about trees and has many questions that show her concern for their wellbeing. She wonders if they have souls. She compares their trunks and roots and branches to bodies, legs, and arms. And she asks if they feel pain or cold. The text is simple yet thought provoking, and it also evokes emotions, such as happiness and sadness. The illustrations are charming and full of life. As the seasons change, we see leaves just beginning to sprout in spring, branches overflowing with green leaves in summer, fall-colored leaves in autumn (as in the picture below), and bare trees surrounded by snow in winter. Along the way, we meet an abundance of insects, birds, and squirrels. On a couple of spreads, the girl shares names of trees she knows, like pine and willow, and some with strange sounding names, like wisteria and rainbow eucalyptus. Overall, this is a lovely book to share with the tree lovers in your family.
Back cover blurb: This is a book about trees. Do trees have souls? Why do they have such wrinkly skin? Do they smile? And how do they feel about birds’ nests in their branches? Let’s find out.
Tree Spiritsis a fun, interactive picture book that also asks questions and introduces emotions and features cute animals, but in a very different way from the first book. Simple, rhyming text and color photos of various trees on each spread encourage kids to use their imaginations as they ask themselves what they see when they look at each tree. Here’s how it works: A tree is pictured on one page, then you turn the page and see the same tree with an illustrated overlay depicting an animal. About 10 different animals are included, such as an alligator, a rabbit (see the cover image above), an octopus, and a horse. Here’s the text that goes with the first tree image below: “Oh my, what have we here? I see five columns standing quite near.” Then, after the child turns the page, they see the next image (second image below), which has an illustrated overlay, and we read: “Could it be a young elephant deep in a funk, crying big tears as they run down his trunk? Little elephant is feeling quite sad.” This book is for tree enthusiasts of all ages, especially those who love to stretch their imaginations, and it’s also a good first introduction for kids to different feelings, including more complicated ones, like eagerness, shyness, and alertness.
It’s worth noting that the reader may not always see the same image in the shape of the tree that the author or illustrator saw (I know I didn’t), and that’s part of the fun!For example, where they saw an alligator, I saw a dinosaur!
Out of the 25 known species of chipmunks (small, striped members of the squirrel family), 24 species are found only in North America.
Please welcome John Jamison, a.k.a. Pops Jamison, to Frog on a Blog. John is the author of several books for both children and adults. Today, he’s here to talk a bit about his Skwerdlock series for kids, which he also illustrates. What’s a Skwerdlock? Read on to find out.
It took me thirty-eight years to write Meet the Skwerdlock!. The idea appeared one very early morning as I sat in a rocking chair with my two-year-old sick daughter and made up a silly song about a funny looking dog called the Skwerdlock. I tried writing Meet the Skwerdlock! then, but it just didn’t work.
Over the years, I tried several more times to write the book, with no success. I talked with illustrators and had some very nice images created, but the Skwerdlock always looked like I did that Easter Sunday back in the third grade when they dressed me up in that white skirt and big red bow for the children’s choir. As nice as the pictures were, they just weren’t the Skwerdlock we knew. I couldn’t figure the book out. What was the Skwerdlock for? What did the book teach? What was the message? Why write the book?
Two years ago, my daughter’s three-year-old daughter asked what the Skwerdlock looked like. I got a piece of paper and pencil and started drawing the image from that old song. I drew ears like an elephant, a nose like a hog, and all the rest. I am not an artist, and my drawing was evidence of that fact. I started to toss it and try again when I heard the voice.
“You forgot my shoes,” the Skwerdlock said.
I drew some shoes.
“Aren’t you going to add some colors?” he said.
I got some watercolor paints. I didn’t stay inside the lines, and some of the pencil marks I hadn’t erased showed through the paints. It was nothing at all like the nice illustrations I had seen before, but, finally, it looked like the Skwerdlock.
“Now aren’t you going to write that book about that night we met?”
So I did. And then I wrote I Saw the Skwerdlock!, and have just finished Never Take the Skwerdlock to the Doctor!. I finally realized that the Skwerdlock wasn’t about looking perfect, and wasn’t about teaching a lesson or making a statement. The Skwerdlock thinks kids get enough of that. The Skwerdlock is just fun–an opportunity to escape from the pressures of growing up and learning, and just spend some time letting our imaginations dream about things that might be.
I illustrated the books with my own pictures. People sometimes point out that the colors go outside the lines, and there are pencil marks showing in places. I smile and tell them that’s exactly how the Skwerdlock looks, too. He is not perfect, and has smudges here and there, just like me. Meet the Skwerdlock! and the other Skwerdlock books are just an excuse to sit on someone’s lap in the recliner and smile.
John Jamison is a life-long believer in the power of stories. First as a pastor, then educator, creator of Centers for Innovation at multiple universities, Director of a national Game and Simulation academic degree program, and a consultant for e-learning and brand development, John has used the power of story to bring about serious change and have some fun in the process.
John grew-up in a small river-town in Illinois, and describes his childhood as “kind of Tom Sawyer-ish with a blend of Wizard of Oz.” John says, “I grew up in a family of storytellers and liars, and I spent most of my time trying to figure out which was which.”
With so many books to choose from, I’m so excited and so moved that she chose mine!
Ms. Macadangdang is an English teacher at LA Academy Arts & Enterprise Charter School in Los Angeles, CA. Her school is located in the inner city of Los Angeles, an area crippled by poverty. Her students are reading below grade level and struggling with the new demands of the Common Core standards. She is working hard to provide as much opportunity for learning and academic achievement as she can for her students. But her school lacks the funding she needs to do all that she’d like to do for them.
So Ms. Macadangdang turned to DonorsChoose.org. DonorsChoose.org is a fantastic organization/site where public school teachers post classroom project requests, and donors choose the ones they want to support.
Ms. Macadangdang is seeking funding to purchase 30 copies of The Peddler’s Bed to inspire imagination and integrate arts into her curriculum. Here’s her project in her own words: “My 6th graders need to be inspired! The common core curriculum is so advanced, and they are so far behind, I need some tools to bridge the gap. With this donation, we will step away from the prescribed textbook and use this rich and imaginative text to perform grade level literary analysis and learn how to analyze images as a form of text.”
I am thrilled to know that my book, The Peddler’s Bed, will be used to inspire these incredible young students and help bring them just a little bit closer to a bright and happy future.
To learn more about Ms. Macadangdang’s classroom project and what you can do to help, please click HERE.
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