A Happy Place by Britta Teckentrup

"A little star shines brightly through the bedroom window. It shines down on a sleepless mind, spinning with restless thoughts. Follow me, whispers the star, 
and I will help you to find a happy place."

This book begs to be read aloud with words like tippy-toed squirrel, bushy-tailed fox, long-eared hare and starry-eyed stoats. Perfect for a preschool group or a young reading companion aged 4+.

In a few months I will be talking to a small group of local Teacher-Librarians. One of the things I want to share is the importance of sharing the BEST picture books from around the world both for their stories but even more for the way picture books give children of all ages (from youngest up to young adult) an experience of some of the best art in the world.

Nighttime is one of Teckentrup’s specialties, and this gently soothing tale is no exception; it’s sure to have little ones on their way to the sweetest of dreams in no time. Dreamlike, quiet, delightful. Kirkus

A Happy Place is another triumph by Britta Teckentrup and her artwork provides a perfect backdrop to the text. It is calm and comforting, full of nature and little details that can be pored over and explored. Just Imagine

Hopefully you have one or two books in your school library illustrated by Britta Teckentrup. Her art is simply incredible. A Happy Place has flaps and die-cut pages so I was amazed to discover it is not too expensive in paperback [9781838916596]. Pop the name Britta Teckentrup into my side bar or click the label on this post to see more of her books.

Song of the River by Joy Cowley illustrated by Kimberly Andrews

Publisher blurb: In this resonant story from Joy Cowley, Cam the mountain boy follows the river from its trickling source in the snow all the way to the sea. The river leads him through forest, farms and towns to the salty wind of the sea. The dramatic landscapes are packed with detail to discover in the world of the river.

Cam lives in the mountains with his grandfather. He is curious and asks when can they see the sea. Cam sees a trickle of water and hears a voice calling:

"Come with me. Come with me. I will take you to the sea."

Cam follows the trickle and it leads to a creek then a stream and then the stream becomes a river flowing beside farm lands and leading to the port where Cam finally sees a beach and the sea.

"It was wild and beautiful ... and it went on forever."

These lines reminded me of the words by Margaret Mahy (also from New Zealand) from her book The Man whose Mother was a Pirate.

“The little man could only stare. He hadn’t dreamed of the BIGNESS of the sea. He hadn’t dreamed of the blueness of it. He hadn’t thought it would roll like kettledrums, and swish itself on to the beach. He opened his mouth and the drift and the dream of it, the weave and the wave of it, the fume and foam of it never left him again. At his feet the sea stroked the sand with soft little paws. Farther out, the great, graceful breakers moved like kings into court, trailing the peacock-patterned sea behind them.”

This book jumped off the library shelf for two, or maybe three reasons. Firstly I really like the cover and so I expected to like the illustrations. I have put two covers here - one is the hardcover and the other the more affordable paperback. Secondly, I recognised the name Joy Cowley (I recently talked about her new book Good Night Good Beach) and thirdly the library I visit each week has added Sustainable Development Goal stickers to the covers of their books and this one had Goal 6 - Clean water and Sanitation. This link will take you to my post about this exceptional resource created by my friend from Kinderbookswitheverything. And this second link will take you to Goal 6.

Check out this Pinterest of other books you could use to explore this goal

Song of the River is a book you should add to your school library collection. Why? It has lyrical language and a story that makes geography accessible (notice the maps on the end papers) and as I mentioned the illustrations are very appealing. Take a look at these phrases:

The water splashed and sand in the voice of snow.

The creek laughed down the mountainside and chattered over stones.

The river sang in the voice of green and gold frogs.

The river drank other rivers ...

Cowley neatly modulates Cam’s adventure, sentences that build and accrete like that rivulet taking readers on the journey. Andrews’ diverse landscapes are solidly composed, shifting angles but maintaining an earthy, muted palette. Kirkus

Companion books:

A River

The River

Where have the Unicorns Gone? by Jane Yolen illustrated by Ruth Sanderson

"In the moment that separates nighttime and dawn,

The instant of daydream that's here and then gone,

You might see the toss of a mane or a horn

And the wavery shape of escape unicorn

In that watery eden, the sea."

I picked up this book at a recent charity book sale. It was published in 2003 but when I checked an online bookseller it seems it might still be available. This is a book I would most certainly add to my Senior Picture book collection for readers aged 10+ mainly because this book is filled with the most sophisticated words:

haven; golding glades; routed by gouts of iron-red flames; gouged from hillsides; clacketing mills; catacombed hills; cataphonetics of city and town; noxious smog; wee wisplets of fog; and contrails of rockets.

This book is also begging to be read aloud. And think about that word cataphonetics! It would be fabulous to put this book into the hands of a talented and passionate teacher of Grade 6 or 7 or 8. 

The illustrations by Ruth Sanderson are so rich. They perfectly depict all the environments where unicorns once roamed freely. This book is a perfect example of the way words and illustrations should work together. Read more about Ruth Sanderson who was born in 1951 here. I found a 2016 interview with Ruth Sanderson where she talks about her art and processes. 

"Where have the unicorns gone?

They have scattered far from the noxious smog,

Wrapping themselves in wee wisplets of fog;

Leaving the iron-sharp city-straight scapes,

Fleeing in greying and tatter moon capes,

Away from the scenting of fire and fume."

Bookseller blurb: Long ago unicorns lived in a haven of sun-dappled glades and flower-filled dells. But as civilization spread over the ages -- with its fierce knights, its chugging trains, its thick smogs -- unicorns had to find a new sanctuary. But where? Jane Yolen finds a magical answer in the traditional unicorn myth. Her rhythmic, rhymed text is irresistible to read aloud. And Ruth Sanderson's brilliant artwork gives unicorns a bold reality in everything from ancient cave paintings to their secret, present-day home. After reading this tribute to the mystical, mysterious unicorn, children will enjoy looking for these elusive creatures in the world around them.

Jane Yolen talks about her book here on her web page. Click on the name Jane Yolen at the bottom of this post to see other books I have mentioned on this blog. 

If you are talking to your class about alliteration just look at these examples:

• dimity bells
• golding glades
• shadows shift in silver shades
• (the) perfect peace of ponds
• (the) ribbon-rolled river
• webbings of wires
• silken and swift and silver and streak

"They have galloped away, never looking around,

To wade in the perfect peace of ponds."

Little Treasure by Chanelle Gosper illustrated by Jennifer Goldsmith

 

Publisher blurb: A mother and child explore a deserted beach on a windy day. It is an afternoon they will both treasure always. A poetic and tender book about how the small moments spent together are often the most precious.

One of the important "outcomes" that comes from reading a well written and beautifully illustrated picture book to a child (of any age) is they will hear rich language.  Look at these examples from Little Treasure:

"A smooth purple pebble with silvery lines, a seaweed strand with beads so fine, blue sea glass in the shape of a bell, and a tiny pale pink heart-shaped shell."

"A piece of the night sky that fell from the stars, a necklace of green stones sparkling like glass, a precious sapphire as blue as can be, and a perfectly pink charm of the sea."

I don’t think there is one straight line anywhere in any of the images in the book. The illustrations have a fluidity that capture the shifting nature of the beach setting and the make-believe scenes from the characters’ imaginations. Towards the end of the book, we begin to grasp the dual meaning of the title, Little Treasure. For while the child is lost in her world of seaside treasures, the mother is treasuring the experience of being with her innocent, inquisitive daughter. Reading Time

The ordinary becomes the extraordinary as shells and seaweed become a mermaids’ jewels; a ship on the horizon transports treasure to unknown places; footsteps in the sand become pathways to new adventures and undiscovered worlds.  And throughout it all, is threaded the unending love between mother and child fed by the small moments that become memories and the joy of sharing them in a timeless bubble, reminding us that those are the most precious things of all. The Bottom Shelf

Stop and look at the end papers and then next time you visit the seaside you might look for this seaweed that is like a string of pearls. I found the scientific name for Neptunes Pearls Hormosira banksii.

Image source iNaturalist New Zealand

Little Treasure is a 2024 CBCA Notable Picture Book. 

How to Write a Poem by Kwane Alexander and Deanna Nikaido illustrated by Melissa Sweet

 

"Close your eyes, open the window of your mind and climb out, 
like a seedling reaching for tomorrow."

Every word of this book is liquid gold - plan to read this aloud before your group of students begin their writing - poetry or prose.

Kwame says: "A poem is a small but mighty thing. It has the power to reach inside, to teach us, to ignite our imaginations. Now more than ever, children need a surefire way to channel their emotions, build their confidence and discover the world and their place in it. Poetry, with its simplicity, with its accessibility and rhythm, can do all these things instantaneously."

Melissa Sweet says: "This collage art was made with vintage and handmade papers, paint, pencils, printed letterforms, and beach pebbles."

I want to say run into your school library and ask/demand that the Teacher-Librarian buys this book but in reality here in Australia this wonderful book is very expensive. I have friends who work in NSW schools who have such small library budgets - so this book is not one they could ever consider acquiring. I have looked at a range of online and store front sellers and the price of this book varies between $30 and $44. I guess very few school libraries will be able to purchase this book but perhaps you will find it in a local library or you could view the ebook version. 

Marvelously crafted to inspire blooming writers. Kirkus Star review

Here are other books about writing poetry:

This is a poem that heals fish

Daniel finds a poem

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, producer and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 39 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated, the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

Companion volume:

Look for these too all illustrated by Melissa Sweet:

Some Writer!

Carmine a little more red

The Right Word

Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini illustrated by Dan Williams

"... among the crying babies and the women worrying in tongues we don't speak. Afghans and Somalis and Iraqis and Eritreans and Syrians. All of us impatient for sunrise, all of us in dread of it. All of us in search of home."

This is a deeply moving, important and lyrical book. A father writes a letter to his son describing the past, the present and his hope for their future.

Sea Prayer was inspired by one refugee. In 2015, a Syrian toddler named Alan Kurdi drowned, along with most of his family, while attempting to cross to Greece. The boy's body was memorably photographed face down on a Turkish beach.

Listen to a radio interview with NPR. You can hear Khaled read extracts from this text.

Publisher blurb: On a moonlit beach a father cradles his sleeping son as they wait for dawn to break and a boat to arrive. He speaks to his boy of the long summers of his childhood, recalling his grandfather's house in Syria, the stirring of olive trees in the breeze, the bleating of his grandmother's goat, the clanking of her cooking pots. And he remembers, too, the bustling city of Homs with its crowded lanes, its mosque and grand souk, in the days before the sky spat bombs and they had to flee. When the sun rises they and those around them will gather their possessions and embark on a perilous sea journey in search of a new home.

Who is the audience? I think this is a book best suited to readers aged 13+ up to adults. If you are using this with a class I would begin with the beautiful phrase:

"I look at your profile in the glow of this three-quarter moon, my boy, your eyelashes like calligraphy closed in guileless sleep."

The book reads like an emotional gut-punch…an excruciating one. It is impossible to read without feeling intense compassion for those—and there are thousands—whose lives resemble those of the characters in the book. Kirkus

Sea Prayer is a book that crosses genres and boundaries. It reads like a poem, possessing the rhythm of an old, almost-forgotten song. ...  It will allow adults to walk, for a few moments, in a refugee family’s shoes. It helps us imagine the desperation of a decision to flee home and cross a cold, dark sea. It is a book that should, and will, endure. It’s a book that will break your heart wide open. NY Journal of Books

One of the most striking things about this book is the gentle water colour art. You can see inside Sea Prayer on Dan Williams web site. 

Williams uses sweeping colours to convey both the beauty of Syria but also the dark haunting nature of war and being torn from your country. Waking Brain Cells

The retail price of this book, published in 2018, is $25 but I was lucky to find a brand new copy at a recent charity book fair for just $5. I am so pleased I can now add this book to my collection. 

Tell me a Dragon by Jackie Morris

One day someone asked me, if I had a dragon, what would it be like. I realised that almost every day it would be different. Some days I would like a big dragon to fight battles for me, sometimes a small dragon to curl around my ear and tell me stories. Each day a different dragon, but each one mine. And so I wrote Tell Me a Dragon. Jackie Morris

I am a huge fan of Jackie Morris and her art. Take a look at my previous post. 

It seems essential to me that we share picture books with our children that contain breathtaking art and scrumptious language - and that is the combination you will find in Tell me a Dragon.

Here are a few text samples:

"My dragon is made from the sun and the stars. Sparkled with stardust."

"My dragon eats sweet, perfumed flowers. When she laughs, petals ride on her breath."

"My dragons are tiny, with whisper-thin wings of rainbow hues."

Tell me a Dragon has a cover that extends across the front and back and the end papers are filled with eggs of all colours and sizes at the front while at the back the baby dragons have begun to hatch. Just a perfect book design and inside you will find, as I already said, the most wonderful illustrations. 

Here is a video of Jackie Morris reading her book. 

This book is still in print (first published in 2009) but it is way way too expensive for any school library to consider purchasing which is such a shame. In 2009 the school library where I borrowed Tell me a Dragon paid $28 but today this same book is nearly $43 from one online Australian supplier. The new edition was published in 2018. So I really want to say this book should be an essential addition to any school library - mine always had lots of very keen dragon fans - but really I am sure no one could afford this hefty price. Perhaps you might be lucky and find a second hand copy - I do hope so. 

Images from Jackie Morris come from her Twitter page. You could use this book with an art class as jumping off point to talk about portrayal of dragons by children's book illustrators:

Jackie Morris - Tell me a Dragon "My dragon is an ice-dragon. His breath is snowflakes".

Jackie Morris Tell me a Dragon - "My dragon is snaggle-toothed. Fierce and brave".

Brian Wildsmith

David Wiesner

Eric Carle

PJ Lynch

Tomie DePaola

Emma Chichester Clark The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup

The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch

Axel Scheffler

Ellie's Dragon

A Song Full of Sky by Ruth Doyle illustrated by Britta Teckentrup

"Smell the sun on soft petals, taste berries warm and sweet ... 

Feel the tickles of tadpoles as the stream cools your feet."

Image Source: Amazon UK

If I was still working in a school library I think I might try to purchase every book illustrated by Britta Teckentrup. I adore her art and if often accompanies a beautifully crafted text. Here is another sample from this book:

"See the owl surfing sky like a moon-dappled kite ...

Horses racing the clouds with their manes catching light."

About Britta: Britta Teckentrup is an illustrator, fine artist and writer. She was born in Hamburg, Germany, and went on to study at St. Martin's College and the Royal College of Art in London. Britta has created over 40 books, translated in 20 languages worldwide, and her artwork has been shown at exhibitions all over the world. She lives and works in Berlin with her artist husband and their son.

I have previously talked about:

Little Mouse and the Red Wall

How big is the World?

We are Together

Birds and their Feathers

Bee

I have also mentioned a previous book by Ruth Doyle - Dreams for our Daughters.

The Whales' Song by Dyan Sheldon illustrated by Gary Blythe

Lilly's grandmother tells her about the whales who once used to visit the bay near their home. Lilly's grandmother explains to Lilly if you want to see and more importantly hear the whales you need to leave them a gift - a perfect shell or a beautiful stone.

Sadly, Lilly's old Uncle Frederick has no time for these fanciful tales. In his view the whales were hunted for their meat, bones and blubber. He is sure all of the whales are long gone. 

Lilly's dreams are filled with whales and so in the morning she drops a yellow flower into the water at the end of the jetty. That night something magical happens:

"Her heart was pounding as she reached the sea. There enormous in the ocean, were the whales. They leapt and jumped and spun across the moon. Their singing filled up the night. Lilly saw her yellow flower dancing on the spray."

Sheldon captures a child's wonder at these magnificent creatures, echoed, in a splendid debut, in Blythe's generously broad oil paintings. His whales- -viewed from near, unusual vantage points—are benignly heroic while, from dawn to moonlight, his sea and sky are beautifully observed; best are his lovely, perceptive portraits of the old woman's wise, lined face and Lilly's tousled curls and expressive eyes. Outstanding. Kirkus

The Whales' Song was first published in 1990 but I am happy to see a paperback edition is still available. This is also a book you are sure to find in a library. I have mentioned The Whales' Song in a past blog post  and again here but today I realised I have not dedicated a post to this richly illustrated text.

Dyan Sheldon was born in America but now lives in London. I own another of her books also illustrated by Gary - The Garden or in another edition Under the Moon. The Whales' Song was Gary Blythe's first picture book. 

Here is another book illustrated by Gary Blythe: