The Branch by Mireille Messier illustrated by Pierre Pratt

When I visit the library where I am SO lucky to work as a volunteer, I have to constantly remind myself I will never be able to read every book and that I should just be happy when I make a new discovery. Once again today I found a treasure - this is an older book - 2016 - and so it is out of print. I really wish I had discovered this book back when it was published because it is one I would have loved to add to my school library. 

A branch falls off the tree in a wild storm. The little girl in this story loved that branch - it was a perfect place to play and explore her imaginative ideas.

"It was my castle, my spy base, my ship ..."

Other trees in the neighborhood are also damaged and people up and down the street have begun the clean-up but the little girl needs to keep her huge branch. Luckily Mr Frank from next door does understand. He offers to help. He and the little girl carry the branch to his workshop and over the following days working together they create something wonderful.

Bookseller blurb: When an ice storm snaps a small girl's favorite branch from the tree in her yard, she's crestfallen. The girl's mom says it's just a branch. But not to her! "That was the branch I sat on, jumped from, played under. It was my castle, my spy base, my ship…" Luckily, her neighbor Mr. Frank understands. He says the branch has "potential." "What's potential?" she asks. "It means it's worth keeping." And so, with imagination and spirit, and Mr. Frank's guidance and tools, the girl transforms the broken branch into something whole and new, giving it another purpose, and her another place to treasure.

In this endearing picture book, author Mireille Messier explores a young child's experience with loss and renewal. Though the little girl is heartbroken that her special perch in the tree is gone, the kindness and vision of her neighbor, combined with her own creativity and determination, help her recognize that it can have a new life in a different form. The charming intergenerational relationship adds depth and richness to the story, as it becomes clear they both offer something valuable to each other.

The idea behind this book is perhaps a simple one but this story is brim full of joy. It would be wonderful to see a grandfather and child sharing this book and then perhaps creating something together. 

Image source: Montreal Gazette (see more images from inside this book here)

Here is the book trailer. Pierre Pratt is a Canadian illustrator - you can see his books here (note many are in French). Pierre Pratt is a previous winner of the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award in 2003 and again in 2014 (finalist). Lots of his books have Kirkus Star reviews.

Awards for The Branch:

• Short-listed for the 2016 Governor General Award, Young People’s Literature Illustrated Book category.
• Short-listed for the Maine’s Readers’ Choice Chickadee Award.
• Nominee for the Surrey School’s Picture Book of the Year Award.
• Finalist for the 2018 Forest of Reading Blue Spruce Award.
• Finalist for the 2018-19 Saskatchewan Young Readers’ Choice Award, Shining Willow category

Brimming with personality and passion, this protagonist is a joy to know. Kirkus Star review

I previously talked about this book by Mireille Messier:

The Magic Cap

I am keen to see this book:

Amazing Astro Animals by James Foley

"Humans decided to send small animals in their rockets until they were sure they could make it safe enough to send themselves. Because of this, the early history of animals in space includes many sad stories." [sorry I know this is a spoiler]

Astro - this means SPACE! Astro Animals! This means animals sent into space! Amazing ones yes because even though you might know about a few such as Laika the dog sent in 1957 and maybe a monkey or chimp and if you really are a space boffin you might have heard that a tardigrade travelled into space in 2007 but I guarantee you will have no idea about the other sixty animals that James Foley describes in his newest book. If you don't believe me what about the Mummichog Fish?

Image source: James Foley

I was not sure how to start this blog post about Amazing Astro Animals. I think I would like to fill my page with the word WOW written hundreds of times all over this post - yes this is a WOW book! The title is so right - the animals in this book are amazing and James Foley, your book is amazing too!

The Space Race really was a race mainly between the USA and the Soviet Union although other countries did get involved too but before humans went up into the cosmos a huge variety of animals blasted off in the interest of science. Was this ethical?

The first couple of pages in this book are used to explain the term animals because, as you know, there are so many different kinds of animals. Your young reading companion or class (me too) really need this overview of the animal kingdom that James Foley presents over a double page spread. There are seven pages in total that explore animal classifications and then a further spread which identifies all the dangers of space such as no air, lack of gravity, isolation, and extreme temperatures. 

Each section of Amazing Astro Animals is colour coded to match the chapter headings: Fantastic Firsts; Mammal-nauts; Slimy-nauts, Scaly-nauts and Feathery-nauts; Aqua-nauts; and Teeny-tiny-nauts. Plus, like all the best nonfiction books there is an extensive glossary and a full index.

James Foley has created true alchemy with this new book. It is factual and clearly involved thousands of hours of painstaking research, but this book is also funny, clever, poignant and a visual delight. Congratulations to Fremantle Press on giving James Foley the scope to make such a huge book (150 pages) in hardcover and for a very affordable price. EVERY school and public library needs to add this book to their collection. In fact, you might like to buy two copies because this book will be in high demand. I feel very lucky to have been sent a review copy of this glorious volume. 

It would take me days to list all of my discoveries from this book (and really all YOU need to do is read the whole book for yourself) but I will mention a couple that made me gasp:

• Neil Armstrong is famous but he was not the first human to go to space and of course he was not the first Earthling either. The first Earthlings in space were fruit flies. The first human was the Russian cosmonaut Turi Gagarin. His flight lasted just under two hours. 
• Laika was not the first dog sent into space but she was the first Earthling to orbit the Earth. 
• The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova from Russia. I read about her mission orbiting the earth 48 times over three days and I cheered when I read she became a Major General and even a politician BUT then I discovered "she voted in favour of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022" and so my opinion of this space pioneer plummeted.  
• As of 2026 only 15% of humans who have travelled to space have been women. 
• The first Earthlings to travel around (not land) on the moon were tortoises and mealworms (1968).
• Many of the animals sent into space were given sweet names - Miss Able and Miss Baker (squirrel monkeys from USA); Belka meaning Squirrel and Stelka meaning arrow (white lab rats from USSR 1960); and Yerosha and Drema (rhesus macaques 1987).
• In 1984 3,400 honeybees travelled on the Space Shuttle Discovery and they were able to make honey in space!
• Some of the animals sent into space were suggested by High School students who entered competitions.

This book just resonates with research and please stop and think about that because researching material from USSR and Russia in a language you don't speak and from organisations that, even now, years later are sure to be shrouded in secrecy must have been so challenging. I imagine James Foley learned a lot too about animal biology, space missions, and rocket designs not to mention diplomacy.

Here are the teachers notes for Amazing Astro Animals. See some pages here. 

Do you remember Stella? We met her in 2021. Her book, like this one, had fabulous end papers filled with astronauts - animal astronauts. Amazing Astro Animals is a companion volume to the wonderful Stellarphant which was a CBCA Picture Book of the Year Honour book (and I am proud to say I was one of the three judges that year!). Dr Stella Phant has written the foreword and afterword to Amazing Astro Animals, and you will love discovering her 'joke' on the back cover.

Stellarphant

Readers of all ages are captivated by space, and this animal astronaut showcase has broad appeal. James Foley has drawn from his picture book and graphic novel talents to create a uniquely entertaining and genuinely fascinating nonfiction book. There are fun comic strips and visual gags throughout, and fans of Foley’s wonderful picture book Stellarphant will be delighted to recognise a familiar face in the opening pages. Reading Melbourne

Image source: James Foley

My interest in animals that were sent into space goes back to this very old book but now that I have read this new volume by James Foley I have discovered so many more animals along with their true stories:

I recently read this book about Laika the famous Russian dog sent into space:

Dog Star

Further Reading:

Fifty Animals that have been to Space by Jennifer A Read and John Read (2020)

(This book tells the stories of 50 trips into space, and the animals and the scientists involved).

Kiddle: Animals in space facts for kids

Animals in Space timeline National Geographic (this is brilliant)

Fun facts about animals in space

Dogs in Space: The Amazing True Story of Belka and Strelka by Vix Southgate, illustrated by Iris Deppe

Grace in Space by Stacy Shaneyfelt illus Marina Maslova

Grace In Space: A Kids’ Picture Book About the History of 10 Animal Astronaut Heroes

Included: Laika; Marfusha; and Felicette

Eighty-nine questions for after by Ashleigh Barton

"Every moment matters"

Ester is a tidy girl who carefully regulates her life. She is also a girl with so many fears that she seems to be way too cautious. Everything is sanitised and all dangers are avoided if possible. Her mind is filled with questions which she notes down in her book - one on each page - mostly about unsolved mysteries. She is sure these questions will be answered in the afterlife. Once her life was actually carefree, then her Dad and Grandma Maggie died and so now all she can see is danger everywhere. She even avoids a flowering bush in their garden in case there are bees which could sting her.

"She hopped in on Mum's side of the car and climbed across the console to get into her seat, just in case the hot pink flowers were full of bees. Not that Ester had anything against bees in general, but she had never been stung before and didn't want to take the chance that she was allergic. She wasn't willing to risk having an anaphylactic reaction and ending up in a real hospital with actual sick people. Or worse."

Ester is terrified of getting sick so when mum tells her that after school she will need to wait at the hospice where she works, Ester is certain this will be the worst place ever. Luckily, she is able to sit in the almost empty sitting room with a lovely view of the garden and there she meets a boy named Peter who, unlike others in her life, IS interested in her big book of questions. They sit together each afternoon doing homework and talking about the questions. 

Ester does not want to meet any residents but her mum introduces her to Joan and it is Joan who sets Ester on a course to solve a mystery and along the way to gain courage and make two friends. I am mentioning two friends because aside from Peter a new family have moved in next door and they have four kids including a girl named Mackenzie (Mack). Mackenzie has an ambition to become a Private Eye Detective.

What is the mystery? Joan lost her sister 62 years ago. They were circus performers. All she has is a faded photograph and a flyer from the circus. Can these fragments give Ester and Mack enough clues to solve this mystery and reunite the sisters? They will need to hurry because after all Joan is now living in the hospice and so clearly her life is nearing its end. 

(Did you ever read a book called Boss of the Pool by Robin Klein? The scenes in Eight-Nine questions for after where Ester tries to avoid meeting the people who live in Sunflower Cottage reminded me of that book.)

Publisher blurb: Ester Star is a germophobe and hypochondriac and she's convinced she's going to die. To prepare for her imminent and inevitable demise, Ester keeps a list of all the questions she hopes to have answered in the afterlife - things she knows she'll never have the answers to during her lifetime. What really happened to the dinosaurs? Just how big is the universe? Are ghosts real? She's up to eighty-nine questions and counting. When Ester's usual after-school sitters announce they are moving away, her mum comes up with an alternative arrangement that turns her world upside down. 

Every day after school, Ester is to spend her afternoons with Mum at work. At a hospice. Terrified of all the things she might catch at a hospice; Ester is anxious every second she's there. But soon she meets Joan, an elderly lady who used to be in the circus. Joan tells Ester she doesn't believe in the afterlife, but she does have one question she'll regret never having answered while she's alive. Why did her sister disappear all those years ago, after they had been so close growing up in the circus together? With the help of Peter, another kid who spends his afternoons at the hospice, and her new next-door neighbour, a tech whizz named Mackenzie, Ester sets out to have Joan's question answered. Will Ester realise there's more to life than worrying about dying?

Ester is the main character in this story but it is Mack (Mackenzie) who I really wanted to meet and hug. She is so wonderful in the way she seems to understand Ester and all her fears and phobias but at the same time she is always ready to push Ester to try new, and sometimes, very daring things.

"That's the trick about fear,' Mackenzie said. 'If you act like you're not scared, you'll trick your brain into believing that you're not. That's my theory anyway. It's not always possible, but it usually works for me."

If you grew up in Sydney in the 1960s or 1970s you may well remember the African Safari park - it terrified me. The scene from page 162 onwards would be a perfect way to introduce this book to your library group.

You can hear Asheigh Barton reading the opening chapters of her book here (start at 2.38). In this post for Paperbark Words Ashleigh talks about the inspiration for her book and the research she completed. The publisher Hachette have made a set of book club discussion questions to use with Eighty-nine questions for after. 

Both of these reviews have lots of plot details:

This is a tender book, which is equally heartbreaking and joyous, filled with adventure and experiences, and learning to live. Learning to see life as more than dying and asking the big questions. It is also about friendship and acceptance. Peter and Mackenzie accept Ester for who she is. They don’t judge, and they seem to understand she is the way she is, which I thought was beautiful. She was allowed to have her fears and worries, and allowed to grow throughout the novel. The Book Muse

Those important themes of loss, grief, anxiety, mortality are deftly handled and paired with hope, joy, empathy and kindness. Ester’s character arc is handled with such skill as we see her gentle but sure transformation. There is never a second that this becomes trite or mawkish, it is always essentially authentic and the reader cannot help becoming fully immersed in the plot and, most definitely, liking these characters – even the irascible ones. Just So Stories

I've been a bit of a reading slump for a couple of weeks - until today! I don't know why but I was sure Eight-nine questions for after would be a good book - and now it discover it is so much more - it is a fabulous book and an absolute page turner. I read the whole 271 pages in one sitting. This book will be a CBCA 2026 Younger Readers Notable and hopefully also on the shortlist. I love the way this book has Australian place names but the story still feels as though it will easily translate to an audience in the US or UK. 

Eight-nine Questions for After is a book with a big heart. It is story that I am sure will linger with me for a long time. 

Companion books:

Long Road to the Circus

Picasso and the Greatest Show on Earth

The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen

As Brave as You

The Goldfish boy

Busted

Magnolia Wu Unfolds it all

Snap (this is a very old book and long out of print)

If you want to build on the idea of asking questions - Ester has a book with 89 questions and luckily they are all listed in the back of the book. Ester's questions are used as Chapter titles - I really liked this structure. Here are some other excellent books filled with questions:

Pablo Neruda Book of Questions

Twenty Questions

Where does pepper come from?

Ashleigh Barton goes from strength to strength with her writing. Here is her web page.  Check out my previous posts:

Freddie Spector Fact Collector

How to sail to Somewhere

We Go Slow by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie illustrated by Aaron Becker

It's a story about presence, connection, and love. 

The kind that grows stronger with every step we take together. 

Matthew C Winner (podcast)

We go slow opens with a hectic morning scene. The young boy heading to his soccer game is in such a hurry his image is almost a blur and so is mum as she heads out the door to work. How does this link with the title? Turn the page and the pace immediately slows right down.

"Mornings are soft laughter, fresh bread, nutmeg & coffee smells. Mornings are stories, cool crackling records & trying to remember last night's dream".

Crackling records? Where is this child? Who are they with? It is their grandfather. Go back to that hectic (wordless) first story spread. The child of this story is calmly eating breakfast in a side room and the grandfather is preparing his coffee. Neither have the rushed look, that we see in the illustrations, of the other family members. 

The child and their grandfather head out onto the sun dappled street. 

Image source: Simon and Schuster

"Outside we go slow, learn a yellow bird's song & a new neighbors name."

Even the sunflower seems to unfold slowly - oh and make sure you look under the dust jacket - you will see this same sunflower. 

My favourite page is when the child looks up at the power pole and says I "wonder if sneakers like their new view from up high." Have you seen the way people throw shoes and sneakers over electrical wires - I have always wondered why.

Image source: Simon and Schuster

This is another one of those books where I would have loved to be inside the mind of the illustrator when he received the text for this book which I imagine was just one typed page. What image do you think of to go with these words for example:

"We go slow, make a wish & watch someone try."

The opening spread in this book is wordless and so are the final three pages. The colours have changed from yellows and sunshine to muted purples and orange as the sun is setting. The passing of time is not explicitly mentioned but it is beautifully shown by the changes in colour and light. The setting is New York city but really we could be in any urban environment - any busy city. 

Publisher blurb: A child and her grandfather step out of their brownstone and take a walk around their lively city. Together, they practice looking closely. They delight in the world that they see, taste, touch, feel, and hear. Whether learning a yellow bird’s song, tasting a street vendor’s mango slices, or listening to the thumping music from passing cars, they find small wonders in every moment they share—and together, always, they go slow.

It’s rather dreamlike and yet still vibrant and urban. Waking Brain Cells

Awards

• ALA Notable Children's Books
• The Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration
• CBC Best Children's Books of the Year
• NCTE Charlotte Huck Outstanding Fiction Recommended Title
• Massachusetts Book Award
• NYPL Best Books

Via spare, poetic language as well as watercolor and pencil illustrations that take hazy, desaturated hues, Tallie and Becker celebrate the time shared between a child and caretaker as they together meander through a metropolitan neighborhood. ... Whether viewed as a depiction of mindfulness in practice or the quiet joys of together time, this tender story is a reminder of the importance of being in the world with unhurried attention and open hearts.” Publisher's Weekly

Here is a rich and insightful interview with Aaron and Mariahadessa - you can listen or read the transcript. Here is a quote from the introduction:

Their new picture book We Go Slow, is a quiet contemplative walk through a bustling city neighborhood where a girl and her grandfather take time to notice the world around them. They listen to bird song, taste mango slices from a street vendor, and feel the rhythm of passing cars, finding small wonders in every moment they share Mariahadessa’s lyrical text.

About the illustrator: Caldecott Honor winner Aaron Becker is the New York Times bestselling author of the Journey trilogy and other award-winning books for children young and old, including The Last Zookeeper, The Tree and the River, and A Stone for Sascha.

About the author: Ezra Jack Keats Honor winner Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie is an interdisciplinary artist and PhD candidate at Brown University. In addition to her award-winning picture book Layla’s Happiness, she has authored several collections of poetry and has performed poetry and taught in the United States, Namibia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and England. She was born and raised in Queens, New York, and her journeys across the borough inspired the writing of her picture book We Go Slow.

I am so happy to say that this book is one you might be able to afford for your school library at slightly less than AUS$30. And this is another picture book that would be perfect to share with an art teacher in both Primary and High Schools. Or if you find this book in your local or school library just slow right down and read this book with your young reading companion beside you sharing a very special moment that comes from reading a very special book with a lyrical text and art that will make you gasp!

I previously talked about this book by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie:

Layla's Happiness

Read the Kirkus Star revew

Companion books:

The Night Walk

Outside In

On a Summer Night

Dawn

Nana in the City

Wait wait

The Wonder Thing

One Day

If you listen

World Postcard Day October 1st

Watch this video - it's terrific!

I really love picture books and other children's books that contain letters and sometimes they even contain postcards such as the ones in The Jolly Postman. I have a collection of postcards featuring vintage Puffin books and recently I read that very few people now send personal letters and postcards and that these deliveries from Australia Post have almost disappeared. Putting all these things together, I decided to celebrate World Postcard Day this year by sending a postcard to twelve of my friends. As I write this post (September 29th) three have arrived.

You can read about the history of postcards here. World Postcard Day began in 2020. As an extension of this topic for a group of older students could be the investigation of the very special postcards sent during World War I which were created with embroidery. 

Take a look at this post from my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything - October 1st is a day with so many celebrations - not just postcards!

My Bear Grizz by Suzanne McGinness

McGinniss draws Griz in all his furry, naturalistic majesty, his warm coat a mass of scratchy brown ink lines, his heavy head as big as his owner Billy’s whole body. Griz dominates most of the spreads, his bulk echoed in the book’s extra-large type. 

Publisher's Weekly

My name is Billy and I love bears. My bear's name is Griz because he is a Grizzly Bear. 

Bookseller blurb: Billy has a bear called Griz. A Grizzly Bear. And the two friends have all kinds of wonderful adventures together. They go exploring, play hide and seek, eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches, share secrets and tell jokes. Griz is the best friend a boy could possibly have - whether he's a Grizzly Bear or a teddy bear... This is a stunning debut picture book about a boy and his bear, in which the short text and tactile, large scale paintings bring Griz and Billy magically to life.

Griz is striking, drawn in densely hatched and layered pen lines of browns and blacks, too big to fit on the page yet dominating the space. Griz has a wildness about him, an unrestrained vibe, but he never feels dangerous. Billy trusts Griz implicitly as they explore, share secrets and eat peanut-butter–and-honey sandwiches. Backgrounds are abstract, mellow watercolor, balancing the energetic lines of Griz’s fur. Billy’s enthusiastic, just-learning-to-write printing runs over the pages, crowing “Griz loves honey!” and “Grrr! Roar!” One aspect of Griz isn’t revealed until the final page, though discerning readers may note hints of make-believe in the fancifully colored forest trees (site of hide and seek) and the fluid size ratio of boy to bear. Kirkus

Art in this book is created with biro (and water colours). A really new book by Matthew Cordell has art also made with biro pens.

102 by Matthew Cordell

Clearing out old display materials in the library where I work as a volunteer I spied the dust jacket of My Bear Grizz and I was immediately drawn to the art.

This will seem very odd but up until the last page I enjoyed this book and especially appreciated the huge format and wonderful textured illustrations of the bear with his almost tactile fur. What happens at the end I hear you ask. Well, the story uses that old trope of "it was all a dream" or "this was all my imagination" and while I do appreciate other books that follow this form I somehow felt dreadfully let down here although I think all preschool children will love this 'twist'. My reaction probably came from reading this book way too quickly and not stopping to think about the visual clues. 

It’s a tribute to the imagination of children, simply chronicling one day in the life of young Billy, who loves bears and whose bear’s name is Griz, “because he is a Grizzly Bear.” They explore, snack, play hide-and-go-seek, share secrets, nap, and much more. In the final spread, we see proof that this boy’s imagination is as big as his imaginary friend, though discerning readers will notice other clues before the closing illustration. Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast

The other delightful aspect of this book is the way the author/illustrator has included graffiti - as a commentary on the action. The end papers are also covered with Billy's scribbles.

Using a pen for the art and the graffiti could be ideas your art teacher might like to include in their program. Of course this book from 2011 is now out of print but you might find a copy in library.

If you want to find another book where the last page is a good surprise try to find this one: