Author Spotlight: Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Another favorite author of ours is Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. We've read Seeds! Seeds! Seeds!, A Taste of Honey, The Kindness Quilt, Shells! Shells! Shells!, Count Down to Clean Up!, and Apples Apples Apples.

The books' illustrations are cleverly done in cut paper. It amazes me how Wallace is able to communicate concepts and characters so compellingly using cut paper. Buddy the bear and Minna the rabbit are two characters featured frequently in the books, and their personalities come alive even without being able to draw or paint various facial expressions.

Wallace takes the approach in most of her books of teaching about a topic in the midst of a story. In Seeds! Seeds! Seeds!, Buddy's grandpa sends him a package with various seed-related projects for him to do. In the process, he learns what various seeds look like, catalogues them, makes art projects using them, puts some in a bird feeder, and grows his own grass. It would be fun to get the book and then have your child do everything Buddy does. Similar to Monica Williamson's books, which I mentioned in a previous post, this author has a main storyline and then adds extra information about the topic that you can either delve into fully or skip over if your child isn't interested.

Each book could easily inspire other related projects for your child. In The Kindness Quilt, Minna's class at school creates a paper "quilt" noting various acts of kindness the students performed. My daughter loved looking at the hand-drawn quilt squares and hearing about the kind act displayed in each. An older child could then think of something kind to do and draw a square similar to what they did in the book.

Similarly, you could use Count Down to Clean Up to introduce a household clean up and conservation effort or recycling. You could read Shells! Shells! Shells! before going to the beach, or Apples Apples Apples prior to a trip to the orchard. The possibilities for making the books come alive are endless.

Nancy Elizabeth Wallace has countless other books that promise similar enjoyment and learning. I'm excited to read more of her titles!

The Colors of Us

Many people are familiar with the author/illustrator Karen Katz, perhaps best known for her board books such as Where Is Baby's Belly Button?. We've enjoyed several of Katz's books, but The Colors of Us truly stands out. The book is based on Katz and her daughter (adopted from Guatemala) and their observations of the various colors of their friends and acquaintences in their neighborhood.

Instead of just commenting on the various shades generically, they use various foods, spices, and things found in nature to describe the colors, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and caramel. I loved that this was addressed in such a positive and appreciative manner. In the end, Lena learns out how to mix paint to create all the shades in order to make paintings of all the people they saw.

Somewhat to my surprise, my daughter wanted to read this book over and over again and was very disappointed when it returned to the library.

Author Spotlight: Monica Wellington

We have enjoyed many of Monica Wellington's books, so I couldn't limit myself to posting just one. It all started with Mr. Cookie Baker, then moved on to Pizza at Sally's, Crepes by Suzette, Riki's Birdhouse, Apple Farmer Annie, Truck Driver Tom, Zinnia's Flower Garden, and Squeaking of Art.

I think our favorites of these are probably Zinnia's Flower Garden and Crepes by Suzette.

Wellington's books have bright, cheerful illustrations and are entertainingly educational. These are the kinds of books that beg you to dig into the subject matter: after reading Zinnia's Flower Garden, we planted zinnias, sunflowers, and sweet peas in our garden; Pizza at Sally's included a pizza recipe that we made together one Friday evening; we made crepes with Nutella after reading Crepes by Suzette; Squeaking of Art, a book about a group of mice visiting an art museum, inspired and informed a trip to our local art museum. (No, we did not drive a truck after reading Truck Driver Tom!)

If your child has a shorter attention span, you can simply read the main storyline. For older children or those who can focus longer, there are all sorts of extra blurbs in the margins with added information, plus several of the books have recipes, craft ideas, and so on at the end.

Knuffle Bunny and Knuffle Bunny Too

To say that my daughter loved these books (written and illustrated by Mo Willems) would be an understatement. The stories are so relatable to the preschooler's experience, the dialogue so amusing, and the illustrations so eye-catching that it's hard to imagine a child not being captivated. In the first book, Trixie loses her beloved Knuffle Bunny on a trip to the laundromat and her Mommy and Daddy search to find it. In the second, she brings Knuffle Bunny to preschool only to discover that a classmate has one just like it, and the teacher accidentally mixes them up! In the end, an exchange is made in the middle of the night on the streets of Brooklyn, and the girls wind up being friends. Even adults will enjoy the humorous story line and dialogue. The illustrations are particularly fun because they combine photographs of Brooklyn with original drawings. There are many more works by Willems to enjoy, but these were my daughter's ultimate favorites.

Moon Rabbit

The book Moon Rabbit by Natalie Russell is the beautifully illustrated story of a girl rabbit who enjoys her life in the city but is sometimes lonely. She finally meets a boy rabbit who lives in the park and spends a marvelous time with him, reveling in the meeting of a true friend and companion. Eventually, though, she misses the city and decides to go back, but the boy rabbit comes to visit her.

The story is so simply told but with such profound feeling. I appreciated the fact that though the rabbit wanted to go back to the city, she realized that she didn't have to choose between having a friend and being true to herself. The friends could each share their favorite places and activities with each other without having to become exactly alike.

The art is done in soothing colors and the text is brief enough to keep the attention of young ones.

Ella Takes the Cake

I discovered this book simply by being attracted to the illustrations, but after reading it I was enchanted by the story as well. Ella is a little elephant who lives in a pretty village by the sea and helps her mother in the local bakery. She wants to do more to help, but is too little to handle the hot oven or slice the pies with knives. She gets her opportunity to take on a major task when the delivery man forgets to load a special cake on his truck. Ella hitches a cart to her bike and heads off to fulfill her task, though she encounters many obstacles.

The sweet determination of Ella and the loving relationship between she and her mother make this book stand out. Young children will relate to Ella's desire to help and will delight in seeing if she can fulfill her goal of delivering the cake. The bright, idealistic illustrations create a setting that makes me want to jump right in and live in the little village.

There are a few other Ella books currently available, and I'm excited to see if they are as delightful as this title.

Welcome!

Welcome to Children's Literature Reviews! Really, that's just a fancy way of saying this is a place where I plan to post reviews of children's books that I consider to be particularly high quality, special, or noteworthy in some way. I don't plan on reviewing books that were disappointing to me.

I have a preschool-age child, so my reviews will mostly cover books of interest to her at this point. I'm finding such a variety in the quality of books available that I wanted to create a place where I could highlight those we've enjoyed the most. The books could be anything from classics (including ones I've saved from my own childhood bookshelf) to new releases. I hope you'll stop by your local library or bookstore and check some of them out! I'd also enjoy hearing your recommendations.

Happy reading!