

A hodgepodge of anything literary-related📚 Author quotes 😊Kidlit recommendations 🚸Humor😁
Earth-themed picture book recommendations are by Angela Ferraris, The Retired School Librarian.
(This content contains Amazon affiliate links. When you buy through these links, I may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you).
by Jordan Scott (Author), Sydney Smith (Illustrator). Publisher : Neal Porter Books. 2023. PreK-3. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-0823450831.
Brief summary: Author, Jordan Scott, recalls visiting with his Baba at her home. His father would drop Jordan off to have breakfast with his Baba and afterwards, they would walk together to his school. If it was raining, Baba would look for worms and put them in a glass jar to take home for her garden.
His baba would retrieve him after school, and they would spend time in her garden learning about the plants. This is their usual routine until she moves in with the family when a new building is built over her home. Not able to have a full garden any longer, she keeps a little garden in her room.
Told through the first-person point of view by the boy.
Jordan Scott wrote one of the most lovely book dedications I’ve ever read.
For more details or to buy, click here.
Rating: 5/5 📗📗📗📗📗
by Tania Medvedeva (Author), Maria Vyshinskaya (Illustrator). Publisher : Thames & Hudson. 2023. Grades 3-6. Hardcover Nonfiction Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-0500653135.
Brief summary: Wow. Love this book! It is full of everything a young reader needs to know about Antarctica, and all done with regular text, speech bubbles, and nonfiction text features. Children will stop and examine the detailed illustrations before turning to the next page.
The several foldouts make a whole sphere, full of information and fun pictures.
The book’s format is a fourth of a sphere but can fit appropriately on a shelf.
This is a must for any school or public library and would make a superb book gift for the young reader in the family(as well as adult book lovers). Cleverly done.
For more details or to buy, click here.
Rating: 5/5 📗📗📗📗📗
by Tziporah Cohen (Author), Udayana Lugo (Illustrator). Publisher : Sleeping Bear Press. 2023 PreK-2. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-1534112711.
Brief summary: Mrs. Kosta and Victoria plant and nurture a beet seed until it ripens. The woman begins to harvest the gigantic beet but cannot remove it from the ground, no matter how hard she tugs. Several neighbors stop by the garden to help pull, creating a line out to the sidewalk until the vegetable is uprooted with a big “SPROING!!”
There is an Author’s Note and Raw Beet & Garlic Salad Recipe in the back.
For more details or to buy, click here.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
by Shaunna & John Stith (Author), Maribel Lechuga (Illustrator). Publisher : little bee books . 2023. Grades K-4. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-1499813043.
Brief summary: Sam is in class in Santa Barbara when she sees her teacher look outside the window after the principal whispers to her and wonders why. Her parents explain to her about Union Oil causing an oil spill near where they live. The family walks to their favorite beach to find that the beach and ocean are black with oil. The town tries to clean the oil from the beach and help the animals covered with it.
A national day was created from this disaster and organized to celebrate and protest the environment which still exists today called Earth Day, April 22, 1970.
There are several sections in the back of the book: Author’s Note, Selected Bibliography, Timeline, Earth Day Today, Earth Day Every Day, and How to Become an Environmental Activist.
Teachers and homeschooling parents could share this book as a supplement in addition with Earth Day activities.
For more details or to buy, click here.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
by Kevin Henkes (Author, Illustrator). Publisher : Greenwillow Books. 2023. PreK-1. Hardcover Picture Book.ISBN-13 : 978-0063245648.
Brief summary: This book shares what is around us: big, small, and between. The soft and calming illustrations are done with brown ink and watercolor paint, demonstrating the size differences.
For more details or to buy, click here.
Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗
by Carole Boston Weatherford (Author), E. B. Lewis (Illustrator). Publisher : Astra Young Readers. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-1635923872.
Brief summary: This touching poem, illustrated with large two-page illustrations done in watercolors, is a lovely letter from Mother Nature telling her human children how much she has loved them since the beginning of their creation.
Back pages briefly explain the Developments in Early Human Evolution.
Educators–this would be a great supplement to use with the different viewpoints unit of study.
For more details or to buy, click here.
Rating 4/5 📗📗📗📗
Animal picture book recommendations are by Angela Ferraris, The Retired School Librarian.
(This content contains Amazon affiliate links. When you buy through these links, I may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you).
by Davide Calì (Author), Emanuele Benetti (Illustrator), Angus Yuen-Killick (Translator). Publisher : Red Comet Press. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-1636550541.
Brief summary: Owen and Zoey convince their father to buy two rabbits for the price of one. The family is suddenly overwhelmed with many new bunnies and decide they need to find homes for them all over town.
I especially enjoyed the sense of humor and orange rabbits in this book especially the counting from 1-20 of rehoming the pets.
For more details or to buy, click here.
Rating 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
by Polly Owen (Author), Gwen Millward (Illustrator). Publisher : Wide Eyed Editions. 2023. Grades 1-4. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-0711275973.
Brief summary: Charles Darwin is known for traveling all over the world and studying animals. Worms interest him the most. He studies and observes them through simple experiments and learns that they do not have eyes or ears, but evidently, can sense light and vibrations. He continues to find what other sense they possess. By observing them in their natural habitat, dirt, he discovers how valuable their poo is to the environment.
The text is done in the traditional style and simultaneously, with speech bubbles. This is a light and funny book with Wormy Facts and Worm Futures sections in the back.
For more details or to buy, click here.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
by Julia Denos (Author, Illustrator). Publisher : Clarion Books. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-0358205432
Brief summary: A young girl and friends heartfully welcome animals to a sanctuary farm where the creatures are respected for being themselves without expectations. They have a safe home and are undeniably cherished by the children.
Lovely illustrations in mixed mediums. A gentle book that does not go into the abuse the animals had before arriving.
For more details or to buy, click here.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
by Karen Obuhanych (Author and Illustrator). Publisher : Knopf Books for Young Readers. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-0593435144.
Brief summary: Young readers will enjoy a fun-filled feline day, starting with a houseful of kitties waking up. The rhyming and rhythmic words capture the true essence and antics of cats causing me to chuckle several times.
I’m certainly looking forward to reading more from Karen Obuhanych.
For more details or to buy, click here.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
by Jonty Howley (Author and Illustrator). Publisher : Random House Studio. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-0593381465.
Brief summary: Crocodile, Brown Bear, and Weasel play the animal song all summer long to the delight of the forest animals. When winter arrives, they all want to sleep, so the band moves to the city, where they play night after night. The band becomes tired and wants to sleep, so they go back home. The forest animals wake in the spring and want to sing the animal song but find the three asleep.
The Animal Song Sheet Music is also in the back of the book.
For more details or to buy, click here.
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2