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When I Wrap My Hair
by Shauntay Grant (Author), Jenin Mohammed (Illustrator)
Brief summary: A young girl reflects upon how she feels and connects to ancestral women of her heritage while her mother wraps her hair in a scarf.
Comments: The lyrical verses float in and out of bright colors of the traditional and digital mixed media.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
Continue reading for more details and buying options on this book’s Amazon page.
Children’s book titles are carefully handpicked by a certified elementary school librarian who, although retired, still enjoys reading children’s books, especially picture books, and recommending them to busy teachers, school librarians, parents, grandparents, and other book lovers.
Most of the books Mrs. Ferraris reads before recommending are checked out from the public library, except for those much-appreciated complimentary copies sent to her for an honest review. Those are noted.
(This content contains Amazon affiliate links. When you buy through these links, I may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you).
Earth Day Picture Books
The Day the River Caught Fire: How the Cuyahoga River Exploded and Ignited the Earth Day Movement
by Barry Wittenstein (Author), Jessie Hartland (Illustrator)
Summary: In the summer of 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire from the sparks of a train railcar falling into the water. It was not the first time the river caught on fire.
Comments: Young readers will learn about how the river became so polluted and what happened to change the pollution from continuously building.
Back pages include sections: Author’s Note, Environmental Time Line, Clean Water Act, To Learn More, and a Bibliography.
Details and buying options are on this book’s Amazon page.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
Black Beach: A Community, an Oil Spill, and the Origin of Earth Day
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.
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.
Comments: 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.
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.
Comments: 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.
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!!”
Comments: There is an Author’s Note and Raw Beet & Garlic Salad Recipe in the back.
Brief summary: Koo wakes up and wants to save the world, and his uncle suggests cleaning his room first. Throughout the day, the uncle and nephew do small and thoughtful acts. Koo shares his feelings of wanting to save the world and learns how to make a difference in their world through acts of kindness.
No World Too Big: Young People Fighting Global Climate Change
by Lindsay H. Metcalf (Author), Jeanette Bradley (Author, Illustrator), Keila V. Dawson (Author). Publisher : Charlesbridge. 2023. 2-5 grade. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-1623543136.
Brief summary: Twelve poems written by children worldwide promoting global activisms. A paragraph explains what each child is doing and how the reader can help.
Back pages include sections: From Me…, To We…, Glossary, Poetry Forms, and About the Poets.
Brief summary: A landscaper teaches his granddaughter why he loves trees. Each tree is described in a poem.
Back pages include sections: A Note From the Author-Illustrator, Why Trees?, Cool Facts About the Trees in This Book, For Further Exploration, and A Bibliography.
Brief summary: This wordless picture book begins with a tree growing on the banks of a river. It observes humans throughout the many decades changing with the seasons and years that have gone by.
Aaron Becker brilliantly captures the Mother Nature vs. humankind aspect through these detailed and thought-provoking illustrations.
Flipflopi: How a Boat Made from Flip-Flops Is Helping to Save the Ocean
by Linda Ravin Lodding (Author), Dipesh Pabari (Author), Michael Machira Mwangi (Illustrator). Publisher : Beaming Books. 2023. K-3. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-1506486406.
Brief summary: Juma walks with his grandfather to go fishing on the beach and is met with all sorts of plastic trash and thousands of flip-flops. The community comes together and gathers all of the endless plastic waste and melts it to make a dhow boat.
This is based a on a true story which is explained in the back pages along with sections: Ocean Pollution, How Can You Help?, and Glossary.
Climate Warriors: Fourteen Scientists and Fourteen Ways We Can Save Our Planet
by Laura Gehl (Author). Publisher : Millbrook Press. 2023. Grades 3-8. Hardcover Nonfiction. ISBN-13 : 978-1728460406.
Brief summary: There is an introduction to define climate change before each of the fourteen scientists’ chapter. There are a variety of different scientists who explains ways they are working and studying to help the Earth. Each section concludes with recommendations from the scientist and what we can do.
The book ends with ideas of how we all can be a climate warrior.
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 in the world: big, small, and between. The soft and calming illustrations are done with brown ink and watercolor paint, demonstrating the size differences.
You Are My Pride: A Love Letter from Your Motherland
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 on Earth.
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.
The selected children’s books are chosen by a highly qualified retired elementary school librarian, who passionately reads and recommends picture books to teachers, school librarians, parents, grandparents, and other book enthusiasts.
Most of the books Mrs. Ferraris recommends are checked out from the public library. The only exception is for the complimentary copies that she receives for an honest review, which are duly noted.
(This content contains Amazon affiliate links. When you buy through these links, I may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you).
This Is a Story
by John Schu (Author), Lauren Castillo (Illustrator). Publisher: Candlewick. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-1536204520.
Brief summary: The title page begins this story with a girl receiving a library card from her father.
One word on a page of a book from a shelf waits in a library. A little girl walks to the library with her father and younger sibling. She goes into the children’s section carrying a seahorse kite, where a librarian helps her narrow her search from many of the books to the perfect one–a sea horse library book. She begins to read. Other readers in the area are reading books we all know and love that are connected to our hearts and imagination.
The little girl has found her special library book and now helps her younger brother find his. She uses her library card to check out.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
Continue reading for more details and buying options on this book’s Amazon page.
by Robin Robinson (Author, Illustrator). Publisher : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover Picture Book. ISBN-13 : 978-1665906814.
Brief summary: Two best friends, Sunny and Aarush, want to check out the same library book, “Factory Friends,” but there is only one copy. They each try to persuade the other why the book is their best friend and needs it more. Having failed at trying to book talk each other into other books to check out instead, they realize how to share the library book.
Comments: I recommend this book to school librarians who have students fighting over a book, as I have had many times in my school libraries. (They did not always share, so I had a big die on my desk. The one who rolled the highest number could read it first).
Rating: 3.5/5 📗📗📗1/2
Continue reading for more details and buying options on this book’s Amazon page.
Brief summary: As a girl, Patricia Polacco’s family moves from Union City to Battle Creek, Michigan. It is hard for her to adjust from living in a rural area.
One day she walks home from school, taking a different route, and discovers a stately building with giant pillars along the front with many steps leading up to a porch. It is the Willard Library and full of books for people to borrow. Mrs. Creavy, a librarian, helps Patricia find bird books and even shares the notable books of John James Audubon, full of watercolors of birds.
Soon, Patricia paints birds and shares them with her class. This sparks an Audubon bird club at Fremont Elementary School for the next sixty years.
Comments: I will always recommend a book by Patricia Polacco, as she is one of the best storytellers and illustrators in the USA. I was honored to have her as a guest author for our elementary school. I will always cherish having lunch with this legendary author and illustrator that day in our little elementary library.
Rating: 5/5 📗📗📗📗📗
Continue reading for more details and buying options on this book’s Amazon page.
The Library Fish Learns to Read (The Library Fish Books)
by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Author), Gladys Jose (Illustrator). Publisher : Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books. PreK-2. 2023. Hardcover. ISBN-13 : 978-1534477070.
Brief summary: Library Fish lives in a bowl on the librarian’s desk, Mr. Hughes, where she watches the students check books in and out of the public library. One day, she is listening to Mr. Hughes tell a story about a dog learning how to read and is inspired that she, too, would like to learn to read.
After the librarian says good night, Library Fish gets out of her bowl (with special accommodations) and begins to teach herself the ABCs. Each night she practices until she can read books.
Rating: 3/5 📗📗📗
Continue reading for more details and buying options on this book’s Amazon page.
The selected children’s books are chosen by a highly qualified retired elementary school librarian, who passionately reads and recommends picture books to teachers, school librarians, parents, grandparents, and other book enthusiasts.
Most of the books Mrs. Ferraris recommends are checked out from the public library. The only exception is for the complimentary copies that she receives for an honest review, which are duly noted.
Brief summary: Samira is a bit nervous about going to the bazaar with her grandmother for the first time to buy groceries. She repeatedly asks Mama Shamsi to hide in her chador, but the woman wisely resists using humor to soothe her granddaughter’s fear.
by Élise Fontenaille (Author), Violeta Lópiz (Illustrator), Karin Snelson (Translator), Emilie Robert Wong (Translator). Publisher : Enchanted Lion Books. 2023. K-3. Hardcover. ISBN-13 : 978-1592703821.
Brief summary: A grandson visits his Grandpa Luis every Wednesday and Sunday. His grandpa is not only a talented artist but can make anything grow, creating the beautiful garden where they spend their days. The six-year-old is learning to read and write and tells us that his Grandpa does not know how as he was an immigrant from Spain to France who had to work in the fields as a child.
This is a French translation and captures the two kindred spirits. I like the mixed-up idioms and how the grandson narrates how he is getting to know Grandpa Luis.
For more details or to buy, click here (in ENGLISH).
by Ana Siqueira (Author), Elisa Chavarri (Illustrator). Publisher : HarperCollins. 2023. K-3. Hardcover. ISBN-13 : 978-0063113657.
Brief summary: Luis and his abuela have fun every Saturday going around the neighborhood being superheroes. One Saturday, she does not visit. Luis learns that his abuela is very sick in the hospital. She comes to stay with them as she recovers. Although Luis is saddened that his abuela is unable to be as active, he tries to come up with a way to have fun and realizes his sister, Isabel, can be his new sidekick and fight and do adventures together in their capes.
There is a glossary of the Spanish words used in the book.
by Marla Frazee (Author, Illustrator). Publisher : Beach Lane Books. 2023. PreK-2. Hardcover. ISBN-13 : 978-1665912488.
Brief summary: The text has seven lines with seven words each(except for the last line). Each line is across the top of a two-page spread with small illustrations below, and then the next two-page spread is an illustration matching that color scheme.
The words are calm and straightforward. The stunning illustrations are done with pencil and gouache and are detailed little scenes of family members with everyday interactions. I stopped and looked at the details of each one before continuing to the following line and was glad to see that grandparents were included.
Brief summary: A grandmother and her grandchild put on rain gear to play in Spring’s rain. Summer arrives with them cooling off from the hot sun. Autumn brings the wind they need to fly a kite and enjoy the falling leaves. Winter comes with them getting cozy and watching the snow from inside. Each season is spent with one another.
The seasonal color schemes go in hand with this gentle and calming book that blends from one season to the next.
The selected children’s books are chosen by a highly qualified retired elementary school librarian, who passionately reads and recommends picture books to teachers, school librarians, parents, grandparents, and other book enthusiasts.
Most of the books Mrs. Ferraris recommends are checked out from the public library. The only exception is for the complimentary copies that she receives for an honest review, which are duly noted
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