It's LEAP DAY: Leap into LET'S DANCE!

Boyds Mills Press

LEAP DAY comes along only every four years, and a picture book celebration of dance and diversity is even more rare.
Whether you've got a yes-I'm ready-for-prime-time dance repertoire or you boogey at a cringe-worthy-on-the-Ellen-Show level, you won't want to miss this picture book, LET'S DANCE, written by Valerie Bolling and illustrated by Maine Diaz.  
The contagious effects of music saturate the lyrical rhymed text and vivid action-packed pages. LET'S DANCE offers  universal appeal of movement and music through a multicultural lens.
Little bums and shoulders will start bobbing at the first sights and sounds of the exuberant action and expressions of kiddos virtually leaping off the cover. I have no doubt that adult readers will be doing some seat-swaying and toe-tapping within a few page turns, too. 
A first peek at the end papers hints at the multi-cultural, globe-trotting magical genres of dance, from ballet slippers to cowboy hats, from high-top sneakers to castanets, and more. The illustrator is adept at balancing the authenticity of the garb and styles with diverse characters who are not locked into stereotypical types of dance or culture.

I'm always impressed with perfectly metered and rhymed text, especially so when the word count totals only sixty words of main text swirling from page to page in two-to-four word lines. The text opens up learner-engaged opportunities from meter-clapping to onomatopoeitic explorations at any age. 
Each of ten double page spreads features traditionally-dressed kid-dancers from around the world, executing flamenco to Irish step dancing, disco to breakdancing, west-African kuku dancing to kathak dancers from India, and beyond. The dancers are diverse in skin tone, body size, hair style, and setting, but are universal in the magical effects of melody and rhythm. I'd include a few quoted lines, but in isolation they don't do the author justice. In fact, this book is  a master class in the perfect interaction of words, illustrations, and book design. 

My only dance instruction was preschool "ballet class" in a summer recreation program. Since those years I have learned that choreographers use the term "vocabulary" of movement, positions, etc. That term sprang to mind as I enjoyed and examined this book, realizing that the artist's vocabulary of movement, poses, and perspectives enhanced the author's word choices as ideally as did the art director's choices for font, color, size, and layout.

My first view of this book was in a PDF digital file, and I admired it then. Soon after, I received an advance paper copy that magnified my response a thousand-fold. In fact, the physical book underscored my commitment to the importance of enthralling kids with actual books rather than digital screens. 
The large trim size opens to a lap-filling horizontal dance-floor of delight. A double-page spread of back matter offers cameo images of each dance with a brief description, identifying the dance name and cultural origins. (Consider that an invitation to check out examples-in-action in real life or on screen.)
You might envision a struggle to settle down bouncing toddlers following their dance through these pages. 
No worries. 
The closing spread presents a smiling tot, tucked in bed, dreaming to the tunes of twirling sheep. That's right, the calming conclusion makes this an ideal bedtime or naptime book, and would work especially well as a story time book with that settling resolution to dial down the energy, providing a transition to the next activity or story. 
Just keep your eyes open for a dapper little lamb who loves to steal the spotlight with swagger! I hope you'll take a close look at this one, and then make a purchase. As a library fan, I'm usually fine with sharing books "on loan", but this one should find a permanent place in your lives. 
It's definitely a "read it again" book.

I'll bet you remember the Lee Ann Womack hit from several years ago: I HOPE YOU DANCE. If not, click that title and remind yourself with the YouTube video. 


And, as the song says, I HOPE YOU'LL DANCE.

BTW, if you'd care to learn more about LEAP DAY traditions and superstitions, click HERE.

The PDF and advance copy were provided by the publisher with no promise of a review of any kind.

Meet HONEYBEE: A Masterclass in Text and Images

Recently, public awareness of the plight of the honeybee, species apis mellifera, has gained public attention, concern, and efforts to intervene. Trends vary, from steady declines in populations for decades to some recent encouraging news about stabilizing colony collapse in some regions. 
That's the macro-view of HONEYBEES. 

NEAL PORTER BOOKS/Holiday House, 2020

The recent picture book by author Candace Fleming and illustrator Eric Rohmann presents a micro-view, an up-close-and-personal introduction to the life of an individual honeybee, called Apis for short. 
HONEYBEE: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera allows readers to absorb the remarkable complexity and necessity of the species while feeling a personal connection throughout every event in the short life of a single, particular honeybee.
This is much more than the theoretical biography of a single honeybee. 
It is also much more than a "how-to" book for wannabe honeybees. 
It could serve both purposes well. 

And yet...
any mundane comparison of this book to any other on the topic would miserably understate the combination of superb text and remarkable illustration, both of which reveal deep and accurate research with sensitive and lyrical artistry. 
The large trim size with impressively-scaled images set the stage for little Apis to meet us eye to eye. From that vantage she conveys her big role in the world and has readers cheering her on through each stage of her short but essential life. 
The familiar honeybee role-- gathering nectar and pollenating plants -- is a climax known from the start. Even so, the reader observes Apis developing from her infant-gray hours through to her eventual, glorious launch from the hive, cheering and caring for her at every dramatic page turn.
Apis begins her life cycle before the title page when she first cracks the surface of her wax cell and emerges into a massively interdependent social system. The question of how and why she so successfully progresses through each important life stage and hive-service is not addressed, but readers can sense that she is driven to do so, as is true of her thousands of sisters, bee after bee, life cycle after life cycle. That is a miracle of nature that we allow to decline and disappear at the risk of Earth's survival.
An equally powerful miracle is the way this pairing of storytelling and images left this reader feeling as if we just might be meeting an actual individual bee. 
I have always appreciated and respected bees, even though I stepped on one barefoot at age five. (Full confession-- I did not actually appreciate that particular bee.) 
I have followed many of the suggested actions to support honeybees that the author included in the excellent back matter. I have helped students learn much of this content and would have loved to use this book to do so- including the outstanding, labeled, double-page spread honeybee diagram at the conclusion. 
Despite all those positive attitudes about honeybees, I have NEVER before felt such an affectionate and protective reaction to the concept or the embodiment of honeybees.

Do not imagine that this was accomplished through an anthropomorphized portrayal. Apis does not adopt a first person voice. There is no contrivance needed, beyond the magic of gifted writing and illustration, to achieve this magic. Rather than making Apis seem human, readers are drawn so deeply into her world that we become one among the hive. 
At least that is how I felt.
Many readers are likely to have had a scary-or-painful encounter with a honeybee at one time or another. Some children may even have developed anxiety reactions about bees. Even so, I am convinced this astonishing picture book would convert them to become fans of honeybees. 

The creators of this book paired their brilliance on several prior projects, and I'm counting on them to do the same with future results. GIANT SQUID is a topic that is far less familiar to readers (or to science). It's a topic that might captivate some, but lacks the wide and deep fan base of honeybees. 
Until you read the book.
The award committees agreed: it was named Sibert Honor Book, NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book, and Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book, among other recognitions.
I feel safe in predicting that HONEYBEE: The Busy Life of Apis Melliflera will meet or exceed those accolades. You can bet on it.


For another take on HONEYBEES check out my Goodreads notes about THE THING ABOUT BEES, A LOVE LETTER, written and illustrated by Chabazz Larkin.

BIRDSONG: Connections Across Age and Space and Time

GREYSTONE KIDS- Canada, 2020

Some picture books transcend time and space and age with a feeling that they have existed for all time, and yet are ever-fresh. BIRDSONG is such a book, written and illustrated by award-winning Cree-Metis artist-author-creator-maker Julie Flett.
A seemingly simple story is launched when an artistic young girl and her mother move away from their urban home by the sea, away from their loved ones, away from the tree outside her window, to live in the country in a house with creaky stairs. 
The story is structured around the seasons, using minimalist sweeping scenes and the young girl's art impressions of surrounding nature to adjust and settle into her new home--frog, pond, snowdrop flowers, and birds. 
So many birds. 
The author/artist uses a subdued and limited palette for this mother-daughter pair, suggesting their Native identity in word and image.  The passing seasons tint those subtle color tones her so slightly with hints of green, coffee, salmon, and yellow. 
Even stronger revelations of cultural patterns and values occur in the pacing of their adjustments, the gradually developing trust and concern for older neighbor Agnes, their appreciation for nature and neighbor, and their gentle engagement with wildlife. 
I agree with the Kirkus review, which calls it "Emotionally stunning", here.
Then, rather than read more about the book, go READ THE BOOK.
If you enjoy it even half as much as I do, you'll want to check out some of her other books, here.
I'd love to read what you think of it in the comments. 

Shining a Light on Global Connections

Millbrook Press/Lerner 2020

FLASH AND GLEAM: LIGHT IN OUR WORLD is a picture book/poem written by Sue Fliess and brilliantly illustrated by Khoa Le. Fliess is a prolific and masterful writer-in-rhyme whose extended poem incorporates light-inspired vocabulary in lines and phrases that feel as if they were born to land exactly where they are in the text. Le is the Vietnamese artist who seems to have discovered light-transferring tools while creating the glowing and sweeping art in these pages. 
The subtitle encompasses the important role and magic of light within our physical and social world within a global perspective. Four diverse families from four cultures and distant corners of the world experience light from sunrise to bedtime in ways that celebrate distinctions and the universality of family life. 
This is an exemplary case in which the art and book design effectively reveal and pace  many patterns and themes (daily routines, holidays, mundane and special family time) with color tones, moods, perspectives, and expressions portrayed in parallel narrow panels, powerful double-page spreads, facing images, and sequential revelations that draw audiences into each scene and relationship. 
The back matter offers a double-page spread with basic science information about light (incorporating key vocabulary and concepts) and information about the central role of light within various cultural celebrations. "Fun fact" bubbles are splashed across those two pages. Each fact featured could spark (see what I did there?) further investigation. 
This book is a fine example of one rich with language, images, and concepts that subtlety offers an appreciation of our universal human connections, for young people and for those who read to them.

Opinion is based on eBook edition viewed via publisher with no promise of a review.

MAKING THEIR VOICES HEARD: Allies Matter

little bee books, 2020

Countless lessons can be learned from stories shared during BLACK HISTORY MONTH.  MAKING THEIR VOICES HEARD: The Inspiring Friendship of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe, with words by Vivian Kirkfield and art by Alleanna Harris, reveals a story I had never about an important connection between two iconic women who are widely (and rightly) admired. 
Count me among those admirers. 
After exploring the book, including the informative author notes at the back, I admire both women even more. 
I'm equally impressed by the storyteller. Within the limited word counts and pages of a picture book, Kirkfield has provided a parallel-then-intersecting story that reads with all the drama and excitement of a fictional plot. Its power is magnified by some lesser-known details about these two talented and courageous lives. 
Within the limited format of a picture book, Kirkfield has presented each of their early struggles and the circumstances that led to their "discovery" and eventual fame. Each experienced injustice and prejudice, for different reasons. In each case, those unfair treatments limited opportunities and outlets for their talents. 
The fact that they were fans of each other, from a distance, was an appealing detail that led to their eventual friendship. Marilyn's effort to learn from Ella's singing opened doors for her professional movie career. 
Ending the story there would have been interesting, but that would have ignored the more important story of two iconic allies.
I was impressed that Monroe took intentional steps to convey her gratitude, to use her position of privilege to support Ella's crossing of color barriers and career advancement. Harris's approach to illustration offers nuances of intense color tones, soft edges, theatrical lighting, and glossy pages that suit the story perfectly. Kirkfield has used the back pages to enhance the main text with rich and deeply researched details as well as providing resources that work for young readers and adults to learn more. 
There are plenty of reasons to share this during theme months of February (Black History) and March (Women's History). This nonfiction book traces a path from fandom, to ally-ship, to lifetime friendship. Its value serves readers well throughout the year to inspire us all to follow a similar path. 
Not likely to fame and stardom.
This revelation of the mutual support between Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe offers a guide for present day, everyday decisions. It can inspire us by increasing awareness of ways to serve as allies. 
Certainly, its natural to do so in the lives of those we know and care about. Our challenge should be to do so across the margins of our usual contacts, to those who cross our path but to whom we owe nothing. Who knows what might develop?
At the very least we can extended a hand of support to someone else. 

This is not a new video, but it is one worth sharing. 
(Scroll down to the active clip. It only takes a few minutes, and is worth it.)

Burger King NO-BULLY campaign, 2017

For more details and praise from others, check reviews from KIRKUS (here), and Darlene Beck-Jacobson's blog (here). 

Making Memories: IN A JAR

This will be brief.
Not because this book deserves little attention, but because it is a brilliant reminder to nurture the life beyond ourselves- in the natural world, but especially in relationships. As soon as possible, get your hands on this book and get busy making memories in real life.

IN A JAR is the recent picture book written and illustrated by Deborah Marcero.

Penguin Books for Kids

Someone I dearly love began, with her first baby's first breath, to whisper the words "Let's make some memories" in that infant's ear. She repeated some version of that mantra preceding the mundane and miraculous, the planned and the unexpected, throughout her kids' lives, including their eye-rolling adolescences. 
Now adults, I expect they'll do the same with their own eventual families.
This picture book is eloquent in words and images, offering that same invitation to the tot audience and to the adult reader, the ones holding books and turning pages. It calls all to be intentional, to be direct and in the moment, to savor and save, and to use those moments to root us in deep relationships. 
Digital screens have value. Our brains (big ones and little ones) are drawn to them. But on the other side of a human-screen relationship, no one is THERE.  No one remembers back. There is no authentic emotional link, no one to smile with, or cry with, or just KNOW us.

There are countless wonderful things about this book, and meaningful ways in which it reveals nature and seasons and life cycles and longing. But mostly, it just might launch someone into making memories.

For more details about this book (and added praise), check out starred reviews from KIRKUS (HERE), and SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (HERE). The Booklist starred review included this:
*”Marcero works magic with prismatic watercolors, ink, and pencil, as her light-filled illustrations chronicle the young rabbits’ exploits and their appreciative wonder of the world around them . . . This joyful account of friendship will charm readers with the notion of capturing wind or a rainbow in a jar, but its deeper message of maintaining relationships over a distance will comfort those who have moved or know someone who has.” —Booklist, starred review