DINO PAJAMA PARTY; A Bedtime Book

If you are visiting this blog for the first time, (WELCOME!) my blog title says it all: Picture Books Are Powerful! I love all kinds of picture books, for too many reasons to list here. (Curious? Check past posts HERE , HERE, and HERE for some examples of ways picture books speak to me, and to readers of any age!)

I particularly appreciate and celebrate picture books that reveal untold/forgotten/hidden stories, especially ones that are deeply researched, artfully told, and appealingly documented/extended in back mattter. Books like these by author Laurie Wallmark. I recommend that you bookmark Wallmark's site and follow her writing progress closely. She has several more WOMEN IN STEM titles coming, she teaches writing workshops, and ... wait for it... she has a brand new picture book coming out for little ones: DINO PAJAMA PARTY: A BEDTIME BOOK!

Running Press Kids, 2021

Yes, you read that correctly. The target audience for this new book is a younger demographic, and it stars paleolithic party animals who are childlike to the bone. Decked out in sleep caps, bunny slippers, jammies, and footed sleepers, teddy bears in hand, these lighthearted and limber lizards are irresistible. 

If you've ever known a kiddo who wants to stay in jammies all day long, you'll recognize this crew as they gather in bright sunlight for a full day of music, dance, and partying, until, as sunset approaches, their tails and wings are dragging!

 

Page by page, Wallmark's crisply rhymed couplets  invite audiences to chime in, since read-it-again requests are guaranteed. Word choice is both familiar and expansive as the dinos "rock" and "roll", "stomp" and "stroll". The social gathering and musical components are especially appealing, with huge potential for little ones to imitate and participate in the dancing, plinking, strumming, and drumming of the "PJ's" band. The fact that this pajama party is an all day affair is a delightful twist and clever wordplay on the assumed "slumber party" you can be forgiven for imagining. It may be particularly helpful for bedtime kids who insist that they aren't yet sleepy. Once they are washed, flossed, and jammied-up, let them join the fun for several reading/performances until they, too, are dragging their tails under their covers! 

Running Press Kids, Interior, Michael Robertson/Laurie Wallmark, 2021

Illustrator Michael Robertson fully embraced the spirited dino community, setting them in a cartoonish contemporary community, developing each with distinctive clothing and characteristics that will have little ones finding favorites, savoring details, and even naming specific dinos. I was particularly delighted by the bedtime twist that revealed they all returned to sleep in a dino-dorm instead of sprawling across a family room floor somewhere. Singly and in pairs, they are all tucked into a matched set of beds, snugly sleeping under their own comfy covers. Soon, not surprisingly, they are all snoring.

With Wallmark's track record and ongoing successes in extended-text, nonfiction picture book writing, I was intrigued about how and when and why this delightful story and style entered her writing life. She graciously agreed to answer some interview questions, which will be shared here in a post later in October. For now, you can preorder the book (release  date 10/19/2021), HERE, HERE, or HERE.  i suggest you do that. The global supply chain glitches seem to have had an impact on paper supplies and  bulk shipping, so a preorder is the best way to assure that your intended readers will not be disappointed. 

Once it reaches your hands and their eyes/ears, there will be no disappointment!

Seven Golden Rings: A Tale of Music and Math

I recently posted reviews of picture books by Laurie Wallmark that are biographies of remarkable women in math and STEM fields (HERE, HERE). These deeply researched and well-told biographies reminded me that math is a thread throughout all of our lives. For some, as with these women, math and problem solving become central drivers on a daily basis. For others, math undergirds the  ways in which we live out our seemingly "un-math-y" days. 

Shen's Books, 2020

SEVEN GOLDEN RINGS; A TALE OF MUSIC  AND MATH is written bu Rajani Larocca and illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan.    

What a wonder this lovely picture book is. I read it in search of recent releases that engaged "content" area topics through a multi-cultural lens. In fact, this is a must-have for math classrooms across many ages, but it also offers rich layers of emotional growth and problem-solving. A young person in quest of a dream is a wonderful way to launch any story, but the nature of his relationship with his mother, and her insightful advice early in the story create a hidden gem that shines through at the end.

The math puzzle is seamlessly woven throughout the story, unfolding in ways that invite readers/audiences to absorb the patterns and participate in Rajah's daily solutions. The author's skill in storytelling provides a very gratifying conclusion that wraps in the "math" with delightfully realistic but magical satisfaction.

Though the annual Multicultural Children's Book Day is over, or perhaps because it is ALWAYS the right day to explore and enjoy books that reveal other-than-Western cultures and traditions, I urge everyone to check out this rich picture book. I use the word RICH intentionally, as Rajah's mother might have. She recognized early that her clever son should pursue his dream. She supported his dream by parting with the chain of only seven golden rings, all that remained of her dowry. To that and her encouragement, she added her wise advice.

The author's colorful and well-paced storytelling combine with the illustrator's vibrant and detailed images to transport readers into a time and place that feel comfortably inviting but also exciting and distinct from the their own. Traditional tales are published less often than when I was a child, and then they were exclusively Euro-Western-centric. I hope that the rising availability of stories like these and publishers who make them available will continue and increase. I urge families and educators to include this book in collections, and share often. 

Many picture books address math problem solving through storytelling. A large majority of these have animal characters and/or specific objects (cookies, doughnuts, pizza slices) that can be replicated to clarify specific algorithms for computation processes. here is definite value in that approach.

Few story-math books depict analytic thinking that involves anticipation of needs, shifting number combinations, or maximizing potential resources. 

Think about that sentence.

As older adults bemoan the "fading" skills of young learners in rote memorization or computation skills, we need to appreciate that HOW to think through what needs to be done is a far more important skill. Some picture books support essential understandings of process and calculation in ways that are entertaining and fun. Some, like SEVEN GOLDEN RINGS, use storytelling and character connections to enhance and develop higher level analytic skills.

In this case, the satisfying conclusion also celebrates listening to a mother's advice, speaking up to support others, and using our talents to contribute to the greater society. 

Throughout it all, the richness of cultural identity, traditional storytelling, and the importance of pursuing our dreams as developed in this picture book set examples for writers to develop depth and layers in their own work.