I've started gathering some nonfiction picture books to consider from 2023. First, though, I remind readers that fiction picture books are superb sources for learning about the world. Please don't dismiss that statement as applying only to tots and kiddos! Many fiction titles provide intentional, incredible amounts of reliable information about fascinating topics, including STEM subjects. Picture book editors and fact checkers are unrelenting in crosschecking to assure the latest and most accurate content for those young minds. Authors rely on MANY sources, providing useful author notes and resources in back matter, including safe online links.
The first book I'm loving is a great example of incredible care in research and writing. Author Scanlon is a master of using facts within a fiction picture book, especially with lyrical rhymed text. (See some recent posts of other titles by Scanlon). In this case, she includes information about wolf pups and packs in a picture book written and illustrated with delightful charm and appeal. FULL MOON PUPS is written by Liz Garton Scanlon, delightfully illustrated by Chuck Groenink.
G. P. Putnam and Sons, 2023
Once again, the opening and closing end paper illustrations provided a visual synopsis of what to expect. Both spreads feature wolf, helping even youngest readers sense the changes of time with the initial scene featuring a single adult wolf moving through misty mountainsides under a left-of-page full moon. The final endpapers feature the same evocative background, but the full moon has reoriented to a right-of-page location, subtly suggesting that months have passed. In the lower foreground, what appears to be that same wolf is trailed through the night by five wolf pups, maturing into the next learning phase of their lives.
Lyrical excellence inspired the illustrator to such detail-packed images that support even the youngest audiences in understanding of longer time passages and actual wolf pack/pup development/behaviors within this particular fictional example. Scanlon's straightforward, expansive, themed text draws attention to transitions among the new littermates, the changing landscape, and the pups themselves. The author's note and brief information about the phases of the moon augment this fact-packed fiction offering.
The second title also moves readers through a particular time period and setting, focusing instead on the survival and developmental stages of an amphibian. Treefrogs are certainly a species with visual appeal but is far from cuddly, to most of us. ONE TINY TREEFROG : A Countdown to Survival is a vibrant and revealing creation from Tony PIedra and Mackenzie Joy 
Candlewick Press, 2023
The word choices in this simple, count-down-from-ten text are vivid, energetic, and wonderfully descriptive. I'd go so far as to say smile-inducing. The subject of this book, the truly TINY treefrog, is portrayed on oversized, nature-hued pages as ten egg/tadpoles progress through their growth cycle while diminishing in number. Each page reveals threatening habitat or predator that reduces their likelihood of survival. Fear not, though, that the eventual arrival of ZERO means none survive. The conclusion is, in fact, exciting and very satisfying.
The countdown text is in large, bold font while tiny text labels various living things on each spread with its common name and scientific designation. Brief back matter includes directly addressing the treefrog's life cycle patterns, the specific habitat (in lowland wet forests of Costa Rica), and a lovely spread of that setting within which the thirteen other named creatures are pictured, circled, and numbered along side a numbered naming list. This poses a seek-and-find challenge that drips with learning potential and sparks close observation. That back matter spread is followed by the concluding double spread that provides spotlight images from the eleven counting page stages and stars, including briefly extended details about each.
Animal life and wildlife settings provide endless appeal across many ages. Whether the young ones you know are traveling to such places or spending summer on STAY-cations, these two titles are first class tickets to explore, experience, and learn about them.
