Solving Puzzles: Two Powerhouse Biographies

 

PEACHTREE, 2024

These two picture book biographies celebrate people who solved important puzzles. One's name is a household word, the other is less familiar. 

ERNO RUBIK AND HIS MAGIC CUBE is written by Kerry Aradhya and illustrated by Kara Kramer.  This biography portrays the very bright young man, who, even as a boy, pursued (AND SOLVED) puzzles of every kind, especially manipulative ones. What's more, he reveled in making up new puzzles of his own. 

The text is straightforward and the illustrations are vibrant, cartoon-style, focused on his activities and materials as described. They are especially helpful in allowing me to understand the actual stages of development of the famous RUBIK'S CUBE and how it works. I can clearly recall when I first met  this seemingly magical and IMPOSSIBLE puzzle (trust me, not YouTube clips, it cannot be solved!). Advertising was everywhere, adults and kids alike responded in one of several ways: obsessing (as kids now do with digital screens to reach new levels), or tossing it aside after multiple failed attempts. Most functioned somewhere between those reactions, periodically returning to it without managing to reach success. That last range was my turf. 

Testing in my younger years indicated that I have excellent 3-D assembly skills. Years of putting together cheap furniture has proven that to be true. Even so, the challenging mechanism that makes the cubes actually work remains a puzzle to me. Other, likely younger, minds could well "get it" better than I do after reading and examining this book! It remains impressive to me, and Rubik himself is even more impressive. 

CAMERON KIDS, 2024

ELSE B. IN THE SEA: The Woman Who Painted the Wonders of the Deep is written by Jeanne Walker Harvey and illustrated by Melodie Stacey. When a notable deep-water scientist recognized that the colors and residents of life in the deep were quite different from at the surface. Life-forms he observed there were mesmerizingly unusual and appealing. He sought an artist who might capture what he alone was seeing.

New Yorker Else B. was already an award-winning and famous painter while still a young woman. She took on the challenge and began preparing both her artistic approach to painting the ocean and its contents. In 1930, the technology for deep water exploration required that she descend while wearing a heavy helmet, attached to a tube that pumped air from the boat above her on the surface. 

Another way she prepared was to identify art materials that could effectively be used underwater. She began with a steel pencil on a zinc plate. She also trained not to tilt her head while sketching underwater in the helmet, or water would rush in and she could drown. Soon she experimented with ways to paint underwater. Else also sketched and painted creatures from the deep after they were caught and brought to shore. She had to work quickly before the normal processes of death would change the actual colors of the subject. Their shared discoveries and depictions included unknown fish and other living things that had never been identified before. 

This was during the first half of the 1930s, when the depression had paralyzed people in poverty and sadness. The paintings of this remarkably unseen world were uplifting and published widely, giving people diversion and a lift in spirits. End paper maps and two pages of detailed backstory/science include a photo of Else B. at work in her home studio, using the resources from the field.

It's interesting that the scientist, Beebe, was treated dismissively by some because he employed and supported several women scientists in his work. At the time, women were considered to have less expertise, especially in sciences, and regardless of their training or experience. 

These two biographies are wonderful in their focus on individuals who deserve more attention, and both demonstrate remarkable persistence at their challenges. Both provide entertaining text and images with "did you know...?" engagement from young readers likely to follow. Take a close look, as these two folks didm with amazing results!

Biography, Mentor Text, STEM: THE FIRE OF STARS

Chronicle Books, 2023

I've admired and learned from blogs posted by  author Kirsten W. Larson going all the way back to one earliest piece about creating curious kids. That was in 2012, near my own launch of this blog. Her most recent picture book, THE FIRE OF STARS: The Life and Brilliance of the Woman Who Discovered What Stars Are Made Of, is illustrated by Katherine Roy with enlightening brilliance in matching the text language with the  structure of the visual spreads and sidebar narrative.

One look at the cover hints at what I mean by the inspired art design and illustration. Loose-lined, fluid biographic art reveals moments in  astrophysicist Cecilia Payne's progression from curious child to groundbreaking investigator, astronomer, professor, and award-winner as one of the rare woman scientists of her time. Her discovery confirmed what, exactly, those sparkly dots in the night sky were made of. But the astronomical art is as precise and awe-inspiringly accurate as NASA slides! The two styles in combination offer a mirror to the parallel text approach using brilliant brief phrasing to describe the spawning/birth/maturity cycle of new stars on each page with simple and crisp narrative descriptions of Cecilia's path from childhood to her paradigm-changing discovery and beyond. You truly must read this fully to recognize how suitable the two visual and text narrative arcs reflect the processes of "coming of age" as stages in an elaborate process, not simplistic steps. This single spread interior page is just a whisper of many glorious examples throughout:

Chronicle Books, THE FIRE OF STARS, interior.

For centuries the assumption was that stars were made of the same materials as planets. The possibility that it could be something else was rarely even considered, except by Cecilia. She not only wondered and gathered data, she identified proofs for her radical theory within existing data that others had viewed for other purposes and without the imagination and flexible thinking of this curious, persistent woman.

Even if the question of how stars form is not a priority for you, I'm asking you to trust that the material in the hands of such a skilled writing and creative team will fascinate and inspire you. If you already are  a night-sky-wonderer, I'm certain you'll be "over the moon" about this one!  Please give this new picture book a look, and let's give Cecilia Payne the starry spotlight she deserves.

IN EVERY LIFE: A Picture Book that Is Worth the Wait

I'm among countless folks in proclaiming my admiration for the creations of MARLA FRAZEE. I'll nudge my way to the front of that crowd, if necessary, to add my opinion that her work is among the most inspiring and heartwarming of any contemporary artist, whether she is illustrating the work of others (as in ALL THE WORLD), or creating her own stories (as in THE FARMER AND THE CLOWN and its companion titles). These are only some of her many works that deserved and won multiple awards. In other words, she sets a high bar for excellence in each creation.This latest work surpasses that standard.

Beach Lane Books, 2023

After prerelease raves caught my attention, I had to wait through a lengthy "hold" line at my library, but it was finally my turn. Now that I've had my hands and eyes and ears on IN EVERY LIFE, written and illustrated by this enormously talented woman, it was worth the wait. 

Some of those advance raves included starred reviews from SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL ("The combination of the spiritual words and the prosaic moments alternating with grand panoramas bestows a magnitude to the minutiae of the everyday."), PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ("A rich trove of moving images lets Frazee range over an expansive constellation of human experiences, offering fodder to explore and discuss."), and KIRKUS REVIEWS ("This lyrical blessing of a picture book belongs on every shelf.").

Frazee's self-imposed high bar becomes clear in a background note on the dedication page (to her first grandchild). In it, Frazee relates that although the gist of the text is rooted in a Jewish blessing, she first heard it in an Episcopal church in 1998. With the immediate thought that this would make a fine picture book, she struggled to find her way into the text and images to fully capture the power of the emotions and relationships she had felt. In an interview with Roger Sutton of THE HORN BOOK (HERE) she expands on that quarter-of-a-century process, her struggles and insights and revisions that eventually led to this remarkable work of art. 

Ultimately, she took a distinctly bold approach, especially for a seasoned picture book creator. She chose to avoid the expected compelling page turn in favor of an oversized production featuring both the call and response phrasing of each statement on the two sides of a double page spread. This allows the artist to provide nine-to-ten vignettes below the statement in the full text. This approach also invites readers to spend time examining and entering each small story, each experience and relationship pictured. The rich range of characters, settings, relationships, and emotional implications allows anyone and everyone to find themselves within at least some of the situations, and also expand their awareness and empathy for some that are outside personal experiences. When eyes and hearts are fully satisfied on a given spread, the page turn reveals a wordless, edge-to-edge scene in which the characters recede into the foreground within an awe-inspiring view that celebrates the wider world, especially nature. Although the stated target ages are 3-6 years, this is a book for all ages, offering blessings of every kind to anyone who identifies as human. 

The luminous cover is from an interior spread, with each sequence using tones ranging from glowing to intense to reflect the life pattern that is expressed in that text. The opening statement is a natural beginning:

"In every birth... there is a blessing."

The final statement is a natural coda, not about death but about the greatest of truths:

"In every life  ...  blessed is the love."

The opening and closing art mirror swirls of energy and life, with the initial page an amorphous, glowingly galactic suggestion of possibility, and the final page reflecting similar colors with spiraling blossoms, symbols of life. IN EVERY LIFE is a genuine pleasure to hold, read, explore, and share. 

I'm someone who is a fan of many things even though I am reluctant to name favorites among them, including picture books in general. That is also true among a single author's or artist's work, since each shines within its own constellation of qualities. In the case of Frazee, though, I've long held the thought that ALL THE WORLD would, forever, be her crowning  achievement. Perhaps, though, especially over repeated readings of this wonder, she has created a contender for that status.

Don't let another day pass without making every effort to take a look at this book in person. I'll be returning my library copy soon to shorten the hold line, but only because I intend to purchase copies for myself and as gifts.

Celebrating Picture Books from 2018- Briefly?

I've exhausted my library "hold" renewals on some of the many fiction picture books that tugged at my heart in recent weeks (months!). I'll be loading up a couple of totes to return these early next week, but I can't let them go without sharing them with you here. Each deserves a full review, discussion, and recommendation for uses, but the size of my book stack has crushed that dream. Instead, I'll try to follow up with my "speed-dating" approach for board books. Let's see how that goes.

a house that once was is written by Julie Fogliano and illustrated (brilliantly) by Lane Smith. I really enjoyed Fogliano's lyrical, lilting text, but it is Lane Smith's illustrated treatment that won my heart. With just enough ink-line realism to anchor the story to the text, Smith combines multi-media techniques in each of the two parts: the contemporary exploration of a deserted house in the woods and the imagined lives of the missing inhabitants. The ongoing tale of the abandoned house exploration includes numerous nearly-hidden images that later gain significance within the imagined alternate lives of the residents. 
An additional story-within-a-story is boldly suggested on the title page. A little bluebird (of happiness?) slips into various obvious and obscure corners of the pages for readers (especially eagle-eyed little ones) to discover. 
There is a genuine charm to this circle story that concludes with the same short verse that opens the story: 
"Deep in the woods/ is a house/ just a house/ that once was/ but now isn't/ a home."
There is a delightful irony to that conclusion as the little bluebird peeks out at the departing kids from inside the upstairs window. This is all-out possibilities, and kids will love it.

So much for keeping it brief, right?  I'll try again on this next adventurous picture book that celebrates imagination, cooperation, diversity, hopes, and dreams.

Everything You Need for a Treehouse is written by Carter Higgins and Illustrated by Emily Hughes. This lush and imaginative picture book engages on every page, revealing both realistic and fantastic aspects of collaborating, constructing, and creatively occupying "a treehouse". The extensive and diverse group of kids make cooperation and old-fashioned "playing outside" look much more appealing than staring at screens.  And 

The illustration details are like eye-magnets, but it is worth turning back to the text to appreciate the extraordinary and lyrical language Higgins uses to turn a simply-titled "HOW TO" book into a multi-layered life lesson, delivered with a touch as gentle but persistent as a seed, the wind, or a child.
I won't issue a spoiler here, but I will say that despite the diversity and matter-of-fact, scavenged, makeshift aspects of the building processes, I had a mental reservation about how privileged this group of kids seemed: dressed for the weather, access to tools, and living in welcoming environments. I was pleased to see the various versions in what could be different habitats or even different global locations. Still, that reservation stayed wth me, until the final page turns. 
Now, I fully and enthusiastically endorse this book and recommend it for EVERY age. 

(And don't spoil the impact of those last pages by peeking.)

Well, so much for keeping it brief, right? Just goes to show why I've held on to these two for so long. You'll want to do the same, and so will the kids who read them with you.