WHO IS SINGING?

When an important and delightful nonfiction picture book released some years back, I was invited to write a blurb. It was an honor to do so, and this is what I said:

"The author's winning pattern of question/response page-turns combines delightfully with readable bird calls and colorful images, inviting young nature-lovers to listen, observe, and gain confidence in the outdoors. This appealing introduction to familiar bird song patterns and habits offers a sort of 'first book of birding'."

 That's why I was so pleased to learn that this book is being re-released in a larger format, high quality picture book that continues to sing to me.  WHO IS SINGING? is written by nature-focused Janet Halfmann  and illustrated by Chrissy Chabot with crisp, simple images and coloration that are particularly useful for younger audiences at the first stages of bird observation and identification. This new offering is  a sort of "first field guide" for little ones with little hands, big ears, and enormous curiosity about the world. 

Belle Isle Books, 2026

In the northern hemisphere we are in prime season for bird song, with feathered songsters declaring territories, imprinting hatchlings with species pattern calls, and just singing in celebration of  the start and end  of a day. 

Recent studies document the correlation (nearing proof of causation) that increasing screen time with little ones actually rewires their brains, developing a few areas while failing to develop many more crucial patterns of seeing, hearing, and thinking. Yes, screens and their contents are interactive and colorful, but so is nature. Halfmann's informative, well-written, and interactive birdcall/bird-spotting book is an active, outdoor alternative that kids will welcome. 

Here's a link to my full original review. Some of  my initial praise follows and it all remains true:

Halfmann limits her choices to some of the most familiar birds in the midwest (and much of the country), each of which still has large populations that can be found in urban, suburban, and rural locations. She also provides a winning pattern of question/response for page turns. The opening question includes a "readable" translation of familiar birdsong, followed by a page turn that depicts the bird interacting within typical habitat, including food/prey, diurnal/nocturnal settings, and some typical behaviors. 

Interior images used with permission.

Halfmann's text patterns will also have young ones reading along and chiming in as each turn begins with the phrase, "Take a bow... " then repeats the bird's name. Those few lines incorporate the visual content regarding habitat, food, and species patterns.

As is typical in many of Halfmann's nature-focused titles, back matter includes useful learning content and ideas for activities. In this case, the content mentions the ways these "worded" songs were selected, that other wordings exist, and suggests ideas about creating our own versions of recognizable birdsong. It's easy to hear some of thesbirdsonge on YouTube. Just search for BIRDSONG. Share this delightful book with little ones, then take them, and yourselves, out into the wide world and LISTEN!"

StarBright Books, 2010

As with Janet's many other titles, study guides and teaching activities  are available on her website. It's also worth noting that her books are "keepers" in terms of sustained popularity and appeal to young audiences across time. Books like GOOD NIGHT LITTLE SEA OTTER (published in multiple languages) and others have landed on state favorites lists year after year. A great benefit of WHO IS SINGING is the range of familiar and widely distributed birds that are featured, and the accessibility of their songs for imitation. Young folks across the country will find birds they recognize and be able to succeed at interacting with them in song. That's a real-world, screen-free activity that never becomes boring and could lead to endless questions and investigations as readers grow into nature-lovers. 

In a recent conversation with an illustrator I was bemoaning my own lack of art skills. Their comment reminded me of this book. I'm paraphrasing here, but the gist is this: 

Every kid loves to draw, even if they don't think they are good at it. They just want to do it, and the more they do, the better they become. It works for adults, too. Those who develop an interest in birds are likely to find appeal in making sketches and field notes for themselves. An adult version of that is THE BACKYARD BIRD CHRONICLES, written and illustrated by AMY TAN. (Yes, THAT Amy Tan!)

On a sad side note, North American birds are struggling to survive, with some estimated population drops in the range of 50% reduction in only the last few years. Some of this is due to habitat loss and climate changes, but some is due to a highly contagious infection that spreads easily through bird-feeding stations. My longtime advice to provide a feeding station is now guarded, adding a note to check with your local parks and wildlife services to see if yours is an area that is discouraging feeders for the coming season. This book provides a super opportunity to still engage young learners to engage with birds in an interactive way while learning about our responsibility to be informed and helpful in maintaining and restoring their populations. We can't and won't protect creatures about whom we know nothing. 

GIRL POWER! A COMPUTER CALLED KATHERINE

 The recent and highly successful ARTEMIS II flight around the Moon, traveling farther into space with human occupants than any prior space flights, holds other important records. The first, off course, is that distance. The pilot, Victor Glover, is the first Black astronaut to travel to the Moon, whileJeremy Hansen is the first Canadian astronaut to participate in Moon flight. But one of the four astronauts receiving well-earned attention is Christine Koch, mission specialist. She already held records for participating in the first all female space walk, and is now the first woman astronaut to travel on a Moon mission. 

The records will continue to be lauded, as they should be. The wave forward for female astronauts was launched decades earlier, but this acceleration in space travel and Moon exploration means that such FIRSTS are going to continue, followed by more and more diversity and perspectives as we proceed. 

The best part of this is the full visibility of the members of the crew. In the earlier years of NASA's development, astronauts represented "The RIGHT STUFF", meaning prototypical white men, of a particular age, body type, background, and training. Others, though, were behind the scenes. HIDDEN FIGURES was first an adult nonfiction success, then a terrific movie, and also a picture book for young readers. There is now a youth version of the adult book, too.

The above documentation of the team of Black women whose math skills were so extraordinary as to be the basis of every NASA attempt that their job title was "COMPUTER". Much has been made about the fact that those various successful missions, including the Apollo program, were achieved with tiny fractions of available computer power that we now carry around in our phones. When that statement is made, what is not mentioned is the necessity to have utter accuracy and predictability with the intricate calculations behind trajectories and computations for fuel, thrust, adjustments to angles, and countless other data fully figured, tested, and insured by the human brains of that all female  (Black) team of COMPUTERS. 

LITTLE, BROWN, and COMPANY, 2019

HIDDEN FIGURES gave  KATHERINE, of A COMPUTER CALLED KATHERINE, the credit due her. Even so, this new picture book is a worthy and important account of her unique and essential contributions she made. Written by Suzanne Slade and illustrated by Veronica Miller Jamison, the subtitle is: 

HOW KATHERINE JOHNSON HELPED PUT AMERICA 

ON THE MOON.

The account of Katherine's early success in school, especially as a mathematician and scientist, make her unique computing skills clear. This story reveals how the integration of mathematics with physics and calculus and trigonometry combined with the alchemy of her personality to make her an essential element in the countless steps assuring success for the plans. 

I admired Katherine since first learning about her (far too late!). Reading this terrific new picture book lets readers of many ages, even quite young ones, learn about Katherine and can  find themselves in her story, in the best possible ways. End papers show various math diagrams and equations as if on chalkboards. I was also enough of a math kid (everywhere she went, she counted.) to see how many of those I recognized and related to curves and angles and patterns of force. She grew up counting, recognizing relationships and measures and numbers in what can apparently be to be a disorganized world.

Katherine was only one of the many math-women recruited to work (in a segregated building) on the nearly endless computations and calculations, validations and corrections needed to move many tons of materials off the gravitational pull of the earth and into space. To keep it on the intended track, and to realize PRECISELY what to do and and how to it to assure its safe return. 

Like those rocket lifters, she rose from among the pool of gifted and tireless computer-women to ask the right questions, clarify what information was needed, and plot the courses that should be followed from take-off to landing. The number of people responsible for countless details to apply her calculations was enormous, but everything hinged on her being right.

Back matter includes both author and illustrator notes. There I learned that this is the debut picture book for the illustrator, and she knocked it into orbit!

As one of her quotations so perfectly states in the closing pages, 

"Girls are capable of doing everything boys are capable of doing."

And I'll paraphrase lines that suits her so well and open the profile... Katherine counts!

MAKING THREE WISHES... for IMAGINATION!

Today I celebrate picture books that demonstrate and honor the irrepressible imaginations of young readers. George Bernard Shaw's quote is worth remembering:

“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing”. 

The first is SUNDUST,

Kokila, 2025     CALDECOTT HONOR BOOK

written and illustrated by Zeke Peña. This adventure is set in the desert wildlife just beyond an urban 

landscape, beyond the "bulldozers and things that don't belong". There  cacti and hummingbirds thrive, there blossoms and scaled critters reveal themselves, there chrysalis develops and butterflies emerge, there sudden rains turn concrete drains into watery adventures. Throughout each step and discovery, the words are as crisp and revealing. The colors and lines, expressions and sprawls are expansive. As a vibrant, nearly-neon sun moves toward setting, the long day of exploration winds down and a mother's call is heard. Even so, the two friends linger long enough to watch the final sunset, gathering "sundust", feeling the universe of stardust within themselves. 

A day such as theirs is a gift, to them, and to  any reader lucky enough to open the covers of this book. Journey with them as they notice and appreciate nature at its finest. A marvelous world is waiting just beyond the edge of the everyday.

NEAL PORTER BOOKS
HOLIDAY HOUSE, 2020

Next up is a less reality-based adventure but one equally inviting. Author Philip Stead and illustrator Matthew Cordell have combined their creative talents in another cartoon-style picture book, but in an entirely different visual effect. Characters in SUNDUST feel firmly anchored in their habitat, even as their post-swim brown skin dries in cracks that resemble the hard-caked earth. In FOLLOW THAT FROG the text is more complex and adventurous, as are the various pages of full and spot illustrations. Speech bubbles combine with hand-letter sound effects, longer text, and cross-hatched and intricate drawings from quilts to chickens to dreamy-memory sequences related by Aunt Josephine. She recounts her youthful Peruvian adventure involving a giant frog who swallows an admiral's son. Succeeding pages reveal rides on ostriches and tortoise backs, pirates, misdirection, rescues. Throughout this surreal tale, a loud KNOCK continues. I leave it to you to fully explore (intentional word choice) the continents, critters, and comedy that bounces off these pages. 

NEAL PORTER BOOKS
HOLIDAY HOUSE, 2026

Finally (for today, at least) is a picture book that celebrates the cumulative creativity of kids left to their imaginations. Most cultures include the spontaneous game of ... "The floor is lava"... or some other assertion that requires survival by hopping from chair to couch, or even counter-surfing. In IF THIS WERE THE WORLD, written by Stephen Barr and illustrated by Ag Ford, the story spans one recess period in which various suggestions like the above example are shared, then each is countered by "we played that yesterday... or last week..."  or other indication that these imaginative kiddos are not afraid of big ideas. That's when a boy lifts a perfectly round orange from his lunchbox and challenges:

 "What if THIS... were the world?"

After sharing the juicy segments, other possibilities emerge- large spheres, a massive tree, and more. In each scenario they explore ways to use, share, and even over-use the supposed "world" in their imagination. Each fails to fully succeed. Finally, ... But I will not share the conclusion, despite the fact that I long to do so! There is such simplicity and depth to the conclusion that it feels nearly like a prayer. Not a formal or "religious" one, but a sense of awakening to ourselves and our place among our true world. The current moon mission has been sending color images of our amazing planet. That's a timely reminder of the power of awareness of just how precious our planet and our places on it and among each other really are. 

May you all, one and all, read these. And be inspired to PLAY!

Haiku Magic.... A POND, A POET, AND THREE PESTS

 In the prior post I pointed out that April is POETRY MONTH, featuring a book that included HAIKU. I've reviewed and praised Haiku collections for young readers in past posts, HERE, HERE, and  HERE.The form originates in Japan, which requires translation for those of us who don't speak Japanese. (That would be many of us, no doubt). The word meanings and syllable counts may change with translation, but the essence of HAIKU captures a moment in time, an emotion or observation of nature, a sense of our place in relation to the natural world. The three-line syllable count matters, but not more so than the essence of the thought. There are other renowned haiku poets from around the world, including from the USA. BASHO was perhaps the best known haiku poet, a journeying man who chose a life of humble means and deep reflection. 

GROUNDWOOD BOOKS, 2025   

A POND, A POET, AND THREE PESTS is written by Caroline Anderson and illustrated by Lauren Tamaki. This nearly mystical, dreamlike tale suggests an evening respite for BASHO, resting at a small pond. The three pests are pond residents who each recognize BASHO and hope to gain his attentions, to perhaps achieve fame by becoming the subject of one of his poems.

First, the golden carp flashes his sparkling scales, but goes unnoticed. Then the water lily wafts its most appealing fragrance, but also is unnoticed. Mosquito, though, is well aware of the effects of a droning buzz near the ear. Even that does not get a reaction from BASHO.

When a frog leaps into the pond, BASHO wakens, composing one of his most highly regarded poems... about the frog. No attempts at fame and attention succeeded, but simply following its nature earned frog fame in a globally-recited poem. How much we could all learn from that frog. And from those fame-seeking "pests" whose gifts and traits were overlooked by trying too hard for attention rather than for seeking joy in being their true selves. 

The narrative text to share this proverb-like tale is as minimal and resonate as a poem, which suits the story perfectly. The illustrations are evocative of Japanese ink scrolls combined with the lush and luminous colors of silks. Images seem to glow or ripple as your eyes shift from page to page while lines suggest ink-brushed lines and calligraphy. BASHU's Buddha-like image reveals his pilgrim/traveler persona and allows him to blend into the nature he deeply respects and purposefully seeks.  

BASHU and ISSA are two of the most well-known Haiku poets, and their collections have been the subjects of doctoral studies and scholarly tomes. They are also featured in books for young readers, in which the careful selection of poems combine with enhancing illustrations to make writing haiku an appealing project for many young folks and adults alike. COOL MELONS TURN TO FROGS is one such picture book that features poems by ISSA. I hope you'll seek out this recent BASHO book and the much earlier ISSA book. Both will take you into a world that may offer you respite from screens and fame-seekers, while deepening your own awareness of the natural world at our fingertips.