RIDE ALONG: Incredibly Fast ands Not At All Fun!

 As summer winds down, those who adore roller coasters and theme parks should be getting their roll on while they can. To share that experience (and examine it more closely) a new picture book has released. INCREDIBLY FAST AND NOT AT ALL FUN is the imaginative and marvelous new title from author/illustrator Tadgh Bentley. 

ATHENEUM
BOOKS FOR YOUN G READERS, 2026

The premise of this story is a surprisingly imaginative origin story for the first roller coaster ever. Bear (a big-muzzled beekeeper bear with some serious STEM skills) sets out to solve a problem. The wooded valley between his hilltop home and his hive (located on the other side of the valley) is (over) populated with critters! Bear needs  a quick, undistracted transport system to get from here to there, so to speak. 

Opening AND closing end papers nearly waylaid my efforts to read Bear's determined account while I scrutinized the graphic-design/blueprint style details revealing Bear's intended solution. The design drawings incorporate nature's explanation crating a need for rising/falling, twisting, twirling layouts, with practical (and laughable) units of measure in length, labeled "bears". Why not? We measure length in "feet". 

Bear called his device the "Honey Runner". Although steep, and perhaps intimidating, the potential for efficiency outweighed his concerns. And, it worked! But Bear's debut ride was observed by countless woodland eyes, and those critters were curious! They begged to ride along. 

The story unfolds with those eager thrill-seekers clamoring for more exciting rides.  Complicating issues arise. Bear's attempt to simplify his life with an efficient transport system becomes anything but efficient. As you probably imagine by now, more engineering is involved, but that only makes the "Honey Runner" that much more exciting. 

No worries.Clever Bear finds a way to satisfy his thrill-seeking forest neighbors while still pursuing his quiet life. But that last page turn will have readers howling and ready to right a next chapter in Bear's story. 

First, all praise for the main text, which crackles with crisp and comical situations and language. Bear's emotional journey, including frustration and exasperation, will take readers on a ride in itself. And the small details (and I do mean small, including in earliest spreads shown with miniature scene set-ups and signage) will have kids poring over each spread, each little critter's expression, and each transition's potential through repeated readings. 

Bentley is as talented at visuals as he is at storytelling. This oversized book allows for expansive and colorful spreads suggesting nature's sprawling invitation to Bear to make a way through. The forest colors glow with fall foliage, offering a vibrant background for small brown silhouettes, each with bright white eyes. Figures are expressive and soft-edged in contrast to construction elements and detailed plans. 

Those eyes, by the way, deserve their own commentary.

First, I'll admit that manga-like, big-eyed characters in picture books are not my first choice in conveying character or personality. This forest population, though, sports white-eyed, wide-eyed expressions in a variety of angles and attitudes that actually reveal their otherwise limited expressiveness rather than looking endlessly repetitive. The eyes make it clear within dense backgrounds that there are SO MANY of them, as bear seems to be thinking. Yet his heart is tugged to give ride after ride and eventually solve the situation he confronts in those  pleading, begging, eager eyes, always aimed exactly where they must be in order to achieve their intent and to direct readers' attention. 

The overall story is a delight. Creators are often told to find something original, that there are plenty of dog stories, cat stories, bear stories, etc. ... UNLESS you can find something truly original to do with those familiar stars of the show. And this book does exactly that!  It dares to pair a nature/woodland scene with a lovable bear and a lively community of neighbors with a ROLLERCOASTER! A ride with swooshing, gasping speed, with curves and turns and twists that lift off the page could cause shrieks from audiences. It invites reading aloud to giggling groups as well as close scrutiny by chuckling children. 

For sheer fun and entertainment, this can't be beat. If you add to that its potential connections to planning and revision, problem solving, community needs, transportation, SEL, predictions, and more, it earns its place in families, classrooms, libraries, and the hands of anyone, any age, who loves rollercoasters!

Bentley is also the creator of popular early chapter books and easy readers featuring DINO DETECTIVE, LITTLE PENGUIN, and more. Click on the website to take you to an opening page that reveals sketches and image drafts unfolding bit by bit, not unlike Bear's planning sketches on end papers. 

Meet FIRE CHIEF: The True and Lucky Life of a Turtle

 Stories can come from endless sources- cloud shapes, playing with pets, personal drama, or a fertile imagination. Nonfiction content, especially narrative nonfiction, begins somewhere and sometime long before anything goes to press. It might be sparked by an encounter with some surprising information. Or it can begin with an "I wonder" question, a casual observation, or with a keen interest and investigation of facts that somehow involves a path to a picture book.

CLARION BOOKS, 2025

Author Sy Montgomery's nonfiction books have long been favorites of mine, because they have captured the attention and curiosity of so many students of many ages. A picture book authored by Montgomery will always be on my to-read list. That's why I waited patiently on library hold to get a chance to read THE TRUE AND LUCKY LIFE OF A TURTLE, written by Sy Montgomery and illustrated by Matt Patterson. With the kind of luck and support FIRE CHIEF has had in his already long life, he could still be chugging along when everyone reading here is a grandparent, or even a great-grandparent.  He is currently estimated to be about sixty years old, still a young adult in turtle lifespans when all goes well.

Yes, that means that FIRE CHIEF's projected lifespan will be greater than any human's. That presents a challenge to tell his story in a way that spans his longevity while making his present and past feel immediate and important. But that challenge was met and exceeded by this creative team. (More about the author and illustrator below.)

The accuracy of illustrations, from birth through early development and throughout his story, allows curious readers to experience the vulnerability of a just-hatched turtle trying to follow instincts and survive. Author notes make it clear that the discussions of early egg/hatchling depictions are conjecture, based on knowledge of turtles and the geography in which Fire Chief lives.

Using these assumptions to suggest this turtle's early life allows readers to invest in and marvel at survival and its determination to reach a small pond. To do so, it crossed a dirt road near a fire station and makes its way to its next home. There it continued to face threats across years of slow growth and learning. Over the course of a human generations, the local community of firefighters and their families observed a sizable turtle sunning on a log. 

They dubbed him FIRE CHIEF.

They and their families enjoyed his company, including observations of his annual road-crossing return to a larger pond, better suited for winter hibernation in the deep mud. Across years of time the families and firefighters grew older, as Fire Chief did. As the community did. And as the road grew, was paved, as traffic increased, as the crossing became more dangerous. 

Okay- that's all I will say. 

Just remember the title- this is a turtle with a LUCKY life. 

And know that the two talented folks who created and share this TRUE story of a REAL turtle with the actual name FIRE CHIEF came to know about this turtle and its story directly. They are neighbors who both volunteer with a turtle-rescue organization that plays a role in Fire Chief's life (okay, spoiler). The author and illustrator collaborated on two earlier turtle books based on their many years of expertise and education on the topic of turtles. FIRE CHIEF's life and story launched this book, and the factual content is indisputable. Resources and credentials, including back notes, photos, and backstory provide entertainment and education on their own.

The magnificence of this book (and I chose that descriptor intentionally) is in the success of showcasing FIRE CHIEF as an individual, and as an individual with a specific life, a survivor of its species, as a lived and living example despite the many ways in which nature restricts their survival, and as human development/encroachment on habitat does. It also reveals practical ways in which human attention and intervention can contribute to survival, during crisis and also proactively/preventively. 

Through it all, FIRE CHIEF shines through not as a caricature or cartoon, nor as a mascot or pet. This creature has dignity and value. As such, he serves as a reminder to us to take closer looks at all living things, to avoid mindless damage or development. To seek balance and respect in our choices.

On a side note, I actively link to the authors and illustrators of each book featured in posts, hoping that readers here might check out more about them and their other works. In this case, do yourself a favor and click on the links to Montgomery and Patterson.Their websites are an education in a range of topics and will offer links to their other books as well. 

Because of a Bee: Nonfiction For Every Age

 The recent release of a new nonfiction picture book by Lola M. Schaefer, BECAUSE OF A BEE, is a genuine joy. I've reviewed several of Schaefer's  picture books in the past, including an interview with the author HERE. 

Chronicle Books, 2026

Illustrated by Franci Sanna, this simple but intense and vibrantly colored presentation is produced in user-friendly square size with sturdy and clever cut-off elements that contribute to a broader sense of how each element of this natural chain of life interacts and is interdependent on the others.

We are in the midst of deepest bee season, while pollen, nectar, and blossoms are in abundance. The seemingly simple text takes readers on a cause/effect journey from bee to berry to butterfly to ... celery? hummingbird?   aphids and avocados? 

Through oversized and intriguing images, even the youngest can search out the mysteries of these connections and more, with the added asset of an author note in back to further explain the various roles of pollinator, insect hosts, and food chains, closing with a full circle moment back to bees. The final double spread in the main story is a feast, a celebration of the remarkable foods we enjoy, all because of bees. The slightly abstract and overlaid images of foods encourage little eyes and hands to treat the pages as a search and find. Much of that attitude can carry over into everyday life after reading this treasure of a book, encouraging discussion of food sources and the conditions that combine to allow things to grow and reach our tables.

In 2016 Chronicle Books released Shcaefer's BECAUSE OF AN ACORN,

which used a similar text and cut-out pattern to explore the interconnected lives within a forest . This earlier topic was illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon, portraying woodland scenes and life cycles in natural tones and with subtle realism. 

While reading Schaefer's release I came across a slightly older picture book called BEGIN WITH A BEE, co-authored by Liza Ketchum, Jacqueline Briggs Martin, and Phyllis Root, and illustrated by Claudia McGehee.

Stunning scratchboard illustrations combine accurate details with interpretative flow and grace, realistic colors, and subtle elements that invite close scrutiny. The text is structured to engage readers with simple questions:

"What's inside this hole in the ground?"

University of Minnesota Press, 2021

An image on the opposite page demands attention, even from the bird who eyes a dark and unexplained opening in the ground. A page turn reveals the answer, but not without close examination. The bee in question is sleeping in its tiny underground nest, because it is a queen, a rusty-patched bumble bee, waiting out the winter in sleep.

Throughout successive pages of close-ups and maze-like linked images, woodland animals and subterranean habitats, readers will learn about a particular kind of fuzzy, bulbous bee with a distinctive rust-colored midriff. 

This picture book also reveals and celebrates a chain of life and connection, indicating quite a different life pattern than many young readers learn about honeybees. The plants and animals involved, the stages of reproduction and restoration for another year, process of eggs becoming larvae, pupae,  and eventually adult bees follow the course of summer into early fall. 

With this book, as with those above, back matter provides accessible further details about the progression of life within the account, adding a page of ten things young people can do to help bees survive and thrive.  In all cases the well-researched and relevant information is presented in ways that can be enjoyed and explored across a wide range of ages. Tension and dramatic arcs lead to exciting page turns, attentive discoveries, and countless questions to pursue. 

If young readers you know are not as enthralled with story-reading as you'd like, nonfiction books like these can tell the story of the real world in ways that invite repeated readings and also encourage pursuit of further reading. What great books to hook new fans of books!

BEFORE I LIVED HERE: A Journey Through Time

 Earth has an incredibly long history prior to any form of life emerging. Then, as anyone who ever scanned a planetary timeline knows, life on Earth preceded human arrival and spans the majority of a timeline of evolution, with humans having a comparative sliver as a  "last minute" arrival in comparison to all other life forms. That's an intriguing and somewhat academic view of our planet's history. If nothing else, it's a view that can leave us (me) feeling inconsequential and relatively "speck-like" in the big picture of the world.

The numbers and spans of time and magnitude of planetary change are overwhelming. That's why this picture book take on Earth's evolutionary stages feels both kid friendly and academically valuable. The "story" is anchored in a seemingly specific place, through the eyes and voice of a child, and with sufficient familiarity to other concepts to make the planetary  journey through time digestible. 

In BEFORE I LIVED HERE,  written by Stacy S. Jensen and illustrated by Victo Ngai, perspective shifts from past-to-present. Instead, a young first-person narrator shares their perspective through a second story window. With vibrant illustrations, readers come along to view a landscape of mountains, and the neighborhood of homes/community in the foreground, just outside the narrator's window. 

That perspective shift is captured in a single line:

"But my house was not always there."

NEAL PORTER BOOKS, Holiday House
2025

Successive pages, text and images offer views of the construction of that neighborhood, a surreal view of the planning and developing that preceded construction of modern times. Throughout all of these, the horizon of a mountain range. Each page turn moves the perspective back in time by centuries and more, revealing pioneers and the displaced original residents whose land had been stolen. Another turn depicts those Native folks living full community lives. Another turn takes us to (you guessed it) earlier dinosaur residents of that very territory. Throughout these page turns, the horizon of mountain range persists, even as the land is submerged in underwater in prior epochs.

 Only then, about a billion years BEFORE I LIVED HERE, that mountain range burst from the earth's crust, shaping the land around it. Other than on the prehistoric spreads, a squirrel graces some corner of the spreads, tying the place and continuity to the PLACE where this particular story is being unearthed from its past. 

The closing is equally succinct and effective, 

"Now, I see those mountains 

from my house."

In that penultimate spread, the barefoot narrator in modern clothing looks outward through a free-standing doorway along with a suspended window. Both of those openings to the land frame the current landscape of people and community. The expanse surrounding these frames are an accumulation line images in scratched into a black background base, rendered as rainbow-colored reminders of the prior pages. That superimposed contemporary view on foregrounded historic references offers a remarkable sense of the change and permanence in which we live on this planet. One final spread becomes a searchable expanse of the passages of time that have been described. 

Back matter extends the dramatically portrayed Earth-history with accessible details and brief descriptors  for each spread. This is a magical interpretation of very well-researched and documented nonfiction content. I genuinely believe that this highly scientific depiction of complex  information could be enjoyed by very young audiences, because the illustrations and language are told in reverse time, anchoring ideas in the local and familiar aspects of a neighborhood. It also offers older audiences an identifiable timeline and pattern of regression that invites anyone, anywhere, to look around and wonder, question, read, and research.

Concepts of permanence and change are challenging at early developmental levels, but this is a terrific way to share those concepts and other abstract relationships and expanses of time that will intrigue readers of many ages.