Children's Literature Column

RECOMMENDED: BOOKS THAT CHALLENGE, DELIGHT, AND INSPIRE Sue Christian Parsons, Ph.D.

Spring 2020: Looking at Ourselves to See What We Can Do

Near the end of a long life that saw the turn of a century (almost two of them), wars, epidemics, social unrest and change, and countless personal challenges as well as triumphs--my spunky grandmother penned her memoir. “I am not a writer,” she began, then went on to prove she actually was. When she wrote about struggles, those times when life threw a hard curve and she had to start again in a different way, she repeated this phrase: “So I looked at myself to see what I could do.” My grandmother was a woman of faith, grit, and creativity; she always found a way to thrive.

As we support children in the wake of recent big changes, we seek ways to model and teach resilience. As always, one of the best things we can do is look to books. The books in this set offer possibilities for what we can do: Observe the close-up world with fresh, appreciative eyes. Value your people--and say “sorry” when you need to. Explore, wonder, and create. Call out when you need someone. Laugh whenever you can, and be reassured that some things, the best-of-all things, never change.

Look Closely

Taking Time by Jo Loring-Fisher (2020, Lantana Publishing)

When unprecedented global events brought a sudden stop to day-today business, the world changed in unexpected ways. People marveled at an image of a jellyfish undulating in a calm, clear Venetian canal. Seismologists noted a sudden decrease in Earth’s vibrations when we all moved inside to shelter in place. Polluted air enveloping cities began to clear. And the rhythms of our lives slowed a bit as we stood and pondered our next moves. Families came back together, stovetops glowed, people walked more than they drove—and in the calm many noticed treasures they had forgotten--or at least forgotten to look for. Taking Time , obviously penned before the pandemic, is now a particularly timely reminder to readers of all ages to go slowly enough to see life around us. Loring-Fisher’s gentle poetry moves verse by verse across two-page spans. Each page turn reveals a different place with a differently ethnic face, each a loving nod to family and nature. On the final spread, the individuals from throughout the book gather, each carrying a keepsake from their own worlds to share with the broader community. Taking Time is timeless and timely.

Count on Me by Miguel Tanco (2019, Tundra Books)

In a world with so many things to do, finding your passion can be a bit of a challenge. The girl in this book has tried a wide range of passion possibilities—drama, dance, cooking, singing, tennis, karate, painting, and instruments from tuba to trumpet. The thing she loves most of all, though, isn’t always seen as a passion possibility. She is oh, so very passionate about math. She loves to find it where it hides in the world all around her. She spies the geometric shapes on the playground and delights in the concentric circles from stones skipped on the lake. She searches for the perfect curve and specializes in solving difficult group problems like how to divvy up the portions at dinner. “I know that my passion may be hard to understand,” she explains. “But there are infinite ways to see the world…and math is one of them.” Reading Count on Me may just change the way readers see math, see the world, and even see themselves. The back matter takes the form of the child’s math journal in which mathematical concepts—fractals, polygons, concentric circles, curves, solid figures, trajectories, and sets—are explained clearly and accessibly in words and sketches.

Value Your People

The Happiest Tree: A Story of Growing Up by Hyeon-Ju Lee (2019, Feiwel & Friends)

Planted alongside an apartment, a tree matures over many seasons. Its view changes as each period of growth lets it peer into a different apartment. In the earliest years, the tree enjoys music wafting from the Rose piano studio, where children play and dance and peer out the window at the tree. Growth provides a new view, Mr. Artist’s apartment, adorned with portraits of the tree in various stages of growth. The current version sits on a canvas by the window where the tree can, for the first time, see itself, full and lush. Finally reaching the third floor, the tree enjoys a young family who, in turn, enjoy looking out upon it and coming outside to play under it. Continued growth brings sadness, as the tree peers in on a lonely older lady, sitting in the dark, holding pictures of her family. The next spurt reaches the window of an empty attic, making the tree feel lonely, too. But growth continues, boosting the tree beyond the roof where, with astonishment, it sees other trees like itself, reaching to the sky all around the city, each with a different view, but all growing together. Perspective plays in profoundly here, thematically and as a playground for exploring literary and artistic device. The “eyes” of Lee’s tree focus on life’s true joys like art and community and remind us to seek out those whose lives may be shadowed. Its slow steady growth and changing views reassure us that troubles pass and remind us to cherish the present. The interplay between personal engagement and expanded awareness are perfect for this time in our lives as a global community.

Kisimi Taimaippaktut Angirrarijarani/Only in My Hometown by Angnakuluk Vuriisan and Ippiksaut Friesen (2017, Groundwood Books)

Home is where your stories launch and live. Sisters Vuriisan and Friesen offer this loving portrait of their hometown, Nunavut, a territory in far-northern Canada. Written in Inuktitut (Inuktitut syllabary and with an English phonetic transliteration ) and English, the straightforward text feels at once reminiscent and current, intimately place-based and universal. In this town, children play on abandoned mining equipment, families feast on raw caribou meat, blizzards blow for weeks at a time, and the northern lights illuminate long dark nights. In this town, home floors are strewn with playing children while washing machines churn, people head out in the mornings to work and school, families and friends gather to enjoy food and laughter, and stories are shared between generations. The soft-edged, richly colored images pulse with life, a deft representation of the warmth shared in this place where, “Everyone could be family.”

Sorry , Really Sorry by Joanna Cotler and Harry Bliss (2020, Philomel Books)

As Charlotte Zolotow reminded us years ago in The Quarreling Book, grumpiness is contagious. In Sorry, Really Sorry, Cotler and Bliss find just the right balance between silliness and wisdom. Cow is in a “nasty mood” because she wakes to muddy ground and her hooves sink right in. When Duck walks by, Cow kicks mud in her face. “Why’d you do that?” Duck asks. “I felt like it,” Cow responds. Of course, when Duck encounters her friend Frog, she calls him a mean name. Angry Frog is then rude to his friend Bird…and on and on the nasty mood moves from friend to friend until the cycle is broken by one kind caring pup—then the action reverses. Apologies and kind acts are passed back down the line, all the way back to Cow who, really, truly sorry, accepts Duck’s invitation to play with all the other friends in the pond where, of course, Cow’s hooves are no longer covered in mud. Dialogue moves the action along and the language is lively. Though the lesson is clear the tone is never preachy. The structure and language choices make Sorry, Really Sorry a particularly good choice for reading aloud, supporting young readers, and using as a writing mentor text.

Explore, Wonder, and Create

The Boring Book by Shinsuke Yoshitake (2019, Chronicle Books)

“ I’m bored. So bored!” This oft-heard refrain, the classic battle-whine of children with time on their hands, is met by the child’s mother with, “What do you want me to do about it?” And, admiringly, she does absolutely nothing. That non-response and empty space that follows is just what is needed to ignite a spark of wonder; in this case, the child (Yoshitake draws the character with non-specific gender), begins to wonder about boredom. Guess what? Wondering about anything, even boredom, banishes the boredom and creativity ensues. Yoshitake’s graphic style, making strong use of perspective, spacing, and color, makes the very act of reading the book an engaging exploration itself. Far from boring, The Boring Book is likely to bring rapt attention and more than a few laughs.

Window by Marion Arbona (2020, Kids Can Press)

This interactive, wordless picture book begins with a cold open setting the scene. A girl peers wistfully out the window of her classroom then, once released, bounds out the school door and down the steps. Once we move past the title page, we see the same girl walking down a city street aswirl with activity. She continues past shuttered window after shuttered window. Just as she looked with longing out the classroom window, the girl gazes with wonder at each of the windows. What might be going on behind them? In the absence of visual access, the girl imagines the most fabulous of goings-on. Arbona uses three-panel gate folds, allowing the reader to open each set of shutters to reveal the wonders inside. On the first window ledge a bedraggled plant droops in a pot, but inside we see an apartment overgrown floor to ceiling, with lush and tangled plants tended by a little lady with a watering can. From here, the characters become more fanciful. A window shaped like a ship’s porthole, opens to reveal a whale on the loose in a water-filled apartment, a small raincoat-clad creature bravely navigating the surge from a floating bathtub. Behind others, a vampire plays badminton with bats, gnomes stack themselves in an intricate pyramid in an acrobatics contest and, in a scene with just the right touch of dark but literary humor, a child escapes being a witch’s lunch because, fortunately, he’d read the book, “How to Escape.” Both an ode to wonder and boundless possibility, each fantasy vignette, drawn with flourish in pen and ink, invites the reader to explore every nook and cranny.

In the Garden by Emma Giuliani (2020, Princeton Architectural Press)

Also interactive, and bursting with information, this oversized nonfiction text employs a cyclical narrative from winter’s end to winter again. Each seasonal shift—"winter’s end,” early spring, spring, early summer, “high summer,” fall, and “the return of winter”—is given its own two-page spread. A central descriptive narrative, top center of the left-side page, sets the seasonal stage. Just beneath, Plum and Robin, the two young gardeners featured throughout the book, are at work in the garden, brief side narratives explaining what they are doing and why. Labeled pictures and diagrams scattered around the pages introduce us to elements of the garden--plants, insects and animals--and gardening processes. Lifting flaps lead to more in depth information and next steps. For example, a picture and brief description of Plum aerating soil with a pitchfork opens to a flip-side featuring information about sap and detailing the water cycle. On the full page directly beneath the flap, we learn that Plum now plants starters and seeds in the aerated soil. Other flaps featuring plants and parts of plants open to reveal informative diagrams. For instance, a winter squash flap opens to show a detailed diagram of the inside of the squash and a cherry tree branch flap opens to show how a flower changes to fruit. A tool shed opens to labeled pictures of garden tools and turning over a leaf reveals a ladybug hiding behind it. Giuliani’s bright, graphic illustrations are appealing and inviting. Accurate terminology is employed throughout. Overall, there is a very good chance readers will not only pore over this book but also wear a path between the book and the garden.

Laugh and be Reassured

Pokko and the Drum by Matthew Forsythe (2019, Simon & Schuster: Paula Wiseman Books)

“The biggest mistake Pokko’s parents ever made was giving her a drum.” So begins this marvelously tongue-in-cheek romp. For a little frog family living in a mushroom, a drum inside is a bit of an issue. Pokko and her drum are sent outside with a gentle reminder to play quietly because frogs don’t like drawing attention to themselves. Pokko sets out into the shimmering forest, but the quiet is more than she can take. When she taps on her drum, “just to keep herself company,” something stirs behind her—a raccoon playing a banjo. The two are joined by a rabbit playing a trumpet and then a wolf, just happy to be near the music…and the rabbit. Oops! Pokko has to lay down the law: “No more eating band members or you are out of the band.” But the music goes on, dynamic Pokko drawing a crowd to her own concert. Her parents, looking to call Pokko for in for dinner, are drawn along mosh pit style, hilarious in their composure (Mom keeps reading her book). “’I think she’s pretty good!’” exclaims father, but he can’t be heard over Pokko and the drum. Hilarious and touching all at once, this one will delight all ages.

La La La: A Story of Hope by Kate DiCamillo and Jaime Kim (2017, Candlewick)

The Stars Will Still Shine by Cynthia Rylant and Tiphanie Beeke (2005, Harper Collins)

All alone, a girl in a featureless white room sings a simple “la” out into the world. Then another. And another. She listens but hears no response. Seemingly dejected, she strides away but is stopped as a brilliant leaf falls at her feet. Then others cascade down, enticing her to follow them outside. She flings her “la” around and around but receives no response. Golden day turns to night and her search continues into the deep purple nightscape where she follows a promising glow. She calls and seeks, even climbing a ladder to try to reach the moon. Alone and unanswered, the exhausted child falls asleep but wakes to a strong response—LA! LA!—from the big, brilliant, glowing moon. Kim’s breathtaking artwork expresses powerful emotion as it moves the plot along. An author’s note articulates directly the theme that pulses through this vibrant book: “…even if we are small and alone and afraid, if we sing, sometimes someone answers back.” No matter what each year brings, the most important things will stay the same. This reassuring poem, offered in spare lines across expansive pages, is a litany of life’s enduring blessings. Stars are a constant. Life begins again and again. Flowers bloom, “a promise they keep.” And food (especially ice cream!) delights. When storms come, we draw close to our loved ones. In the midst of change, goodness and grace remain, and even in the dark, light shines. Rylant begins and ends with the same stanza—"the sky will still be there, stars will shine, the birds will fly over us, church bells will chime”— suggesting the ongoing cycle of life. Beeke’s richly colored, glowing artwork radiates reassuring warmth, even on the dark pages. Read this one aloud, with a deep satisfying sigh at the end. All will be well.

All will be well.

Suzii Parsons believes that books truly matter in the lives of young people. She is the Jacques Munroe Professor of Reading and Literacy at Oklahoma State University. You can contact Dr. Parsons at sue.parsons@okstate.edu.

This is an excerpt from The Oklahoma Reader, the journal of the Oklahoma Literacy Association. Visit us on our website at www.oklahomaliteracy.org or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/147950208572970/.