HOW TO PAINT A PORTRAIT OF A BIRD written by French poet Jacques Prevert and translated and illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein is a thoughtful picture book presented on two levels. For younger children it tells the story of a little boy who wants to draw a picture of a bird and how he uses his watercolors and his imagination to do so. On a deeper level, however, the poetic text is very much like a fable in celebration of the creative process.  A bird perches on the sill of the boy’s bedroom window just as he wakes up one morning. This gives him the great desire to draw a portrait of the bird. The bird is his inspiration to create. He begins to draw a cage for the bird on his canvas in hope that the bird will fly into the room and enter the picture.  The bird does not. Following his creative problem- solving instincts the boy decides to take the canvas to the forest and see if that helps to coax the bird to join the picture. In this effort the boy displays much patience. In time the bird does fly into the picture. The boy is elated and begins to “erase the cage one bar at a time, being very careful of the bird’s feathers.” When the cage is gone the young artist draws a tree on which the bird can stand and then waits for the bird to sing. The boy is again very patient. Finally, the bird does sing flooding the afternoon with sweet music. This is the sign that the picture is complete.

Gerstein’s pen and ink drawings with oil on opalux paper are luminous and very special. The image of the little boy is especially attractive. The expressions on his face trace all the human responses to the creative process from painstaking concentration and keen observation to full-throttled happiness and joy. The poetic story and the beautiful pictures end the tale perfectly when the boy takes the canvas back to his bedroom and places it by the open window so that the bird can leave the picture and fly out into the free night.

HOW TO PAINT A PORTRAIT OF A BIRD written by Jacques Prevert and translated and illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein is ideal for children 5-9  (Roaring Book Press, 2007).

Discussion Questions for How to Paint a Portrat of a Bird

Utako Yamada’s The Story of Cherry the Pig, originally published in Japan, is a clever story of resolved miscommunication.  Cherry loves to eat, as do all pigs—most especially desserts, often eating an entire cake or pie at a sitting.  As this story opens Cheery has baked a particularly delicious apple cake—its sweet aroma filling her kitchen.  Unfortunately a family of mice beat her to the cake with cries of “It’s incredible!” as they nibble away.  Eating the remainder, however, Cherry agrees that it is incredible—enough so to enter in the bake-off at the upcoming Harvest Festival.

Returning home, Cherry has a lot to consider, especially how nice it has made her feel to bake for others, so much so that she decides to open a bakery which proves a great success.  But even with all of the delicacies in her shop she does not forget to provide some hard, salty, cheesy biscuits for the mice who she thought were her first fans.

Utako Yamada’s Story of Cherry the Pig is a fun example of hearing only what we expect to hear, and the accompanying illustrations of Cherry at work and all the varied animals at the Festival combine to delight children aged five to eight.

Utako Yamada.  The Story of Cherry the Pig.  La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 2007.  ISBN: 978-1-933605-25-8.  32 pg.  $15.95.

Discussion Questions for The Story of Cherry the Pig

THE MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN THE TOWERS written and illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein is a true story about the artistic and skillful feat that took place a quarter of a mile above the streets of New York City during the summer of 1974. On August 4th French aerialist Philippe Petit did the incredible! He walked on a wire 140 feet across from the top of one World Trade Center Tower to the top of the other.  Petit had previously- performed in the parks of New York City and walked on a wire between the steeples of Notre Dame Cathedral. But this daring walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center was his dream.

Gerstein’s pen and ink with oil paintings vividly capture the drama and the detail of this artistic feat. The story shows how Petit and his team entered the Towers, carried equipment up to the very top floor from the freight elevator, worked all night getting an arrow to carry a line from one tower to another, wrapped that line around the 7/8 inch wire Petit would eventually walk on, rigged and secured the line and calculated for wind movement.

The paintings are outstanding and resulted in the book being awarded the 2004 Caldecott Medal. There are two sets of gorgeous fold out pages. One fold out is horizontal and shows Petit walking the wire from the South Tower to the North Tower with his 28-foot balancing pole. The New York Harbor and the street traffic are far below. It is from Petit’s point of view. It ‘s expansive, fluid, calm and quiet. In the words of the text,” He was not afraid. He felt alone and happy and absolutely free.” The second fold out is vertical and depicts the scene from the ground. The crowds and the police are looking up and pointing to a lone figure in black walking on air. The scene is vivid, urgent, busy and noisy. Petit not only walked on the wire but also knelt, danced and lay down on the wire. His performance was nearly an hour long.

The book also honors the memory of the Twin Towers with great beauty in the last two powerful illustrations.

THE MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN THE TOWERS by Mordicai Gerstein is ideal for ages 6-9 ( Roaring Book Press, 2003).

This is Sue Ann Martin for CHILDREN’S BOOKS…The Dean’s List.

Discussion Questions for THE MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN THE TOWERS

Slow Loris, author-illustrator Alexis Deacon’s first picture book, introduces young readers to the imaginary and secret nighttime life of Slow Loris who is just that—a furry type of sloth named a slow loris.  Living in a zoo, he does everything slowly, taking “twenty minutes to get from one end of his branch to the other” and “an hour to scratch his bottom.”  Unfortunately zoo visitors find him boring as he seems to just hang around all day, sleeping.  But, Slow Loris has a secret.  At night when the other animals are asleep he gets up and does things “FAST,” which is just what makes him so tired each day.

One night his secret is discovered by the other animals who subsequently join him in his raucous partying the following night, so that they, also, are too tired to do anything else the next day.  Now visitors to the zoo find that all the animals are “slow.”  But the animals no longer care, because, just as Slow Loris did, they have a “secret.”

Deacon has written a delightful story of nighttime adventures and a shared secret.  Young children aged four to eight will delight in this tale of Slow Loris, relishing his imaginative secret life so colorfully portrayed by Alexis Deacon.

Alexis Deacon.  Slow Loris.  La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 2002.  Unpaged.  ISBN 1-929132-28-X.  $7.95 pb.

Discussion Questions for Slow Loris

THE COMPOSER IS DEAD written by Lemony Snicket with music by Nathaniel Stookey and illustration by Carson Ellis is a tongue in cheek murder mystery designed to teach young people all about the symphony orchestra. It’s a stylish “who dun it” that is also smart, fun and educational. The opening page gives the crucial information beyond any doubt that the composer is dead. The master is slumped over in his chair with pages of music scattered on the floor. Snicket’s play on words tells the reader that the composer is now decomposing.

The Inspector declares with a boisterous confidence that he will find the guilty party by interrogating each and every section of the orchestra. He works his zealous questioning through the string, the woodwind, the brass and the percussion sections. Each instrument has a motive for killing the composer but also has an alibi. The personifications, motives and alibis are very entertaining. For example, the Inspector drills the Flutes as to where they were when the composer was murdered. Quoting from the text:
                                
“We were doing bird imitations,” said the Flutes , the shiniest and highest pitched of the woodwinds….AHA! The inspector cried, “Perhaps you murdered the Composer for making you act like birds!” “Don’t make us laugh! “ the Flutes cried. “We’re much too wimpy and high –pitched for murder!”

The accompanying CD features a performance of the music commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony in 2006. Innovative composer Nathaniel Stookey wrote the music and the very popular and creative Lemony Snicket narrates his libretto along with the San Franciso Symphony.

Stookey’s music is robust and descriptive and very expansive. It opens with the narrator stating gravely that the composer is dead followed by an interjection from the Brass section trumpeting the alarm. The book is a detective story told once though the words and the CD is a detective story told twice through words and music. Illustrations by Carson Ellis add to the high drama with clever pen and ink drawings with watercolor. The end papers are perfectly patterned with silhouettes of many of the world’s great dead composers.

THE COMPOSER IS DEAD written by Lemony Snicket with Music by Nathaniel Stookey and illustrations by Carson Ellis is ideal for ages 7-12  (Harper Collins, 2009).

THIS IS SUE ANN MARTIN FOR CHILDREN’S BOOKS…THE DEAN’S LIST.

Discussion Questions for THE COMPOSER IS DEAD

Zai Whitaker’s Kali and the Rat Snake, originally published in India, introduces young children to such prejudices of class consciousness as where we live and what our families do.  On the first day of school as children introduce themselves, young Kali, proud of his father as “one of the most famous snake catchers among the Irula tribe” in Southern India, is disheartened to find that his classmates with their bus driver and postman fathers find his an item of ridicule.

He ultimately withdraws, sitting alone and doing his work, until one fateful day when an enormous rat snake drops from the school rafters.  Now it is Kali alone who can rescue his snooty classmates.  Remembering his father’s words that rat snakes sometimes mistake the smell of humans for rats, he humorously envisions his scrambling, shouting classmates as “a roomful of rats.”  Even the panicked teacher has climbed atop his desk.  Graciously, Kali captures the snake and is cheered and proclaimed a brave hero with everyone now competing to sit next to him. 
While Whitaker’s story might border a bit on the didactic, its value in introducing five to nine year olds to another culture and social values more than balances this potential weakness.  Srividya Natarajan’s beautifully expressive batik-like watercolor illustrations add to the beauty of Kali and the Rat Snake.

Discussion Questions for Kali and the Rat Snake

WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson is a striking volume of seventy-eight pages of beautiful storytelling both by word and by picture plus author’s notes, bibliography and endnotes. This is the much- acclaimed artist’s first task of writing and he scores well with an easy-flowing and conversational style.

Kadir Nelson has placed forty stunning oil paintings within the cover of this book as a visual narrative of the life and times of the Negro League. Smokey Joe Williams, Wilbur Bullet Rogan, Josh Gibson (who is also on the cover), Raleigh Biz Mackey, Leroy Satchel Paige, Buck Leonard, James Cool Papa Bell and Jackie Robinson, stare out at us from the page, facial intentions defined and muscles primed, as if alive! There are also several eye-popping double page spreads such as Josh Gibson watching Satchel Paige throw a pitch to Buck Leonard in Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC in 1943. Another shows owner Rube Foster and his Chicago American Giants descending from a train dressed in suits, hats and ties as they arrive to play the next game. Rube Foster, as the text reveals, was the founder of the  Negro League and had some definite rules about how the team would present itself.

Nelson says in his notes that this effort from start to finish took eight years due to the amount of research that was needed. “ I hope that I have done justice to these somewhat forgotten men…I have tried to honor them, to portray them as the heroes they were, and to further solidify their place in history.” This is an important volume of cultural history and elegantly tells of the hard times, low wages and discrimination that these players endured in order to play ball. Also included are listings of the Negro Leaguers who eventually played for the Major Leagues and those who were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The book won the 2009 Coretta Scott King Award, the King Illustrator Honor Book Award and the 2009 Robert F. Sibert Medal for the most distinguished informational book for children.

WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson with a forward by Hank Aaron is ideal for children ages 10 and up (Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, 2008).

This is Sue Ann Martin for CHILDREN’S BOOKS…THE DEAN’S LIST.

Discussion Questions for WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball

These short stories entice the reader to laugh, cry, and reflect. Tan’s narrative entitled “Why Not Make Your Own Pet” is a cartoon in ten easy steps.  The story is unconventional, very sweet and environmentally sound. “ Distant Rain” is a fable like text about what happens to all of the unpublished poetry people write and then hide away between the pages of a book, in a drawer or in the back of a clock. Tan sets forth the proposition that these scraps of paper eventually find each other and roll into an enormous ball. The poetry ball takes to the air, as Tan states, “ levitating by the sheer force of so much unspoken emotion.”

Boys and girls play an active role in these stories. They affect some things such as in “Night of the Turtle Rescue” and accept other things. At all times, they explore, observe, and make sense of their world. Underpinning the stories are quiet observations about cross-cultural communication, social injustice, sustainability, the lens of “the other” and Nature. The collection is vibrant, fantastical and full of truth
Tan uses a wide variety of media to tell these stories from graphite and colored pencils to acrylics, oils, photocopied text, paper collage, ink, watercolor and digital applications. He says that his stories come from the sketchbook doodles he has always kept as part of his creative process. The book’s endpapers celebrate the fertile ground of his sketchbook hot house with hundreds of small line drawings.

TALES FROM OUTER SUBURBIA written and illustrated by Shaun Tan is ideal for ages 12 and up  (Arthur A. Levine, an imprint of Scholastic, 2008).

This is Sue Ann Martin for CHILDREN’S BOOKS …THE DEAN’S LIST

Discussion Questions for Tales From Outer Suburbia

Kate Banks’ wonderful story, Close Your Eyes, will be a welcome addition for parents trying to entice young children at bedtime as well as preschool teachers facing the challenge of naptime.  In this story, as little tiger prepares for his bedtime, mother tiger begins her repeated refrain, “Close your eyes . . . and go to sleep.”  Each time little tiger expresses worries—he won’t see the sky or the “bird with blue feathers.”  But his mother assures that with his eyes closed he may even fly with birds of many colors, and if he falls she will be there to catch him.

Finally little tiger says he is “scared” of the dark, but mother assures him that it is “just the other side of light. . . . what comes before dreams.”  Mother tiger encourages him to dream of big things—mountains, the desert, the ocean.  And when his dreams are over, and he awakens, she will be there beside him, just as she is now, “nestling up close to him” as she encourages him one final time to close his eyes.

Kate Banks’ Close Your Eyes is a bedtime story that young children aged three to eight will want to hear over and over, and Georg Hallensleben’s accompanying illustrations offer a delightfully playful perspective on little tiger’s dreams.

Kate Banks.  Illus. by Georg Hallensleben.  Close Your Eyes.  New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.  ISBN: 978-0-374-31382-1. Unpaged.

Discussion Questions for Close Your Eyes