November is Picture Book Month

November is Picture Book Month ,which  libraries, book stores, authors and illustrators happily celebrate.  Amidst the eBook revolution, picture books have been about the last to participate.  However, publishers are providing more and more app versions of preschool favorites.  Controversy over electronic vs paper has inevitably ensued.  In addition to the social and tactile aspects, the educational quality of learning language and how to read on a tablet is also being challenged.  The New York Times published an article last month entitled Is E-Reading Story Time? questioning the value of using a tablet for a preschooler’s reading adventures. 

Regardless of how you approach using eBooks with young children, the following books definitely come off better in paper: large pictures that showcase the illustrator's artistic technique without any distracting sound effects.  All are new offerings from favorite award winners.

  Misadventuresof Sweetie Pie (Chris Van Allsburg).  Poor hamster Sweetie Pie goes from one irresponsible owner to the next before she is finally freed by an unexpected ally.  Van Allsburg, best known for the Christmas classic The Polar Express, uses his precise drawings and ground level perspective  to sympathize with the hamster. The children in this story are naughty, not nice.

  The  Animals’ Santa (Jan Brett) Those of us who are Jan Brett fans love to pore over her detailed scenes and accompanying borders filled with delicate intricate designs.  She always gives us two stories in one. Here, Little Snow Hare is skeptical that there is a Santa for animals.  The other woodland creatures are sure, because they get gifts every year, but no one has seen a Santa.  Little Snow’s big brother figures out a way to help discover whooo (I’m giving it away) is the animals’ Santa. All the while we see animal “elves” making the gifts for Santa to deliver. 

  Give and Take (Chris Raschka)  This Caldecott award winning author/illustrator (A Ball for Daisy) combines  a traditional folktale with some word play and a morality lesson.  Give and Take are two little gnomes who urge a farmer to “Take, Take, Take” one day, and “Give, Give, Give” the next.  Neither result is satisfactory.  The bold, expressionistic brushwork and multiple imagings give this story the feel of video.

  Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas (Lynn Cox, Brian Floca) Floca’s previous award winning book, Locomotive, brings to life the excitement of riding the newly built transcontinental railroad in the 1800’s.  Now he illustrates a true story about an elephant seal in Christchurch, New Zealand, who repeatedly returns to the local river where she also likes to sunbath in the middle of the street.  Despite being taken hundreds of miles away to live in a more appropriate environment, she travels back on her own Incredible Journey.  Floca’s illustrations tell the story sweetly and simply, culminating  with a wonderfully atmospheric scene of Elizabeth swimming up the river in the moonlight.
So settle in, open the cover and turn the page for some wonderful reading time together.