Trout are Made of Trees

Trout are Made of Trees
Written by: April Pulley Sayre
Illustrated by: Kate Endle

Did you know trout are made of trees?  Really?  This title intrigued me from the beginning as I stumbled upon this book at the library. As I read it to my five year old I  found out it was an amazing concept for her as well!  So amazing in fact, that more reads are necessary to fully comprehend this unbelievable idea of the life cycle!    The simplicity the author uses really lends this book to become a read aloud so that much (simple) discussion can ensue.  I am a huge fan of basic science books for young kids to build background and introduce what can be complex ideas.  Beautiful basic colorful illustrations match this text perfectly. This is a great one!

Long Night Moon

Written by: Cynthia Rylant
Illustrated by: Mark Siegel

I have always loved the moon, although I have had more time to look at it in days past. Recently my little boy observed on his own that the moon looked like it had a face. I regret to say that I did not go outside and look at it with him during this moment, but I did help him understand how the moon looked to have a face as it shined through his bedroom window. The moon is a mysterious thing, doing such amazing things as pulling and tugging at the ocean and washing the world in silver light. There are many tales of the moon to choose from, and so many are great bedtime stories. This story, Long Night Moon, is by a favorite author of mine, Cynthia Rylant. It begins like this, "Long ago Native Americans gave names to the full moons they watched throughout the year. Each month had a moon. And each moon had its name..."

As you might guess, this book goes through each month's full moon with a few simple sentences for each. The pictures, done in charcoal, are fantastic and well thought out. The end of the book includes a few paragraphs by artist Mark Siegel, and its obvious how serious he took his pursuit of illustrating Rylant's magical words. It's wonderful to hear from the artist, whose role is huge in any children's picture book.

This book is a quiet one, for a quiet moment, under the light of the full moon at its best! Perhaps more appreciated by the slightly older or more thoughtful child, it does present an opportunity for pursuing more information related to the Native American moons. Perhaps you can research this together. Enjoy!

Looking Closely Through the Forest

Looking Closely Through the Forest
By Frank Serafini

There are times when you are grateful for other people's mistakes, because they lead you places you otherwise might not have been. I am so glad someone misplaced this book! Clearly nonfiction, this book was erroneously placed in fiction picture books A section. Haphazardly they did this, but I am grateful!

Frank Serafini is apparently a talented person whose books range from his looking closely series to professional books about using reading workshop in the classroom. For some reason, that he is so knowledgeable about something as useful as reading workshop, and also created such a great nonfiction book with his own photographs, is intriguing. I would like to read more. Obviously he is talented!

Looking closely through the forest is a gem! All objects of the forest, you first see only a small orange-sized circle of the item surrounded by an otherwise black page. Your child and you get to guess before turning the page to see the whole picture revealed. Along with the entire gorgeous photograph revealed there are also a few paragraphs with interesting basic information about the object and its place in the forest. Did you know that the black marks on an Aspen tree are called beards and they mark where former branches once grew? My children were thrilled they could recognize the small circular view prior to viewing the entire picture of the aspen tree! They also now know it is called an aspen tree, not just the tree with the white bark.

I love this book for the thinking it creates, the interactions that can occur, and of course the broadening of knowledge. We can't wait to read Looking Closely Across the Desert!

About Rodents

About Rodents
Written by Cathryn Sill
Illustrated by John Sill

There is much to love in this book, and much to learn. Each page contains simple sentences with simple facts. The facing page has amazingly realistic and beautiful illustrations. I have never seen a cuter, fatter hibernating Hazel Dormouse! (Okay, I haven't before seen Hazel Dormouse). At the end of this simple but hugely informative book of many many different rodents are miniature numbered plates, matching the pages, containing more detailed information about each rodent. So much to learn, during so many readings! Such BEAUTIFUL illustrations! This is a book which causes me to immediately search for more from the same author-illustrator team. About Rodents is a book in the"...About"series, which includes About Birds, and About Fish. I am sorry that my library contains no others. This is one of those books you want to own, along with every other in the series and by the same creators. So perfect!

An Egg is Quiet

An Egg Is Quiet
Written by: Dianna Aston
Illustrated by: Sylvia Long

An Egg Is Quiet. In a home with three rambunctious children I often yearn for quiet. Admittedly there are occasions when I use read aloud time to gain just that, and the regrouping that inevitable follows. Although an egg is quiet and read-aloud time is relatively so, this book invites a little bit more. It invites and ignites the glorious noise of children inquiring, commenting, exploring, and learning. This is an especially good kind of noise.

As simply as her title, author Dianna Aston informs you in her book of the many aspects of an egg. Really, when I think of it, how many could I come up with? This author comes up with many, all in one simple sentence per page beginning with "An egg is..." It is many things! Amongst the simplicity of these succinct one liners are smaller lines of print that can stand on their own, with pertinent and interesting information. These lines contain not too much, not too little, and just enough information to invite curiosity, amazement, and of course a little learning as a byproduct. To point out what you already may know about books of this sort --these additional lines mean this book can grow with your child. With much younger children the one main sentence can suffice. With time, additional lines can be added little by little. Unlike other books with stand alone text, I would like to emphasize that these notes are truly not too much or too little. I am not partial to text of this sort but in this case the lines are to near perfection, and add quite nicely to the book. For older children the additional text is naturally and fittingly a part of the flow of their exploration.

The illustrations? How can I even express them to you? Illustrator Sylvia Long manages to make salmon eggs look incredible, and I am left still to believe it. These eggs, true to their nature but placed against a white background are as beautiful as Easter eggs. Whether my family can make our Easter eggs as beautiful is yet to be determined, but we plan to try. The eggs in this book are hand labeled, and beautifully so, fairly inviting a beautiful collection of any sort of any thing of you could find! I am partial to watercolor and ink, but I can't imagine these paintings not pleasing a one. An egg is textured, and you simply have to reach out and just feel, because it looks so!

At the finale of this book there are many creatures to observe, and though I have not checked I feel confident that each egg has a master at the end. What is inside of an egg is not quiet at all, and that has very much to do with the nature of an egg in the end. As for not knowing whether or not there is a creature for each egg precisely --that is one of the virtues of this book. We are still exploring and learning from it.

Octopus' Den

Octopus' Den (Smithsonian Oceanic Collection)
Written by Deirdre Langeland
Illustrated by Steven James Petruccio

During a trip to the tide pools in California my family and I were lucky enough to see our first octopus, and we were all quite enchanted by the experience. So when I noticed this book at the library I decided to take a chance, afterall there had to be something useful in it. There is! This book is unlike other books I have read in that the author manages to weave a realistic but interesting story about an octopus with useful details and information so relevant to the story you can't miss them. I think children learn well this way, and well, so do I! I appreciate the fact that the octopus in the book is simply an octopus and not humanized any more than any octopus should be. He isn't named Fred or Joe, but suitably: Octopus. While reading this book I found myself intrigued with octopus life, and so were my children. The text in this book amazed me because although the storyline is quite simple the author uses awesome descriptive language as well as relevant oceanic vocabulary. My children found this book so interesting that they wanted to act out some octopus adventures of their own after reading it.

It is tempting to think that this book is more special to us because of our personal recent experience with an octopus. But I don't think that this would be fair. I am confident I would love this book nearly as much had I never seen an octopus and only wished I had. I am anxious to find out if my library has any more books from the Smithsonian Institution's Oceanic Collection, the collection this book belongs too. I have high expectations for the other books, and plan to use them with my children this summer in some of our own learning endeavors. This is the kind of book that is so well done that I am motivated to search out other great ones and pay the (gasp!) one dollar to get them via interlibrary loan! I am also seriously considering purchasing a few more as gifts for my children's birthdays because I liked this one so much. Stories are important to children, but so are facts and learning about our world. That is important to everyone. When the two can intertwine so gracefully it is a good thing!

If your children have enjoyed reading the Magic Treehouse Series, this book would be a great companion to #39 Dark Day in the Deep Sea.We love the Magic Treehouse series at our house, but with the magic and fantasy the author often uses, it doesn't hurt to add a little interesting reality at the same time. I think this book would be great for that purpose.