EB Goodale – Mom Read It

Some more books to love our Big Blue Dot by…

The House of Grass and Sky, Mary Lyn Ray/Illustrated by E. B. Goodale (April 2021, Candlewick Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781536200973

Ages 4-8

The touching story of a house that wants to be a home will appeal to little ones and their grownups alike. Once, the house “smelled of sunshine and new lumber”, and a family filled its days and nights with love and laughter. Families came and families went, but the house always waited, knowing a new family was on the way. Until there wasn’t. The house quietly waited, and bit by bit, nature claimed the area. Lonely, the house keeps its vigil… and is rewarded when a new family moves in, reclaiming the home, filling it with love, laughter, and family once again. It’s a gentle, moving story of memory, nature, and embracing renewal. The mixed media illustrations make the home as much a character of the story as the people in it. One spread shows the house standing alone, among shadows of memories: someone playing ball, a child with a wagon; someone on a tree swing. Mary Lyn Ray’s prose makes the house become real with sentences like, “The house learned about babies being born and babies growing up. It learned about bedtime stories and birthday parties.” Endpapers display an older wallpaper, giving a nice feel to the story. Just a beautiful, touching book that makes you want to find an old house and fill it with the love you have to give. Think about all the ways you can show your home love: plant some new plants, even if you live in an apartment. Repurpose old t-shirts and make them into throw pillows or quilts. There are so many things you can do!

Peppa Pig and the Earth Day Adventure, by Candlewick Press, (March 2021, Candlewick Press), $12.99, ISBN’: 9781536218985

Ages 2-5

It’s a new Peppa PigI! Today is Earth Day, and Peppa and her family are off to the Botanical Gardens once they finish sorting the recycling and composting. They get into Roger, the electric car, and head off for a fun day of learning how bees and flowers work together, see a Venus flytrap eat a fly, and play in the children’s garden! The kids in my library system love Peppa Pig, and this book will circulate like wildfire. Visit Peppa Pig’s website for Peppa news and activities.

The Forest : A Poster Book to Understand Everything about the World, by Emmanuelle Grundmann/Illustrated by Gal Weizman (March 2021, Schiffer Kids), $14.99, ISBN: 9780764360992

Ages 5-8

It’s a poster book! It’s a giant fold-out book! It’s both! Unfold each page to read a new piece of information about the forest, and enjoy a seek and find that continues on each section. The book opens up into a giant poster that spans more than 2 feet! Great for a science club/Discovery Club program, kids will love watching you unfold page by page as you read about ants, frogs, badgers, and more forest friends.

The Sea: A Poster Book to Understand Everything about the World, by Véronique Sarano/Illustrated by Anine Bösenberg & Loris F. Alessandria (March 2021, Schiffer Kids), $14.99, ISBN: 9780764361005

Ages 5-8

The companion to The Forest, The Sea is another panoramic poster book. Seek and find fish and urchins and learn about underwater cliffs, and underwater life like plankton, krill, dolphins, and sperm whales. The poster unfolds into a giant underwater scene, seek and finds leading the way with a turn of the page. Great for science programs, and keep at least one copy in your Reference section while you put one in circ – it may get beaten up, despite the sturdy pages. The Panoramic series is a fun way to explore the world!

Windows, by Julia Denos/Illustrated by EB Goodale, (Oct. 2017, Candlewick Press), $15.99, ISBN: 978-0-7636-9035-9

Recommended for readers 3-8

“At the end of each day, before the town goes to sleep, you can look out your window…” A child of color puts on a red hoodie sweatshirt and takes the dog for a walk around the neighborhood. Each set of windows reveals a different story; the neighborhood holds its own sights to behold. As child and dog return home, mom is waiting at the window, ready for a cuddly storytime.

Windows is beautiful storytelling. EB Goodale’s ink, watercolor, letterpress and digital collage illustrations provide texture and warmth to Julia Denos’ gorgeous words: the windows look like “a neighborhood of paper lanterns”; windowpanes provide a bath of “squares of light” for a raccoon; an empty house waits to be filled with new stories. The child can be male or female; the red hooded sweatshirt evokes memories of Peter, the star of Ezra Jack Keats’ classic, The Snowy Day. The warmth of home brings child and dog back to a loving caregiver, a story, and a comfortable rug. I just want to wrap myself in the warmth of this book with my 5 year old and a mug of hot chocolate; I’m sure you will, too. Add this one to your bedtime rotation with Akiko Miyakoshi’s The Way Home in the Night.

Windows has multiple starred reviews: Kirkus, Booklist, School Library Journal, The Horn Book, and The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

Tag: EB Goodale

Read a book, hug the Earth, it’s Earth Day!

Windows: A night time walk around your neighborhood