Tag: Lisk Feng

Posted in Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads

Take a trip around Our World with the kiddos!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Our World, by Sue Lowell Gallion/Illustrated by Lisk Feng, (July 2020, Phaidon Press), $18.95, ISBN: 9781838660819

Ages 2-6

School’s… kind of in session? Traveling is still a bit shaky, but we all know that books take us everywhere we want to go, and Sue Lowell Gallion – author of one of my favorite picture book series, Pug & Pig – is our tour guide on a trip around the world. Our World is an oversized board book, perfect for exploring eyes and hands, that opens into a freestanding globe. The youngest learners will enjoy the 3-D design and the descriptive rhyming text, brief and evocative all at once: “Many places to explore, / From mountain peaks to ocean floor. / Look around you, step outside… / Find forests tall, and grasslands wide.” Emerging readers and school-age learners will love the facts and thought-provoking questions that run through the book, inviting readers to think about where they live and how their home environment fits into the world at large. Lisk Feng’s illustrations present gorgeous world landscapes, from icy tundras to lush rain forests, making each turn of the page an exciting new adventure. Look at that cover! If you’re able to zoom in, you’ll see penguins hanging out at the bottom of the base, inhabiting their own little South Pole, as lions, elephants, and zebras race across the African Savanna and trees and mountains dot the American Pacific Northwest and Canadian wilderness. An outstanding beginner’s atlas for our younger readers, with a rhyming story that will invite them to fall in love with nonfiction.

Author Sue Lowell Gallion has great resources available on her author page including activity guides for Our World, with ideas for reading and engaging even our youngest listeners.

Posted in professional development

Good for Parents & Professional Development: How to Raise a Reader

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

How to Raise a Reader, by Pamela Paul & Maria Russo/Illustrations by Vera Brosgol, Lisk Feng, Monica Garwood, & Dan Yaccarino, (Sept. 2019, Workman), $19.95, ISBN: 978-1523505302

I like finding good books to recommend to parents and to add to my own professional development, so I picked up How to Raise a Reader. Written by two editors of The New York Times Book Review, How to Raise a Reader is all about inspiring parents, caregivers, and educators to promote a lifetime love of reading. Organized into four parts – Born to Read, Growing a Reader, Your Middle-Grade Reader, and A Reader for Life, with a fifth section providing book suggestions by themes and reading levels (not A-Z, more like age and grade) – this is a handy Readers’ Advisory volume to have at your fingertips, and a good suggestion to hand parents who want to work toward growing their own readers. There’s advice, tips and facts about early childhood learning, and booklists, booklists, booklists. Illustrated in full-color by popular children’s book illustrators, this is a book that will make you fall in love with reading again, too. It’s easy to read; easily skimmed if you need to look for one specific section or booklist; and filled with an upbeat, positive attitude: you can do this! You can get kids to love books!

Never overwhelming, the information is presented in easily digestible sections and fact boxes. Get yourself a desk copy to keep on hand, and consider adding this to your parenting sections. And encourage those parents when they come in, looking scared and lost. Remind them that reading kids’ books is fun, and tell them that they should never feel bad about reading along with their kids, too! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a parent confide that they “aren’t really readers”, or “haven’t picked up a book in SO long”. Kids’ books are the best way to get back into reading – let this book and your expertise be the pep talk bewildered or just plain tired caregivers need.

Posted in Intermediate, Non-Fiction, picture books

Picture Book Nonfiction in May: Spirit Bears and Teddy Bears

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

A Voice for the Spirit Bears: How One Boy Inspired Millions to Save a Rare Animal, by Carmen Oliver/Illustrated by Katy Dockrill, (May 2019, Kids Can Press/CitizenKid), $18.99, ISBN: 978-1-77138-979-2

Ages 7-10

Simon Jackson doesn’t quite fit in with the other kids as a child; he was bullied over his stutter, and found himself most at home in the woods, exploring, photographing, and learning about wildlife. As a teen, he found himself fascinated by a rare subspecies of black bear called a Spirit Bear and became an advocate and activist for the bears when their habitats were threatened with deforestation. Jackson founded the Spirit Bear Coalition, met Dr. Jane Goodall, and hiked the Great Bear Rainforest, always using his activism to educate others and advocate for the Spirit Bears. A Voice for Spirit Bears tells Jackson’s story, and shows kids that one is never too young to advocate for change. The book is an inspiring call to action for young activists (suggest a letter-writing exercise for a cause they believe in!). I would have liked to see a little more on the indigenous T’simshian people, for whom the Spirit Bear is sacred, but all in all, A Voice for Spirit Bears is a good biography on a young activist, with lovely, muted artwork. There are discussions to be had on overcoming obstacles, environmentalism and conservation, and activism, and would be a good STEM read-aloud. Check out the downloadable educator guide for discussion questions and an activity.

The Spirit Bear Coalition concluded its mission in 2014, after 20 years of advocacy. Their website is still active and offers education and information.

 

Teddy: The Remarkable Tale of a President, a Cartoonist, a Toymaker and a Bear, by James Sage/Illustrated by Lisk Feng, (May 2019, Kids Can Press), $18.99, ISBN: 9781771387958

Ages 6-10

Teddy brings together the story of the teddy bear in three parts. First, we have the legend: President Theodore Roosevelt refused to kill a “scruffy, no-account cub” while hunting. This story spread, and the Washington Post ran a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman, entitled, “Drawing the Line in Mississippi“, which led to husband-and-wife toymakers Morris and Rose Michtom creating a bear doll to honor “the President’s big warm heart”. They received permission from President Roosevelt to feature “Teddy’s Bears” in their shop, and an iconic toy was born. The book tracks the evolution of the teddy bear from those first bears, stuffed with wood shavings and with sewed on buttons for eyes, through today and notes how the teddy bear endures. It’s a happy, warm story, and the digital illustrations lend a realistic yet warmly colored feel to the tale. An author’s note mentions the differing versions of the Teddy Roosevelt story. It’s a cute book to have in your nonfiction collections, and would make a nice display with the Caldecott Medal-winning Finding Winnie.

For readers interested in learning more about Clifford Berryman’s political cartoons, the National Archives has a wonderful Clifford Berryman collection, which includes a great piece featuring Berryman drawing a bear, while a black bear stands next to him. The Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University has an interesting blog entry on the origin of the teddy bear, and a link to Berryman’s artwork in their digital library.