Tag: woods

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads, Uncategorized

Reading for the Season: Bright Winter Night

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Bright Winter Night, by Alli Brydon/Illustrated by Ashling Lindsay, (Dec. 2022, Two Lions), $17.99, ISBN: 9781542022248

Ages 4-7

Folks, I’m finally back. The flu tore through our home, but we hung in there and are all finally on the mend. I’ll be playing catch-up for quite a bit, so I think everyone for their patience. I fell behind on two blog tours while I was sick, so let me start with these first.

Bright Winter Night is a story in verse, perfect for bedtime reading. A group of woodland creatures come together on a winter evening, using materials around them to create something… wonderful. A quietly joyful celebration of nature, friendship, and creativity, the story builds expectation as this seemingly unlikely group of animals – mice and wolves working together? Rabbits, bears, and birds? Stags and squirrels? – come together with one goal in mind: to enjoy one of nature’s most breathtaking sights. There’s a quiet urgency as the animals work – “They sense there is a task to do / as night descends, replacing blue” – and a spirit of teamwork and conviviality, as everyone contributes to the project and enjoys the moments they spend together. Mixed media artwork in deep blues give a cozy feeling to the chilly winter landscape. Sure to be a readaloud kids will want to hear again and again; keep this one handy for storytimes and winter craft times.

 

 

“Destined to be a favorite bedtime read-aloud.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Awash in shades of purple, blue, and pink, [Ashling] Lindsay’s watercolor and digital artwork project the magic evoked by Brydon’s smooth rhymes, illuminating a magnetic portrait of woodland camaraderie.” ―Publishers Weekly

 

Author Alli Brydon is inspired by natural wonders and what they can teach us, and she strives to bring that magic to the books she writes for children. Recent picture books include Lobstah Gahden, illustrated by EG Keller, and Love Around the World, illustrated by Wazza Pink. She also writes nonfiction about creatures, from insects to lemurs to humans. Alli holds an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College in New York and lives in England with her family. Learn more at www.allibrydon.com.

Instagram: allibrydon

Twitter: Alli Brydon

 

Ashling Lindsay is an artist and writer from Belfast, Ireland. Her picture books are published in more than ten languages and have received various awards and accolades, including a nomination for the Kate Greenaway Medal; being shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Klaus Flugge Prize, and the Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year; and being longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards. In 2020 she was awarded the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Honour Award for Illustration with her book The Tide, written by Clare Helen Welsh. Learn more at www.ashlinglindsay.co.uk.

Instagram: ashling.lindsay

Posted in Fantasy, Tween Reads

Book Review; Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu (Erin McGuire, ill.) (Walden Pond Press, 2011)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 9-12

Fifth graders Hazel and Jack are best friends until the day Jack decides he wants to be around boys more than a girl. Hazel is miserable at the loss of her friend, but when Jack disappears, she is the only one who ventures into the mysterious woods to find him, and get him back from the White Queen – whether or not he wants to come home.

Breadcrumbs is a trip through fairy tales and middle-grade stories that many readers will be familiar with, all surrounding a retelling of the classic tale of the Snow Queen. The characters are fifth graders who actually act their age; they are fully fleshed out with backgrounds that touch on issues that many readers will be familiar with – multiculturalism, adoption, divorce and remarriage, depression, and the pain of loss and how to move past it. There is a little bit of magic in every world, and Breadcrumbs brings that to life in the form of the main characters’ imaginations and in the more literal, magical forest sense. Erin McGuire’s black and white illustrations bring the chill of the cold forest, particularly the Snow Queen, to life and enhance the text. Compulsively readable, the book also provides numerous opportunities to enhance classroom discussions on topical issues or on a fairy tale unit.

Breadcrumbs is a 2011 Cybils award nominee for Middle Grade Science Fiction/Fantasy. Author Anne Ursu’s webpage offers information about Breadcrumbs and all of Ms. Ursu’s books, plus updated news and appearance information and links to social media.

Posted in History, Non-Fiction, Tween Reads

Book Review: Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder (HarperCollins, 1971)

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 8+

Most people know Laura Ingalls Wilder’s stories, if not through her books, then through the long-running television series, Little House on the Prairie. A a pioneer child who wrote down her experiences and later had them published, Ms. Wilder wrote nine Little House books, originally published between 1932 and 1943. The series resonated with girls and young women and is popular to this day.

Little House in the Big Woods is the first book in the Little House series, and introduces the reader to the Ingalls family: Laura, her older sister, Mary, baby sister, Carrie, and parents, Ma and Pa (Caroline and Charles). The family lives in the Big Woods in Wisconsin in the later part of the 19th Century, shortly after the Civil War. (Laura even mentions a family member who is “wild since he came back from the army”.)

We go through each of the seasons with the Ingalls family and learn how families lived, ate, and had fun. There are family dances and visits, trips to town, and encounters with bears and bees. There is always time for work, though, and this is where the book acts as a primer. Laura details the process of preserving meats and vegetables to keep the family fed through the lean winter months; how Pa prepares an animal skin to be used as leather goods; how to get sap from a tree, and how to smoke bees out of a hive to be able to get to the honey. It’s a fascinating look at a different time, and while it is written with a girl’s voice, this is should not be considered a “girl’s book”: boys and girls alike can learn much about the wildnerness life.

Laura writes in a clear voice, drawing her readers in because her stories are real. The love of family and nostalgia as she looks back on her life bring to mind the feeling a child gets when listening to a parent or grandparent talking about their childhood. Black and white drawings by Garth Williams add to the book.

There is a wealth of information about Laura Ingalls Wilder online. Wilder’s home in Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri, where she wrote the Little House books, is now the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum and word finds, quizzes and coloring pages. The Little House Books website features a family tree tracking the girls of the Little House series from Laura’s great-grandmother to her daughter, Rose. The site also offers games and craft ideas, as well as information for teachers interested in teaching the book.