Here’s my Perfect Picture Book Friday choice:
No it’s not a penguin book, but it’s from the author/illustrator creator of a very famous Penguin and Pinecone.
Found
Written and Illustrated by Salina Yoon
Walker Books for Young Readers, April 2014
Fiction
Suitable for: 2 and up
Themes: Friendship, Comfort Items, Returning Found Items
Opening Lines: One day, Bear found something in the forest.
Synopsis from Amazon: When Bear finds a lost stuffed toy bunny in the forest, he begins to worry. After all, the stuffed bunny must feel lonely and want to return safely to its owner and home! But as Bear diligently searches for the bunny’s owner, posting notices high and low, he begins to grow attached to his newfound friend. What will happen when the bunny’s owner finally comes forward? Was Bear meant to find Bunny all along?
Link to resources: If your child has a special item — think lovey, stuffed toy, blankey, etc. — this book offers a great talking point on how those items could be passed on to someone else. You could take a field trip to a real “community board” and look at the Lost and Found items. The book is a great talking point on what to do when you find something? What’s the right choice — do you keep it or give it back? You also could share a story of your own favorite item as a child. I didn’t see any resources on Salina’s website, but her story time visits look awesome.
Why I like the Book: The end papers with the lost board items and Bear’s one Found item is priceless. Take time to find all the children’s book references! We had many giggles. Bear and Rabbit make a cute pair. I love Penguin and Pinecone and couldn’t wait to read this book. It’s a lovely friendship story.
I love the dedication: For lost toys everywhere — may you be safe and found.
We’ve suffered through a lost lovey (formerly called WAY). It’s not pretty. One can only hope that lost toys and special friends would be so lucky to be Found by someone as kind as Yoon’s Bear.
I remain grateful to Cathy for introducing me to Penguin. I see in the comments I was laser focused on the snail book, but I remain in love with Penguin.
Despite a lack of sleep, I enjoyed the Illustrator Intensive last Saturday with Will Terry and Aaron Terry, who spoke about storybook apps.
I especially enjoyed watching the illustration critiques. I’m such a dork. A few times, I gasped at how one little change to an illustration tightened the focus of the work. A great reminder that sometimes it only takes a little revision to improve a manuscript.
I enjoyed spending time with Julie R-Z! She wrote about the workshop, so I’ll direct you to her site (plus her awesome logo!!!!!)
Here is Julie with another Bear. This is Jacque Duffy’s Bear from The Bear Said Please. I took a handful of recent picture book purchases Found, The Bear Said Please, and Naked! by Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi to share with Julie. I always enjoy talking about picture books in person with Julie, as much as I enjoy sharing them with you all in cyberspace each week.
I found this link to a blog post about Salina Yoon’s creative space, which includes details of her workspace and some dummies. It’s a fun look for both writers and illustrators.
I should have taken a group photo with the illustrators with Found, as Salina is scheduled to appear at the Rocky Mountain Chapter SCBWI conference in September. I’ll be taking my copy of Found to have it signed. I’m ready for the fall conference.
Find more PPBF at Susanna Leonard Hill’s blog.
I’ll be back on Thursday, May 29 as part of a blog tour for the new book Edmund Pickle Chin A Donkey Rescue Story by Susan April Elwood and Clara Bowman-Jahn. I asked them questions about the process of co-authoring a story. I’m always fascinated about this process.
If you made it this far, Thank You! I’m rambling today!
Each time I look at the nose on that bunny, it melts my heart a little bit more!
Hip, hip, hooray for FOUND! And Salina. And lovies.
I know the nose is too cute. The whole story is too cute. I agree Hip, hip hooray for FOUND! And Salina. And lovies.
Awww, FOUND looks adorable! Can’t wait to read it. And I love your picture of Julie R-Z! 😀
Hope you enjoy it Meg!
Thanks. I’ve seen extensive footage of Salina’s creative life, and she is amazing. The cover of this book is heartwarming, and now I can’t wait to delve into the inside as well. Great links. Thanks again.
I agree she is amazing. Hope you enjoy it.
Aww. But, what, no penguins?!
But, the book is from the mother of Penguin and Pinecone! (My thought process anyway!)
Looks absolutely PRECIOUS! Thanks for sharing!
It’s very precious.
What a lovely idea for a book for young children. So many things go lost in childhood and this sounds like a comforting book. This books lends itself to a lot of great discussions. By the way, what does (WAY) stand for or mean?? Great cover!
I’m not sure why he called it his way. He just did and it was funny (after the fact) if he wanted it in public. I received a few scolding stares at Target as my child cried, “I want my way!” lol. It is really fun art.
What a great post today! A cute, cute book about lovies. We have quite a few much loved stuffies around here. Our Walker can get quite distressed if he can’t get his mouth on one in a hurry. You’ve led us in a lot of fun directions. Thanks!
It can be scary when one of our loved items get lost.
This is a wonderful review! Thank you for taking time to share with us. I can’t wait to get my hands on it and I’m so excited Salina is coming to the SCBWI Fall Conference Sept 20-21! We are in for a treat from such a talent. Thanks again!
Denise, It’s fun and sweet.When Salina shared on FB she would be at RMC-SCBWI, I was over the moon. I just want to make sure I have all my books for her to sign in case the bookstore runs out!
Good thinking, Stacy! The bookstore may run out. Happy weekend!
Just noticed an interesting detail on the cover: the closed eyelid curves are mirrored in the edge of smile curves. Yeah, I’m weird like that!
I STILL have the stuffed friend that helped me through childhood. 🙂 The finding something that you have to part with sounds a bit like Pinecone! The theme certainly resonates.
Sweet. I love all three themes: friendship, lovey, lost and found, High schoolers can use this book. 😀
Wow, Stacy! FOUND looks wonderful – I can’t wait to read it! I love that Enzo called his lovey “Way” 🙂 Sounds like your illustrator intensive was very cool – especially since you got to hang out with Julie R-Z 🙂 I would love to go explore the link to Salina’s work space and dummies… maybe if I get some time later… hahaha 🙂 Have a great weekend!
The storyline in this book is something we all struggled with at one point or another…sometimes more than once. 😉 I especially adore Salina’s bright, bold art! I hadn’t yet heard of this one, so thanks for highlighting it. Will go seek it out!
this looks like a wonderful book – I remember as a kid we used to bring every “lost” animal home and promise to look for the owner if we could just “keep it for a couple days”…