by Stacy
Cathy tagged me to join in the Book Love Blog Hop.
Carrie Finison created A Book Love Blog Hop. It’s a wonderful idea and a great reminder to show books some extra love.
BOOK LOVE Blog Hop Instructions
1. Pick some books you love (any genre) that you think deserve more attention than they are getting. (As much as I love The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle does not need my help to sell more copies! I’ve tried to choose books I thought needed a little boost, or ones I love that no one else seems to have heard of.)
2. Post reviews for the books you chose on Amazon/social media. The reviews can be brief – even a short review on Amazon helps. Posting on Goodreads or Shelfari is great, too, or Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. The more places you can publicly proclaim your love, the better!
3. If you want, you can also post the reviews on your own blog, or link your blog back to your reviews on social media.
4. Feel free to display the BOOK LOVE badge on your blog – and if you want, link it back to this post so your visitors know what it’s all about.
5. Tag some friends to do the same! Tag friends through their blogs, or on Facebook. (I won’t tag anyone. Can you tell I’m the kid, who broke a chain letter? I do encourage you to consider adding a review when you love a book, especially one by a new author.)
Here are three picture books I plan to promote for the Book Love Blog Hop:
The Sock Thief by Ana Crespo and Illustrated by Nana Gonzales
From author’s website: Felipe doesn’t have a soccer ball. So, when it’s his turn to take one to school, he uses a little bit of creativity…and a few socks. Felipe is the sock thief, but finding socks is not that easy and the neighborhood pets make it even harder. “Au, au, au!” a dog barks in Portuguese. Along the way, Felipe leaves delicious mangoes in exchange for the socks he steals. After he swipes each pair, he twists and turns them into an ever-growing soccer ball.
This is a delightful book. I like naughty characters, so Felipe and I get along just grand! The book is also a great introduction to another culture. Felipe is in Brazil and the author’s note page includes Portuguese.
Gordon Parks How the Photographer Captured Black and White America by Carole Boston Weatherford and Illustrated by Jamey Christoph
I read this book after Ana Crespo recommended it as a mentor text for a story I am revising. My manuscript is a completely different subject, but I fell in love with Gordon Parks’ story. (I read the book the day I wrote this post. I’ve read it three times already.)
Here’s the book description from Amazon: “Gordon Parks is most famous for being the first black director in Hollywood. But before he made movies and wrote books, he was a poor African American looking for work. When he bought a camera, his life changed forever. He taught himself how to take pictures and before long, people noticed.”
Augie to Zebra: An Alphabet Book! by Caspar Babypants and Illustrator Kate Endle
I shared Augie to Zebra via a Perfect Picture Book Friday post, but I don’t think I did more to promote it. I found this book during my last February research of dozens of ABC books. In my post, I said: “This one stood out for its simple text and lovely collage illustrations.” Augie to Zebra remains one of my favorite ABC books, so why not shout it to the world. The book jacket says it “illustrates the diversity of people and names.”
I hope you all see a lot of book love in February.
by Stacy
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!
