by Stacy
Here’s my selection for Perfect Picture Book Friday:
Penguin’s Big Adventure
Author/Illustrator Salina Yoon
Bloomsbury, 2015
Fiction
Suitable for: ages 4-8
Theme/Topic: Exploration, Friendship
Opening Spread: One day, Penguin had a big idea.
He wanted to do something no penguin had ever done.
He wanted to be the first penguin ever to set foot on the North Pole.
Brief Synopsis: (from back cover) When Penguin decides to visit the North Pole, he discovers that new places can be scary— but sometimes all it takes to feel right at home is a friendly face!
Resources: Exploration lesson plans. Create an adventure map for an “expedition” — consider visiting an unexplored part of your city or neighborhood. If your child is not in school, create a map to your child’s future school and visit the playground. Think about the items Penguin packs in his backpack. Create your own exploration backpack and fill it with supplies you’ll need for an upcoming adventure. (We always pack emergency snacks in our backpacks.) There are activity books for the Penguin and Pincone and Penguin and Pumpkin books.
Why I Like This Book: Penguin’s adventures have continued in a big way since Penguin and Pincone A Friendship Story. This is the fifth book in the series and I remain in love with Penguin. As with each book, Penguin finds a new friend. We meet Polar Bear in this book. My favorite line of the book is “No, but one might be coming in!” You’ll have to read the book to see who said it. Ever since Cathy introduced me to Penguin, I have been hooked.
For more PPBF books, visit Susanna Leonard Hill’s Blog.
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!
by Stacy
Here’s my Perfect Picture Book Friday choice:
Backseat A-B-See
Written and Illustrated by Maria van Lieshout
Chronicle Books, 2012
Non-fiction
Suitable for: Ages 2 and up
Themes/Topics: Alphabet, Signs, Car trips
Opening Line: Vroom! Vroom! From the backseat, what do you see?
Synopsis: (from Maria van Lieshout’s site) Vroom! Vroom! From the backseat, what do you see? Using familiar road signs, this book introduces little ones to the alphabet as well as to the signage they see from the backseat of a car.
Link to Resources: In an author’s note, Maria van Lieshout shares some background on signs. On a road trip, see how many ABCs you can find in the signs. You can also discuss the colors and shapes of signs. This lesson plan has a variety of activities including a street sign gallery.
Why I like this book: I decided to share a few diverse ABCs from my recent study. I enjoyed this one, because it showed an everyday object in a unique light. Author Illustrator Maria van Lieshout wrote: “When I discovered my young son was equally Smitten with road signs, I set out to create a book that celebrates them.”
For more PPBF selections, visit Susanna Leonard Hill’s blog.
Today, author and illustrator Salina Yoon is being interviewed on Darshana’s blog Flowering Minds. She reviewed Yoon’s Penguin series on Thursday. I love Penguin (thank you Cathy for the introduction!). I find the Penguin books to be perfect in so many ways and can’t wait to read the interview. I’ll post a direct link to the interview when it’s live.
