Story focuses on cat’s adventure when family sleeps

 Only the Cat Saw

By Ashley Wolff

Beach Lane Books, 2020

“Only the Cat Saw” is a beautifully illustrated read-aloud for children. All the colorful illustrations are full-page or double-page spreads. Looking at the pictures is a joy.

The story is simple. It tells about a young, brown-skinned family going through their evening and nighttime routines. While they are busy eating dinner, giving young Tessa a bath, reading before bed, nursing baby Sam, and sleeping, their marmalade-colored tabby cat explores the farm.

We go back and forth between the family and the cat. We learn about each activity the mom, dad, sister Tessa, and baby Sam does. Then the story repeats the refrain, “So only the cat saw …” Children are invited to look at the double-page spreads and complete the sentence again and again.

When the family eats dinner, the cat gazes outside at the sheep.

Tessa has finished her bath and Father is singing to Sam. The cat plays with fireflies.

Mother and Father read, while Tessa reads under her covers. Meanwhile, the cat watches an owl hunt a mouse. 

The story continues as the cat watches a rainstorm from the porch and sees the sunrise from the roof. In the morning, the perspective shifts to Tessa as she watches the cat sleep through a window. Her mom is busy cracking eggs and dad is feeding Sam.

The author Ashley Wolff has set new illustrations to a story she first published in 1985. Several modern adaptations include how the family is ethnic and the father shares in housework and childcare. The intimacy of the story is enhanced with pictures of the mother nursing her baby and Tessa sitting on the toilet.     

About the Author-Illustrator

Ashley Wolff is a children's book author and illustrator who lives in San Francisco, CA. She has authored or illustrated over 40 books. She loves to be outdoors, whether gardening, watching birds, or hiking and skiing. She is married to a newspaper reporter and the mother of two teenage boys and a border collie named Lucy. Visit her at ashleywolff.com.

 

Migrant children face dangers, share hope for better life

 

A Journey Toward Hope

Written by Victor Hinojosa and Coert Voorhees and illustrated by Susan Guevara

Six Foot Press, 2020

Four children from different Central American countries join forces during their long and perilous journey to America in “A Journey Toward Hope.” They are “unaccompanied minors,” but they find strength in one another.

Ten-year-old Alessandra of Guatemala and 14-year-old Rodrigo of Honduras intend to rejoin their parents, who came to America seeking a better life for their families. Laura, 13, and her brother, Nando, 7, of El Salvador plan to live with their aunt and uncle. Their parents are sending them to America so they will have better lives.

Award-winning illustrator Susan Guevara brings the story to life with beautiful, colorful two-page spreads. She adds Central-American folk art-influenced details to her artwork.

“I’m coming to meet you, Mama,” whispers Alessandra as she begins her journey.

Nando cries and says he does not want to leave. His sister Laura comforts him.

”I’ll be with you, Nando,” she says. “We can be strong together.”

Rodrigo leaves a note on his sleeping little sister’s bed before he leaves. He tells her that soon the whole family will be together and be happy.

Alessandra and Rodrigo meet in El Ceibo as they are about to cross into Mexico. Right away, both sense that they can trust one another. 

Soon the two of them meet Laura and Nando. Then the four children form a team to complete their journey. 

Halfway across the Suchiate River, Laura slips off the raft and tumbles into the rolling water. A stranger rescues her. Nando hugs her tightly.

The four children continue to face hunger and danger along the way, but they also enjoy the kindness of strangers and the friendship of one another. Together they dream and hope for bright futures. The author says Alessandra will become an artist, Rodrigo will be a doctor, Laura will be a chef, and Nando will be a track star.

This book is a collaboration between Baylor professor Victor Hinojosa, his students, and children’s author Coert Voorhees. Every year, about 50,000 unaccompanied minors arrive at the U.S. – Mexico border seeking asylum and related visas. Most of them are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America’s Northern Triangle (Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala}. Hinojosa and his students wanted to tell their story to children.

Four pages of backmatter in the book tell more about the problems raised by the book, the Global Hunger and Migration Project at Baylor University, and illustrator Guevara’s folk art-influenced artwork.   

“A Journey Toward Hope” is a moving story and an important one, especially in the current political climate. It will help children and adults alike better understand the plight of migrant children.

 

About the Authors

Victor Hinojosa, PhD, is an associate professor of political science in the Honors Program at Baylor University. His primary research is in Latin American politics and U.S. – Latin American relations. He directs the Global Hunger and Migration Project, a social innovation laboratory at the Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty. In this project, faculty and students address the challenges of child migration from Mexico and the Northern Triangle of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador). Dr. Hinojosa lives in Waco, TX.

Coert Voorhees is the author of the Grammaropolis and Storm Wranglers children’s book series. He also wrote the novels “On the Free, In Too Deep,” a Junior Library Guild selection; “Lucky Fools,” a Junior Library Guild selection; and “The Brothers Torres,” which was named to the ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults.

About the Illustrator

Susan Guevara has illustrated more than 20 children’s books including the best-selling “Chato’s Kitchen.” She is two-time winner of the Pura Belpre Award. Visit her at susanguevara.com.

 

'Hurry Up!' urges children to slow down, enjoy life

Hurry Up!

Written by Kate Dopirak and illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

Simon & Schuster, 2020

Told in rhyme, “Hurry Up!” addresses the reader, urging us to stop hurrying and slow down.

“Slow things down. Take a break. Look around for goodness’ sake.”

The illustrations show a girl, who starts out looking anxious as she hurries out of bed, down the stairs, onto the school bus, and to school.

Finally, there is a double spread and the capitalized word, STOP.

The girl lies in the grass and looks at a snail as her dog looks on. The story urges the reader to breathe slowly, make a wish, take a walk, listen to the forest talk.

“Go explore. Make new friends. Find out where the rainbow ends.”

The girl looks more relaxed and happier after she slows down.

The day ends as the girl and her dog sit in the grass and look up at the stars. The girl smiles in the glow of a firefly she holds in her hands as her dog looks on.

“Mosey home. Stretch and yawn. Race is off, and rest is on.

No more fast – slooooow instead. Dreams and lazy days ahead.”

The colorful illustrations help to tell the story, making it about one girl and her dog.

This book urges children to slow down, so they can notice more and enjoy life. It is a good lesson because today children's lives are often so busy and over-scheduled. It was published posthumously after the author died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare degenerative brain disorder. 

About the Author

Kate Dopirak wrote several picture books including “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Car,” illustrated by Mary Peterson and “You’re My Boo,” illustrated by Lesley Breen Withrow. She passed away in 2018 of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare degenerative brain disorder, leaving behind her husband and two sons.

About the Illustrator

Christopher Silas Neal has illustrated many award-winning children’s books including “Over and Under the Snow,” by Kate Messner, “From Tree to Sea,” by Shelley Moore Thomas and his own “I Won’t Eat That.”

“Prairie Days” celebrates prairie of author’s youth

Prairie Days

Written by Patricia MacLachlan and illustrated by Micha Archer

Margaret K McElderry Books, Simon & Schuster, 2020 

“Prairie Days” is a beautifully illustrated picture book about author Patricia MacLachlan's memories of growing up on a prairie farm. The images wonderfully bring the prairie to life in vibrant colors.

Illustrator Micha Archer’s beautiful two-page images are created with acrylics, inks, and collage. She uses origami, tissue paper, and patterned papers made with homemade stamps.

“Where I was born, there was a sky so big, there was no end of it,” writes MacLachlan.

The author remembers the smell of wild roses when she lay in the fields, the funny-sounding names of nearby towns, and getting cold drinks from lift-top tanks at filling stations.

She remembers prairie birds, the farm horses, farm dogs and worker dogs who herded the cattle and sheep.

She remembers lying in the grain in a wagon, swimming in the farm pond, and going into town with Mama and Papa.

When the day was over, she and her siblings played kick the can in the road until it got dark. They kept playing until their parents came out to bring them to bed. 

In bed, she read under the quilt with a flashlight.

MacLachlan’s story is gentle and nostalgic, but the best thing about this book is the imagery. Children will enjoy finding many small details in the beautiful illustrations.

About the Author

Patricia MacLachlan Patricia MacLachlan was born on the prairie, and to this day carries a small bag of prairie dirt with her wherever she goes to remind her of what she knew first. She is the author of many well-loved novels and picture books, including “Sarah, Plain and Tall,” winner of the Newbery Medal; its sequels, “Skylark” and “Caleb's Story;” and “Three Names,” illustrated by Mike Wimmer. She lives in western Massachusetts.

About the Illustrator

Micha Archer illustrated “The Wise Fool,” “Lola’s Fandango,” and “Prairie Days,” and wrote and illustrated “Daniel Finds a Poem.” Working in collage and oil, her use of color and pattern is influenced by the folk art, crafts, and architecture of the countries she has visited and lived in. She realized the importance of the book as a teaching tool after teaching kindergarten and raising two children. Micha divides her time between Costa Rica and western Massachusetts, where she lives in the house she and her husband built, surrounded by gardens and forest to roam in.

Rhyming book teaches youngsters about voting rights

Equality’s Call: The Story of Voting Rights in America

Written by Deborah Diesen and illustrated by Magdalena Mora

Beach Lane Books, Simon & Schuster, 2020

“Equality’s Call: The Story of Voting Rights in America” teaches children about how different groups of people have fought for and gained the right to vote in America.

Our nation’s founders believed it was vital that the people have a voice in their government, the book says. This would happen through voting, elections, and representation.

But for many years, only a few people were given these rights. This led to many people speaking up because “they heard equality’s call,” the book says.

“A right isn’t a right till it’s granted to all,” is a refrain repeated many times in the book.

The states set the rules about who could vote, and it depended on one’s gender, race, and wealth. At our nation’s founding, only white men with property could vote.

First, white men who didn’t own property gained the right to vote. Then people spoke out against slavery, there was a war, and slavery ended. An amendment was passed.

Then all men could vote, according to the law. Yet, taxes and tests denied some the right to vote.

Next, suffragists fought for women’s right to vote. The Nineteenth Amendment gave them the vote.

Still voters of color were oppressed and denied the vote. Legislation was passed to extend voting rights to them.

The mission of protecting the right to vote isn’t over, the book says. “Democracy’s dream must be constantly tended.”

When we vote, we acknowledge all those who have fought for voting rights. We honor those rights and answer equality’s call, the book says.

Author Deborah Diesen tells the story in a regular anapestic dimeter rhyming every other line. The word choice is usually pretty good, but occasionally a little forced or unnatural sounding.  

  

Magdalena Mora’s colorful illustrations bring the book to life.

After the story, Diesen gives more detailed information. She explains amendments and legislation pertaining to voting rights. Then she lists voting rights activists.

It’s interesting how she includes small pictures of many of the activists, pictures that have appeared in the book. Children will enjoy going back and finding these pictures.

About the Author

Deborah Diesen is the author of many picture books for children, including the “New York Times” bestseller “The Pout-Pout Fish.” She loves words and rhymes and rhythms. “Equality’s Call” is her first nonfiction picture book. She and her family live in Michigan.

About the Illustrator

Magdalena Mora is an illustrator who is passionate about visual storytelling and graphic design as a tool for social change. “Equality’s Call” is her first picture book. She lives in Minneapolis, MN.

Poet offers free critiques to writers in Peek & Critique

Talented poet Renee LaTulippe is offering a free service for children’s book writers called Peek & Critique. It is weekly educational videos on YouTube in which she critiques children’s writers’ work.

Writers can also access the series through the Facebook group, KIDLIT411, which is for children’s writers.


LaTulippe, who also teaches online courses, invites writers to submit rhyming picture book manuscripts, children’s poetry, or prose for any age children. Every Monday she critiques work that has been submitted.


This series is invaluable to children’s writers. Getting rhyme and meter right is a challenge to any writer. Making writing lyrical greatly improves it and makes children love it.


This week LaTulippe reviewed several stanzas of my rhyming bedtime picture book manuscript, “Crickets Sing Me to Sleep.” Her insights will help me improve the story and make it more likely to be published one day.


Here’s a link to LaTulippe’s YouTube channel, The Lyrical Language Lab.

The Lyrical Language Lab Youtube Channel


About the Poet:

Renee LaTulippe has published poems in anthologies including School People (ed. Lee Bennett Hopkins), the National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry (ed. J. Patrick Lewis), and many others. She has co-authored nine award-winning leveled readers, a collection of poetry titled “Lizard Lou: a collection of rhymes old and new (Moonbeam Children’s Books Silver Award for poetry), and the workbook All About Homophones (Finalist, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards) for All About Learning Press, where she is also the editor.

Renée developed and teaches the online course The Lyrical Language Lab: Punching Up Prose with Poetry and blogs on children’s poetry at NoWaterRiver.com. She earned her BFA in acting/directing from Marymount Manhattan College and her MA in English Education from NYU; worked and played in the theater for almost two decades; and taught English, theater arts, and public speaking in NYC. She lives in Italy with her husband, twin boys, and baby daughter.

Mister Rogers tells kids, ‘I like you just the way you are’

Fred’s Big Feelings: The Life and Legacy of Mister Rogers

Written by Laura Renauld and illustrated by Brigette Barrager

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2020

It is a good time for the publication of this picture book biography, “Fred’s Big Feelings,” about Fred Rogers, host of a popular preschool children’s television show, “Mister Rogers Neighborhood,” which aired from 1968 to 2001.

A critically acclaimed movie starring Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” is in theaters now. In 2018, celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of “Mister Rogers Neighborhood” included a commemorative U.S. postage stamp and the release of a well-received documentary about Mister Rogers called “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

Freddy Rogers was a shy boy who had trouble making friends. Bullies taunted him about his weight. Asthma kept him indoors for much of the summer, making him feel even lonelier. He stayed at home, playing with his puppets.

He found consolation in music, learning to play the piano and enjoying many hours at the keyboard.

Also, his grandfather Fred Brooks McFeely helped him feel better about himself with his message of unconditional love. “You made this day a really special day just by being yourself,” he told Freddy, “and I happen to like you just the way you are.”

In high school, Fred was kind to a popular athlete who was in the hospital with a football injury. He brought Jim his homework, and a strong friendship grew between the two of them. Jim encouraged Fred and Fred’s confidence skyrocketed and he became a leader.

When Fred saw a children’s show on his parents’ new television, he was shocked and disgusted by the endless pranks, jokes, and gags. He thought a television show for children could help them feel welcomed, loved, and special. In 1954, he would help create “The Children’s Corner” on a community-supported television station. The show was a hit.

When it went off the air, he began hosting a new show, “Mister Rogers Neighborhood” in 1968 on public television. He welcomed children with his songs, encouraged their curiosity, and honored his grandfather by naming a character after him, Mister McFeely, the Speedy Delivery man.

Mister Rogers taught preschoolers that it was OK to have feelings of shyness, playfulness, joyfulness, and even negative emotions like sadness, anger, and selfishness. But he told them there were good ways to express their emotions.

When the show was only one year old, the government threatened to cut off funding to public television. Mister Rogers went to Washington and testified in front of a Senate committee. He said he tried to teach children about how to express their emotions constructively. He sang a song he’d written for his show, “What Do You Do with the Mad that You Feel?”

A hush fell over the room and the chairman of the committee, Senator Pastore, said he’d gotten goose bumps. “Looks like you just earned the twenty million dollars,” he said.

In over three decades, Mister Rogers was a friend to his preschooler viewers. He showed them affection, compassion, and respect. His message was that it is normal to have feelings, good to talk about feelings, and important to share feelings.

The book closes with a friendly, supportive message from Mister Rogers, “You always make each day such a special day. You know how? Just by being you! There’s only one person in the whole world like you, and people like you exactly as you are.”

Barrager’s lively, cartoon-style gouache paintings bring this story to life. Sometimes she uses streams of hearts to show Mister Rogers' love and warmth toward his viewers.

About the Author

Laura Renauld also wrote “Porcupine’s Pie,” Beaming Books, 2018. She lives in northern Virginia with her husband and their two sons. Visit her online at LauraRenauld.com.

About the Illustrator

Brigette Barrager is an artist, designer, writer, and the illustrator of “Pocket Full of Colors” by Amy Gugliellmo and Jacqueline Tourville as well as the New York Times bestselling “Uni the Unicorn” by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, dog, and cat. Visit her online at BrigetteB.com.