Author: jama

nine cool things on a tuesday

~ jama ~ 12 Comments

1. Happy June! The lazy days of summer are just about upon us. How will you while away the hours — relaxing on a quiet beach, sharing ice cream with friends, or indulging in some midsummer magic with your favorite critters?

Michigan artist and illustrator Gretchen Ellen Powers helps us envision the possibilities in her beautiful pictures. In fact, her debut picture book, Summer’s Call (written by Amber Lynn Hellewell) captures the feeling of a “Michigan summer,” something she’s known well since childhood.

The nostalgic feel and soft, muted palette of Gretchen’s art is reminiscent of Tasha Tudor. I also see a touch of Amy June Bates in how she draws her characters. I like the old fashioned throwback to classics such as Anne of Green Gables and Little Women in some of her pictures — a comforting nod to simpler times. And one of her favorites is Beatrix Potter. 🙂

Prior to Summer’s Call, she created 30 interior illustrations for the 75th Anniversary Edition of the Boxcar Children. She’s also done label and greeting card design and editorial work for such clients as The Telegraph (Stella Magazine), Mollie Makes, Lionheart Magazine, and Creature Comforts.

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[review] Champion Chompers, Super Stinkers and Other Poems by Extraordinary Animals by Linda Ashman and Aparna Varma

~ jama ~ 32 Comments

When it comes to the animal kingdom, just who is the tops?

Who’s the fastest flyer, the smallest mammal, the best long-distance runner?

Readers of all ages will have fun guessing the best of the best in Champion Chompers, Super Stinkers and Other Poems by Extraordinary Animals (Kids Can Press, 2023). In Linda Ashman’s lively, cleverly crafted mask (persona) poems, 19 animal contestants compete for the top prize by hinting at their identities, proudly citing what makes them amazing in some way.

AERIE ARCHITECT

No dreary cave,
No teensy cup,
No rocky shore will do.

I want the best:
A spacious nest
And dazzling penthouse view.

Each poem appears on a righthand page with an illustration showing only part of its body (a tail, a wing, a neck, a trunk). Readers then flip to the next page for a full view of the animal, its claim to fame, and a paragraph of fascinating facts, including how the animal’s superlative features were measured.

Poems are playful, engaging, and brim with personality. Who can resist such a fun guessing game while learning about creatures from the land, sea, and air? There’s a nice mix of familiar animals (skunk, crocodile, giraffe) with less familiar ones (Pronghorn, Eurasian Hoopoe, Etruscan Shrew). I was especially happy to see two of my favorite animals included: elephants and sloths (that sloths are the slowest of mammals makes me love them even more; besides, we both really like just hanging around). 🙂

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mari takabayashi: animal adorableness

~ jama ~ 9 Comments

Why, hello.

Fancy a little cup of tea and a yummy snack? 

Welcome to Mari Takabayashi’s cozy world, where adorable animals eat, play, and relax together or with their human friends.

I discovered Mari’s work by lucky happenstance one day while browsing the internet. Something about her naive, childlike style caught my eye, and upon further investigation, I learned she was a children’s book author and illustrator (where have I been?). 

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[review] Tierra, Tierrita/Earth, Little Earth/Tal, Talchin by Jorge Argueta and Felipe Ugalde Alcántara

~ jama ~ 30 Comments

She is the oldest and most beautiful mother of all the elders. At once gentle and powerful, she is mountain, seed, cornfield, flower. Mother Earth. She is all and everything; she is life itself.

In Tierra, Tierrita/Earth, Little Earth (Piñata Books, 2023), Mother Earth introduces herself, detailing her expanse, majesty, and ongoing evolution. The fourth title in Argueta and Alcántara’s award-winning trilingual Madre Tierra/Mother Earth series about the natural world, it follows Agua, Agüita/Water, Little Water; Fuego/Fueguito/Fire, Little Fire; and Viento, Vientito/Wind, Little Wind. All four books illustrate the interconnectedness of all living things and express a deep reverence for our precious planet.

Mi nombre es Tierra
pero todos me conocen por Tierrita.

Yo soy la Madre Tierra
Ilena de todos los colores
y de todos los sabores.

*

My name is Earth
but people call me Little Earth.

I am Mother Earth
full of all the colors
and all the flavors.

Encompassing north, south, east and west, she is the Mother of Water, Fire, and Wind. Though others may call her “planet,” “nature,” or “creation,” she most likes “Mother Earth, Little Earth.” Spinning around the sun since time immemorial, she sings of flora and fauna, and is “the tiniest insect, the juiciest fruit, the most delicious greens you’ve ever tasted.”

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[colorful review] Rainbow Shopping by Qing Zhuang

~ jama ~ 4 Comments

Are you up for a little food shopping? Come along then, let’s go!!

New York’s Chinatown is our destination, as we read about a Chinese American girl and her mother buying ingredients for a family dinner. Written and illustrated by Qing Zhuang (“ching juong”), Rainbow Shopping (Holiday House, 2023) is a delectable feast for the senses that touches the heart.

The story opens on a rainy Saturday, where a little girl who feels “as gray as a pigeon” is in bed sketching. She’s wistful and lonely, missing her native China. Everything is different in New York, and her parents and grandmother are always busy working.

But on this Saturday, her mom pulls her out of bed, telling her that since everyone will be home for dinner, they need to go to Chinatown for special ingredients. After a long subway ride, they first stop at the bakery for a snack: strawberry cheesecake for her, a sesame ball with red bean filling for her mom.

Then it’s time to shop! They get fresh garlic, ginger, scallions and bamboo shoots, sweet red persimmons, mysterious mushrooms that “curl like thunderclouds,” and the bumpiest squash among “rows of vegetables in a hundred greens.”

They next explore “long aisles of noodles, sauces, spices, pickles and tea,” making sure to add medicinal herbs for Grandma and “numbingly hot peppers for Dad” to their cart. At the seafood section, the girl notes “the fish seem to stare,” right before she rounds the corner to the candy aisle — were she grabs everything (but Mom says can only have one bag)!

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