picture books

[splashy review + giveaway] How the Sea Came To Be by Jennifer Berne and Amanda Hall

~ jama ~ 22 Comments

Oh, the oceans they shimmer with such wondrous lives!
Our mysterious, beautiful sea
where so long, long ago, in the far distant past,
the first glimmers of life came to be.

Imagine a leisurely stroll along the beach, waves crashing on the shore, the ebb and flow calming, hypnotic, rejuvenating. Looking out at the horizon, you marvel at the crystalline water’s sweeping expanse, in awe of its magic and mystery.

Is there a nearby tide pool to explore? Will you be lucky enough to spot a starfish, baby octopus, hermit crab or sea urchin? What about colorful sea anemones, pesky barnacles, limpets, mussels or snails? This fascinating ecosystem teeming with marine life is but a microcosm of the world’s vast, ancient oceans — oceans where life on earth began billions of years ago.

With dynamic lyrical verse and breathtakingly beautiful art, Jennifer Berne and Amanda Hall tell the greatest evolutionary tale ever told in their magnificent new picture book, How the Sea Came To Be: And All the Creatures In It (Eerdmans BFYR, 2023). Their captivating account unfolds in three parts: The Birth of the Sea, The Birth of Life, and All That the Sea Came To Be . . . From Then to Now.

They first take us back some 4.5 billion years, when our very young planet was a fiery, volatile entity with molten lava exploding from within, comets and asteroids crashing down from the sky. The sizzling and simmering, bubbling and burbling continued for millions of years until the Earth finally began to ever-so-slowly cool.

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[lickalicious review] The Sweetest Scoop: Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Revolution by Lisa Robinson and Stacy Innerst

~ jama ~ 31 Comments

At this very moment I am eating devouring a bowlful of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie. There’s nothing like rich and creamy chocolate ice cream lovingly loaded with chewy brownie chunks to send you over the top. So decadent, maybe even a little sinful. Marry me, please.

I still remember when Cherry Garcia (another of my favorites) first came on the market in 1987. Not only was it darn good ice cream, it was named after a cool musician. Since then, I’ve enjoyed many a pint, and continue to be impressed by Ben & Jerry’s wacky innovative flavors, progressive core values and ongoing social activism. How wonderful that America’s most popular ice cream company is thoroughly committed to making the world a better place!

Since I didn’t know much about how Ben & Jerry’s actually got started, I was hungry to read The Sweetest Scoop: Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Revolution by Lisa Robinson and Stacy Innerst (Abrams BFYR, 2022). This fun and inspiring story of teamwork, determination, and experimentation is a delicious testament to living the American Dream and makes me want to taste every single Ben & Jerry’s flavor. 🙂

It all began in 1963 when Ben Cohen met Jerry Greenfield in a Merrick, Long Island junior high school. Though Ben liked art and Jerry was into science, they enjoyed hanging out, found lots to do together, and shared a big love of eating — especially ice cream. One summer Ben even drove an ice cream truck while Jerry helped scoop the ice cream.

After high school they attended different colleges. Ben dropped out after sophomore year to become a potter, while Jerry went on to graduate, only to be rejected by all the medical schools he applied to. Down but certainly not out, they touched bases again in NYC and decided to go into business together. No question it would involve food.

They scrapped their initial idea of making and delivering bagels after learning bagel-making equipment was too expensive. Luckily, making ice cream was cheaper. Burlington, Vermont seemed like a good location since it was a college town without any ice cream shops, and everyone knows students love ice cream. 🙂

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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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[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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