picture books

nine cool things on a tuesday

~ jama ~ 12 Comments

1. Happy March! What better way to bid farewell to winter and anticipate spring than with Aiko Fukawa’s sweet, whimsical art!

I’m a longtime fan of her hug-me-adorable anthropomorphized animals; the innocence and gentleness in her pictures help restore my belief in the goodness of the world.

A 2005 graduate of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Design, Aiko works as an illustrator and designer for the Japanese paper brand AI, creating advertisements, book covers, stationery, magazines, picture books and more on a global scale.

Though she considers cats her spirit animal, I especially love her rabbits. With Easter coming up at the end of the month, I simply can’t get enough of them! In addition to animals, Aiko is inspired by everyday life, plants, and music.

She’s been drawing since childhood, and her favorite memory is the Christmas morning she woke to find all her stuffed animals lined up in her room.

Her secret to success? “Wake up early.”

She hopes future generations will accept and respect diversity. She’s also an advocate of animal rescue centers and firmly believes people should never buy fur.

Drink of choice: coffee. Favorite food: CAKE!!

See more of Aiko’s work at her Website and Instagram. Items featuring her designs (stationery, framed prints, notebooks, stickers, washi tape, coin purses, etc.), can be purchased via online sites such as Acorn Toys & Goods, Moth Chicago, and Nico Neco Zakkaya.

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[perky review] Taxi, Go! by Patricia Toht and Maria Karipidou

~ jama ~ 13 Comments

Good Morning! It’s a brand new day, and everybody in the city has something to do, somewhere to go. Who will help them get there?

Speedy, spunky TAXI, that’s who!

Look, here he is now 😀.

Cabs are resting in a line.
Wake up, Taxi. Rise and shine!
Fill the tank, Check the tires.
Roof light on — now for hire!

Taxi . . . GO!
Get on your way —
today will be a busy day!

In Taxi, Go!, a zippy new rhyming picture book by Patricia Toht and Maria Karipidou (Candlewick, 2024), we follow spiffy red Taxi from morning till night as he transports passengers young and old to a variety of destinations.

After his morning fuel-up, he first picks up a woman who can’t be late for an important business date. Taxi races ahead, weaving left and right through an alley-way as “Heavy rain comes crashing down.” When sirens wail, Taxi has to STOP! for an emergency rescue (cat up a tree).

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[review + giveaway] The Little Books of the Little Brontës by Sara O’Leary and Briony May Smith

~ jama ~ 23 Comments

If there’s one thing I simply can’t resist, it’s a new book about the Brontës. As a longtime fan, I’m endlessly fascinated by them and always eager to learn more.

In The Little Books of the Little Brontës (Tundra, 2023), Sara O’Leary and Briony May Smith show how the love of storytelling and the power of books sustained young Charlotte, Emily, Branwell and Anne after they prematurely lost their mother and two older sisters to illness.

As the story opens, we see Charlotte crafting a small handmade book for her youngest sister Anne. Illustrated with tiny watercolors, the happy-ending tale features Anne as an only child who travels to marvelous places with her rich parents. Real life, however, is quite different.

Living with their father, aunt, and housekeeper Tabatha at the edge of the wild moors, the Brontë children cope with sadness and grief by clinging to each other and creating “a world unto themselves.” Their days are marked by morning lessons and afternoon outdoor wanderings, as their love of stories permeates almost everything they do.

Voracious readers, they devour fiction, poetry, history, geography, fables, the Bible and even the dictionary. “They make up poems as they walk the moors,” invent characters as they work in the kitchen, act out plays at night in bed.

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nine cool things on a tuesday

~ jama ~ 8 Comments

1. Happy February!! Pancakes, anyone?

We’re flippin’ out over Gwen van Knippenberg’s charming art. Known for their beautiful colors and minute detail, Gwen’s feel-good paintings capture the cozy comforts of home and family life, the joys of nature and gardening, and the sheer enchantment of simple things.

Based in the Netherlands, Gwen recently became a full-time artist after spending many years at home raising her four children. I love studying the people in her pictures and imagining their stories. She depicts children with a sweetness and warmth that’s so life affirming.

Naturally my favorites are the kitchen scenes, showing families cooking, baking, or eating together. Can’t you just imagine the heavenly aromas of the delicious homemade treats they’re making?

Look at the hug yourself adorableness of this baby and teddy in a washtub! And how good those clothes hanging on the line must smell after drying in the fresh air!

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[snowy review] On a Flake-Flying Day by Buffy Silverman

~ jama ~ 21 Comments

Brrrrrr! Can you feel it? Yes, the winds of change are blowing once again. Did a snowflake just tickle the tip of your nose?

With Winter Solstice coming up next week, it’s time to fluff our feathers, cozy up with a warm cuppa, and enjoy Buffy Silverman’s latest picture book, On a Flake-Flying Day: Watching Winter’s Wonders (Millbrook Press, 2023).

In this third title of her award winning series celebrating the seasons, we see how animals adapt to the cold and learn about weather conditions related to wind and water. When the world is blanketed in snow, many fascinating things are happening above and below ground.

Once again, Buffy invites readers to join her for a fun nature walk via an inventive rhyming text and gorgeous color photographs. It’s always a joy to read aloud her sprightly hyphenated noun-verb adjectives, a perfect set up for evocative pairs of short rhyming sentences powered by choice verbs:

On a feather-fluffing,
seed-stuffing,
cloud-puffing day . . . 

Weasel whitens.
Cardinal brightens.

Frost glistens.
Owl listens.

Leaves rustle.
Squirrels hustle.

Her verse brims with deliciously informative sensory detail. The weasel is an example of an animal camouflaging itself for protection, while the cardinal’s bright red does the opposite — makes the male stand out to better its chances of finding a mate. Along with glistening frost, a majestic owl listening for underground prey, rustic leaves clinging to their branches, and a pinecone-nibbling squirrel, what a fabulous feast for the eyes!

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