picture books

a trio of King Charles III picture books

~ jama ~ 4 Comments

Don your sparkly tiaras and ermine robes! Today we’re celebrating the upcoming coronation of King Charles III with three recently published picture books about the green-planet-loving, lunch-skipping, kilt-wearing, cheesy baked eggs aficionado Charles Philip Arthur George.

Our “sovereign sandwich” consists of one meaty nonfiction title nestled between two light hearted tales, sure to satisfy kids’ curiosity about just who this man is and why his coronation is such an important moment in history.

While you’re reading about these kingly books, help yourself to a plum (Charles’s favorite fruit), and egg soldiers (he eats a boiled egg every single day). Enjoy!

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1. THE KING’S PANTS by Nicholas Allan (Andersen Press, 2023).

You know how kids giggle whenever the word ‘underwear’ or ‘underpants’ appears in a book? Well, British kids are similarly set off at the mere mention of ‘pants,’ since for them pants = underpants.

And there are a LOT of them in Nicholas Allan’s hilarious, irreverent yarn. The King, it seems, is quite a natty dresser. Not only does he own many crowns, he has drawers full of pants. One would, of course, need a pair of pants for every occasion: Everyday, Weekend, Coronation (he simply could NOT be crowned without those).

Well, one time when he goes on a trip, Cedric, the Keeper of the Pants, puts the King’s pants in a sack which gets mixed up with the Royal Mail sack. Chaos reigns when the following day the King’s subjects receive pants in their letter boxes instead of mail. Quelle surprise!

Undercover police were sent to uncover the underwear. Sniffer dogs were used to track them down!

After all the pants are recovered and laundered, the King decrees that many more pants should be made for him to avoid any future accidents. Among the additions: Peace and War pants, International, Posh Royal, Meeting the People. He even has Space Pants fitted with emergency air bags, and Organic Pants which are edible in emergencies. When he goes to Windsor or Balmoral, he wears his Castle Boxer Shorts (the working drawbridge in front is very useful).

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[leggy review] Animals in Pants by Suzy Levinson and Kristen & Kevin Howdeshell

~ jama ~ 20 Comments

What? You’ve never seen animals in pants?!? 

Slip into your sweats and get ready for a good giggle with the likes of pelicans in pedal pushers, polar bears in snow pants, and yaks in slacks. 🙂

These are just a few of the curiously clad critters in this hilarious new picture book, Animals in Pants by Suzy Levinson and Kristen & Kevin Howdeshell (Cameron Kids, 2023). 

Debut author Levinson has fashioned 23 pithy, playfully perky poems, tailor-made for discerning munchkins who like their animals tastefully trousered. After all, there’s nothing like a rollicking pants parade to get a leg up on the latest trends. 

Levinson’s menagerie includes both domestic and wild animals thriving in a variety of habitats (farm, suburb, range, ocean, jungle, North and South Poles). It’s uncanny how she’s able to capture each animal’s essence in such a short rhyme, delighting the reader with an element of surprise and brilliant comic timing. 

Of course a cat with an attitude would wear custom-made tiger-striped velour pants, a tracksuit would be the attire of choice for squirrels showing off their acrobatic skills, and monkeys would prefer cargo pants (gotta have those pockets to carry bananas). 🙂

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nine cool things on a tuesday

~ jama ~ 14 Comments

1. Hello April (come she will)! I see you there on your chaise lounge, totally relaxing with a glass of wine and a bowl of cherries. Who said April is the cruelest month? Doesn’t look that way to Nevada based artist Elaine Cory, whose vibrant, textured paintings transport us to a dream world.

She’s known for her color saturated florals, gorgeous landscapes, and pretty street scenes that make you wish you could be relaxing on a balmy tropical isle or sitting at an outdoor Parisian café right this very minute. Mais, oui!

An Army brat, Elaine lived in Germany and France and traveled to many foreign countries, which opened her eyes to the beauty of the world. Upon returning to the U.S., her family settled in San Francisco, where she frequented museums and art galleries.

She attended San Francisco State College on an art scholarship and worked as an interior designer for about 20 years. All the while, she continued to paint, working in acrylics and mixed media, developing her distinct impressionistic style.

Elaine sells originals at her Etsy Shop, Elaine’s Heartsong. She calls her paintings “jewelry for your walls.”

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[whiskery review + recipe] The World of Peter Rabbit: Peter’s Nature Walk

~ jama ~ 13 Comments

Chirp chirp, ribbet ribbet, whoo whoo!

Have you heard the buzzzzzz? Just listen.

This is the time of year when curious bunnies venture out of their burrows for a good look around. Since 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit, who better to celebrate Easter with than our good friend Peter?

He’s very excited about his new interactive picture book, Peter’s Nature Walk (Puffin Books, 2023). Just released in February, it tells about his delightful dawn to dusk amble around the countryside with his mother and sisters, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail. 

What makes this book extra special is that on each page there is a special “Press Here” button, so readers can hear the sounds of birds, bugs, and frogs, along with the rustling of leaves and the rummaging of squirrels! There are ten wonderful sounds in all, including opening music, so it feels like we’re right there with them! 🙂

As the story opens, Peter and his family are greeted by the blackbird’s morning song. After breakfast, they head outside, where Mrs. Rabbit points out several nearby trees – oak, horse chestnut, and sycamore (the ladybirds are eating mildew off its leaves) – while Peter’s sisters make bark rubbings. 

As the sun rises higher in the sky, they wander through the meadow for a picnic by the pond, stopping to admire marching ants. Peter learns how crickets and grasshoppers make their sounds. 

When they finally reach the pond, they’re greeted by Mr. Jeremy Fisher, who is surrounded by noisy animals. Not to worry, as Jeremy loves to hear “the ducks quacking and the gentle fluttering of dragonfly wings.” As Peter and his sisters feast on pudding, pie, berries, and tarts, they’re serenaded by the ribbits and croaks of tadpoles who have finally turned into frogs.

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[guest post] Roxanne Troup on My Grandpa, My Tree, and Me

~ jama ~ 12 Comments

Like many stories, the final product of MY GRANDPA, MY TREE, AND ME is much more than the sum of its parts. And while I don’t know that I set out to write an intergenerational story, it became that through the process of revision.

The first spark of an idea for this story came about when I encountered a YouTube video of a commercial pecan harvest. I watched as a tractor with a padded arm grabbed hold of a tree and shook. Thousands of pecans thundered to the ground like torrential rain!

Though I’d grown up around farming, and knew a bit about mechanized harvesting, I was in awe. I’d never seen pecans harvested by tractor. I didn’t even know they made attachments for that! When we harvested pecans in Missouri, we gathered them by hand like the wild products they were. I was fascinated with the dichotomy of commercial harvesting versus home-harvesting and knew kids would find the process curious as well. But I needed an organic way to highlight both processes. When the phrase, “But not my tree,” came to me, I knew I’d found a story mechanism that could work.

My pre-draft (Yep, I just made that up. It’s the “draft” where all your ideas go—in no particular order.) was messy. It focused on the care and harvesting of pecans but wasn’t really a story. As a matter of fact, I never even finished it. But I also didn’t throw it away. I’d been reading, writing, and critiquing long enough to know it had elements I could work with. It included the refrain—“But not my tree”—that would stay with the story throughout each iteration. It hinted at a seasonal structure. And it had a nice child-like voice. I also never finished my first…or second…or third draft. When something isn’t working, I have a tendency to just stop and start again, taking what I learned in that partial draft to the next one (which I don’t recommend to anyone, but it is part of my process). 

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