Marla Frazee | There's a Book for That

Spring! Finally! In Vancouver, spring sunshine is often chased away by rain showers so all the more reason to delve into books which help transport us into nature and wonder with just a flip of a page, a beautiful illustration or a perfect written image. We found three perfect books which do just this on our library visit Saturday.

I adore this book. All the World is a Caldecott Honour Book illustrated by Marla Frazee and written by Liz Garton Scanton. Simple rhyming text pays tribute to the small simple things our world has to offer like a tomato blossom or a fire to take away a chill. But it also celebrates through Frazee’s absolutely gorgeous illustrations, the majestic purply sky at the edge of the ocean or a thunderous downpour that comes out of nowhere. The images are comforting, saturated with details and evoke our own memories attached to the experiences suggested by each picture. These pictures are so easy to connect to, I felt like I had taken a journey through some of my own most happiest of memories. Climbing a tree in childhood. Visiting a farmer’s market and eating plump berries with my children. Racing through a rainstorm on a summer’s day in search of shelter.

Janeen Brian and Stephen Michael King, the author and illustrator of Where does Thursday go? have created a lovely little tale of wonder and whimsy. An important question is posed, if Friday is coming, where does Thursday go? What happens to it during the night?

Bruno doesn’t want his wonderful birthday day to end. He wants to say goodbye to it. He finds his friend Bert and they traipse through a blue star filled night looking for Thursday to say goodbye. When the moon rises up big, round and bright like Bruno’s birthday balloons, the two friends feel like they have found Thursday. They creep back into bed until the sun brings Friday. Sweet, illustrations on blue filled pages. Lovely. I especially like the image of the two friends on the beach at the edge of the sea where ocean and sky meet in swirly blues and whites.

This book appeals to the urgency I feel when spring flowers begin poking through the earth. Tend. Nurture. Clip back. Transplant. Compost. Appreciate. Wow, can I connect to the main character in this story who nurtures a struggling garden into a majestic green world. Liam, the little boy in Peter Brown‘s The Curious Garden resides in a dreary city where everyone stays inside. Not Liam. On one of his rainy day walks he finds a few wildflowers and tiny plants on some abandoned railroad tracks. He cares for this garden over several seasons – appreciating its natural tendencies to spread and travel and helping it along a bit too (hooray for guerilla gardening). Years later he can appreciate an entire green city, tended by a multitude of gardeners.

Peter Brown includes an author’s note at the end of the story which explains his inspiration for the book.

Escape into Spring with a poking about walk to the library and discover all the places you can find signs of Spring.

Sometimes, I discover books to read to the class when I read great books with my own children – although they are in Grade 3 and love to read independently, I still read to them everyday! Check out some of the books we’ve read this fall – maybe one will interest you!

This is one of the Magic Shop Books by Bruce Coville. Last year I read Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher to my class and our book club read The Skull of Truth – also engaging, hard to put down books in the Magic Shop series. In The Monster’s Ring, Russel Crannaker buys a “monster’s ring” from a strange magic shop he stumbles upon. He follows the instructions that come with the ring – whispering a magic chant and twisting the ring on his finger. All of a sudden, he is sprouting horns, growing claws and speaking in a husky, snarling voice. He realizes that with the ring, he has the power to turn back and forth between boy and monster. Will he be cautious and follow the special instructions to not use it on the night of a full moon or will the urge to outpower Eddie, the school bully be too much for Russell? Every chapter ends in a cliff hanger urging you to read on. If you dare . . .

Ms. Hong has many of the Magic Shop titles in our school library.

We love Sara Pennypacker’s Clementine books and delight in the fun illustrations by Marla Frazee. So when the latest Clementine book was released, we had to read it! In Clementine, Friend of the Week, Clementine is thrilled to finally have her turn as Friend of the Week in her classroom. She gets to do special jobs like be the line leader, feed the fish and collect the lunch money but what she is really excited about is the book her class is going to write about her. But then, as she thinks about it, she begins to get a little nervous. What will her classmates say? How will she get everyone to say amazing things? In typical Clementine fashion, she has some very interesting ideas about how to get the best Friend of the Week booklet ever. But then, something happens that just might spoil her plans. . .

This book is in my collection at home but we have the other three Clementine books in our classroom collection.

When I was pregnant with my children I read my Grade 3 class Silverwing. They loved it! In fact, many went on to read the next book in the series Sunwing which was at the Scholastic Book fair that year. I remember thinking – when my children are in Grade 3, I am going to read them Silverwing . . . So the night before the first day of this school year, we started. And . . . they loved it too! For me, it was just as great on the second reading. The main characters are Shade, a young Silverwing bat and Marina, a Brightwing bat Shade befriends on his journey to find his colony after he was lost in a storm on the winter migration south to Hibernaculum. On their way they meet Goth and Throbb, two huge, bat eating, jungle bats who threaten Shade’s chances of ever finding his colony again. This book is an award winning fantasy that is impossible to put down. Perfect for readers and listeners eight years old and up! And the first in a series – look for all of these books in the school library.

This is the book we have just started. After reading the first chapter, we are hooked. In the first eighteen pages of this book, Piper McCloud a nine year old girl who lives with her Ma and Pa on a farm, decides to take a running leap off of her roof and discovers that she can fly! This isn’t a big surprise since she has been able to float and hover in the air all of her life. But actually flying is a whole new experience! We can’t wait to find out what is going to happen next.