Picture this... New picture books to look for

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Summer vacation is almost upon us!  And how lucky to have some wonderful books to read!  This one is perfect for a stormy day.  It's called "Shelter" by Celine Claire.  It's about a community of animals that live independently.  One day a storm blows up.  The animals are secure in their homes, but some strangers come, seeking shelter and comfort.  They have cookies to share, but no one is willing to let them in.  A little fox gives them a lantern and the strangers go and create their own shelter.  But suddenly, the foxes' shelter is compromised.  Will they be able to find a safe place?  The soft watercolor paintings make this one really inviting.  This is a nice story about empathy and helping others.  It's going to be a good one to start the year with, when we are trying to create classroom communities.

The second one is a super cute book about dealing with a new baby.  Leon has a new baby at his house and he's not too sure about how that's going to work.  In Leon's way of thinking, there really isn't room for a new baby, until Leon has a really great and loving idea of where the baby can go.  The pictures are black crayon and oil, which gives them a lot of texture and interest, in spite of a limited color palette.  The penguins have more human faces than you might expect.  This will be a nice addition to all the books about dealing with babies like "The New Small Person" by Lauren Childs or "Peter's Chair" by Ezra Jack Keats.  


The last one is a circle story called "Leap!" by JonArno Lawson.  It starts off with a flea who takes a leap and sets in motion a series of actions, involving a large array of animals leaping.  The story is written in rhyme and it has  the most amazing array of language-such lovely words and descriptions of what the animals are doing and how that leads them to end of the book, (I don't really think this is a spoiler but it you don't want to know the ending before you read it, skip to the next paragraph please) where the dog and the flea finally go to sleep.

The art is watercolor and collage and the pictures are modern and exuberant and lots of fun.  The horse looks REALLY scared, which might make for a good conversation about understanding others feelings and body language.    I liked this one a lot.  



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