Author Archives: Amy Covey

Light for All by Margarita Engle illustrated by Raul Colon

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Margarita Engle weaves immigration with how the light from the Statue of Liberty welcomes us all. Even though we are different, come from a variety of places, and have many reasons for coming to the United States we are the same in that we have a love for the home that we have left and the place that we now call home.

While I appreciate and think it is important that Engle included that land was taken from Indigenous People and others were forced to come here on slave ships, it felt disjointed with how it was incorporated into the book. The author’s and illustrator’s notes at the end add their own personal stories to the book.

Because Claudette by Tracey Baptiste, illustrated by Tonya Engel

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On March 2, 1955 Claudette Colvin was arrested for not giving up her bus seat to a white person. She was 15 and this occurred almost a year before Rosa Parks famed refusal. Through the lawyer, Fred Gray, Claudette met and befriended Rosa Parks and started to attend meetings with the NAACP. These events led up to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. the book does not focus solely on Claudette but mentions others who were instrumental in the changing of the bus law. Told in a cause and effect style, the author shows how small events can lead to bigger events that lead to changes.

Tonya Engel’s paintings complement the text. There is an author’s note at the end that details how the idea for this book came to be and provides suggestions for further reading with books and websites.

The Great Paint by Alex Willmore

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Frog is an artist but he needed some inspiration for his art because his swamp was dull. He went around to his friends in the forest and adds his artistic interpretations. His friends do not appreciate him beautifying everything. He realizes he got carried away and returns to his swamp to create his own art show. He invites his friends to his art show so he can apologize.

Frog is fun and his personality comes through in the illustrations. He learns that he needs to respect other’s spaces. I do wish it had shown Frog helping his friends clean up the messes that he made.

The book was originally published in London, so there is some spelling differences in the book that kids might notice (colour/color). The text changes between black and white, but sometimes the page is dark and the text is still black which makes it a challenge to read.

Pig and Horse and the Something Scary by Zoey Abbott

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Pig is scared of something but she is trying to ignore it. Her friend, Horse, tries to get her mind off of her fear with bike rides, swimming, and making her laugh. Pig realizes that ignoring it does not make the problem better. They decide to talk about it and face her fear together. Pig’s fears are things that are very common for children (night, being alone, and a character from a story she read). Horse supports her friend in talking about and facing what is bothering her.

The book offers a gentle way to help children name their feelings and to realize that talking about their feelings may be better than ignoring them.

The animals are anthropomorphic in the way walk on two legs, they cook, and they use floaties in the pool. The illustrations are colorful and add to the story.

The Thing Lenny Loves Most About Baseball

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Lenny loves baseball and he loves reading in his Big Book of Baseball Facts. He wants to play in the big leagues one day. In his very first game a ball is hit to him, but Lenny hides behind his glove. Lenny decides that he loves reading about baseball, but he is not good playing at it. His dad says that he just needs to practice. Lenny’s dad helps Lenny practice catching pop flies. Lenny learns that he does not have to be great all of the time and at everything.

Chirp! Chipmunk Sings For a Friend

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Chipmunk lives on a rock and sings her songs everyday. Sometimes her songs are happy, sometimes bittersweet, and sometimes very sad. Rock is a very good listener, but Chipmunk longs for a friend to sing with her. So Chipmunk sets off to find a friend. First she tries a pinecone, but Pinecone ends up getting along with rock. Then she tries a log which then leads her to finding other friends.

The illustrations complement the text, especially the illustrations about the songs. The message that it is okay to express emotions and also a message of perseverance is important.

I Don’t Want to Read This Book

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I Don’t Want to Read This Book by Max Greenfield starts off with the narrator declaring that they do not want to read this book. Books are full of words, sentences, and paragraphs. On each page, the narrator explains why they do not want to read the book. Even at the end of the book the narrator the narrator says the changes of reading the book again are infinitesimal.

Bisa’s Carnaval

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Bisa’s Carnaval by Joana Pastro is a delightful picture book about Clara who is so excited to celebrate her favorite holiday, Carnaval, with her family. Her Bisa (great-grandma) helps Clara make her costume for the parade, but says she is too old to take part in the parade. Clara decides to take the parade to her Bisa.

The vibrancy of the illustrations and the different font sizes bring the feeling of excitement and joy of the Carnaval to the reader. The author and illustrator note’s at the end give personal perspective to Carnaval and the glossary at the end translates some of the Brazilian Portuguese words.

The Barking Ballad: A Bark-Along Meow-Along Book

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The Barking Ballad by Julie Paschkis is an interactive picture book. The author has used a stanza from Oliver Goldsmith’s poem “An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog” to build her own poem. The book starts out with a cat that was left behind when someone moved away and she is wandering around alone and hungry. One day a dog is hit on the head by a falling rock and the cat takes care of the dog. Soon the cat and the dog are friends and are inseparable.

Throughout the book, the reader will find red dots which mean the readers should bark and yellow diamonds which mean the reader should meow. In a read-aloud, the reader would need to figure out a way to demonstrate when the audience should bark or meow. This book is geared towards pre-readers but there is some vocabulary that would need to be defined for them (bereft).

Our Table

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Violet remembers when her family used to sit around the table sharing about their day and making memories. Now her family is distracted by other things and has been too busy to sit around the table. One day Violet notices that her table is beginning to shrink until it disappears completely. How can Violet get her family back to spending time together?

This picture book by Peter H. Reynolds is beautifully illustrated. The scenes where her family are together and connected are in full color. The scenes where they are distracted and isolated are illustrated only in purple. This story would resonate with many readers as we become distracted by technology and busy with life and may lose some connection with each other.