Author Archives: Annette McQueen

Good Night Ganesha

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Written by Nadia Salomon, Illustrated by Poonam Mistry

This beautifully illustrated book is a feast for the eyes! Poonam Mistry has a collection of illustrated books that are all stunning. Her style of rich detail, shape, color, form, and patterning is worthy of the reader’s time. The storyline plot involves a brother and sister going to visit their nana (grandmother) in India, where simple bedtime routines feel like magic. The story is told with some prose and poetry, apparently modeled after Good Night Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown.

Goodnight, humming.

Goodnight, chai.

Goodnight, halo hanging high

The reader will learn some new vocabulary with the Glossary in the back of the book, which can be used to decipher the Hindi words sprinkled throughout the book. This is a great chance to practice glossary skills in an authentic setting.

A recommended book to expand your Eastern Indian library collection, as well as a uniquely illustrated book.

Be a Tree! written by Maria Gianferrari, illustrated by Felicita Sala

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Beautifully illustrated, beautifully written is this book comparing our bodies to a tree. Written in poetic lyrical prose, as one long beautiful piece. comparisons include our spines to a trunk of a tree, our heads as the crown of the trees, and underneath the sapwood carrying nutrients to all other parts.

This story would make an inspirational read before a poetry unit, tree unit of study, health/wellbeing, or mindfulness/metal health and self esteem. It would weave nicely into an asana or movement practice. Also, skills such as compare/contrast and descriptive writing lessons.

The Circles All Around Us, by Brad Montague, illustrated by Kristi Montague.

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This is a wonderfully written and illustrated book for primary aged children explaining healthy understanding of circles of people in our lives. Illuminating that we are in the center and those closest to us are immediate family, then extended family, then friends, community, ect. The story encourages inclusivity as we “widen” our circles to include more and more people. Our story ends with bringing it back to our first person (the reader) and the love they hold inside.

Standing on Her Shoulders, A Celebration of Women. Written by Monica Clark-Robinson, art by Laura Freeman.

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Beautifully illustrated and highly inspirational book for girls, young women and elders, alike. Our story begins with a young African-American girl sitting at the table with her mother and grandmother (assumed). The older women begin to tell her the story of all the women who have come before her and the foundation they layed, the work they gave, the sacrifices made to create the world today as a better place for their children’s children. In poetic form, we go through the ages highlighting events in history or seeing famous faces as we work our way to the present time. This book honors the ancestors and history of women, family, and the land our nation was built upon. The ending of the book brings our story full circle after explaining that we are standing on the shoulders of women before us, with this simple question: Who Will Stand on YOURS?

My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World, by Malcolm Mitchell, illustrated by Michael Robertson

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This story is about the typical child who cannot find a “good” book to read. They are certain it doesn’t exist. Until one day, something happens that changes everything….

Based on the true story of Malcolm Mitchell, Super Bowl champion, as he struggled with finding his love for books. As a young child his teacher’s homework assignment was to bring to school his favorite book in the whole world. Malcolm’s feelings about books weren’t very good. As a matter of fact, he would rather be playing. He had tried reading books before but found that they lacked action, had too big of words, and was just too hard to do.

His mother tells him that the best stories are often found inside of ourselves so Malcolm is inspired to write and share his own book with the class. It was a hit! His classmates loved it and Malcolm finally found his love with a book. To this day, he loves reading.

The Circles All Around Us, written by Brad Montague and illustrations by Brand and Kristi Montague

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This book is a best fit for primary aged children but may be considered an everybody books, as all ages may benefit and enjoy the content. The Circles All Around Us, refers to the family, friendship and community circles we create and cultivate as human beings. It creates a reference for categorizing people and how close you may or may not be with them depending upon where they are in your circles. Circles closer to you are your family and circles farther away, your community. The book also touches upon inclusion and adding to your circle group and the love it gives to yourself and others.

The Great Stink, How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London’s Poop Pollution Problem. Colleen Paeff and illustrated by Nancy Carpenter

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This is a humorous and informative picture book which tells the story of Joseph Bazalgette, a 19th century engineer who designed London’s first sewage system. This greatly reduced the Cholera breakout and subsequent deaths caused by the open sewers of the city. He is credited with being one of the most effective engineers connected with the country of England, while changing the course of history. This book would make a nice addition to an elementary library.

Snow Birds, by Kirsten Hall and illustrated by Jenni Desmond

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With a jacket cover beautiful enough to hang on a wall, Jenni Desmond’s illustrations are a delight. There is little wonder that she is a multiple award winning illustrator as her pictures are the crowning touch in this poetry book about birds. We experience poems about Great Gray Owls, Buntings, Chickadees, Snow Geese, and many others, with each page donning a different format to keep our readers engaged and anticipating the next page. Every poem written for each bird includes the sound/noise that the bird makes–it’s song–as interpreted by Kirsten Hall. A lovely, repetitive phrase for each bird.

This book is a lovely addition for an elementary school or children in this age bracket.

The Collectors, by Alice Feagan

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What a wonderful story idea with two young girls, who happen to be from differing cultural backgrounds, come together to explore the forest through the lense of a young scientist. Our book even pictures and lists the items they take with them, such as: compass, binoculars and trowels. The young scientist have a magnificent collection of butterflies, leaves, beattles, seeds, ect.

There is some patterning in the story as the young protagonists find items which are too BIG, too DEEP, tooHIGH, to reach. But they never give up and move onto what is left to discover. Until, they get chased by a bear. (This is the only part of the story that I would make a change as my personal experiences leaves to to believe most bears are harmless and the less we fear them the more we will protect them). Luckily, the girls returned unharmed but worried they had failed their mission. Until, they look back at their journals and realize they had catalogued a rare bird species, mapped the forest and watched baby birds hatch. A lovely book of discovery!

Supertato, by Sue Hendra & Paul Linnett

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Everyone loves a superhero book featuring an ordinary russet potato! The Large size book with large sized illustrations will make this a fun read aloud to a younger audience. In the supermarket, produce section, a frozen pea makes a get away.Who would have thought that such a small guy could be so strong? He can push shopping carts, lift a potato masher and chase our superhero down the aisle. Luckily our potato hero was able to trick the pea into falling in jello. At the end of the story, the author asks the reader to check their freezer for frozen peas. Just in case, one happens to escape!