children’s books

Celebrating Tomie dePaola

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As I mentioned briefly in yesterday’s Mental Health Monday post, September 15th would have been writer/illustrator Tomie dePaola’s eighty-ninth birthday. Sadly, he died in 2020 from complications to a bad fall he had at his studio. He wrote over 250 children’s books, writing full time after retiring from teaching in 1978.

His books were a staple in my classrooms over the years, often having parts of the curriculum built around specific books and themes that he wrote about. Two of my favorites were Strega Nona and Charlie Needs a Cloak. Legend of the Indian Paintbrush was something I brought out during November and the Thanksgiving lessons to build around true Native American mythos rather than the stereotypical Pilgrims and Indians tropes that continue to be taught. The Tale of Rabbit and Coyote was another one that brought another culture alive for the children in my classes. He wrote many books on holidays, primarily Christmas.

Tomie was a devoted Catholic. One of my favorite houses to visit on retreat has a mural in their chapel that he painted in 1958 (he was 24 years old!), depicting the Blessed Mother with some Dominican friends: St. Rose of Lima, Blessed Jane of Aza, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Catherine de ’Ricci, St. Mary Magdalen, and St. Maria Goretti.

I never get tired of sitting with it, praying, and thinking of Tomie and his stories.

Mural by Tomie dePaola

Visit his website, which lists all of his books as well as offering his biography. There is also a link to The Tomie dePaola Art Education Fund.

Recently, Tomie was honored with a series of US Postal stamps, seen below. You may find them at your local post office.

Obama Book Club

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As a young child, as voracious a reader that I was, I had never read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. It was my close friend’s favorite book.

During my freshman year at college, there was an auction. Two of the British exchange students would tuck you into bed with a glass of warm milk an read you a bedtime story if yours was the highest bid.

The book was Where the Wild Things Are.

I was the highest bidder.

It was fun and sweet and I finally heard the story of Max.

Let the wild rumpus begin!

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is on President Obama’s Entertainment Weekly Book List.

Look it up and have a flashback to your own childhood.

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50-31 – The Magic Tunnel

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The Magic Tunnel by Caroline D. Emerson was one of my favorite books as a child, and it still resides on my bookshelf. I will take it out on occasion and thumb through it, reading bits and pieces and remembering what I loved about it.

It was multi-genre, taking on adventure, history and historical fiction, and time travel, and it probably influenced the direction of my interests more than I would have thought at the time. It had everything a voracious reader in elementary school could ask for.

I spent my elementary years in NYC – Queens with grandparents in both Queens and the Bronx. The brother and sister in The Magic Tunnel also lived in New York City, and in taking the subway, something I did with my uncle and on class trips, they found adventure in the past before NYC became New York. It was originally New Amsterdam, and in their travels, they met the original Dutch colonialists, the Native Americans already living in the area, and Peter Stuyvesant.

They explored the Dutch settlement and saw other aspects of Dutch colonial life and recognized much as what they had been learning in school as well as straightening out some misconceptions from that time period.

In the years after reading this, I immersed myself into history and science-fiction, still two of my loves. I also continue to have an unfinished novel from college in the same multi-genre way, combining time travel, adventure, and history. Without realizing it, I’m certain that The Magic Tunnel was a strong influence to begin and continue that story. Even today, I still come back to it and try to tweak and add elements, thinking maybe the story is relevant and can still go somewhere.

After college, I joined a re-enactment group to study and fully immerse myself in The Middle Ages.

I still love train travel, and am thinking of how to take a train trip for a writing excursion, although I’m not sure that I want to travel to another dimension or plane.

Published in 1964, it may certainly be dated and somewhat stereotypical, but it is still worth a look to see how our past was perceived and may have been perceived by two elementary age siblings just trying to get home.

Recs for Children’s Book Week

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Children’s Book Week

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators

Aliki

Anno

Charles G. Shaw

David Macaulay

Doreen Mulryan Marts

Ed Young

Eric Carle

Graeme Base\

Jan Brett

Janell Cannon

Margaret Hodges

Tomie de Paola

Trina Schart Hyman

Children’s Book Week

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I love Children’s Book Week, but I also feel as though it’s somewhat redundant, especially for schools and libraries. Don’t get me wrong – there is no such thing as too many books, but I also sometimes feel that there isn’t a need for a special week to introduce books to your children and encourage them to read. We do this without thinking from the time they’re born; before they’re born.

Think of all the reading your family already does with your children: street signs, storefronts, grocery and Christmas lists, comic books, magazines, and of course all the books that line our shelves.

The huge varieties of available children’s books today meet the needs of all kids including those who are kids at heart. I still recall my favorite children’s books from childhood – The Magic Tunnel by Caroline Emerson, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder – timeless treasures that can be read again and again. They continue to reside on my bookshelves.

I truly believe that almost all books can be used in all grade levels. Picture books have moved well beyond simple stories and large illustrations. I would read higher end picture books to toddlers when I was teaching in the early childhood field, and I’d read picture books to elementary level kids. Everyone loves to be read to.

Here’s a sampling of what I mean. They can all be read with and without the words, and they can be used as supplements to other subjects. I would bring in A Medieval Feast by Aliki yearly on Halloween to explain how my medieval costume was similar to a princess, but I wasn’t a princess. I was sometimes surprised at how much young children will accept when talked to on their level, with respect and honesty. I used the same book with a sixth grade class as part of their unit on The Middle Ages. It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw is beautiful on its surface, and is a jumping off point to exploring our imaginations and simply lying out in the grass surveying the clouds above us.

Good places to start for selecting books are with the Caldecott Medal and Newberry Medal winners.

These are five of my favorites that are appropriate across all ages, but they don’t begin to scratch the surface of good books for children:

Stellaluna by Jannell Cannon

The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery by Graeme Base

St. George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

The Mitten by Jan Brett

Castle by David Macaulay

At the start of this I said that I didn’t feel there was a need for Children’s Book Week, but you know what? Why shouldn’t there be a week to celebrate children’s books? Children’s books are wonderful and we should promote them everywhere, so I’ll admit it – I guess I was wrong. And it perfectly lined up falling right after Free Comic Book Day!

Enjoy the rest of this week, the 2015 Children’s Book Week!

This Week’s Theme: Reading

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I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but since the beginning of the year I’ve tried to maintain daily features and a weekly theme to tie my posts together a bit more.

I’ve also included my recent blogging classes – for the next two weeks I’ll be posting photos from Photography 101.

During Lent I’ve been posting a daily reflection, whatever stays in my head from my spiritual readings and thoughts. These are generally short but they’ve been open-ended, no agenda or word count.

As it hands, and as I mentioned in this morning’s prompt, it is Dr. Seuss’ birthday. He would have been 101 years old today, so this week I thought our theme would be reading, each day of the week a different genre. Today it is children’s books.

I have some favorites to share:

The Magic Tunnel by Caroline Emerson – kids, NYC subways, time travel, history.

It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw – white shapes on a blue background, great for the imagination and crafts with cotton balls. Good for laying in the grass liking up at the clouds. I also made a flannel board set to go with this book.

Castle by David Macaulay – the inner workings of building a medieval Welsh castle. All of his books are brilliantly written and illustrated and can be adapted for all ages. As a teacher I used them with preschoolers and middle schoolers. I recommend all of his works.

Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola – beautiful, gentle work, both secular and religious. In fact, at the retreat center I just returned from, he drew the mural in their chapel in 1958. Again, I recommend all of his works.

Tomorrow we’ll look at history and historical fiction.