The bright pictures in this book reminded me on every page of the power of the sun. I felt a glow radiating out of the illustrations. The text focused on the connections between people and plants and light and energy.

An unusual feature of this book was a note that explains the simplifications the authors made for the sake of their young audience. Interesting. I’ve never seen a note explaining what was omitted from a book.

The children liked the bright pictures and the interactive way the text began. Some of the more complicated connections between energy and plants seemed to elude them.

A Sample:

“ Without plants,
you would have no oxygen.
Without plants,
you would have no food.
Without plants,
you could not live.
Without plants,
there would be no life on Earth.”

Children’s Comments:

Jesse, 5, said, “I liked the pictures.”
Ethan, 6, said, “I loved how bright the pictures are.”
Ramsey, 6, said, “I liked when the sun was talking to us.”
Elizabeth, 6, said, “I liked the sentences that tell what is happening in the story.”
Rodrigo, 6, said, “I liked how it exploded.”
Aria, 7, said, “I liked the dedication page.”
Cailyn, 5, “I liked the title of the book.”
Children’s Ratings: 3, 5, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 3, 5, 5, 5, 3, 5, 5, 5, 1, 3, 5, 1

I felt like I was the fourth passenger on Apollo 11 when I read this book. I saw what the crewmen saw; I felt what the crewmen felt.

The pictures are fun, like cartoons. The pictures, together with the text, carry you right into the story. Both the pictures and the text are simple, but there is more detailed information for those who want to know more in the back.

The children who listened to the story liked the pictures and the text a lot. They especially liked the way the words were written on the page.

A Sample:

“In the dust and stone

beneath their feet,

no seed has ever grown,

no root has ever reached.

Still secrets wait there,

the story of the Moon:

Where did it come from?

How old is it?

What is it made of?

(Not green cheese.)”

Children’s Comments:

Stevie, 6, said, “I liked the book because it was awesome. The words looked like they were coming out at you.”

Kaylin, 6, said, “It looked cool to be floating in space.”

Joaquin, 6, said, “I liked it when the rocket blasted off and the dirt went up in the air.”

Children’s Ratings: 5, 5, 5, 5

I read the adult version of this book, Three Cups of Tea. I loved the story, but thought the book was poorly written. Perhaps it should have been a magazine article rather than a story. Or perhaps a stronger writer should have taken it on. But the grownup version was a disappointment to me.

Like Three Cups of Tea, I really wanted to like this book. The story is the same powerful tale. An American climber is unable to carry on and comes upon a village where the people nurse him back to health. He wants to find a way to repay the village. One of the village wise men suggests that he listen to the wind. The climber hears children’s voices, studying outdoors, with no school, no pencils or books, and only the occasional teacher. The climber commits to returning to the village and building a school for the children.

Once I read the artist’s note, I came to love the fabric collages used for illustration.

The children I read the story to liked the story and admired the man who came to help the children who had no schools. They had mixed feelings about the illustrations.

A Sample:

‘When Dr. Greg was well enough to go

Home, he asked Haji Ali, our wisest man,

To help him think of something special

He could do for Korphe.

Haji Ali answered Dr. Greg with a puzzle.

“LISTEN TO THE WIND,” he said.’

Children’s Comments:

Lily, 7, said, “I liked the part when they built the bridge.”

Ashlyn, 6, said, “I liked the pictures.”

David, 6, said, “I liked it when they built the school.”

Trenton, 5, said, “The pictures were good where the man was climbing the mountain.”

Kylea, 6, said, “I liked the illustrations.”

Children’s Ratings: 5, 1, 3, 3, 5, 5, 3

Pictures by award-winning illustrator Kadir Nelson.

Text by poet Ntozake Shange.

Excellence. I anticipated excellence.

But perhaps poets are not the best authors of picture books. I had trouble following the text and I’m a grownup. I had to think too much about the words on the page and it wasn’t because they were so rich but because the writing wandered around so much. I’d hoped for powerful words, but I found them to be wobbly.

The children thought the pictures were very realistic. They were moved by the story of Coretta walking to school. The writing was a little too abstract for many of them and they weren’t clear in places about what the writer was trying to say.

The poetic writing, with its whimsical sentence structure, was unclear to them.

Nevertheless, they loved the sounds of the words and the beautiful pictures. They liked the pictures so much that they forgave the text for not serving them well and gave the book a high rating.

A Sample:

“white school bus

left a

funnel of dust

on their faces

but

songs and birds of all colors

and rich soil

where slaves fought freedom

steadied them

in the face of danger”

Children’s Comments:

Jayla, 5, said, “I liked the pictures.”

Silvana, 6, said, “I liked how she changed the laws.”

Abby, 5, said, “I liked them praying.”

Gage, 6, said, “I liked the part where they had to walk five miles to school.”

Jimmy, 6, said, “I liked the people gathering together in the book.”

5, 1, 5, 5, 1, 5, 5, 5, 5

My Thoughts:

One Giant Leap is the story of the first man to step on the moon. The text is written as if it is actually happening, in present tense, and adds a sense of immediacy to the story. Or it did for me.

The paintings were rich and as realistic as a photograph. I loved the beauty of the words and the pictures in this book.

The children liked the cover of the book a lot. They didn’t really like a lot of the other pictures. The story seemed to move too slowly for them.

A Sample:

“Armstrong knows that back on Earth,

Hundreds of millions of people are watching.

He jumps to the landing leg’s round footpad.

He holds on. He pauses. He points his foot and steps off.

The surface is as fine as powdered charcoal.

The treads of his boot leave a perfectly crisp print in the dust.

On the weatherless moon, it will last for millions of years.”

Children’s Comments:

Colt, 6, said, “I liked when they put the flag in the moon.”

Sammy, 6, said, “I liked when the rocket was floating down into the water.”

Juan Pablo, 7, said, “I liked where they were worried if the rocket ship wouldn’t work.”

Children’s Ratings: 5, 1, 5, 5, 5, 1, 1, 5, 3, 3, 5, 3, 5, 4, 1, 5

My Thoughts:

The text of this book wowed me. I could not stop reading to see what would happen to Cousteau. I liked its simplicity and its clearness. I liked how accessible the text was, even for the youngest of readers.

The illustrations were fun and cartoonish. I didn’t like the colors the Yaccarino used for the water at first, every color except ocean blue, I think, but the colors grew on me, and I grew to love them. I was very surprised how much the children liked this book and how much they were interested in this man’s life.

The book also included a table of Cousteau’s life and sources for further study.

A Sample:

“The fish off the coast of Africa were friendly and curious and did not swim away. Cousteau was the first human being they had ever seen.”

Children’s Comments:

Alexis, 6, said, “I liked how he went down in the ocean.”

Vanessa, 6, said, “I liked how he made a camera all by himself.”

Jony, 6, said, “I liked how he saw the seahorse.”

Melanie, 6, said, “I liked when he went down in the ocean.”

Tabitha, 7, said, “I liked how he was on tv.”

Joey, 6, said, “I liked how he got sick and had to go under the water.”

 Children’s Ratings: 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

This was an unequivocal favorite among the young children to whom I read this book. We had a large group of children of both kindergarteners and first graders and they all unanimously loved it. The pictures kept them enthralled. I read bits of the text here and there, and, though I’d anticipated that the text would be daunting for the children, I was wrong. They seemed to follow it well. I can only surmise that the pictures and the movement of the book, going deeper and deeper down into the ocean with every page, kept them going.

A Sample:

“Near the surface the water is warm and brightly lit by the sun. Light-loving plants, algae, and bacteria—most single-celled and too small to see with the naked eye—are found here in uncountable numbers. Almost all life in the sea depends on these microscopic organisms, which use the sun’s energy to help them manufacture their own food. They themselves are food for billions of animals….”

Children’s Comments:

Down, Down, Down

Sheridan, 6, said, “I liked the last page.”

Shelby, 7, said, “I liked the part where it got darker and darker.”

Jacobe, 6, said, “I liked the very end.”

Edwin, 6, said, “I liked the sharks.”

Ariana, 7, said, “I liked the dolphin jumpking in the water.”

Kali, 5, said, “I liked all the neat creatures.”

Children’s Ratings: 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5,

My Thoughts:

Whew! What a life-affirming story! It gives you hope for the world.

The pictures are up close and personal. The text is vivid and rings with compassion for the world.

Here’s the story, if you don’t know it: A Kenyan wins a scholarship to go to America and become a doctor. While he is there, he experiences 9/11. He returns to his people, a tribe once renowned as warriors but who are now known as master cow herders. The tribe feels great sorrow when the young man tells them of the tragedy in New York City and the members of the tribe want to do something to help America. Thus, fourteen cows for America.

The children were very moved by the story. They were happy when the tribe gave the cows to America and danced for America. Some of the story was over their heads, but they got the gist of it.

A Sample:

“Because there is no nation so powerful it cannot be wounded, nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort.”

Children’s Comments:

Aryn, 6, said, “I did not like how their heads look red.”

Stevie, 6, said, “I liked the pictures.”

Joaquin, 6, said, “I liked the picture of the tribe.”

Kaylin, 6, said, “I liked the picture of the cows.”

Children’s Ratings: 5, 5, 5, 1

I loved this book and couldn’t wait to share it with the children at my school. As I’d expected, they loved the cover, a wonderful lenticular picture of Koufax pitching. They also loved the way the illustrator used gold on the pictures here and there.

The story was a little too hard for them. They were confused with the author’s use of first person plural. They did not get the way the author used the vernacular voice to tell the story. They needed more background information about Koufax.

But they loved that it was about a baseball player. They liked the voice of the author and thought it was fun. When it came down to voting, the room was clearly divided: Children who loved baseball rated it a 5 and those who did not like baseball rated the book a 1.

It is a book with wonderful facts about a fascinating man. I would suspect that ten and eleven year olds would enjoy the book a bit more than my young students, but I bet that a lot of the cleverness and fun of the book would elude even them.

Maybe we need to create a new category of books: Picture Books for Grownups. I loved this book and would definitely recommend it to parents or teachers to read with their kids who love baseball. Not sure many children would really hang in there with the book on his own. Not even a big baseball fan. Not even a big baseball fan living in NY.

A Sample:

‘One day one of our scouts, Al Campanis, invites Sandy to Ebbets Field—home of our team, the Brooklyn Dodgers—so’s he can see the hotshot pitch. After battin’ just one time against him, Campanis has seen enough. He says to Sandy, “Kid, how’d you like to play for us. Don’t think too hard.” Quick as you can say “Jackie Robinson,” this nineteen-year-old squirt was wearin’ Dodgers blue and earnin’ more dough than some of us old-timers.’

Children’s Comments:

Elyssa, 6, said, “I liked how the words were written.”

Chloe, 6, said, “I liked how he did the glove.”

Sylvia, 5, said, “I liked the front cover.

Jase, 5, said, “I liked the pictures.”

Children’s Ratings: 5, 1, 5, 5, 5, 5, 1, 5, 1

Thoughts:

Go ahead and call it a children’s picture book, but I think you are wrong; the children I read this book to looked at me in bewilderment. It looks like a picture book. It reads like a picture book. But reading it to young children is like asking junior high students to read Great Expectations; it can be read, but it should be saved for those old enough to really appreciate it.

I loved it. It would probably be among my top picks for best nonfiction picture book. It’s bright and colorful. The text mimics the style of the subject, poet Gertrude Stein. It’s funny.

As Gertrude Stein might say, A picture book is a picture book is a picture book is a picture book. But sometimes it’s not.

A Sample:

“Talk talk talk talk. Laugh laugh. More talk.

Laugh. Okay. Enough.

And now it’s time for tea.

Teatime is teatime.

And look who’s here,

in time for tea.

It’s Pablo Picasso the Spanish artist.

Pablo Picasso looks so angry but no.

Pablo Picasso is Pablo

Picasso.

He just invented Modern art

which is not the same thing as being angry

but then again maybe it is.

Maybe it is

and maybe it isn’t.

Then again maybe it is.

It’s so hard to invent

Modern art.

Maybe it is

and

maybe it isn’t.

Maybe.”

Children’s Comments:

Sydney, 6, said, “Never want to read. It’s wacky.”

Vanessa, 6, said, “It’s weird because they have a dog named Basket.”

Joey, 6, said, “The title was weird.”

Jony, 6, said, “The bear was in a chair!”

Children’s Ratings: 3, 1, 4, 1, 3, 4, 5, 2