The Yellow Leaves Are Coming

Written by James Gladstone

Illustrated by François Thisdale

Red Deer Press

978-0-889956834

32 pp.

Ages 4-9

November, 2023

 

While some may think that reviewing a book titled The Yellow Leaves Are Coming in November, after many of our leaves have already fallen, may be ill-timed, the story within tells another story. That story starts now, as indicated by this first line:

The yellow leaves are coming, thought the last leaf just fell.

From The Yellow Leaves are Coming, written by James Gladstone, illustrated by François Thisdale

As a young boy and an even younger girl stand out in the grayness of a cool day, they watch a single yellow leaf fall. But as they walk away, accompanied by one of François Thisdale's ubiquitous animals, they anticipate the next seasonal change. They wait and watch as the empty branches do.

From inside they watch the snow come.

I see it falling, growing thick on a hundred cold arms

reaching out for a warm, winter-coat friend.

As the grayness of winter, still magical, passes into the melting season with old leaves revealed to return some colour, the children are again wearing bright rain gear.  Then kids are outside playing baseball without coats and the trees are festooned with green leaves. Even on the balcony of the children's plex, clay pots are again filled with greenery and flowers. And François Thisdale ensures that there's always animal to watch over the seasonal scene, from a black-and-white cat to a rabbit, a butterfly, and blue jay.

From The Yellow Leaves are Coming, written by James Gladstone, illustrated by François Thisdale

The seasons may be changing, with summer transitioning to a return to school and ultimately the return of the yellow leaves, but James Gladstone continues to give us a sensory experience of seeing, hearing, and feeling. He reminds us with every poetic revelation, of the kids listening to the soft rustle of new leaves, slopping through the melting, or watching old leaves floating down curb rivers. And everything will be familiar to many Canadian children, from feeling the weather changing, watching the natural world transform, and altering their own clothes and activities with those changes. But more than telling us about those changes, James Gladstone, who has always blended science with storytelling in a compelling way (see Turtle Pond and A Star Explodes: The Story of Supernova 1054), makes us feel the seasons' changes.

From The Yellow Leaves are Coming, written by James Gladstone, illustrated by François Thisdale

The illustrations have been created by artist  François Thisdale, a recent finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustration (French language) for Boucar Diouf's book Le Bourlingueur de Matungoua. Blending drawings with photographs and acrylic painting as well as digital art, François Thisdale makes the illustrations both surreal and very personal. He makes us look closely but just as fittingly he makes us see the big picture. It's quite extraordinary. By giving us both the perspective from the children and of the children, François Thisdale evokes time and place while helping us see and feel what the children might. 

Our own yellow leaves are mostly on the ground now here in southern Ontario but, like the seasons that come and go and come again, I trust that they will appear again. No matter where young readers may be situated, they will recognize the cycle of seasons and nature, and anticipate the next, personalizing what they see just as James Gladstone and François Thisdale have done in The Yellow Leaves Are Coming.

A Star Explodes: The Story of Supernova 1054

Written by James Gladstone

Illustrated by Yaara Eshet

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-498-6

32 pp. 

Ages 8-12

March 2023 

It all started with a big bang. Not the big bang, but just the explosion of a star thousands of years ago and whose light finally appeared to those on Earth in 1054. For astronomers, the appearance of what the Chinese called a guest star was cause for awe. But in time, the light of the guest star faded and, though the ancients might not have known it, a nebula was formed in its stead.

From A Star Explodes by James Gladstone, illus. by Yaara Eshet

That nebula, a cloud of gas and dust, would at last be visible with an 19th century telescope and lead to its naming as the Crab Nebula, which still grows today.

From A Star Explodes by James Gladstone, illus. by Yaara Eshet

James Gladstone may refer to the supernova of 1054 as an example, but his intent is to educate about supernovas (= star blasts) and nebulas (= clouds of gas and dust) and the astronomical phenomena associated with both. Young readers will learn how supernovas scatter their remains across the universe and become part of new worlds. It's a big story for a big explosion, and that's why James Gladstone tells it both in narrative and information notes. He gives it the beauty of the prodigious, of the cosmic, of the mysterious, especially as it was witnessed in historical times. (Several timelines clarify the evolution of the supernova and the nebula.) But James Gladstone, whose earlier books include Turtle Pond (2018), Earthrise (2018) and When Planet Earth Was New (2017), always blends the elegance of the scientific world with the factual, providing story with appending notes about what a supernova is, the supernova of 1054, and the Crab Nebula.

From A Star Explodes by James Gladstone, illus. by Yaara Eshet

But, because this is more than a non-fiction text, Yaara Eshet's watercolour and ink illustrations lend that storytelling element. She takes us into the heavens, into history, and into glorious landscapes across our world. There's colour and life, but also the curiosity that comes with the real but still curious.

 

I love when non-fiction is presented as an illustrated story, and with A Star Explodes: The Story of Supernova 1054 by James Gladstone and Yaara Eshet, you'll be heading to the stars and the past for a brief lesson in science and history both.

Totsapalooza: 12th Annual Festival (Toronto, ON)

Need a Christmas gift for children 
that is fun, literary, interactive and more?

Get your Early Bird tickets before they sell out 
–they always seems to do so–


for

Small Print Toronto's

 

annual kids' festival of books, music and crafts

 TOTSAPALOOZA

Saturday, February 1, 2020

 2:00 -4:00 p.m.

at 

Revival

783 College St.  (at Shaw)

Toronto, ON

Tickets:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/totsapalooza-12-tickets-84832567493

Early Bird Prices:
$10 for adults
$5 for kids

Regular Prices:

$15 for adults

$10 for kids

Free for non-walkers ages 0-2 (who will not be participating in crafts)

Activities and guests include:

● Eric Hogan and Tara Hungerford who have adapted their hit CBC-Kids TV show Scout and The Gumboot Kids into a set of four picture books which they will launch with Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter Jessie Farrell and full-sized mascots of the show's stars, mouse duo Scout and Daisy;

Gumboot Kids Nature Mysteries:

The Case of the Growing Bird Feeder
The Case of the Story Rock 

The Case of the Wooden Timekeeper

The Case of the Vanishing Caterpillar

by Eric Hogan and Tara Hungerford

Firefly Books

● author James Gladstone and illustrator Gary Clement who will present their  new picture book My Winter City;

My Winter City

Written by James Gladstone

Illustrated by Gary Clement

Groundwood Books

• co-authors Susan McLennan and Mike Erskine-Kellie who will present their upcoming debut picture book I Got You A Present!;

I Got You a Present!

Written by Mike Erskine-Kellie and Susan McLennan

Illustrated by Cale Atkinson

Kids Can Press

● drag performers and arts educators Fay Schlift and Fluffy Soufflé who are hosting and running their wildly popular, interactive reading program Drag Queen Storytime;

• music by indie-folk singer-songwriter Pete Moss;

● city-building project Mouse City will let kids create a city within a valley out of craft materials and recyclables;

● Wanda’s Pie-in-the-Sky pop-up bakery will be selling healthy, handmade snacks; and

● books for sale and signing by authors and illustrator will be available.

Be sure to get your tickets before they are sold out 

(and sold out they will be!) 

•••••••••••••••••••••

Turtle Pond

Written by James Gladstone

Illustrated by Karen Reczuch

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-910-2

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

May 2018

Through the year, a young child and his family visit a conservatory of a local public garden to watch the many turtles who inhabit a man-made pond within. The boy is an ardent observer and young aesthete of the Red-eared Sliders as they interact with their environment and each other. From the playful activity of the young in spring to summers of basking and the later seasons with their own behaviours, Turtle Pond takes young readers on a scientific pilgrimage of observation and appreciation.

Slowly,
their mouths are moving.
Are turtles speaking?
We try to hear them,
the sounds they're making at turtle pond.

From Turtle Pond by James Gladstone, illus. by Karen Reczuch

There is swimming and feeding, resting and playing, all told in James Gladstone's five-line stanzas which always end with the words "turtle pond." The text may appear simple in its form but it is telling in its information and awareness. There is inquisitiveness and thought with appreciation and acceptance.

Gliding

under fat goldfish,

it swims up around them

in turtle circles,

poking at tail fins in turtle pond.

From Turtle Pond by James Gladstone, illus. by Karen Reczuch

But the story is only half-told without Karen Reczuch's realistic illustrations. I have always thought of Karen Reczuch as the Robert Bateman of children's book illustration because of her detailed depictions of the natural world. (Her award-winning Loon by Susan Vande Griek is a prime example.) But that moniker does a disservice to her art which goes far beyond natural settings and animals. (Check out her illustrations in Ainslie Manson's Just Like New and David Booth's The Dust Bowl.) It is her eye to detail and evocative imagery that takes the reader to her settings, here to watch the turtles in their lush environs of orchids, bromeliads and aquatics, in which the people are but tertiary.

From Turtle Pond by James Gladstone, illus. by Karen Reczuch

With its subtle verse and luxuriant illustrations, Turtle Pond would be a great teaching tool for poetry, science, and inquiry. It's a virtual field trip when a visit to a turtle pond is called for but impossible to arrange.