Sun Wishes

Written by Patricia Storms

Illustrated by Milan Pavlović

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-450-5

32 pp.

Ages 3-6

May 2022

 

It's the middle of summer and the sun is out in all its glorious warmth and brightness. But what of all the other things the sun does through each day, around world and year round? As a child imagines what the sun sees and feels, Sun Wishes lets us see all of its glory from a different perspective.

From Sun Wishes by Patricia Storms, illus. by Milan Pavlović

"If I were the sun..." is how this reflection on the sun's activities begins. From singing a gentle morning song to awaken life, including the flowers, insects and other animals, to brightening a gloomy day after a rain to accompany a grandfather and grandson fishing. In other global locations, it inspires "a vivid tapestry" in rice fields and on the African savannah, in the oceans, in the trees and among forests.

Oh, to be the sun! To swing and sway

with the mountains and trees

and dance across luminous waters.

From Sun Wishes by Patricia Storms, illus. by Milan Pavlović

Even in the winter, the sun is there to warm snow angel-making children. And always, at the end of a busy day, the child imagines itself as the sun going to rest peacefully "knowing tomorrow I would shine once more."

From Sun Wishes by Patricia Storms, illus. by Milan Pavlović

Sun Wishes is an ode to the sun through the imaginings of a child recognizing the sun's omnipresence and its many  powers. It's actually amazing how evocative Patricia Storms's text and Milan Pavlović's art are in reflecting the sun's warmth and brightness, the dreariness of a grey day or the cool wetness of an ocean. The colours and life called up in words and illustrations are tangible, cooling in the heat of our own summer days and glittering in a storm's aftermath.

Patricia Storms, along with husband Guy Storms, first collaborated with artist Milan Pavlović on Moon Wishes (Groundwood, 2019). That same partnership now takes us into a different poetic reverie, that of a child looking at a celestial entity and envisioning all that it might experience.  From play to harvest, family and solitude, the sun attends to all, in its full range of colours and vibrancy. And, as this child does, we should respect and honour that vitality, in its bringing of life and overseeing it in its many forms.

Sunny Days

Written by Deborah Kerbel

Illustrated by Miki Sato

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-197-7

24 pp.

Ages 2-5

June 2021

 

On the heels of Snow Days (2020) and just before Windy Days (due out in October), Deborah Kerbel and Miki Sato take little ones out into the sunshine to enjoy the weather and to rhyme their way through with solar brilliance.

From Sunny Days by Deborah Kerbel, illus. by Miki Sato

From rubbing sleep from one's eyes to reading outdoors and planting seeds in the spring, children are escorted by the sun. Then with summer comes outdoor play in flower meadows, in the water and on a beach, and while taking sanctuary under an umbrella.

Prickly sun, burning heat

Cool shade and an icy treat

From Sunny Days by Deborah Kerbel, illus. by Miki Sato

As the sun gets lower in the sky, the crickets come out and the shadows grow long, and finally sleep comes for both child and our brightest star.

Evening sun, cricket song

Shadows stretching tall and long

From Sunny Days by Deborah Kerbel, illus. by Miki Sato

The rhymes may seem simple but there is a richness in Deborah Kerbel's take on what children experience in the sun. What's most important is what they feel, what they see, what they notice, and how it affects them. After all, Sunny Days is a book for our youngest children, connecting with them and their realities. There are the sensations of the blazing sun freckling the skin and the drying of mud. There is sunshine everywhere and anywhere, including an urban setting, a backyard, a beach or a park and Sunny Days shines on the lives of children's routines, joys and play. 

From Sunny Days by Deborah Kerbel, illus. by Miki Sato

I've always loved textured illustration and Miki Sato's paper collages are becoming a favourite, doing more than just following Deborah Kerbel's words. The artwork gives us crumbly soil in which seeds are dropped, cooling water lapping onto sandy shores, and angry clouds having left puddles for mud pies. The quality of Miki Sato's artwork infuses Sunny Days with more than just warmth and light; it also gives a sense of place and pursuit.

My recommendation for enjoying Sunny Days? Get yourself and your young charge on a blanket on the grass or the sand, or on a bench in a park or in yard. Let the child hold the book which is in Pajama Press's Toddler Tough hardcover format (padded cover, rounded corners and thick paper) and read it aloud, asking questions and even doing the fun and easy science experiments on the final page of the book. Then read it again on a rainy day to remember what sunny days are like.  I suspect your child will start learning the rhymes and reading along with you soon enough and you might even encourage a new curiosity with weather or the solar system. Who knows what Sunny Days may bring?

Rain Boy

Written and illustrated by Dylan Glynn

Chronicle Books

978-1-4521-7280-4

40 pp.

Ages 3-7

April 2020

Rain Boy is not popular. When he's around, kids have to stop doing fun activities.

From Rain Boy by Dylan Glynn

But when the new child, Sun Kidd, arrives, everything is bright. She's very popular, especially at barbecues, at the beach and other outdoor events.

From Rain Boy by Dylan Glynn

Sadly, when Sun invites Rain Boy to her birthday party, something he'd never experienced before, the other kids freak out that he's ruining everything and shout at him, "Rain, rain, go away!" Sun Kidd is appalled by their behaviour and secludes herself in her bedroom while humiliated Rain Boy leaves. Then, "A storm began to brew."

At first the other children are negative and blaming, but as time passes, they "learned to live with wetness." They find beauty in the rain and puddles and natural world that comes alive with rain. And they find that "they were talking to each other a lot more."

From Rain Boy by Dylan Glynn

Eventually, Rain Boy, tired, peeks out, sees the world and the thunder and lightning stop. And even though there is still rain, it appears that people actually like having him around, and he is bold enough to go outside and play with other children.

Dylan Glynn is an award-winning artist of animation, illustration and fine art. In Rain Boy, the complexity of his art, rendered in watercolour, cut paper, pastels and coloured pencils, manifests in the emotional scenes and characterizations of Rain Boy and Sun Kidd who must be themselves, though they do attempt to hide away from others who label. There is anger in some illustrations, and brightness and joy in others. But when Rain Boy and Sun Kidd come together, something glorious arises.

So the next time you're feeling down and your world is dark and gray...
just look up.

Though Dylan Glynn's picture book is set for release in a few weeks, just in time for April showers, I think that it's a book we need to think about today. Many of us are trepidatious about something that is impacting the normal course of our lives. Some people are lashing out and showing insensitivity and selfishness when we should be extending kindness to everyone in these times of emotional thunderstorms and fears. Let's celebrate our differences not as challenges but as opportunities and come together to weather the storm as a united front.  And look up. Somewhere there is a rainbow.

From Rain Boy by Dylan Glynn

Sukaq and the Raven

by Roy Goose and Kerry McCluskey

Artwork by Soyeon Kim

Inhabit Media

978-1-77227-139-3

36 pp.

Ages 5-7

October 2017

Little Sukaq who lives in Apex, Nunavut is sweet and fast and loves hearing stories from his anaana as he drifts off to sleep.  His favourite story is an Inuit tale of the raven creating the universe.

From Sukaq and the Raven 

by Roy Goose and Kerry McCluskey 

illus. by Soyeon Kim

In the best of storytelling traditions, his anaana (mother) tells him that she'd "heard from a friend of mine, who heard it from his grandmother, who also heard it from someone else. This story is very, very old." (pg. 7)  As she tells him of the biggest raven that ever existed, Sukaq closes his eyes and imagines himself on the back of the raven, flying through the night sky.  As the raven glides through the cold sky, snow gathering on his wings, he flings a giant snowball off and creates a place upon which he can rest. And so Earth is made.

From Sukaq and the Raven 

by Roy Goose and Kerry McCluskey

 illus. by Soyeon Kim

Then the raven, seeking light, pecks at the ground whereupon a plant begins to grow. From this plant, the raven grabs something bright and tosses it into the air for warmth and light.  When that sun sets, the raven wants light in the dark so he pecks at the ground again and from a new emerging plant derives a shiny object which, when flung into the sky, becomes the moon.

Finally, the raven seeks a partner. Pecking at the ground one last time, he reveals a new plant emerging with a woman inside. But before he can be a true partner, he must transform from raven to man in blue parka, expertly depicted by artist Soyeon Kim.

Inuit storyteller Roy Goose shared this story with writer Kerry McCluskey when she researched her first book Tulugaq: An Oral History of Ravens (Inhabit Media, 2013) and now the story has new wings to share with others beyond the Arctic. By telling an origin story with a little boy dreaming of accompanying the giant raven as it creates the universe brings the story from legend to something more personal and even bigger.  But it's Soyeon Kim's dioramic illustrations that propel Sukaq and the Raven into even greater depths of storytelling.  Though the art may appear to be collages, Soyeon Kim actually crafts three-dimensional dioramas of scenes for the picture books she illustrates.  You can appreciate the true complexity of her dioramas on her website www.kimsoyeonart.com.  From Sukaq's home landscape of northern lights, colourful houses and flying ravens to the cold of a dark sky and the emerging plants that bring forth elements of the universe, Soyeon Kim breathes life into the story, taking it from just text to a full-bodied story as might have been heard from Roy Goose himself.

From Sukaq and the Raven 

by Roy Goose and Kerry McCluskey 

illus. by Soyeon Kim

Good Morning, Grumple

Written by Victoria Allenby

Illustrated by Manon Gauthier

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-014-7

24 pp.

Ages 2-4

March 2017

According to Victoria Allenby’s dedication, she has a couple of grumples in her life–a big one and a little one–and I suspect that, if you’ve been trying to rouse your kids during March break when they’d much rather sleep, you’ve got some grumples of your own.

A grumple, a grumple is hard to awaken.
It doesn’t like noises. It hates being shaken. 

It loathes and despises a bright, cheery voice,
And big, shiny lights are a terrible choice. (pg. 5)

From Good Morning, Grumple 

by Victoria Allenby 

illus. by Manon Gauthier

In Good Morning, Grumple, a mother fox, who has obviously endured many a morning struggling to get a grumpy young one in rumpled bed clothes out of bed, attempts the near impossible feat with an established process of rhyming song and accompanying actions.  It starts with a soft singing of “Shh–Shh–Slow we go.  The sun is rising on tip-toe, tip-toe.” (pg. 9)  Nice and easy, but the grumple just burrows deeper into the linens, only feet and a paw clutching a stuffie visible.  That’s OK.  Mother knows the next step is getting a little closer and a little louder with “Shush–Shush–There’s no rush.  The sun is gold in the morning hush.” (pg. 10) Mother Fox may rely on the sun for her inspiration but the efforts are all hers, with tickles, kisses, hugs and a dance, all with louder affirmations until both mother and child are out the door, welcoming the new day and its promise for play.

Every household must have one or two grumples, and Victoria Allenby has contrived a playful way of rousing them to waking.  You may need to read the book several times, with your child, to establish the song, and I’m not sure of the melody, but little ones will delight in the role they get to play, even if it means ultimately getting out of bed.

Victoria Allenby has proven that she can write light and refreshing books for pre-readers and early readers (Nat the Cat Can Sleep Like That, Pajama Press, 2013; Timo’s Garden, Pajama Press, 2015; Timo’s Party, Pajama Press, 2016; Rhino Rumpus, Pajama Press, 2016) but now she’s bringing that novelty to helping parents parent, all without preaching about how to do it right.  I wonder if she even intended to provide a wake-up protocol for grumples or just share an engaging practice that might work for others.

From Good Morning, Grumple 

by Victoria Allenby 

illus. by Manon Gauthier

Manon Gauthier lends her trademark cut paper collage (see Elliot, Pajama Press, 2016, and All to World a Poem, Pajama Press, 2016) to Good Morning, Grumple, establishing evocative scenes with her artistry.  Colour is limited but effective, with the neutrality of a grumple atmosphere evident throughout.  No grumple would ever see much in the way of colour before deigning to open his/her eyes completely, and Manon Gauthier supports this premise wholeheartedly.  But Manon Gauthier refuses to keep things stark and uninspiring.  All indoor and outdoor scenes, before and after waking, are freckled with birds, flowers, and household furnishings and decorations that invite readers in.  Collage art has never been so expressive and atmospheric.

Enjoy the smaller and inviting format of Good Morning, Grumple with Pajama Press’ unique padded cover, rounded corners and heavy-duty paper that make it a pleasure to hold.  Let me know whether the premise works for your own little grumples but remember: it may take a few tries, and a little more sunshine than we’re seeing in March, for it to work.  Even if it doesn’t, you’ll enjoy a great read with your youngest ones and perhaps lead them to the self-discovery of their grumple status and ultimately to an appreciation of the efforts made on their behalf.