The Nut That Fell from the Tree

Written by Sangeeta Bhadra

Illustrated by France Cormier

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0119-3

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

September 2020

For a repeating pattern book with a lesson in the interrelationships of living things and an oak tree's life cycle, The Nut That Fell from the Tree has it all with a round of fun too!

From The Nut That Fell from the Tree by Sangeeta Bhadra, illus. by France Cormier

It all starts with a tree house in an oak tree where Jill plays. From the oak tree falls an acorn that is stolen by a rat. Next the nut is taken by a blue jay, a goose, a raccoon, a doe with her fawn, a bear and a skunk before it falls into the water and is retrieved by a beaver before being buried in the ground by a squirrel to germinate and grow.

From The Nut That Fell from the Tree by Sangeeta Bhadra, illus. by France Cormier

Years later that little acorn has grown into a mighty oak that holds the house where Jack plays in the yard of the elderly Jill who still dons her red cape for play.

From The Nut That Fell from the Tree by Sangeeta Bhadra, illus. by France Cormier

Kids love a repeating pattern book like The Nut That Fell from the Tree (that reads very much like The House That Jack Built) because even if they can't read, they can anticipate the repeating lines, like...

This is the doe with her fawn (peek-a-boo)

that surprised the raccoon (a sneak through and through)

that tricked the goose with a bird's-eye view

that ruffled the jay with feathers of blue

that swooped in on the rat looking out from a shoe

that stole the nut

that fell from the oak

that holds the house where Jill plays.

They'll be sitting on the edges of their seats knowing that something different will happen on each new page but never knowing what until it happens. Sangeeta Bhadra gets the rhythm right, with some rhyming too, and carries messages of the richness of an ecosystem of land and water and living things with the wonder of a nut growing into a tree.

This is the squirrel

that buried the nut

that lay on the hill

that shone in the light

that came from the sun.

In fact, Sangeeta Bhadra changes the pattern from the acorn being passed around to the nut beginning its own cycle, life cycle that is, so effortlessly that it flows right back to the beginning, with an inter-generational link to make it come full circle.

That flow is carried by the artwork of France Cormier who has illustrated many children's books, including many French-language picture books. Though I have never had the pleasure of reviewing one of her books, I hope this review changes that and gets young readers looking for her artwork. Here her digitally rendered art has the playful feel that is needed to carry the patterns of Sangeeta Bhadra's words, pulling the text forward and around with her snappy scenes of plants and animals interacting in vibrant panoramas.

From The Nut That Fell from the Tree by Sangeeta Bhadra, illus. by France Cormier

What is The Nut That Fell from the Tree?

It's the book

that will be purchased by the adult

that will be enjoyed by the child 

that will be shared with a friend

that will be read aloud

that will teach STEM with charm

that melds rhythm with art

that comes full circle to

The Nut That Fell from the Tree.

Germ Theory for Babies (Baby University)

Written by Chris Ferrie, Neal Goldstein and Joanna Suder

Sourcebooks

978-1-7282-3407-6

24 pp.

Ages 4-8

February 2021 

The series may be called Baby University and the books' titles always state that they're "for babies" but there is nothing infantile about the topics addressed in Chris Ferrie's books or the approach taken to do so.

From Germ Theory for Babies by Chris Ferrie, Neal Goldstein and Joanna Suder

 

In Germ Theory for Babies which was written with epidemiologist Neal Goldstein and public health attorney Joanna Suder, Chris Ferrie explains how people get sick, starting with the original theory of miasmas causing illness before closer examination of the sick person, ultimately with microscopy, revealed tiny creatures at work. Differentiating between those that can be useful like lactobacillus and those that can make us sick i.e., germs, the authors discuss how germs can be spread, especially important to know during a pandemic. (Actually everything in this book is important to know during a pandemic!)

From Germ Theory for Babies by Chris Ferrie, Neal Goldstein and Joanna Suder

Making sure to speak to young readers, the authors emphasize that germs can live anywhere, including home, school and the environment and can live for different amounts of time, depending on the type. While hitting all the salient information about germs, Chris Ferrie, Neal Goldstein and Joanna Suder give us capsule drawings of a variety of bacteria, viruses and mould including coronavirus, ebolavirus, staphylococcus, streptococcus, rhinovirus, norovirus and aspergillus.

From Germ Theory for Babies by Chris Ferrie, Neal Goldstein and Joanna Suder

 

 

 

 

 

Most relevant for little ones is how to prevent the spread, including not touching one's mouth, nose or eyes, washing hands properly, covering your mouth and even wearing a mask, and staying home when feeling unwell.

From Germ Theory for Babies by Chris Ferrie, Neal Goldstein and Joanna Suder

Germ Theory for Babies is a great primer about germs, how they spread and how to prevent that spread. The text is written at a very easy reading level, with the whole book probably comprising of fewer than two hundred words and most of those being only one or two syllables. The illustrations which appear to be digitally rendered are clean and distinct, appropriate for a concept book, and use white space to effectively focus the reader's attention. Still, zoom bubbles are utilized to provide magnified details of the germs and, while simple, they are accurate and demonstrate the variety of forms that germs can take. (Ebolavirus is a particularly unusual shape.)

 

Don't be put off by the "for Babies" component of the title. These are lessons far beyond those for babies, even if in board book format, but the idea of teaching big concepts in a format perfect for the very young is the whole idea behind Baby University which advances its books as "Simple explanations of complex ideas for your future genius." Germ Theory for Babies should be available to all young children, whether they can read for themselves or not, to understand what we're going through right now with the COVID-19 pandemic and for illnesses from cold viruses, mould and more. But Germ Theory for Babies does more than just enlighten; it also empowers. It prepares children to take precautions and it helps them understand that they can fight back. In other words, it has lessons for everyone.

• • • • • •

Baby University includes over thirty titles by Canadian-born physicist and mathematician Chris Ferrie, including Pandemics for Babies, Rocket Science for Babies, Climate Change for Babies and Robotics for Babies. I encourage teachers and parents interested in fostering scientific exploration with young children to check out the whole series as well as other Chris Ferrie titles, including Scientist, Scientist, Who Do You See? which I reviewed several years ago.

Firefly

 

Written by Philippa Dowding
DCB
978-1-77086-598-3
200 pp.
Ages 9-12
February 2021

While wearing a costume may give you an opportunity to be someone else, it also frees you from being the person everyone expects you to be. But when you're a child and don't know anything but the worst, who would you become? Something outrageous or something normal?

Living with a mother (whom she calls "Joanne-the-mother") who has addiction issues, thirteen-year-old Fifi has had to learn strategies to keep herself and her mother safe. Since she was very young, Fifi has had to deal with the trauma of negligent parenting, taking on what she could.

I've been Joanne-the-mother's guiding light, flashing her toward safety since I was six. (pg. 96)

Still a child, Fifi took to living rough in the park across the street from the house where her mother lived, hanging out with Moss Cart and sharing his food and advice, and then finding some help at Jennie's, a women's center where she got clothes and food and counselling. And she begins to call herself Firefly. But when her mother gets taken into custody–something for which Firefly blames herself–and social services becomes involved, Firefly is taken to live with her Aunt Gayle, a woman who'd lost touch with them after Joanne-the-mother's constant changing of locations and phone numbers.

 

Aunt Gayle, who owns The Corseted Lady, one of Canada's oldest costume shops, gives Firefly the normalcy of food and baths, clean clothes and television, and Firefly is overwhelmed. Even with the ordinariness of attending school again and helping out at the shop, Firefly is still plagued by nightmares and memories of the trauma of her mother being drunk or high and living with the vulnerability of that situation.

 

But The Corseted Lady gives Firefly opportunities to be something else, from a medieval warrior to a fly boy or a monk from the 1500s, and to honour those whose clothes pepper the shop. (Some are created but others are refurbished clothes from auctions, etc.) Better yet, no one thinks she's weird. 

These clothes are memories, shadows of all the people who lived in them. (pg. 64)

But author Philippa Dowding isn't telling us Firefly's story as dress-up play, as a little girl pretending to be someone else. Though the shop and its costumes are fascinating, colourful and rich in history and entertainment, as are the employees and customers, Firefly is about a child who has had to become an adult, who has endured trauma and negligence, and had to find ways to cope. She found ways to care for her mother who may have once had a job and provided for her daughter, even gifting her with a magazine subscription–funny what you remember–but became someone else, Joanne-the-mother, who made empty promises and poor choices. Firefly had to find her own way to getting food and clothes and a safe place to sleep. And when given the opportunity to become someone else, whether through costumes or actions, she accepts that she needs to resolve her own memories if she is to have a life for herself. That includes sharing her truths with others.

I know Philippa Dowding is better known for her speculative fiction like Oculum, The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden and Everton Miles is Stranger than Me but I think her first foray into realistic fiction has demonstrated that she has important messages to share and she doesn't need to dress them up in the fantastical. Reality can be just as powerful and colourful, even if stitched with anguish.

Hug?

Written and illustrated by Charlene Chua

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0206-0

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

2020

 

It's amazing what a hug can accomplish. When this child's cat coughs up a disgusting hairball and looks a bit shaken, she offers the feline a hug which it agrees to with a simple, "Okay" and a generous "Thank you" mid-hug. When a dog watching requests a similar hug, the child agrees, with the cat proudly looking on.

From Hug? by Charlene Chua

After the initial cat hug, each double-spread, with only a few exceptions, has a creature asking for a hug, and then getting it, while a foot or nose or face or paw of another begins to enter the scene. Little ones will enjoy guessing what animal will be asking for a hug next. After the cat, there's the dog, a pair of ducks and duckling, a skunk, a bear, a porcupine, and a tiger. There's even a unicorn that comes along but it politely declines with "No, thanks. I'm good."

From Hug? by Charlene Chua

Though the child is reluctant to refuse any request for a hug, even from a stinky skunk or a prickly porcupine or a potentially dangerous tiger, each hug seems to leave her more bedraggled. But, when she is bombarded with a barrage of requests and demands from everything from a dragon, to a snake and even an alien, she screams "STOP!"

Fortunately, her cat knows what she might need, and a simple and familiar question gets her the hug she too needs to feel better.

From Hug? by Charlene Chua

Charlene Chua has illustrated many picture books, including several which I have reviewed here on CanLit for LittleCanadians (e.g., Going Up, The Pencil, and Fishing with Grandma), but this is the first which she has written and illustrated. However, it's evident from Hug? that this will only be the first of many because Charlene Chua charms with the simple importance of her words and her disarming artistic style, especially with characters' faces. That strength of message here is on gentle acts of kindness that come from recognizing another's distress or need for comfort. There's asking for consent to touch, even for a hug, and accepting any answer as valid for that individual. There's also the message that sometimes we all need to ask for help or at least to accept it if things are to get better. These are pretty compelling understandings for addressing mental health concerns and yet Charlene Chua keeps it light and sweet through both words and art. Using watercolours, watercolour ink, and coloured pencils, as well as Photoshop, Charlene Chua encircles her story with art that is bright in colour and shape. Even when the child has reached her limit and needs to address her own needs, the illustrations are cheery but still clamorous as would befit a child in crisis. 

 

I bet Charlene Chua knows about giving and getting hugs and I trust that all involved in those embraces, or perhaps just in the kindness of asking, recognize the compassion necessary to share oneself and will pay if forward with their own Hug?, book or affection.

Kid Sterling

Written by Christine Welldon

Red Deer Press

978-0-889956162

432 pp.

Ages 10+

August 2020 

If Sterling Crawford had a soundtrack to his life, it would be ragtime and the blues. It would lift him up and mirror his lows, get him through the tough times and celebrate the highs. It would remind him of trains and rivers, work and family. And he would be known to the music world as Kid Sterling.

In the early 1900s, Sterling Crawford is just a ten-year-old boy living in New Orleans with his Momma and his seventeen-year-old brother Syl, shining shoes on Basin Street and dreaming of playing his horn for the King, Buddy Bolden.

...the notes from Buddy's cornet were cannonballs that shook Sterling's bones, the tone clear and pure, teasing and lusty, till he felt himself lifted up and away, a catfish on a hook. (pg. 19)

As much as Sterling wants to play music and learn how to write it, life is not as straightforward as he might wish. Even recognizing the threats and discriminatory limitations imposed on him by his black heritage, Sterling dreams of more, just as Syl does. But Syl who has instructed Sterling to never reveal them to be brothers, whether to pass himself off as white or to simply protect Sterling, goes beyond playing drums to make a better life. He works for a local gangster, gambles, and involves himself in other nefarious activities, even stealing money that Sterling had been saving for a new horn. With a strained relationship, Sterling and Syl head to Plaquemine for a cousin's birthday celebration and a musical gig for Syl. But everything shatters when Syl is forced to protect them from assault by a white man. The two separate and only Sterling returns to New Orleans where he is eventually arrested for assault.

Being sent to Captain Jones's Colored Waifs Home for Boys, Sterling feels like it's the end of the road for him.

A distant bugle sounded the end of the day. He figured his whole life was just like that bugle–out of tune. All his young life, his mother had sung to him, called him in to supper, to chores, to his bedtime. As he waited for sleep, he conjured the sound of her rich voice, humming those bluesy tunes to wrap him in safety and love. But memories brought him no comfort. Tonight, he had only loneliness and sour notes to call him to slumber. (pg. 233)

Still, Sterling learns more about himself and about music, even how to "...make some harmony out of the sour" (pg. 287). And there is a lot of sourness that pervades Sterling's life. Bad things, like notes on the wind, keep finding their way to him. He makes the best choices he can given the circumstances. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. And sometimes it doesn't matter. In the end, it's still his story, and Christine Welldon tells it with authenticity and compassion.

Because Christine Welldon's background is as a non-fiction writer (e.g., Everyone Can Be a Changemaker, Reporter in Disguise, The Children of Africville, and Lifelines: The Lanier Phillips Story), you can be assured that Kid Sterling is a carefully and thoroughly researched book. Though Sterling himself is a fictionalized character, Buddy Bolden, Clarence Williams, Captain Jones and Armand Piron as well as others (Christine Welldon provides background on them at the conclusion of her book) were very real men who shaped Sterling's life and undoubtedly those of real individuals. But by embedding a fictionalized young African American boy in a true representation of New Orleans at the beginning of the 20th century, Christine Welldon can build her story on him and his world without limitation. She can tell of the horrific racial discrimination from Sterling and his peers' perspectives, seeing how justice was served up based on the colour of skin. She can weave in the music of the day and how it was played and learned and disseminated. She can reveal how fear could dry up the music for Sterling, and how fear for self, family and friends impacted living.

If his life were like a music book of stories, Sterling felt as strong as the spine that bound and divided it down the center. One part was finished, its pages full. The rest contained empty notation lines, waiting to be filled. (pg. 406)

If Kid Sterling was a piece of music, it would be a hymn of pain and promise, hope and struggle. But that hymn should portend better, for Sterling and others whose lives were never given full voice. Let that new song stay true now and forever.

Snow Song

 

Written by A. K. Riley

Illustrated by Dawn Lo

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0235-0

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

October 2020

Looking outside on my own snow-covered landscape, I am reminded how varied this frozen precipitation can appear and feel and impact our lives. How snow is perceived is so dependent on experience and age and community and the attributes of the snow itself. While the cover of Snow Song suggests a playful story of the joys of being outside in the snow with friends, this picture book is so much more. It is a sensory experience of words and art, contemplative and serene, as well as playful and dynamic, and Snow Song is accordingly a lyrical exposé of being in a new place and finding a commonality through snow.

From Snow Song by A. K. Riley, illus. by Dawn Lo

Though A. K. Riley's evocative free verse speaks to the snow and its movement and form, Dawn Lo shows the reader a child who has just moved into a new home, boxes still to be unloaded and unpacked. Dressed in beret and scarf and green jacket, we accompany her from her new front stoop, down the street and to a park with woodland, pond, playground and more, within a world of snow.

Fine pearls of snow

Then a twirl of snow.

Around the eaves

A curl of snow.

From Snow Song by A. K. Riley, illus. by Dawn Lo

The words are all about the snow, the feel of the snow and the shape of the snow. The snow becomes the focus and the background. It's everything. It gives the child the context for making new friends and familiarizing herself with her new world, whether from outside and around her to inside and looking out.

So soft the snow,

Froths the snow

Upon the trees

And spangled streams –

Up to my knees!

From Snow Song by A. K. Riley, illus. by Dawn Lo

Snow Song may be A. K. Riley's debut children's book but her finesse with words is exceptional. While many newbie children's authors overload their stories with text, A. K. Riley is frugal with her words, packing immense power and sensation in them. Her words convey the visual, the auditory, the tactile and more of snow, giving the child voice and the reader consciousness. Similarly, artist Dawn Lo uses gouache, pencil crayons and Photoshop to create a fusion of colours and textures, taking the reader and the child from indoors through both urban and wilder landscapes, all in the pursuit of the snow experience. Still, feeling anomalous in her new environs, the child is tethered to her past and present through the snow, giving her a naturalness of action and feeling to pursue the newness of her situation. That familiarity instils boldness and ease.

I hope there is snow in your life and the freedom to experience it. Regardless, Snow Song will guide you with its own snow and the freshness of life that comes with it through the words of A. K. Riley and the art of Dawn Lo.

Oh My Gods!

Written by Stephanie Cooke and Insha Fitzpatrick

Illustrated by Juliana Moon

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

978-0-358-299523

208 pp.

Ages 8-12

January 2021

 

When her mother has to relocate to curate a gallery show, thirteen-year-old Karen is sent to stay with her father, Zed, a man she barely knows, in Mt. Olympus.

From Oh My Gods! by Stephanie Cooke and Insha Fitzpatrick, illus. by Juliana Moon

She's surprised by his extravagance, from the carriage drawn by horses in winged costumes at the airport, to her multiple rooms at his mansion, at ordering every type of pizza imaginable since he doesn't know what she likes, and even the wrist corsage he gets her for her first day at Mt. Olympus Junior High. Not only is her dad the mayor of Mt. Olympus, he's the dean of her school. The man is ubiquitous, as well as charming and wealthy.

From Oh My Gods! by Stephanie Cooke and Insha Fitzpatrick, illus. by Juliana Moon

Karen is shown around the school by a really fast guy, Hermes, who introduces her to the different groups, from the Titans football team, to the Fates, random Jeff and the kids of the Mythbusters group who take Karen under their wing. There's the bright Tina who offers to catch her up; the kindly Dita; the guitar-playing Pol; and his sister Art who is wicked with a bow and arrow. 

From Oh My Gods! by Stephanie Cooke and Insha Fitzpatrick, illus. by Juliana Moon

When a boy is turned to stone in the library where Karen and Tina are studying, the group meet at a local diner and peruse a book on Monsters and Mythological Creatures, suggesting that a Gorgon might be at work. Karen is flummoxed by their earnestness, convinced they must be part of a LARPing group, that is, until they reveal themselves to be the gods and goddesses Apollo (Pol), Athena (Tina), Aphrodite (Dita), and Artemis. Learning that her father is a god as well, and that Karen may be a demigoddess whose powers could come in at puberty, all the weirdness of her new situation makes some sense.

From Oh My Gods! by Stephanie Cooke and Insha Fitzpatrick, illus. by Juliana Moon

But, there's still the mystery of the boy turned to stone which escalates when Pol is similarly transformed and there is a worry that Karen's arrival may be related to these bizarre crimes.

While fitting in to a new school, making new friends, and establishing a relationship with a previously-absentee father may be familiar circumstances for some young people, Karen's new life is anything but. By telling Karen's coming-of-age story in a world based on the immortals of Greek mythology, Toronto author Stephanie Cooke and American author Insha Fitzpatrick have added a playful dimension to this graphic novel.  Everything is a little more fantastic, from the characters and their abilities–details are provided in "Karen's Mythology Notes!!!" at the book's conclusion–to Karen's naive accounting for the weirdness she perceives–like centaurs as drama students really committed to their craft–and the inclusion of so many elements of Greek mythology. Every new reveal, like the diner called Ambrosia and the Fates literally bumping into Karen and her friends and saying "We didn't see this coming" (pg. 123), is cheeky and entertaining. While the illustrations by Brazilian digital artist Juliana Moon have given Karen and her friends the normalcy of young teens with their backpacks, clothes and hair, she also embeds it in the mythological Mt. Olympus and makes it realistic.  

I've just learned that this is a series–yay!–and Oh My Gods! is just OMGs #1. The next book, titled The Forgotten Maze, is due out in January 2022, and this is particularly welcome as Stephanie Cooke and Insha Fitzpatrick have left us with an impending adventure starring Jeff and a maze, as well as with wanting to know if and how Karen discovers her powers as a demigoddess.