Wild Child is a fun picture book with beautiful illustrations, in which the season of autumn is personified as a young child who isn't quite ready to go to bed, and so gets a snack (apples, pumpkins), PJs (bright-colored leaves), etc. before finally going to bed (and ushering in winter). When it comes to illustrations I apparently tend to favor cooler tones, because there seem to be a lot of blues in my favorite covers/illustrations, but this is one case where the warmth of reds and oranges is very well presented. I also like the rhythm of the text.

This is also a great example of a metaphor for younger children -- my son kept asking about the child and why her mother (Mother Earth) was made of rocks, etc., so it was a nice opportunity to attempt explaining how one thing can be used to represent something else.

Scrounged From: Our local library

Format: Hardcover
Author: Lynn Plourde
Illustrator: Greg Couch
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson was an enjoyable read about a year in the life of Shirley Temple Wong (her "American name"), a Chinese girl who moves to the United States with her family. The ups and downs of her adjustment to the culture are both sad and humorous at times, and I found her growing baseball enthusiasm to be relatable, as a former big-time fan myself.

The writing covers twelve months in a short book, so some scenes and actions seem like they could have been fleshed out more. I also didn't care for the bullying scene that seemed to imply that accepting violence from a bully is a great way to become their friend. But overall it was a nice look at the time period (1947), the immigrant experience (as well as a few aspects of her Chinese culture), and the inspiration that Jackie Robinson brought to people from so many walks of life.

Format: Paperback
Author: Bette Bao Lord
Pages: 176
Content Advisory: A scene of bullying.

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Tree is a beautiful and vibrant celebration of trees and some of their purposes in nature, covering the ways they change throughout the seasons. I love the colors (even though they're occasionally unconventional) and the different aspects of nature that are represented -- birds, bees, rodents, flowers, fruit, etc.

The cut-outs in the pages and the owl make even more visual enjoyment for young kids, and the rhyming text is evocative and linear as it leads us gently through the year, inviting us to observe the different effects that the seasons have on the same tree. 

Scrounged From: Our local library

Format: Hardcover
Author: Patricia Hegarty
Illustrator: Britta Teckentrup
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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Whatever names you may have for them, based on tradition or heritage, grandparents are special. Here are some of my favorite picture books in which a child's relationship with one or both grandparents features prominently. For this list I decided to focus on living grandparents, rather than books that deal with loss -- but those are important too, and I plan on compiling a separate list later.

Last Stop on Market Street is a deceptively simple story about a boy named CJ and his Nana who are traveling by bus to volunteer at a soup kitchen. There are some eccentric-looking people on the bus, and they pass through a "dirtier" part of the city, but these things do not weigh down Nana's perception of the world. Instead, she and CJ make some connections with their fellow bus passengers, and CJ's Nana encourages him to take a higher view of life, no matter what they are doing. You can learn a lot from a Nana like this, without even realizing it.

I grew up enjoying the Else Minarik classic (also illustrated by Maurice Sendak of Where the Wild Things Are fame) Little Bear's Friend, and so I also enjoyed the simplicity and charm of Little Bear's Visit, in which Little Bear goes to visit his grandparents for the day. It is not a busy day, but a day for exploring and spending time with his grandparents, as each one tells him a story -- his grandmother tells him the story of her pet robin and how she eventually let him go, and his grandfather tells the more fantastical tale of a goblin who is scared by a bump in an old cave and hears something coming after him (it's not as scary as it at first sounds). It's divided into short chapters for early readers, but my kids enjoy having it read aloud to them too.

Time for Bed, Miyuki is a whimsical and fantastical story of a girl whose grandfather urges her to go to bed, but patiently puts up with the extraordinary things that she must get done before she is able to slumber. Very cool illustrations too, which tie in to Japanese culture. See my full review here.

Nana in the City is about a boy who goes to visit his Nana in the city, and is at first nervous about how noisy and different it is, but soon comes to appreciate it more with his Nana's help. The plot is simple, but the relationship is sweet, and the illustrations are lovely and vibrant. The beautiful foliage colors also make this a wonderful book for autumn. See my full review here.

Joy is a very sweet book in which a girl named Fern tries to cheer her Nanna up, but finds it very difficult to capture joy with ordinary physical tools. Her child-like perspective is believable, and together she and her Nanna learn how to find pieces of joy even in the midst of difficulty, by helping each other. See my full reivew here.

We really enjoyed Reeve Lindbergh's lovely poem about the life of Johnny Appleseed, as well as Kathy Jakobsen's intricate and colorful illustrations of an older, wilder American countryside, capturing each season beautifully. It helps that we'd previously read a biographical picture book about Johnny Appleseed's life, but this poem still manages to include basic information about him and what he did while maintaining poetic structure.

For part of this book, we see Johnny through the eyes of Hannah, who first meets him on his travels when she's a girl, and sees him again when he's old and she's getting older too. We learn about his pacifist nature and genuine belief that he should "hurt no living thing," and his helpful attitude and desire to help settlers grow their own food. We also learn that he has become a legend since his lifetime and that sometimes it's hard to tell truth from fiction when it comes to stories of his life.

There is an additional page of information about him at the end of the book, but the poem itself does such a good job of not only communicating information, but evoking the spirit of Johnny Appleseed, and what he's come to represent in American history and lore: adventure, independence, helpfulness, sacrifice, and love and conservation of nature.

Scrounged From: Our local library

Format: Paperback
Author: Reeve Lindbergh
Illustrator: Kathy Jakobsen
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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