Since the artwork can make or break a picture book, they can be a great way to introduce children to artistic concepts, as well as the joy of making art in the first place. Some of these books do that, and others focus on specific artists, but all help to bring art into a child's world and encourage experimentation.

1. Ish, by Peter Reynolds, is the story of a boy named Ramon who likes to draw -- until someone laughs at his artwork, and he suddenly realizes that nothing he draws looks exactly like it's "supposed" to. This is such a good topic to cover in a children's book because many children go through a stage where they begin to realize that their way of seeing the world is changing, and many abandon art at about that time. With some help, Ramon recovers his desire to create, realizing that "ish" is a better goal than "exact." Full review here.

2. One of my favorite picture books in recent  years is The Sky Painter by Margarita Engle. It tells the story of Louis Fuertes, a boy who was interested in birds and art from a young age, and found a way to combine his interests in the field of bird art. Not only did he produce a lot of art and go on expeditions all over the world, but he also learned to paint quickly instead of shooting birds with a gun and posing them. Full review here.

3. A unique book which actually points out some "mistakes" in the illustrations as well as the way they were dealth with, The Book of Mistakes (by Corinna Luyken) combines lovely pastels mixed with black, white, and gray to create a narrative that "zooms" out bit by bit on a bunch of interesting-looking characters in their treehouse. It really encourages us to remember that we all make mistakes, but that they can help us to grow.

4. The Iridescence of Birds is a poetic tribute to artist Henri Matisse by Patricia MacLachlan. The artwork in this book is especially lovely and incorporates elements from some of Matisse's more iconic images. While the book doesn't share major details of Matisse's life, the vignettes are enough to give us an glimpse of some of the reasons for why he painted what he did.

5. This is a fun one. Beautiful Oops!, by Barney Saltzberg, helps encourage kids to see their mistakes as opportunities by demonstrating it with torn paper, coffee stains, drips, smudges, and even crumpled paper. The illustrations are mixed media and very vibrant, and there are fun flaps to open to see the "before" and "after" of the possibilities. Full review here.

Bonus: For a fun and simple (though very tall) book to introduce children to art history, A Child's Book of Art by Lucy Micklethwait is a great choice. Paintings are organized around simple themes that would be familiar to young children: family, animals, seasons, as well as various places and means of transportation.

Inside Out and Back Again is probably one of my favorite "verse novels" that I've read so far (not that there have been a lot). I think that style worked well for this story, which seeks to simply convey the most immediate and condensed thoughts and experiences of a girl whose family leaves Vietnam right before the fall of Saigon.

This is a segment of history that can get overlooked, because most of the US history I've learned tends to end the story of Vietnam right after the US pulls out. But for Ha (our protagonist), there are a lot of changes experienced not only in Vietnam, but also on the boat and during her time of adjusting to the US in which her family lives in Alabama.

While this is technically fiction rather than memoir, it draws very heavily on the author's similar experiences, which I think really helps the story to feel real. From details of the cuisine and traditions of Vietnam, to the feelings and reactions to American culture, bullying, and the details and difficulties of learning English, Ha's story is compelling and realistic.

Scrounged From: PaperbackSwap.com

Format: Hardcover
Author: Thanhha Lai
Pages: 277
Content Advisory: Scenes of bullying, brief descriptions of war, and some descriptions of parental loss (nonviolent)

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This Is Sadie is a really cute book about a girl with an active imagination. The lovely illustrations show us some of the things that she has been in her mind (mermaid, Mad Hatter, etc.), and some of her daily activities (reading, tree-climbing, pretending she has wings, etc.). Makes me miss being a kid! If there's one thing kids don't need to be taught, it's how to have an imagination, which is why this book feels like a celebration rather than a how-to.

(In compliance with FTC guidelines, I disclose that I received this book for free through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I was not required to write a positive review.)

Scrounged From: A LibraryThing giveaway

Format: Board Book
Author: Sara O'Leary
Illustrator: Julie Morstad
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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The topic of refugees is more important than ever. On World Refugee Day in 2017, the American Red Cross said that "there are more people displaced from their homes now than at any other point in recorded history." More than half of these many millions of refugees in the world are children. While the idea of millions of children being forced to flee their homes may not feel like a pleasant topic to bring up with children, it is also necessary to learn why and how to stand up for these vulnerable and valuable individuals. Here are some picture books that can help get that conversation started.

1. The Journey, by Francesca Sanna, was published in 2016. It's a beautifully illustrated story of a family that is forced to flee their home because of war. The story strives to be "neutral" in the sense of not portraying any particular region or ethnicity of the world, so while it is apropos to the current Syrian refugee crisis, it could be applicable to many other situations as well. There is also a fair amount of "allegory" in the story -- the guards are portrayed as giants, and "war" is simply visualized as dark hands reaching out to get the family. This mix of fantasy and reality may help children to visualize topics that would otherwise be too difficult, while also allowing parents/teachers to fill in information if they feel it's appropriate. The story may feel bleak, and while it isn't all tied up in a neat little bow at the end (which makes sense), the refugees look to the sky and see birds migrating, and this helps to give them hope that someday they will be safe and belong somewhere again.

2. Stepping Stones is a uniquely illustrated book -- its images are stone art created by Syrian artist Nizar Ali Badr. While he has remained in his country, he says his heart is with the refugees who have fled. The text includes an Arabic translation of the English, so while the book obviously has ties to Syria and the Middle East, it still tells a story of fear, loss, and hope -- a refugee journey that has also happened in many places outside this context. It is amazing how simple "found" objects from the outdoors can be used to evoke such feeling. Full review here.

3. Unlike the previous books on this list, My Beautiful Birds specifically takes place in Syria. It tells the story of a boy who had to leave his pet birds behind when his family fled from violence. While his family adjusts to life in the refugee camp they end up in, he struggles and he misses his birds. But at the same time, he finds that birds can also help him to heal. This book is also uniquely illustrated, with images made from clay rather than painted or drawn. Like in The Journey, birds are used to symbolize hope and freedom.

4. From Far Away is a refugee story that goes beyond the story of leaving one home and finding another. It focuses primarily on what happens after -- the period of adjustment during which a young girl named Saoussan has to learn how to live in Canada after fleeing violence in Lebanon. She wants to belong, but everything is so strange and she doesn't understand the context of many things (such as Halloween decorations) or the unspoken social expectations that are unfamiliar to her. This is her story, told in first person (and aided by Robert Munsch), of how she learned to adjust to a new life at school with new teachers and classmates. Full review here.

5. Unlike the other books in this list, I'm New Here does not deal specifically with a "refugee story" of fleeing one's home, nor does it actually state that any of the characters introduced here are refugees. But I think it's an important book because it helps to erase the "distance" that often seems to exist between us here in the United States and the refugee stories we read in the news. Regardless of how or why these children arrived in the United States, they are introduced to their new classrooms and set about trying to adjust to a new language and culture in a place where they know no one. While there is little narrative here -- we are mostly given vignettes of each character's experiences interspersed together -- this first-person glimpse into the lives of newly arrived children from Guatemala, Korea, and Somalia can help build empathy as we imagine what it would be like to not understand the words that those around us are saying -- to feel lost, and yet want very much to belong. As time goes on, these struggles give way to confidence for these children.

For more book recommendations relating to refugees, diversity, and other global cultural issues, see the book list (you can browse by theme) at I'm Your Neighbor.

Even though "bullying" is a hot topic these days, sometimes I find that I still view it in a caricatured way. When I hear that a book is about bullying, I instantly picture a masculine "backpack in a tree" sort of thing. But as we know, bullying does not have to involve a swirlie or cartoonish, overt, physical humiliation -- it can be more subtle and persistent, and that's the type that's portrayed in The Hundred Dresses.

Wanda Petronski, a Polish immigrant, is teased for wearing the same dress every day. When she says she has a hundred dresses, she is teased even more. Later on, the girls find out she was telling the truth, just not in the way that they had expected. The story focuses on Maddie, one of the girls in Wanda's class. Although she is not the primary instigator, she still stands by while her friend teases Wanda, and it isn't until Wanda moves away that she starts to feel bad about her passivity. I appreciated this bit of realism because I'm sure many of us can attest that it isn't until we look back on a situation that we can often see much more clearly how we were in the wrong. Many things feel just fine when we're in the middle of them.

That's what I think this story does so well -- not just in portraying some instances of bullying and evoking pity for the person bullied, but also showing one character's gradual realization that what she did was wrong, even though it didn't feel overtly bad or cruel at the time. Because of this, Maddie vows to be more vigilant in her treatment of others and to never "stand by and say nothing" again. She recognizes that this is a choice she will have to make again, and becomes far more aware of how she will respond to that choice in future situations.

Scrounged From: HomeschoolClassifieds.com (Sonlight Core A)

Format: Paperback
Author: Eleanor Estes
Pages: 80
Content Advisory: Girls treat Wanda in a demeaning way.

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