The Golden Glow is a story about a fox who loves botany (originally published in French). One day he goes off in search of "the golden glow" -- a very rare flower, which (he is eventually told) can only be found at the very top of the mountain. 

The story takes its time in reaching this destination (though it's not draggy or overly wordy), including informational pages here and there featuring topics such as items for hiking preparedness, common flowers, trees, mountain elevation zones, etc.

I liked the illustrations, especially the color palette, though the "angular" way that most things are drawn is interesting considering how sleekness and curves seem to be the order of the day.

Ultimately I appreciated the message of the story, which is that nature appreciation doesn't need to mean possessing everything we find, especially items that are rare and beautiful. I also thought this story avoided the common pitfall of presenting important ideas in a didactic way. 

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author/illustrator: Benjamin Flouw
Pages: 48
Content Advisory: None

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I was immediately attracted to the beautiful cover art on Red Sky at Night. The colors are so soft, complement each other well, and seem filled with light. The human characters in the illustrations appear to be paper cut-outs, so I took a look at author/artist Elly MacKay's website to see what she shares about her artistic process. There she provides some examples of the "layers" that she builds in a theater setting to create her images -- so cool!

The text of this book is comprised of "weather sayings," some of which we have probably all heard before (such as the title). The illustrations serve as the primary narrative, and depict a grandfather taking his grandchildren on a fishing trip. Since so many weather sayings revolve around the sea, this is a fitting framework for the text, and I really love the accompanying images, especially the one with the whale!

To be honest, I was a bit skeptical of many of these sayings until I reached the end of the book and found an explanation for the scientific principles behind each one. Of course, none of them are foolproof and some may be questionable, but when you consider that these were written by people, such as farmers and fishermen, whose lives revolved so closely around the weather, it makes a lot more sense. 

In short, I really enjoyed this book, and the beautiful illustrations have inspired me to check out more work by Elly MacKay.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author/illustrator: Elly MacKay
Pages: 40
Content Advisory: None

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Anne's Colors is the second Anne-themed book I've come across recently, the first being an Anne of Green gables graphic novel (see my review here). 

This adorable book uses very simple text, as well as illustrations made of fabric and embroidery, to perfectly encapsulate the charm of Anne of Green Gables in a way that's friendly for babies and toddlers. Each scene will be familiar to fans of the book, and highlights one item and its color (green for green gables, of course!). To be honest, I couldn't tell you off hand whether anything was made up for this book, because I have no idea whether, for example, Anne's puffed-sleeve dress was really brown or not! Not that it makes any difference to me.

Anne's braids are referred to here as "orange" which, while it may not match the book exactly ("red hair"), more accurately portrays that misnomer so as not to confuse children.

Some "items" are less concrete, such as "pink cheeks" which shows Anne angry at Gilbert grabbing her braid. But I don't think any of these selections were too contrived, and each manages to recreate a memorable scene or concept from the story, whether it's Anne and Matthew in the carriage, or the fateful party with Diana and the cordial.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author/illustrator: Kelly Hill 
Pages: 20
Content Advisory: None

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I know very little about "the art world," so I came to Monet: Itinerant of Light as something of a dunce, but I at least knew his name and knew he painted some of those pictures that were sometimes blurry or foggy-looking (my "artsy vocabulary" is obviously limited as well). But this book helped remind me of the little I had heard -- "impressionist" is the word for his style.

This is a graphic novel that covers the earlier (and more difficult) parts of his career, as well as his personal life at the time. I really liked the art -- the end of the novel explains how some of Monet's paintings were portrayed/given tribute to here, none of which I recognized (see the "dunce" comment earlier), but the illustrations were soft and detailed, with realistic facial expressions, and didn't feel "cartoony" to me at all (the way some graphic novels do).

As to the story itself, it's quite fascinating, though equally inspiring and heartbreaking. We see, over and over again, Monet's unwilllingness to compromise on his artistic vision for the sake of the "academics" of the day, and also his drive to be nothing but a painter and to master his craft -- paired with an irresponsibility with money which led to some fairly dire poverty at times. I also felt so bad for Camille, his wife, with the state of women's healthcare in those days (especially for those in poverty).

The framing of the story begins and ends with him as an old man, and so a large portion of his life is simply skimmed over at the end. I'm not an artist so I don't understand the artistic drive, but I still enjoyed reading about such a famous painter of the past, and his contributions to art.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author: Salva Rubio
Illustrator: Efa
Pages: 112
Content Advisory: A couple swear words, some nudes, one "bedroom scene" frame without nudity, and some thematic elements are mentioned/shown including drinking, an affair, abortion, a death, and extreme poverty. I'd give the book a PG-13 rating if it was a movie.

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Dictionary.com defines "meta" as: "pertaining to or noting a story, conversation, character, etc., that consciously references or comments upon its own subject or features, often in the form of parody."

See also: breaking the fourth wall -- in other words, when something such as a play, movie, or book acts as if conscious of its status as a play, movie, or book, by means of referencing the audience, alluding to itself as fictional, etc. Here are some picture books that, in one way or another, seem conscious of their audience, or of themselves as books.

While I'm generally not a fan of picture books based on TV characters, The Monster at the End of This Book is a clear exception. Since it's been around for 45 years now, this is probably one of the more obvious meta picture books for people from my generation. Grover is quite emphatic throughout the book that the reader must not turn any more pages, because that will only get them closer to the monster at the end of the book, and he devises all kinds of ways to make them/us stop. Even though I didn't grow up with this book, I've really enjoyed it, and my children have too -- especially once they realized it wasn't as scary as it sounded.

A Book, by Mordicai Gerstein, is almost entirely meta, because the characters know they live in a book, and the main character is a girl in search of her story. She lives with family members who go off to their "character jobs" in the morning, while she has to find out what hers is, searching through pages of fairy tale characters, mysterious characters, pirates, and even a historical novel. By the end, she finds a way to take ownership of her distinct story. I thought this book was pretty clever, and I like how the scenes are drawn at something of an angle, with shadows that make it feel as though you're looking down into a three-dimensional world rather than the flat pages of a typical book.

All of us here enjoy the "Elephant & Piggie" series by Mo Willems, but We Are in a Book! is definitely my favorite. These books are written in "graphic novel" style, with colored speech bubbles to make it easier for young readers to see who is talking, though these can be enjoyed by pre-readers as well. In this book, Gerald (the elephant) and Piggie become aware that they are being read by a reader. This is very exciting to them -- until Piggie informs Gerald that the book is eventually going to end, which causes a bit of a freak-out. 

The Hole, by Norwegian artist Oyvind Torseter, was an interesting library find for us -- the book simply has a hole punched all the way through it, and the mostly wordless story involves someone moving into his new apartment and encountering "the hole," which moves about until he is finally able to capture it for analysis. Though of course, since the hole goes right through the book, it can never really go away...

The Red Book, by Barbara Lehman, is a short, wordless story about a boy who finds a magic book, which functions something like a mirror that allows him to make a connection with someone far away.