The word "parent" is not just a noun. It's also a verb.
I was not ready for the emotional wallop that this picture book packed. In easy, almost sneaky language, the book tells the story of lifelong friends that span a “lifetime” and grow a deep, loving bond, that survives many breaks and ebbs.
Where is home? Where is here? When you are a child, home is usually where your things are. This is particularly true for kids, being the scavenging hoarders they are. And here? Home is here and here is where you are. So what happens to your sense of home, when you have to leave everything you know behind to travel to distant lands?
In this book from New Zealand, a young Māori boy dreams of making a big splash. Literally. All he wants to do is be able to cannonball into the water. Everyone around him seems to be able to do it, and if you could cannonball, you were someone around these parts.
Written in verse (a welcome relief from the constant narrative prose of current picture books) the book has many charms. The rhymes are, for the most part, tight and advance the story well. Kids like rhyming books.
On a snowy day a young girl and her mom trudge through the snow to get home after school. It’s clear that the little girl is not only more comfortable with snow than her mother, but that she actually delights in it. The mom, meanwhile, is reminiscing and missing her clearly tropical home country.
Written by Mary and Kevin Qamaniq-Mason “as a gift for Inuit children in [foster] care” this book tells the story of a child who is reminded that although he is not with his biological parents, he is surrounded by a community that loves and cares for him, deeply.
Told simultaneously from her perspective and that of her daughters, this story shows readers what determination is all about and gives a perfect example of how hard work, dedication, and a hunger to make a difference can lead to an exceptional end.
The text in the book is simple, the art radiant. Poet Ruth Forman and Illustrator Geneva Bowers deliver an charming tale of four girls delighting in their hair.
Nevaeh goes to school at PS-175. Across from her school is a junk filled plot of land. While volunteering at the school, Hillery, “Mr Tony the kids called him,” notices the vacant lot and he has an idea. He cleared the lot, with the help of the students and they plant 400 seedlings, “one for each kid.”