Artistic freedom is at the intersection of Why Am I Creating This Street and Who Is This For Lane. Drawing Outdoors is an illustrated book about a fabulous teacher at a rural school and her very creative students. The pupils gather in the remote single-room house from a variety of trails that snake across the piedmont area. It’s a special day because the kids are told that their lessons will be outside. They’re going to explore, draw things in nature, imagine shapes and expand their horizons. Drawing Outdoors will appeal to lots of elementary-aged students, but there’s one elephant that’s presented early in the book that will water down most of the fun. You’re in for a time if you miss this because the kids won’t, and once they see it you’ll lose all control of the classroom, and the grand message of the book will be lost.
Why so serious? was the phrase that crossed my mind the first time I saw What’s the Rush? They’re sibling queries to be sure, but the latter is far less malevolent than the one that folks might associate with the Caped Crusader. What’s the Rush? is a lovely illustrated book by Yiting Lee that proves that books for young audiences don’t need to have a solid, theme-trodden story arc.
A turtle and a rabbit meet in a bar…..
That might sound like a slam, but I don’t mean it to come across that way. Rather, it’s OK for illustrated books to meander, take their time and allow its characters to smell the roses. To an extent, it is in the vein of The Tao of Pooh, where sometimes a thing just is, or happy characters in a book just are.
What’s the Rush? sees two friends getting together for some tea and snacks. This book could’ve gone in a different, far less enjoyable, and more predictable manner. That’s because the two friends in question are a rabbit and a turtle. Turtles are slow, rabbits are fast, children got that message and easily know what slow and steady wins the race means.
That’s where What the Rush? goes in a different direction and opens up what could be the potential relationship between the two animals. Turtle is a very polite host who serves his friend snacks in an elegantly prepared spread. It’s on this picnic that the turtle innocently mentions that he would like to climb the beautiful mountain that’s in the distance. Rabbit has heard these wistful dreams before and suggests that the two do it tomorrow to which turtle says, “What’s the Rush?”.
The next morning the two embark on their quest to the mountain. However, the turtle is not quite ready to depart when the rabbit shows up on his doorstep. Turtle is busy folding clothes, trimming shrubbery, watering plants, cooking, painting, cleaning, and packing. Rabbit grows tired of the turtle’s tardiness, screams at him and out the door, the two of them go. Thanks to his hard shell, the turtle is able to carry all of his too many bags on his back.
As the two make their way to the mountain they encounter troubling obstacles one after the other. “Hang on just one minute”, is what the turtle says to the rabbit each time they get to one of them. Thankfully, due to the turtle’s packing, they’re able to overcome each one of them, all the while the bags on his shell get less numerous. When they finally get to the mountain top the two friends see the moon, turtle looks up and casually mentions that it would be nice to go there. Rabbit, being the more rabbit of the two suggests that they go tomorrow to which turtle asks his fleet-footed friend, “what’s the rush?”.
The art in What’s the Rush? has an old-school, classic vibe about it that resonates with younger elementary-aged audiences. Some of the illustrations take up full pages, some use white space to fill the void and others use panels. The panels are used very effectively to demonstrate the amount of time that the rabbit perceives as wasted, while his friend is getting ready for the hike.
I read the book to a group of pre-k kids and asked them what the book was about. The responses varied from friendship to working together to taking a vacation. That’s what I meant by the book establishing a folksy, patient way of telling a story that’s a snapshot of the dynamic between two friends. There’s no great conflict or Earth-bending issue they’re navigating. It’s just two friends who are very different and are out for a walk, done with illustrations that will make kids smile.
What’s the Rush? is by Yiting Lee and available on Princeton Architectural Press.
The potato chip and cat video complex is strong with this one. That’s the line of reasoning that states that it’s difficult, to near impossible to engage in just one of them. Land of Giants jumps into that fray with just as much glee as the sour cream and onion potato chips or the kittens being jerk video that was in your stream earlier. Everyone loves dinosaurs, while that may sound like a scrapped tv pilot from CBS circa the late 90s, it’s more akin to the fact that people love big lizards and the concept of how massive they actually were.
A surprise in your illustrated books is OK. You comic book fans know what I’m talking about. The cover doesn’t exactly match the content inside or has text that infers something that might be direr. The Most Haunted House in America is an illustrated book that follows that comic book playbook to the letter. This is a beautifully illustrated book with art that drags you in with the skeleton hands that you’ll quickly see once you open it.
Pick a page, any page from Bodies, Brains & Boogers and it’s something that will interest or intrigue ages eight and up. And, while you may not want to tell those ages this, they’ll also learn something from every page, yes, even you older middle school readers. Do you have Demodex, how much collagen is in your brain, how fast are synapses and so many more are questions that will be posed to elementary school students. The takeaway and question for parents, educators, and that wily eight-year-old audience is this, is Bodies, Brains & Boogers a book that they’ll want to read?
The cover of Dear Wild Child immediately catches your attention. It’s the silhouette of a young girl whose long hair is whishing in the wind. Inside her head’s outline are the shapes of a forest in the grip of autumn’s peak with cabin shapes that are inlaid where her eyes, nose, and mouth should be. It’s a nature person’s Picasso, with just a hint of mystery-and that’s just the cover. Once you open Dear Wild Child and start reading it you’ll find a story about nature, family, and loss. This illustrated book also has a curve that readers aren’t expecting.
Confirmation bias is a big term that isn’t commonly known to most high school kids. It’s at the root of social media, the rise of fake news, and is the enemy of independent thought and critical thinking. Getting young audiences to know when something that they hear or read about online is fake news can be challenging to say the least. It becomes a near impossibility when you factor in the ‘tall tales’ stage that upper elementary students enter. And this doesn’t even consider the politicization that the term ‘fake news’ garnered when it was by President Donald Trump. Half-truths, omission of facts, distractions or simply not acknowledging situations have always existed. Killer Underwear Invasion!, How to Spot Fake News, Disinformation & Conspiracy Theories is by Elise Gravel. It’s a playful illustrated book, graphic novel that introduces the concept of not believing everything that you hear to those upper elementary students who desperately need it.
I want to believe. We all have that Fox Mulder strain inside us for some issues; and for me, it’s a yearning to experience proof of ghosts, aliens, or mythical beings. The mythical beings are those folk legends that blur the line between the barely believable and those things that probably should exist. Fairies fall into that category and The Fairy Atlas, Fairy Folk of the World by Anna Claybourne with illustrations by Miren Asiain Lora is the illustrated guide to those creatures that just might be near you wherever you are.
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