There is a balance in illustrated books between being sufficiently weird, but endearing enough to be of merit to adults, educators and parents. Of course there are some books that are straight up gonzo strange, sappy to the point of Hallmark or unicorn happiness to the max. For the most part, those mass-appeal illustrated books that have legs need to be slightly grounded. However, children need them to be a little odd in order to rope in readers and audiences who might otherwise gravitate towards anything else. Grown With Love is just left-of-center enough to bring in aspects any Tim Burton movie, but has the Earthy tones of Up or other entertaining vehicles that subvert a tug at your emotions.
It’s love and company, in an odd package that worksTag: Illustrated books
The Most Perfect Persimmon: A Young Reader’s Delight
I have never eaten a persimmon. It sounds more like an adjective than a fruit to me. The students felt quite persimmon when they realized the difficulty of the test. The Most Perfect Persimmon is an illustrated book that’s a love letter to family, patience, creature comforts and the fleeting search for perfection. That last bit might be too esoteric, but the nature of the young girl in the book and the brief period that a persimmon is perfect brings about comparisons to avocados.
You don’t need to know it to enjoy itThe Strangest Fish is an odd-joy of an illustrated book
What a simple tale The Strangest Fish is. It will sound familiar to young, read-aloud audiences in elementary school, both in its setting and in its very subtle lesson. A young girl is at the fair with her family when she receives a fish who is happily unaware of the size of its plastic bag aquarium. It’s a beautiful fish that they name October, who quickly outgrows his arrangements. This all sounds familiar, the fish-out-of-water, except those who aren’t like you premise that savvy readers can detect from far away. That’s us too, but before you put this in the same tank with other, less intelligent, classy or interesting books, check out the art.
One fish, weird fish, catch my interest youAmazing Abe, an illustrated book that’s more than niche history
Not Lincoln, Abraham Cahan, nonetheless amazing, but not as well known as the stovepipe-hat-wearing President of the United States. Amazing Abe: How Abraham Cahan’s Newspaper Gave a Voice to Jewish Immigrants could be a tough sell to elementary age audiences. It could be, but it overcomes the non-fiction, biography resistance to unknown figures that those ages have by making the book accessible in its brief text that highlights enough of Cahan’s interesting life to make kids want to care. Amazing Abe also detailed art, but not so much so that it looks real, it’s right in the area encompassing the kind that clever kids want to see in their illustrated books.
It follows the template for making unknown figures interestingBounce! A Scientific History of Rubber-STEM story and fun for ages 6 and up
This is a thick book. Why is this book so thick? It’s either loaded with fluff or has too many white pages. Alas, it is thick, but its physical pages are thicker than the average illustrated book, plus it’s loaded with fun, easy-to-understand, STEM facts about the evolution and process of rubber. To those first reactions I say, don’t be intimidated by its thickness. Instead, just enjoy the fact that Bounce! A Scientific History of Rubber is able to create a non-fiction, linear story with STEM nuggets woven in that young readers won’t be turned off by. It can be challenging to get young readers to accept illustrated books that don’t have unicorns or animals in it, thus the first hurdle towards getting them in the book is not getting in the way.
Big Sister, Long Coat, pleasant, albeit forgettable lesson about change
There’s a hazy, fine line between a book that’s relaxing and the same one verging into sleepy. Big Sister, Long Coat is an illustrated book that straddles that line but also runs deeply into the other category, depending on the audience. It’s a book that could easily make for a relaxing story time session on the alphabet carpet at the end of the day, it can also end the day as little ones fade away, but also might escort some kids to slumber when it’s not intended. Big Sister, Long Coat also sounds like the start to a song by Cake that exists in an alternate universe.
An illustrated book that’s cute, but not classicSimone has promise and a great story, but a side agenda of obvious also
Children almost certainly don’t think of books as a gateway to a different world or an opportunity to learn something in a second-hand, entertaining manner. Granted, those two takeaways are a major reason why people enjoy reading books, but to some young elementary ages books are more of a thing that you have to do, and doing things under duress is very rarely cool. Simone is not the first illustrated book that mid to upper-elementary students will look for. Its indistinct cover implies nothing about the book’s plot. All you see is an Asian girl with a sketchbook and paintbrushes, wistfully looking out as waves of colors bend ahead of her.
The art is effective, the story is okWhat Can a Mess Make?, timeless read-aloud that soothes pre-k – 2nd grade
There is a difference between a mess and being messy. Likewise, something dreamy does not mandate that it is sleepy. Unless it’s meant to be read at bedtime, a sleepy illustrated book is not ideal for describing something you want kids to enjoy. Any child can make a mess, yet every child is not messy. What Can a Mess Make? is an illustrated book about a pair of sisters who make the most of their messes via creativity, sharing, forgiveness, patience and life.
The feel-good times of constant smiles and happy memories await