Children aren't the only audience for children's picture books.
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http://www.arkansas…">Raised to read
Besides the adult book lover who simply loves illustrated stories, there are elderly mothers and fathers with dementia.
Here are three books suitable for sharing with a confused adult who, years before, enjoyed sharing books with you. All were published in 2016 by Candlewick Press.
• How to Find Gold, by Viviane Schwarz ($16.99)
Two vivid buddies -- impetuous, caramel-colored Anna and green-and-yellow Crocodile -- are strolling in a sketchy gray park when Anna announces: "Let's find gold."
Crocodile smiles, but he's a bit of a wet blanket. He insists on some training first. They must practice making "a secret face" so nobody else knows what they're up to. They must make sure the gold won't be too heavy to carry. Also, they need a map.
Anna races with him through their training. But after she draws an X at random on a map of the whole world, and the X lands in France, she's stumped. She doesn't know how to get to France. Does he know how to get to France? No.
As she deflates, her buddy pivots, inventing a madcap idea to seek sunken treasure.
The girl drags in a boat; we turn the page and -- Boom! -- the whole universe is as vividly colored as these two friends' dialogue has been. Down they dive, in search of undersea gold, which they find. And keep.
Schwarz also wrote There Are Cats in This Book and There Are No Cats in This Book.
• Circle by Jeannie Baker ($17.99)
Australian collage artist Baker assembles ingenious landscapes by mixing paper, fabric, fibers, bark, sand and plant bits as well as her paintings to describe the epic, three-stage migration of a leggy shore bird. Before we meet these sandpiper-like birds that we might or might not care about -- only a very lost bar-tailed godwit would wind up in Arkansas -- we see a boy splayed on his bed, who clearly does care.
His wheelchair is parked nearby, and he's thinking, "Ah, I wish I could fly."
By the end of the book, he can, in his imagination. But this is a natural science book, and so early on, an arctic fox attacks a godwit nest and eats two chicks. (The illustration is such that you could easily glide past this sad moment.) Baker's story follows the fate of the chick that escapes.
• Among a Thousand Fireflies by Helen Frost, illustrated by Rick Lieder ($15.99)
This lovely book explains how fireflies find mates in the night. Velvety blue and purple macro photographs make the insect yearning gorgeous rather than gross.
Our heroine, a firefly, is sometimes depicted with soft clarity and sometimes seen in silhouette against a large field that glows as though lighted from within.
In these luminous pages,
Night is black
and bright
and warm.
It holds
and carries
their clear
silent song.
Frost and Lieder also collaborated on Step Gently Out and Sweep Up the Sun.
-- Celia Storey
ActiveStyle on 12/19/2016