Perfect Picture Book Friday: BENI’S TINY TALES

Posted on January 12, 2024 by viviankirkfield

Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, dear friends. And hold onto your hats – because today’s featured book is like a dozen books in one! That’s right! It’s a treasury of stories, recipes, crafts, and more – for Jewish holidays throughout the year. And the art by author/illustrator Jane Breskin Zalben is absolutely delightful!

BENI’S TINY TALES: Around the World in Jewish Holidays

Written and illustrated by Jane Breskin Zalben

Published by Christy Ottaviano (August 8, 2023)

Ages: 4-8

Themes: Jewish holidays, family activities, diversity

Synopsis: From Amazon:
Join Beni and his family as they celebrate a year in Jewish Holidays, including all their favorite craft activities, recipes, songs, and stories for each occasion. The perfect gift book that gives all year long.

Chronicling a full year of Jewish festivities—from Rosh Hashanah through Shavuot, with every momentous occasion in between—this one-of-a-kind treasury includes homespun family stories, origin notes, craft activities, songs, and recipes for each holiday. With ideas on how to make masks for Purim, recipes to bake fresh honey-dipped challah to mark the new year, and so much more, this interactive holiday collection begs to be revisited again and again.

Beautifully crafted and with the right balance of factual details interspersed with fictional stories, this Jewish treasury is a welcome introduction to each holiday in the calendar year, and it is all told through the lens of Beni’s bear family. For parents who grew up reading Beni’s Family Treasury and Beni’s Family Cookbook, the family tradition lives on in this much anticipated compendium for contemporary readers.

“Mouthwatering recipes, activities, and songs round out the chapters…. Young readers and their grown-ups will find much to savor here.” —Kirkus Reviews

Why I Love This Book:
1. I love that this book has so many different layers – the stories of Beni’s bear family, the many different Jewish holidays and the how and why they are celebrated, fun craft activities and great recipes that everyone can enjoy!
2. I love the glorious art – the illustrations throughout the book are delightful and captivating – even the end papers engage the reader!
3. The publisher did not stint when it came to this book – the heavy glossy pages will survive many readings and the handling of young children – and the print is large enough for even my old eyes to see it – this s a quality book from cover to cover!

The book has received praise and write-ups from many, including:
ALA: https://journals.ala.org/index.php/cal/article/view/8109/11274
Betsy Bird: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/07/06/celebrating-jewish-holidays-all-year-round-an-interview-with-jane-zalben-about-benis-tiny-tales/

Usually, I share a craft activity with every Perfect Picture Book Friday post, but because this books is chockful of crafts and recipes – and because author/illustrator Jane Zalben is so generous, we have crafts AND recipes!!!

How about a recipe for Hamantaschen? When I lived in NYC, one of my favorite pastries was prune hamantaschen. YUM!!!

When the kids are home from school over the holidays, we often scramble for things to do with them. But with BENI’S TINY TALES, you’ll be scrambling no more!

When my first child was born, we moved from NYC to a small town in Connecticut. I’ve mentioned before how the backyard had 100 blueberry bushes…and the front yard had three huge old maple trees that we tapped for sap to make maple syrup several times while our children were growing up. It was a great experience…and Jane documents a similar time for Beni and his bear family.

The bear family on their way to tap the trees

And here is the recipe for making maple syrup!

To be honest, I have to admit that I don’t buy every book that I review…there are just too many of them…and my bookcases are already bursting at the seams – but when I saw the wealth of information and the quality of the illustrations, I couldn’t help myself – I hope you will all feel the same way because beautiful books like BENI’S TINY TALES need our help.
What can we do?
We can:
Buy a copy for ourselves or a friend
Review the book
Place the title on your Goodreads WANT TO READ shelf
Tell friends about the book (on social media, please!)
Ask our local library to purchase copies for their collection

I’ve bought the book, placed it on my Goodreads shelf, and reviewed it on Amazon.
And I’ll be sharing on Facebook and Twitter.
I hope you will find at least one way to help spread the word about this glorious book.

And I hope you all have a beautiful weekend! I’ve started reaching out to gather prizes for #50PreciousWords…yes, can you believe it…March will be here before you know it. And, dear blog followers, you are the first to know that we already have all of our judges from last year back again. My grateful thanks to Maria Marshall, Pamela Courtney, Carmen Castillo Gilbert, Shirin Shamsi, Leah Moser, Amber Bouchard, and Diane Tulloch for agreeing to this huge task of reading all of the stories (last year there were 756), and meeting multiple times to decide on the 50+ prize winners and 200+ Honorable Mentions. I’ve also heard from the first of the prize donors…we ALREADY have SEVERAL EDITORS AND AGENTS who will give feedback and/or submission opportunities.

Are you getting excited? AWESOME!!! But before you forget, please share this post on your social media and buy a copy of BENI’S TINY TALES!

Perfect Picture Book Friday: BEAUTIFUL NOISE: The Music of John Cage Plus Giveaway

Posted on October 13, 2023 by viviankirkfield

Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, dear friends! Today’s author is a kidlit friend of mine…and we are both part of the New England SCBWI chapter. I love her books…and she has graciously offered a choice to whoever wins the giveaway: either a copy of BEAUTIFUL NOISE or a Picture Book Critique (nonrhyming under 800 words). So, please make sure you leave a comment.

BEAUTIFUL NOISE: The Music of John Cage

Written by Lisa Rogers

Illustrated by Il Sung Na

Published by Random House Kids/Anne Schwartz Books (October 10, 2023)

Ages: 4-8

Themes: Creativity, persistence, mindfulness, acceptance, listening

Synopsis: From Random House Kids: Open this unique picture book and meet John Cage, the pioneering, inspiring composer who believed all sound—from the crash of a slamming door to the whirr of a blender to the whoosh of the wind—was music.

For John Cage, music was everywhere: in the hum of the refrigerator, the screech of a garbage truck, the patter of the rain. But other people disagreed. They felt that, surely, a pianist on stage must actually play their piano to create music…not just sit there. And in no way was it melodic to turn a musician’s mic on and off as they do play their instruments–it was just chaos!

John Cage found sound in silence, and knew that all noises were unique. All you had to do was listen to hear it.

Told in second person and paired with exciting illustrations as innovative as Cage’s music, here is a picture book–perfect for any budding musician–that celebrates the genius of a nonconforming musician who always stayed true to his artistic vision.

Why I Love This Book
1. I love books that introduce children to people they probably never heard of!
2. I love books where the text is like a melody – lyrical and engaging!
3. I love books filled with glorious illustrations – what a wonderful opportunity for kids to see how color and lines can combine to create action and emotion while telling a story.

I was chatting with Lisa and mentioned that we all love to hear about the path to publication for our Perfect Picture Book Friday books…and she graciously stopped by.
Welcome, Lisa! Can you share a bit about why you wrote this story and how it came about?

Lisa: Thank you so much for featuring BEAUTIFUL NOISE, Vivian. I’m happy to share.
I was a listening kind of child who paid close attention to the world around me. Growing up on the beach, I remember listening in vain for the ocean to be completely silent. Later, I learned about John Cage and his “silent” piece, so when in 2016 I saw a photo of him listening intently to the vibrations of cactus spines, I knew I wanted to explore the life of this intriguing, brilliant, innovative person. I dove into research, but there was so much to share about him! I wrote polished draft after polished draft, trying many different paths to the story, but couldn’t get to his essence in a way that would resonate for children. Other projects intervened, until early one morning in 2022, the words and structure of this book came into my mind. I was thrilled that Anne Schwartz, who edited my debut, 16 Words: William Carlos Williams and “The Red Wheelbarrow,” decided to take on Beautiful Noise, and ecstatic when award-winning illustrator Il Sung Na agreed to illustrate my words. Il Sung created an unbelievably beautiful sonic environment for this story that is nothing short of genius. His magnificent illustrations included creating a visual glossary for each sound word I used. It’s so fun to seek and identify each sound image as you enjoy the world of this book!

WOW…thank you so much, Lisa. I loved hearing your path to publication for this book. And thank you, also, for providing the craft activity! I remember making these with my kindergarteners and with my own children.

RELATED ACTIVITIES:
Make a Rain Stick

Photo courtesy: https://www.giftofcuriosity.com/diy-rain-stick-craft/

This cool rain stick craft is easy and ingenious! https://www.giftofcuriosity.com/diy-rain-stick-craft/

BEAUTIFUL NOISE launched on October 10 and is available right now!
https://www.wellesleybooks.com/book/9780593646625
And it also helps to add it to your I WANT TO READ shelf on Goodreads.

Here’s a little bit about Lisa and how you can connect with her:
Lisa Rogers became inspired to write for children during her career as an elementary school librarian, but her love of reading began early with poetry, fairytales and folktales. She holds degrees in English from The College of William and Mary and Boston College and received her library science degree from Southern Connecticut State University. Her award-winning titles include her debut, 16 WORDS: WILLIAM CARLOS AND “THE RED WHEELBARROW,” HOUND WON’T GO, and BEAUTIFUL NOISE, which has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.

A former daily news reporter and editor, Lisa lives with her family and sweet, obstreperous hound near the Boston Marathon route, which she has run four times. Find her at lisarogerswrites.com.

I hope you will all connect with Lisa – and check out her other books. We all know how important it is to support authors and illustrators and publishers – otherwise, there will be no more books like this one. We can support our favorite books by:
Buying them (links in the blog post)
Reviewing them
Putting them on your WANT TO READ shelf on Goodreads (There is a link for that in the post)
Telling friends about them (if you share on social media, that really helps)
Asking your local library to purchase copies for their collection.

I hope you all have a beautiful weekend. Leaf peepers had better get peeping…the colors are gorgeous…but after a few more rains, we’ll have bare branches and a carpet of colors on the ground.

Perfect Picture Book Frday: SAVING THE SUN Plus DOUBLE GIVEAWAY

Posted on September 22, 2023 by viviankirkfield

Hello dear friends! Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday. Today’s featured book, SAVNG THE SUN, is a sequel to a book we shared last year, MENDING THE MOON. And the same dynamic duo created it: author Emma Pearl and illustrator Sara Ugolottii. Make sure you read through the entire post and then leave a comment and share on social media – author Emma’s publisher is offering a copy of this beautiful book AND Emma is offering a Picture Book Critique – remember to let us know in the comment which prize you’d like if you are one of the lucky winners!

SAVING THE SUN

Written by Emma Pearl

illustrated by Sara Ugolotti

Published by Page Street Kids (September 19, 2023)

Ages: 4-8

Themes: Creativity, courage, working together

Synopsis: From Amazon:

After an especially sweltering day, the ocean sparkles and twinkles so invitingly that instead of slipping beneath the horizon, the sun plunges into the ocean itself.

When the sun sinks and loses its fire, Luna and Poppa’s yearly vacation on Summer Island suddenly goes dark. Luna knows the sun needs their help―the sky looks all wrong, and it’s neither day nor night! But it’s a big job to do all on their own.

To bring back daylight, they must think of creative solutions, seeking help from the local dolphins, monkeys, birds, and more. With the power of teamwork and imagination, can they find a way to return the sun to its rightful place, and set it ablaze once more?

This imaginative tale will enchant readers as Luna, Poppa, and their new friends of the sea, beach, and air rise to the challenge of fixing the sky once more and―literally―save the day.

Why I Love This Book:
1. I love the engaging and whimsical text that take the reader on a fantastical journey.
2. I love the glorious illustrations that create a magical setting for the story.
3. I love the agency of the child in the story and how problem solving happens step by step.

RELATED ACTIVITIES:
Bring the sunshine inside no matter what the weather is outside.

Photo courtesy: https://www.teachingexpertise.com/classroom-ideas/sun-crafts/

For detailed instructions for these and many other sun crafts: https://www.teachingexpertise.com/classroom-ideas/sun-crafts/

How can we help books we love?
We can buy them.
We can review them.
We can put them on our WANT TO READ SHELF on Goodreads.
We can tell friends about them.
We can ask our local library to purchase copies for their collection.
And here are some other order links so you can order the book from your favorite place:
Barnes & Noble
Books of Wonder
Amazon
Books-a-Million
Bookshop.org

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Please remember to leave a comment and let us know which prize you would prefer if you are one of the lucky winners: a copy of SAVING THE SUN (U.S. addresses only please) or a Picture Book Critique.