Two More Picture Books

I picked up an advance reader's edition of 2003 Caldecott Medalist Eric Rohmann's Bone Dog at the recent Texas Library Association meeting. It will be available for sale on July 19. It's the story of how a little boy's recently-deceased dog comes back to help him when he runs into some problems on Halloween night. It appears to use the same media as the Caldecott-winning My Friend Rabbit, hand-colored relief prints.

This book would be a good Halloween read-aloud IF you know your audience.  My 82-year-old dad volunteers at his local public school, reading to kindergarten, and he said he would be hesitant to read the book to the group since he didn't know how some students might react to the dog's death, and how others would react to skeletons. The teacher or the parents can make a better call.

Higher! Higher! was written and illustrated by Leslie Patricelli. It's about a little girl on a swing and what she sees in her imagination as she goes higher and higher. Hand-lettered with simple, child-like drawings.in bright acrylics; some pages have no words, others only one or two.  Nevertheless, there's a lot going on in the pictures for a child to talk about. It was a 2009 Boston Globe - Horn Book Picture Book Honor Book.  Patricelli mostly does board books featuring a bald baby, and says she got the idea for this book from pushing her own two-year-old daughter on a swing. 

© Amanda Pape - 2011

[The advanced reader edition of Bone Dog will be passed on to someone else to enjoy. Higher! Higher! was borrowed from and returned to my university library.]