27th December Erin E. Stead (1982)

Erin Stead is an American illustrator who has now many well-known books to her credit, some that she has illustrated for her husband, author Philip Stead. Look for A Sick Day for Amos McGee which won the Caldecott Medal, Bear Has a Story to Tell and the two she has illustrated for Julie Fogliano, And Then It's Spring  and  If You Want to See a Whale. Erin and Philip have a website called Number Five Bus which has interviews between themselves and other well-known children's book people.

15th February World Whale Day

Driving through Mona Vale today I saw a sign advertising celebrations for World Whale Day and thought what a pity it was so close to so many other celebrations because children love whales and reading about them and it would have made a wonderful library display. Luckily in Australia we have National Whale Day as well in June so there will be another opportunity to put together a wonderful display of  books about whales.

In fact in the last month or so I have bought several new books for the library that feature whales and these four have especially memorable illustrations and are worth borrowing to read.

• If You Want to See a Whale by Julie Fogliano &  Erin Stead
• The Storm Whale by Benji Davies
• Whale Shines by Fiona Robinson
• Welcome Home by Christina Booth

And of course there's always older favourites that always work well when read aloud such as:
• The Lighthouse Keeper's Rescue by Ronda & David Armitage
• My Friend Whale by Simon James, and
•  The Morning I Met a Whale by Michael Morpurgo & Christian Birmingham

11th January Caldecott Award Announcement

Yesterday, the American Library Association presented its top awards. The one I am always most interested in is the Caldecott Award and this year it went to illustrator Erin E. Stead for A Sick Day for Amos McGee which is written by her husband Philip C. Stead. Often I have to go and buy the book because it hasn't been released widely in Australia, but this year I won't need to, as we have this book in the library. It is a very gentle story about a zookeeper who gets a cold and therefore does not go to the zoo, so his worried animals come to visit him. The illustrations are delicate woodblock prints and as you know if you have been reading this blog, linoprints are my very favourite pieces of art, so yes I do like this book!

Another book with stunning linoprint illustrations by Rick Allen, won its author, the poet Joyce Sidman a Newbery Honor Medal. It is Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night. This lovely book of twelve poems appeals to all age groups because of its illustrations and sensual language. I was hoping her other book, Ubiquitous would be honoured in the Caldecott awards, but I can live with this alternative. On Joyce's website there is a trailer for Dark Emperor. The soundtrack is haunting and inviting at the same time and it makes you wish that some books did come with accompanying sound effects.

And thirdly, of interest for my clientele, Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo, Alison McGhee and Tony Fucile won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for a book for beginning readers. It is already popular in my library.