30th December Jeanette Winter (1939 -7th November 2025)

self portrait of Jeanette Winter

While delving into lists that are published at the end of years, I learned that children's author Jeanette Winter had died on the 7th of November, 2025 in New York. I was very sad to read this and know that there may be no more wonderful picture books written or illustrated by her. I love her books, especially those that promote the strength and initiatives of women in this world. Sharing her books with students in the library has lead to so many really inspiring discussions. I am always amazed to see and hear what very young students take from reading biographies and stories based on real-life events.

Many of her books told stories about accomplished real-life women, including Josefina, about artist Josefina Aguilar; My Name Is Georgia, about painter Georgia O’Keeffe; Emily Dickinson’s Letters to the World; Beatrix, about author Beatrix Potter, and Sisters, about tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. Her 2019 book Our House Is on Fire: Greta Thunberg’s Call to Save the Planet has been translated into 21 languages.

Some of my favourites:

Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan

Tells the story of a young girl in Afghanistan who attends a secret school for girls.

The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq

Alia Muhammad Baker’s library in Basra, Iraq, has been a meeting place for those who love books for the past fourteen years. Now war has come, and Alia fears that the library—along with the thirty thousand books within it—will be destroyed forever.

Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia

Luis loves to read, but soon his house in Colombia is so full of books there’s barely room for the family. What to do? Then he comes up with the perfect solution—a traveling library! He buys two donkeys—Alfa and Beto—and travels with them throughout the land, bringing books and reading to the children in faraway villages.

The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life With the Chimps

Jane Goodall, the great observer of chimpanzees. Follow Jane from her childhood in London watching a robin on her windowsill, to her years in the African forests of Gombe, Tanzania

The Tale of Pale Male 

Here is the incredible true story of a Red-tailed Hawk that makes himself at home in the most unlikely of places--atop a high-rise apartment building in New York City.Named Pale Male by his many fans, this majestic bird not only endures in this urban environment, he thrives.

See her other titles here.

Jeanette's son, Jonah Winter is also a children's book creator. They have collaborated on books such as Diego  and Oil. He also has written many biographies about famous people eg. Sonia Sotomayor, Elvis Presley, Hillary Clinton, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, following the tradition of his mother.

30th April International Jazz Day

International Jazz Day is a yearly event on 30 April, organized by UNESCO to celebrate “the virtues of jazz as an educational tool, and a force for peace, unity, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among people.” The day was proclaimed during the UNESCO General Conference in November 2011.

Once I would have said that jazz music wasn't something my students were interested in, but I haven't had too much trouble getting them to borrow books such as these:

• Ben's Trumpet  by Rachel Isadora

• This Jazz Man by Karen Ehrhardt

• The Jazz Fly by Matthew W. Gollub
• Sheep's Jazzy Jumper by Carrie and David Grant

• My Two Grandads by Floella Benjamin

and all the wonderful biographies that are part of the library's picture book biography collection:

• Dizzy  by Jonah Winter ( the story of Dizzy Gillespie)

• Mister and Lady Day by Amy Novesky (the story of Billie Holiday and the dog who loved her)

• The Little Piano Girl by Ann Ingalls and Maryann MacDonald (the story of Mary Lou Williams)

• Jazz Age Josephine by Jonah Winter (the story of singer Josephine Baker)

• Charlie Parker Played Be Bop by Chris Raschka

• Before John was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane by Carole Boston Weatherford

6th October Jeanette Winter (1939)

Lately, as I have reviewed my calendar, in readiness for planning displays and lessons I have found a few mistakes. Previously I have written about Jeanette Winter and have celebrated her birthday on 6th September. I also said she was born in 1939 but have recently found another reference that says 1933, but irrespective of when her birthday is or how old she is, it is certainly well worth the effort of gathering up her wonderful books for a reread. On holiday in New Zealand last week I went into The Dorothy Butler Children's Bookshop and found a copy of her latest book, Henri's Scissors. This is a picture book biography of Henri Matisse. Although it starts with Henri as a small boy who drew pictures everywhere, and tells how he moved to Paris and became a famous painter,` the title and a large part of the story focusses on Matisse's later life when a serious illness confined him to a wheelchair and he took up cutting paper into enormous shapes to create breathtaking collages. Winter has included quotes from  Matisse and a note of her own at the end of the story explaining where her inspiration came from. On Winter's motivation for writing and illustrating there is an interesting interview here where her son Jonah Winter, who is also a writer, asks his mother questions. Many of Jeanette Winter's books are in fact biographies. See my pinterest page for other titles by her and her son, Jonah Winter.

http://www.pinterest.com/kinderbookboard/picture-book-biographies/

Champions Read 3 - Art Champions

As there was for science and the environment, there is a large number of picture book biographies about artists. There are also books, that while strictly speaking they are not biographies, they are very close because they tell about an artist's life or a famous painting. Laurence Anholt's Artists series does this. Brenda Northeast also does this and Nina Laden likes to illuminate artists' lives in picture book format.

* Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudi by Rachel Rodriguez & Julie Paschkis

* Claude Monet: The Painter Who Stopped the Trains by P.I. Maltbie & Jos. A. Smith

* Just Behave, Pablo Picasso by Jonah Winter & Kevin Hawkes

* Sandy's Circus: A Story About Alexander Calder by Tanya Lee Stone & Boris Kulikov

* Action Jackson by Jan Greenberg, Sandra Jordan & Robert Andrew Parker (Jackson Pollock)

* My Name is Georgia by Jeanette Winter (Georgia O'Keefe)

* Through Georgia's Eyes by Rachel Rodriguez & Julie Paschkis (Georgia O'Keefe)

* Me, Frida by Amy Novesky & David Diaz (Frida Kahlo)

* Frida by Jonah Winter & Anna Juan (Frida Kahlo)

* Dali and the Path of Dreams by Anna Obiols & Subi (Salvador Dali)

6th July Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)

Frida Kahlo is Mexico's most celebrated female artist and although she is more revered in the United States than she is here it is still interesting to see how many children's books there are that celebrate her colourful, creative and imaginative world. Even Tomie de Paola has illustrated a book about her life and the most recent book, Me, Frida by Amy Novesky and illustrated by David Diaz certainly entrances the reader.