24th October Monica Brown

Monica Brown writes fantastic picture book biographies of people with Latino heritage. I have four of them in my library and use them when we do a biography unit with Year 2 students. They give white Anglo children an insight into people from cultures they may know little about and they expose them to the Spanish language as well.

I often wondered why someone with a surname like "Brown" seemed so knowledgable about South America so I went searching. Her website enlightened me:

Monica's books are inspired by her Peruvian-American heritage and desire to share Latino/a stories with children. "I write from a place of deep passion, joy, and commitment to producing the highest possible quality of literature for children. In my biographies, the lives of my subjects are so interesting and transformational that I am simply giving them voice for a young audience. I don't think it is ever too early to introduce children to the concepts of magical realism, social justice, and dreaming big!" 

It was also interesting to learn that Monica is a professor of English at Northern Arizona University, specialising in Latino Literature and Multicultural Literature. She also has written picture books that are not biographies. A particular favourite of mine is about a non-conformist girl called Marisol McDonald. She really makes me smile. Marisol is a Peruvian-Scottish-American girl who just doesn't match! I wonder how autobiographical the story is?  Below are her two books about Marisol and two of her biographies, a stunningly beautiful one about poet Pablo Neruda and her newest about Pablo Picasso.

Monica's website will show you all her books, give you resources for teaching, film clips, book trailers and a very quick way to get to know her work. I'm not sure when Monica was born. I have taken the date 24/10 from Eric at Happy Birthday Author.

7th June Butterfly Day

In the UK today is designated Butterfly Education and Awareness Day, a day to make people aware of the role of butterflies in pollination and what they can do to ensure there are butterfly habitats close to them. Butterflies are certainly fascinating creatures because of their beauty and delicacy.

Many children's books focus on butterflies, but the ones here, I have included because of their illustrations and/or stories rather than their factual information. They will certainly cover a wide range of uses.

1. Butterfly by Petr Horacek.
2. A Butterfly is Patient  by Dianna Hutts Acton and Sylvia Long.
3. Caterpillar Butterfly by Vivian French and Charlotte Voake.
4.  Caterpillar and Butterfly by Ambelin Kwaymullina.
5.  Ten Little Caterpillars by Bill Martin Jnr and Lois Ehlert.
6.  I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe and Ed Young.
7. Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly by Alan Madison and Kevin Hawkes.
8.  Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian by Margarita Engle and Julie Paschkis

For more butterfly titles including expository texts see Pinterest here.

30th August Julie Paschkis (1957)

I was so happy to find out that it was Julie Paschkis's birthday as she is up there in my top ten favourite illustrators and she wasn't on my birthday calendar. With my Year 2 Book Club we have been reading picture book biographies and four of the books have illustrations by Julie Paschkis. Of course she illustrates other genres as well but these four books are wonderful examples of her art. On her website you can see her other talents such as papercuts, fabric and paintings. Hopefully, like me you will be amazed.

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)

14th April Salley Mavor (1955)

It is American illustrator Salley Mavor's birthday. I wrote about her last year on Dec 13th when it was Ann Turner's birthday because Salley had illustrated one of her books. At the time Salley had just released her most recent book A Pocketful of Posies and I couldn't wait to see it. Well now I have and the appliqued illustrations or fabric relief sculptures as she calls them are divine. They look so tactile and if only they were ... the originals must be so special. I would love to go to an exhibition of her work, like we have here for Jeannie Baker's work when she releases a new book. I need another trip to the US. I want to see original Salley Mavor's, Anna Grossnickle Hines' quilts from her new book Peaceful Pieces and some Julie Paschkis original art. Dream on, but it certainly would make a good long service leave adventure. Guess what I have just looked at Salley's website and there are exhibitions!