Search results for ""Tilbury House,U.S.""

From the award-winning team behind Magnificent Homespun Brown, Samara Cole Doyon and Coretta Scott King Award Honoree Kaylani Juanita, comes a song of gratitude for those who see the world in a different way

Read more less

From the author-illustrator of The Eye of the Whale (Tilbury House, 2013), this nonfiction picture book tells the story of Lawrence Anthony and the deep bond he forged with the matriarch of the herd he saved at his animal reserve in South Africa. When Lawrence died, the matriarch led all the elephants from remote parts of the reserve in a procession to his home, where they gathered to mourn him. They returned on the same day at the same time for the next two years -- because elephants remember. This moving story of human-elephant mutual love and respect will inspire readers of all ages.

Read more less

Big lies are told by governments, politicians, and corporations to avoid responsibility, cast blame on the innocent, win elections, disguise intent, create chaos, and gain power and wealth. Big lies are as old as civilization. They corrupt public understanding and discourse, turn science upside down, and reinvent history. They prevent humanity from addressing critical challenges. They perpetuate injustices. They destabilize the world. The modern age has provided ever-more-effective ways of spreading lies, but it has also given us the scientific method, which is the most effective tool for finding what is true. In the book’s final chapter, Kurlansky reveals ways to deconstruct an allegation. A scientific theory has to be testable, and so does an allegation. BIG LIES soars across history: alighting on the “noble lies” of Socrates and Plato; Nero blaming Christians for the burning of Rome; the great injustices of the Middle Ages; the big lies of Stalin and Hitler and their terrible consequences; the reckless lies of contemporary demagogues, which are amplified through social media; lies against women and Jews are two examples in the long history of “othering” the vulnerable for personal gain; up to the equal-opportunity spotlight in America. “Belief is a choice,” Kurlansky writes, “and honesty begins in each of us. A lack of caring what is true or false is the undoing of democracy. The alternative to truth is a corrupt state in which the loudest voices and most seductive lies confer power and wealth on grifters and oligarchs. We cannot achieve a healthy planet for all the world’s people if we do not keep asking what is true.”

Read more less

Alya and Atik are stars. Their job is to twinkle in the night sky over Earth and for billions of years they do it well. Plants stretch towards them. Animals look up at them. And, eventually, humans gaze up at them and marvel. But then humans invent powerplants, factories and cars, and smog pours into Earth’s atmosphere. It becomes harder and harder for Alya and Atik to do their jobs until, finally, the stars yell at Earth and Earth feels sick and begins to shake and things look pretty dire. The clueless king’s response is to command Earth to stop shaking. But a little girl named Axiom tells the king to hush then tells humans what they must do to make the Earth feel better. When the Earth Shook provides a mythical framing for kids to understand that it will be their job to help save the Earth. Bravo, Axiom! Keep using that huge megaphone until the earth no longer shakes! Axiom’s list of instructions to humans; some well-known and others new but critically important appears in the back of the book.

Read more less

Smoke speaks in mesmerising riddles: “I lack a mouth, but I can speak… I lack hands, but I can push out unwanted guests… I’m gentler than a feather, but I can cause harm…” This rhythmically powerful narration is complemented by illustrations in which swirling smoke was captured on art paper held over smoky candle flames, and the dancing smoke textures were then deepened and elaborated with watercolours and Photoshop finishes. With this unique method, Mercè López “let the smoke decide how the idea I had in mind would dance with it, giving freedom to the images”. The resulting illustrations are astounding, and they resonate with the otherworldly text.

Read more less

Edward Hopper’s monster lurks outside the nighthawks’ diner. James Whistler’s monster rocks in her chair. Monsters invade masterpieces by Dorthea Tanning, Paul Cezanne, M.C. Escher, Jean Michel Basquiat, Giuseppe Archimboldo, Rene Magritte, Henri Rousseau, Franz Kline, Frida Kahlo, Bob Thompson, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Thomas Hart Benton and Helen Frankenthaler. The monster emerging from Claude Monet’s waterlilies is unforgettable. Our guide for this romp through re-imagined masterpieces is an engaging hamster. Thumbnail biographies of the artists identify their iconic works.

Read more less

So begins this lyrical tribute to the bugs, bees, and birds that make the garden such a busy place. With each turned page, more visitors appear, and all the while the “surprise”—a chrysalis—changes unnoticed until, on the last page, a butterfly emerges and flies away across the garden’s well-tended borders. Back-of-book notes about the natural histories of the garden’s denizens complete this lovely and lively portrait of backyard nature, which is also a gentle meditation on the rewards of paying attention. A chipmunk hides on every page to divert and engage young readers. Fountas & Pinnell Level O

Read more less

When a downcast Sergio gets home from a bad day at school, his wise mother listens sympathetically to his tale of woe and then suggests an experiment. Placing a bowl of marbles next to Grandfather’s old balance scale, she asks him to go back to the beginning of his day and remember each good and bad thing that happened. For each bad thing, he places a marble on the right-hand pan of the scale; for each good thing he places a marble on the left-hand pan. Sergio is amazed to discover that even on a day that felt awful, the good outweighed the bad.

Read more less

While Joey’s mother explains the context of numbers in vivid ways, Joey’s imagination transforms their ordinary car ride into a magical odyssey through a land of make-believe.

Read more less

Buddy Benches were introduced in Germany in 2014. When a child sits on the bench, it signals to other children to ask him or her to play. Patty Brozo’s children bring a playground to raucous life while Mike Deas’s illustrations invest their games with images of planes, dragons and elephants. The children match their imaginations with empathy, identifying and swooping up the lonely.

Read more less

Ms. Snowden and her class practice sending kind thoughts to the people they love, and they launch a class Kindness Project. There is only one problem: Henry can’t think of one kind thing he has done. Declaring that kindness is stupid, he stomps to the classroom door on the verge of tears, but his classmates save the day by reminding him of the kind things he has done for each of them.

Read more less

Ms. Snowden and her class practice sending kind thoughts to the people they love, and they launch a class Kindness Project. There is only one problem: Henry can’t think of one kind thing he has done. Declaring that kindness is stupid, he stomps to the classroom door on the verge of tears, but his classmates save the day by reminding him of the kind things he has done for each of them.

Read more less

Zombies, monsters, and dragons stalk this book’s pages. Cries of despair echo through them. Prisons and dungeons lie in wait. Is this a nightmare? Is it an apocalypse? Well, yes—because it’s the day before our narrator’s first day of school, and all entreaties to his mother are falling on deaf ears. Why should he go to school when he already knows two letters, “N” and “O,” and he knows they spell NO!, which is exactly the word this occasion demands? Why aren’t these magic letters working anymore? Lexile Level 490; F&P Level L

Read more less

More than two centuries before Einstein, using a crude telescope and a mechanical timepiece, Danish astronomer Ole Romer measured the speed of light with astounding accuracy. How was he able to do this when most scientists didn’t even believe that light traveled? Like many paradigm-shattering discoveries, Romer’s was accidental. Night after night he was timing the disappearance and reappearance of Jupiter’s moon Io behind the huge, distant planet. Eventually he realized that the discrepancies in his measurements could have only one explanation: Light had a speed, and it took longer to reach Earth when Earth was farther from Jupiter. All he needed then to calculate light’s speed was some fancy geometry.

Read more less

Through color, shape,size, and other adaptations, city fish and country fish have evolved to survive in their particular habitats.In City Fish, Country Fish, Mary Cerullo uses this powerful analogy and Jeffrey Rotman’s vibrant underwater photos to captivate young readers with the wild variety of ocean life. The second edition of this popular book includes new information about the effects of climate change on fish and their habitats and about great white sharks, who are among the few species who roam back and forth between cold and tropical waters. Fountas & Pinnell Level T

Read more less

When Laura—a.k.a. Masterpiece Robot—heads into the backyard with her little sister Molly—a.k.a. Sidekick—her active imagination places them instead on patrol around the perimeter of a dystopian city, guarding against super villains. Then older sister Amber—a.k.a. Valerie Knick-Knack—throws handfuls of fallen leaves at them, unknowingly initiating a battle for the ages. The transitions back and forth from suburbia to dystopia in this story within a story are deftly rendered with contrasting palettes. The rollicking interactions of the sibling heroes and villains make Masterpiece Robot pure fun to read. Lexile Level 900 Fountas and Pinnell Level V

Read more less

At breakfast she learns she has been given a fresh start, and she decides to celebrate by doing things differently for the rest of the day. Melena chooses not to fight with her brother, and shares the money she has rather than demanding to be repaid by a less fortunate friend. This story introduces children to the concept of jubilee, which stresses the important principles of debt relief, generosity, and forgiveness. Aaron Boyd's mixed-media illustrations are as bright and vivid as a sun-washed day. Fountas & Pinnell Level M

Read more less

What followed was a rare and remarkable demonstration of animal behavior. This celebrated story, beautifully depicted in Jennifer O’Connell’s mesmerizing paintings, will make you wonder about animal emotions and the unique connections we can have with animals—even whales. Fountas & Pinnell Level M

Read more less

The villagers had tried expanding the school, but the money ran out before the project was finished. No money meant no materials, and that meant no more room for the students. Then one person got a wonderful, crazy idea: Why not use soda bottles, which were readily available, to form the cores of the walls? Sometimes thinking outside the box—or inside the bottle—leads to the perfect solution. Fountas & Pinnell Level Q

Read more less

When he runs off to the market instead of sticking around for a reading lesson, he encounters a much-admired older boy secretly reading at a book stall, and then Amadi becomes intrigued by a storybook with pictures of a strange white creature that has a carrot for a nose. Unable to shake his questions about the snowman, Amadi discovers the vast world reading can open up—especially for an Igbo boy of Nigeria.

Read more less

This lively board book unfolds accordian-style in a floor-standing arc, encouraging babies to lift their head while they are lying on their tummy, while toddlers will love the photos of diverse babies.

Read more less

That night, Kanzi wraps herself in the beautiful Arabic quilt her teita (grandma) in Cairo gave her and writes a poem in Arabic about the quilt. Next day her teacher sees the poem and gets the entire class excited about creating a “quilt” (a paper collage) of student names in Arabic. In the end, Kanzi’s most treasured reminder of her old home provides a pathway for acceptance in her new one. This authentic story with beautiful illustrations includes a glossary of Arabic words and a presentation of Arabic letters with their phonetic English equivalents.

Read more less

A search for one’s place in the world provides the storyline: The narrator, a drum, feels like an outcast because he alone—unlike his family and friends—cannot play a melody. Like all kids growing up, he must find out where he fits. The narrator, a drum, wanders the streets of Coelho’s vividly realised city of musical instruments—where even the birds sprout miniature trumpets from their mouths—feeling like an outcast because he alone, among all his family and neighbours, can’t play a melody. He adores his violin brother, cello father and piano mother but feels he has nothing to offer to their music. "My father is Cello, and oh, what a fellow. The tone of his laugh is low, smooth and mellow. But me? My name’s Drum. BOOM-CLACK, RAT-A-TAT. My head is a snare and I wear a hi-hat. My stomach’s a bass drum, my arms are drumsticks and my only song is CLICK-CLACK, CLACK-CLICK". But one day a trio of saxophones ask him to join their band and what they tell him gives him an epiphany "So that’s what a drum does! I now understand. I don’t carry a tune; I carry a band". But he must still prove it to himself, and that takes all his courage. Loubriel’s story of bravery and identity, infused with Latin rhythms and joy, provides a fine vehicle for Coelho’s vibrant technique and palette. Coelho’s city of music bursts with exuberance. In backmatter, Loubriel, a lifelong drummer, explains how the drum kit lays a song’s foundation. The bass drum is the heartbeat; the hi hat is the dynamic metronome; the snare drum is the drum kit’s singer.

Read more less

Henry is a lot of fun when he's not storming through the house, so Emma decides to teach him how to be still. By showing him how to sit, bow, and breathe, Emma is able to calm the hurricane within Henry. A perfect introduction to meditation for young readers, presented in a captivating story. The illustrations bring the story to life with delightful whimsy. Includes a back-of-book presentation of simple mindfulness techniques that can be shared at home and in the classroom. In Planting Seeds, Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teaches that by sitting still and meditating, the mind can become clear. Like Hanh's apple juice story, when a glass of lemonade is stirred, the pulp swirls around. When it sits quietly, the pulp settles and the liquid becomes clear. In this way, a glass of lemonade is a metaphor for how meditation and mindfulness work. That is why this book is called The Lemonade Hurricane. Practicing mindfulness and meditation helps us tame the hurricane within. Fountas & Pinnell Level L

Read more less

Sometimes nature is the world's greatest innovator

Read more less

Her name is Purple, and she is the only dash of color in William’s gray yard. She asks his name, and when he answers “Um, well…,” she dubs him Umwell the Gray, then leads him on an exploration of a world that is always new and beautiful to eyes that can see. This story is a celebration of the ever-present newness and change around and within us. Because newness is more readily discernible in nature than in human lives, the story relies on Purple’s guidance through the natural world to build a bridge to William’s inner world. Umwell the Gray can’t see what Purple sees in a falling leaf, a cloud, a swirling stream, a tidepool. She is demanding, challenging, frustrating, but compelling. Though he doesn’t understand her, he wants to be around her. Bit by bit the world comes to life for him, and as it does, Rebecca Evans’s palette evolves from gray to multihued. At last Umwell becomes William, but a different William than he was before. He is a new boy, looking out upon a new world.

Read more less

An enchanting picture book about the joyful, mysterious, awe-inspiring messages of light, whether emanating from a firefly or the sun, fireworks or the Big Bang, boats at sea or a bolt of lightning, a movie projector or a rainbow. Luciana Navarro Powell’s illustrations follow a group of kids through a magical day and evening in a seacoast town, while Christine Layton’s lyrical text explores the natural history of light. Backmatter provides further adventures in the science of light.

Read more less

...and the narrator could be any child anywhere, gazing out over the waters, thinking about all the places she could go and imagining other little blue houses on other shores, with other children gazing back. What child doesn’t love walking in the surf, feeling the water steal the sand from beneath her toes as a wave retreats? Who doesn’t love the salty smell of the air and the sight of ships far out on the horizon? What happens in the oceans is critically important to life on Earth. That’s why the girl in her little blue house wants to believe that the children gazing back from far over the horizon love the oceans as she does and wants to keep them safe, alive and beautiful.

Read more less

More than 99 percent of all life forms have gone extinct during the 3.6-billion-year history of life on Earth. Other organisms have changed dramatically, but not our extreme survivors. Evolution may have altered their physiology and behavior, but their body plans have stood the test of time. How have these living links with Earth’s prehistoric past survived? The search for answers is leading scientists to new discoveries about the past—and future—of life on Earth. The survival secrets of some of these ancient creatures could lead to new medicines and treatments for disease. Written in a lively, entertaining voice, Extreme Survivors provides detailed life histories and strange “survival secrets” of ten ancient animals and explains evolution and natural selection. Extensive back matter includes glossary, additional facts and geographic range for each organism and a geologic timeline of Earth. F&P Level V

Read more less

In this probing, plain-spoken book, based on a true story, Margy Burns Knight and Anne Sibley O'Brien, author and illustrator of the acclaimed Talking Walls, invite young readers to explore the human implications of intolerance. Anecdotes relating the experiences of other refugees and their contributions to American culture play counterpoint to Nary's tale, all enlivened by O'Brien's full-color pastels. A compendium at the end of the book offers more detailed information about Pol, Pot, Ellis Island, and other topics in this text. Who Belongs Here? will lead to discussions about The effects of war on children and familiesRefugees and relocation processes in the U.S.Cambodian cultureU.S. History and attitudes towards immigrationBullying and intoleranceConflict-resolution skills Lexile Level 1040 Fountas and Pinnell Level W

Read more less

It’s a powerful concept, exploring the routines and rituals of a child’s first year in diverse cultures and traditions and introducing readers to babies from tiny Luke, who is spending his first days of life in an incubator, to Kasa, who is being introduced to the sunrise by her grandmother. Nontraditional families—biracial, adoptive, and single-parent—are included. The ways in which babies are welcomed into the world are wonderfully varied yet strikingly kindred. Welcoming Babies is equally appropriate as a gift to new parents or grandparents and a read-aloud for babies. Lexile Level 990; F&P Level O

Read more less

Acadia Greene has done science in summer, autumn, and winter. In the fourth and final book of this series, she carries her search for answers into the spring, investigating meteors and mass extinctions; germination and pollinators; parasites, ticks, and Lyme disease; and pesticides and malaria. Finally, looking back through her notebooks, she puts together her scientific inquiries from all four seasons into a holistic understanding of the natural world. Acadia is curious, determined, bold, and bright—a wonderful STEAM ambassador! Lexile 750

Read more less

A melting snowman leads her—of course!—to explore climate change and how to reduce her carbon footprint. The helium balloons at her eleventh birthday party beg questions—naturally!—of molecular structure, weights of gases,and neutral buoyancy. An afternoon making paper airplanes brings discoveries in aerodynamics. Tracks in the snow raise questions of how animals survive the winter. And an afternoon of sledding slides right into an investigation of momentum, acceleration, and friction. Acadia doesn’t mean to do science—it just happens. She’s curious, determined, bold, and bright—a wonderful STEAM ambassador! The Acadia Files is a fun introduction to the wonders of science,using real-world scenarios to make scientific inquiry relatable and understandable. Parents and educators can use The Acadia Files to let kids discover for themselves what it’s like to be curious about the world and to satisfy that curiosity with scientific thinking.

Read more less

Acadia Greene wants answers. What happened to the frogs she used to see at her favorite local pond? Why do leaves change color in the fall, and why don’t evergreen needles do the same? What is the water cycle, and what is transpiration? How do time zones work, and why does the sun set at different times in different places within a single zone? How do germs infect us? Acadia doesn’t mean to do science, but she has questions and her parents refuse to simply give her the answers. “Conduct an experiment,” they tell her. “Use the scientific method.” So Acadia makes hypotheses, designs experiments, analyzes data, and draws conclusions. Acadia does science. The author, Katie Coppens writes a recurring column for NSTA's middle school magazine Science Scope on science and literacy called "The Integrated Classroom."

Read more less

Kids are under a lot of pressure to fit in. Sometimes bowing to this pressure forces them to betray their own ideas of what is right and wrong. Alexandra and Jenny have been best friends for a long time, but when Alexandra is dazzled by a glamorous new girl at school, she’s willing to do almost anything to be the cool girl’s friend, including first shunning Jenny and then revealing Jenny’s biggest, most important secret. Seeing the hurt she has caused and realizing how bad it feels to lose her best friend, Alexandra then seeks a way to regain the relationship that means far more to her than being invited to sit with the popular girls. Ultimately, she and Jenny write down the rules that will cement their friendship forever. OUR FRIENDSHIP RULES is both a lyrical story of forgiveness and a guidebook on relationships. Author Peggy Moss employs her training as a mediator and communication expert to provide a simple, sweet but instructive tale of how to get along. The evocative collage-paintings of Alissa Imre Geis further illustrate the many layers of personality. Her Alexandra will amaze you with her artistic eye, and her Jenny will make you smile with her practical sensibility as you see these best friends reconnect with the help of their friendship rules. Fountas & Pinnell Level O

Read more less

Forgive and be forgiven. It sounds so appealing—why doesn’t it happen every day? Finding herself forgiven on a rain-scrubbed morning after a difficult day, Melena seizes her fresh start and shares the song in her heart with her family and friends. It’s a day of new beginnings. It’s Melena’s jubilee. This story introduces children to the concept of jubilee, which stresses the important principles of debt relief, generosity and forgiveness. Aaron Boyd’s mixed-media illustrations are as bright and vivid as a sun-washed day.

Read more less

North America’s flying squirrels and Australia’s sugar gliders notwithstanding, the vast majority of them live in rainforests. Illustrated with arresting photographs, Catching Air takes us around the world to meet these animals, learn why so many gliders live in Southeast Asia, and find out why this gravity-defying ability has evolved in Draco lizards, snakes, and frogs as well as mammals. Why do gliders stop short of flying, how did bats make that final leap, and how did Homo sapiens bypass evolution to glide via wingsuits and hang gliders—or is that evolution in another guise?

Read more less

Is it possible we’ve misunderstood crying all along? That’s the discovery one big sister sets out to share with her little brother as they walk to school and get caught in a storm. Along the way they explore sadness, loneliness, fear, frustration, anger and more, through gentle metaphor. Their journey examines our tears revealing how they begin, why they happen and what to do with them. Throughout the book, the message received is that we are safe in our emotional experiences and that feelings, like the weather, come and go. This is an empowering story about navigating and understanding our feelings as a healthy, important and very natural part of our lives. Have you ever noticed you feel differently after you cry? That’s because Crying is like the Rain.

Read more less

Before we eat, many people work very hard—planting grain, catching fish, tending farm animals, and filling crates of vegetables. With vibrant illustrations by Caldecott Medalist Mary Azarian, this book reminds us what must happen before food gets to our tables to nourish our bodies and spirits. This expanded edition of Before We Eat includes back-of-book features about school gardens and the national farm-to-school movement. Fountas & Pinnell Level L

Read more less

Emma doesn’t really like hurricanes. After a busy day of school and activities, Emma likes to sit still and rest. Her little brother, Henry, does everything but. She calls him The Lemonade Hurricane. Henry is a lot of fun when he’s not storming through the house so Emma decides to teach him how to be still. By showing him how to sit, bow and breathe, Emma is able to calm the hurricane within Henry. The illustrations bring the story to life with delightful whimsy. When a glass of lemonade is stirred, the pulp swirls around. When it sits quietly, the pulp settles and the liquid becomes clear. In this way, a glass of lemonade is a metaphor for how meditation and mindfulness work. That is why this book is called The Lemonade Hurricane and practicing mindfulness and meditation helps us tame the hurricane within. Includes a back-of-book presentation of simple mindfulness techniques that can be shared at home and in the classroom.

Read more less

Mr Book With No Story wants his pages uncluttered by pictures and plot lines but images, questions and ideas keep invading the unruly pages, ignoring his efforts to chase them away. It turns out that Mr Book’s fear is having nothing to say but in this fun tribute to the creative process, he needn’t have worried.

Read more less

Michael Leannah wrote Most People as an antidote to the scary words and images children hear and see every day. Jennifer Morris’s emotive, diverting characters provide the perfect complement to Leannah’s words, leading us through the crowded streets of an urban day in the company of two pairs of siblings (one of colour). We see what they see: the hulking dude with tattoos and chains assisting an elderly lady onto the bus; the Goth teenager with piercings and purple Mohawk returning a lost wallet to its owner; and the myriad interactions of daily existence, most of them well intended. Most People is a courageous, constructive response to the dystopian world of the news media.

Read more less

Michael Leannah wrote Most People as an antidote to the scary words and images kids hear and see every day. Jennifer Morris’s emotive, diverting characters provide the perfect complement to Leannah’s words, leading us through the crowded streets of an urban day in the company of two pairs of siblings (one of color). We see what they see: the hulking dude with tattoos and chains assisting an elderly lady onto the bus; the Goth teenager with piercings and purple Mohawk returning a lost wallet to its owner; and the myriad interactions of daily existence, most of them well intended. Most People is a courageous, constructive response to the dystopian world of the news media. Fountas & Pinnell Level M

Read more less

Milk doesn’t just appear in the refrigerator, nor do apples grow in the fruit bowl. Before we eat, many people work very hard—planting grain, catching fish, tending animals, filling crates and stocking shelves.

Read more less

Alexander can’t decide on a Halloween costume, so he winds up as a pumpkin; he can’t decide what to wear to school, so he misses the bus; he can’t decide what school lunch to eat, so he winds up with tuna casserole. Alexander’s breakthrough comes on his birthday, when he asks for a sundae with everything but then realizes that chocolate swirl is all he wants. After that, Alexander finds his own decision-making style: not as deliberate as his mother or as quick to decide as his father, but somewhere in between. And when he tells his mom he wants a baby brother, he learns that sometimes “you get what you get, and that can be OK too.”

Read more less

Inspired by Tilbury House’s award-winning, Kirkus-starred book The Secret Pool (2013). A lyrical narrative voice (the voice of the Milky Way galaxy itself) is augmented by sidebars filled with amazing facts and insights about our galaxy, and by extension, our universe. Features Mike Taylor’s extraordinary night sky photography and breathtaking NASA images of the births and deaths of stars and galaxies. Combines a read-aloud bedtime story with accessible, scientifically accurate sidebar features. The perfect book for a budding stargazer or astronomer. The Tilbury House Nature Book series brings the natural world to life for young readers. Each book aims for the highest standards of scientific accuracy and storytelling magic.

Read more less

Joshua and his grandfather love being together. More than anything else they love fishing. But Grandpa gets ill and is in the hospital a long time. When he gets out, he and Joshua share one more fishing adventure, and Grandpa promises Joshua that he will always be near. “Think of it this way,” Grandpa says. “Today, you and I are like two fish swimming together in this lake. When I die, things will be different. I won’t be a fish anymore, but I’ll become something even better. My love will be like the water in the lake. You might think I’m not with you, but we’ll be closer than ever because you’ll be surrounded by my love.” Long after Grandpa dies, Joshua comes to understand that Grandpa kept his promise—and that love and its memory survive death. When grown-up Joshua goes fishing with his daughter, he teaches her what Grandpa taught him: “She knows we never have to feel alone or afraid because we are surrounded by a love that lasts forever.”

Read more less

With those opening lines, we’ve already encountered similes using like, similes using as and metaphors. Personifications, idioms, hyperboles, allusions and much more lie ahead. But this isn’t a writing guide, it’s a picture book story about a little monster who oozes personality. The first pages leave us guessing but children will soon work out, to their delight, that Moofy’s a cat. And what else could this furball of mischief be? Fun is the order of the day but an unobtrusive banner on each page lets interested readers know which figure of speech is being featured. This is a book a young reader and future writer can grow with.

Read more less