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Bookbag: Storybooks for the season of gratitude
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As this glorious fall winds down, we know what comes next and my friend Claudia McGehee has illustrated a book, “Counting Winter” (Eerdmans, 2024; $18.99) that reminds us of the beauty and joys of that cold and snowy season.
The book was written by Nancy White Carlstrom and counts the creatures of an Alaskan winter from “One red fox walks/across the white snow/quietly/stalking winter” up to “Twelve excited children/slip and slide/on melting ice/ happily meeting spring.” Between one and 12 we see ravens, hares, squirrels, eagles, voles, musk ox, and more.
Carlstrom is a master of verb choice. The fox is “stalking” winter, the two ravens are “talking” winter; the eagles are “riding” winter, the voles are “hiding” winter. This is not just a counting book but a book that celebrates the joys of language. And Claudia’s illustrations celebrate the wild. Her four red squirrels have so much personality we want to invent stories about them. One of the eagles is looking directly at us, challenging us (perhaps about being better at being Earth’s partners). And the musk oxen — I love the musk oxen, “sturdily facing winter” who look to me like they might break out dancing. This is a book to enjoy long after one is comfortable counting from one to 12 — for its language and its beautiful art.
My Book and Me
“Counting Winter” may well become some child’s favorite book. And that child could join the children featured in the new book “My Book and Me” (Red Comet Press, 2024; $18.99), written by Newbery Award-winning author Linda Sue Park and illustrated by Caldecott winner Chris Raschka, who all have a favorite book.
The story begins: “This is my book. /My favorite book. /I carry it with me/wherever I go.” As the story goes on, we see books in backpacks, books on the top shelf; and we are told, “I read to the dog. /I read to the goldfish. /I read to the seventeen/worms in a jar.”…”On the porch. In the park. /On a bench. In a tree. / On the bus. On the subway. / My book and me.”
This book is a celebration of the pleasure of reading — together or alone — and of knowing a book so well you can carry it with you wherever you go.
The Perfect Place
“The Perfect Place” (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2024; $18.99) written by Matt de la Pena and illustrated by Paola Escobar, will become the favorite of many, including me.
“On the day Lucas got a perfect score on his robot report, he floated through the halls with his head held high.” But the day takes a bad turn after that. His dad’s truck stalls outside the school and Lucas’s classmates impatiently watch as they boy and his dad push it out of the intersection. The electricity is shut off in his apartment. His mom does not have time to read his robot report. When he looks around his neighborhood, he sees his dad sitting with friends, playing cards under a broken streetlamp. Inside his apartment he uses his flashlight and sees peeling paint, a broken dresser, and an orange juice stain on the rug. Finally, he gets out his robot report and “shined the light on his perfect score.”
That night he wakes and walks into a place with “big bright houses with vast green lawns.” The story tells us he’s in the “place where the perfect people live.” He watched in awe as they drove their beautiful cars/and beamed their beautiful smiles/and spoke their beautiful words.” He climbs onto a stage and “began reciting his robot report so beautifully/everyone stopped in their tracks to listen.” But just then a boy spills orange in the perfect place. The crowd is taken aback. The boy leaves in shame.
The mayor reminds the crowd of all they have done to achieve the perfect place and exhorts them to “begin the long process of healing.” Crews come in to clean up the spill. And the people hug, “assuring one another that all could still be perfect/in their perfect place.” Lucas smells chorizo and hears sounds of his grandfather’s ukulele, and begins to run.
When he opens his eyes back in his room his mom is sitting on his bed, reading the robot report. Then the electricity comes on and he sees his whole family sitting in his room. “Sometimes the world is absolutely perfect,” his mom says, “Or maybe, it’s the right kind of imperfect.” Lucas says.
Matt de la Pena is having fun with this story and the people who find tragedy and disaster in spilled orange juice. But he’s also reminding us that the perfect place is not about the place but about the people who live in it — people who take care of each other whether or not they are “perfect.” A good reminder.
These books will help us all make our place “the right kind of imperfect.” And that is something to be grateful for in this season of gratitude.
Jacqueline Briggs Martin has written over 20 books for children. Her most recent is “Farmer Eva’s Green Garden Life,” illustrated by Christy Hale and published by Readers to Eaters.
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