Bookbag: 3 picture books that give you courage, urge you to get outdoors

Some books just make one want to get outside, look for something beautiful, or some juicy berries, or maybe just listen to the place where we are and say thanks. That’s just what a girl and her grandma do In Caldecott-winner Michaela Goode’s new book, “Berry Song” (Little Brown & Co., 2022; $18.99).

The book begins: “On an island at the edge of a wide wild sea, /Grandma shows me how to live on the land.” They harvest herring eggs attached to hemlock branches, seaweed, and salmon. “And in the forest … we pick berries …. The berries sing to us, glowing like little jewels. /We sing too, so berry — and bear — know we are here.”

“Grandma tells me, /’We speak/to the land …’ ‘And the land speaks to us,’ I say.” There is a powerful and moving interaction between the grandmother, the child and the land. When the forest sings through rain or the smell of cedar, the people sing, too, “so the land knows we are grateful.”

This constant communication and interplay between the characters and the land reminds us that, in fact, the land is a character. This lyrical story could change the way we think about a walk outside or a berry-picking afternoon.

And Michaela Goode’s illustrations, done with watercolor and mixed media, give us a land brimming with color, wildlife, memory and beauty. This is a book to sit with again and again.

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I Am Ruby Bridges

Some books take us out into the world. Some take us into our own history. “I Am Ruby Bridges” (Orchard Books, 2022; $18.99), written by Ruby Bridges and illustrated by Nikkolas Smith (illustrator of The 1619 Project), gives us a 6-year-old child’s view of Ruby Bridges’ courageous action. In an author’s note, Ruby Bridges writes: “..I wanted to unfold a different version of my story. One that was told from my own 6-year-old self …. My goal was to captivate these curious minds while teaching them about a very important moment and time in our history.”

Of course that moment was little Ruby escorted by federal marshals on her first day of attending William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Ruby was happy at her first school, but her parents wanted her to have the additional opportunities that would come from attending William Frantz School. When Ruby arrived at school, she found only her teacher, a white woman named Mrs. Henry. No other kids in her classroom, no other kids in the school.

It was then she realized she was the first — “the first Black kid in this school.”

Ruby tells us, “Now all Black kids can go to any school they like alongside white kids. I, Ruby, being the first, helped to make that possible.”

Extensive back matter includes a glossary, author’s note, illustrator’s note. Smith writes: “May this book be a reminder that even if racism never goes away completely, we must always stand fearless against it in our search for justice and equality.” And we are never to young or to old to do our part.

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Celia Planted a Garden

“Celia Planted a Garden” (Candlewick, 2022; $18.99) was written by Phyllis Root and Gary D. Schmidt, and illustrated by Melissa Sweet. I want to say right here that I am friends with Root and Schmidt, but I would want to share news of this book even if I had never heard of these two authors. It is the story of Celia Thaxter, a woman who loved gardening all her life. Some of Celia’s own journal entries are reprinted on the sides of the pages. In the first of these, she writes, “Ever since I could remember anything, flowers have been like dear friends to me.”

The writers list the flowers young Celia sees on her Maine island — marigolds and scarlet pimpernel — and the birds that fly over — blue-winged swallows, olive-brown thrushes and robins, yellow warblers nuthatches and scarlet tanagers. Such wonderful color descriptions of the birds suggest that Celia sees them as flying companions to flowers.

When her family moved to another island, Celia planted a new, bigger garden. When she married Levi Thaxter, who did not love the sea, the couple moved to the mainland. But Celia missed her island gardens. She painted what she loved and remembered. She wrote about her gardens. And eventually she and Levi agreed that she would move back to Appledore Island.

“She planted pansies, sweet peas and hollyhocks, dark larkspurs and foxgloves, and tall sunflowers and red dahlias and nasturtiums and golden California poppies — and yellow marigolds.

A timeline at the back of the book tells us that Celia Thaxter’s garden was restored by the Shoals Marine Laboratory in 1977. This beautiful book will make us all want to get out and plant some flowers — and say thanks to the rich earth where they grow.

Jacqueline Briggs Martin of Mount Vernon writes books for children.