The Lighthouse Family Series by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Preston McDaniels, 57pp RL 1.5

-



The Lighthouse Family series of books was among the first that I reviewed when I started my blog in August of 2008.  As much as I loved the books, I reviewed them a bit reluctantly because they weren't all in paperback at the time and it seemed as though they might go out of print, even though Cynthia Rylant (Henry and Mudge, Mr Putter and Tabby, Missing May)is the winner of multiple Newbery and Caldecott awards and honors.  However, I was THRILLED to see a copy of The Eagle show up on my cart of books to be shelved the other day and, after a quick check to make sure the series is still all in print and in paperback, I decided to re-post the review.




Cynthia Rylant's experience and skill show in her series The Lighthouse Family Series. Despite being only 57 pages, a good number of which have illustrations, often full page, Rylant creates a detailed world, rich with images and vocabulary that is also gentle and slow paced. While these books all have exciting events in them, the suspense level is low and the quiet care and concern that the parental figures in the story provide is cozy and complete. Preston McDaniels' warm, cloud-like illustrations enrich the writing wonderfully. The Lighthouse Family series and the Catwings Quartet by Ursula le Guin make up two of the most imaginative, well written, beautifully illustrated sets of books written at this reading level (which is high first grade) that I have encountered.

The Lighthouse Family is made up of Pandora, the lighthouse cat, Seabold, a sheep dog who washed ashore, and three orphaned mice children named Whistler, Lila and Baby Tiny and each book centers around a different creature that the family interacts with. These names may be difficult for some readers, as will some of the vocabulary (biscuit, tentacle, practicing, assumed) but it is writing like this that can stretch a reader's ability and imagination. And the writing is beautiful. At the start of the book The Octopus, the family is out in the garden where Whistler is making a bean trellis in the shape of a cat, which "delights Pandora." Baby Tiny is finally big enough to play in the garden, however, worried that a strong gust of wind might blow him away, Seabold ties him to the clothesline. Lila is making beetle houses out of piles of rocks and Pandora gathers herbs, walking through her garden with "an apron of mint."

These books are a delight to read out loud and, with their gentle themes, make for perfect bedtime stories. Despite the reading level I gave the books, I think The Lighthouse Family series might be a struggle for a child who is not reading at a solid second grade reading level.  And, I would hate to think of a young reader missing out on the beauty of the language and plot in these books while struggling with the vocabulary.  I hope you will seek out these books to read to your children or for them to read on their own.




Popular posts from this blog

Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala

-
Image
Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala Review Copy from Abrams Kids I picture-walked Be a Tree! three times before I actually read the words. Felicita Sala's illustrations for Maria Gianferrari's poetic text are mesmerizingly immersive and richly colorful within a palette of earth tones. Throughout the text, Gianferrari, who shares her inspiration for this book in the author's note ( Peter Wohleben's The Hidden Life of Trees ), gently maintains the human connection to trees and the connections (and communications) trees share with each other.  Be a Tree!  begins exuberantly, inviting the reader to "Be a tree! Stand tall. Stretch your branches to the sun. Let your roots curl, coil in the soil to ground you." From your spine/trunk to your skin/bark and your heart/pith, the words carry you inward and then zoom outward and up to the canopy and ultimately, the forest. "You are one of many trees," and our roots "twine with fung
Read more

Under Earth, Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński, 112 pp, RL: ALL AGES

-
Image
Under Earth , Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel  Mizieliński is their fourth book I have reviewed here and their fourth book with the marvelous Big Picture Press , a publisher of oversized, highly illustrated, gorgeous books who believe that books should be "visually intelligent, surprising, and accessible to readers of all ages, abilities and nationalities." BPP definitely achieves this with every book they publish and, if you are a book lover, you will want to seek out all their titles. Under Earth , Under Water will appeal to anyone who likes to look inside things and understand how things work. With Under Earth, Under Water , the Mizielińskis, who have an illustration style that is filled with tiny details and a unique palette, take readers on a detailed journey, from the top of the page to the bottom, over and under land and then sea. The endpapers serve as the introduction and table of contents, with images scattered across the spread, page nu
Read more

The New Friend by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrated by Benjamin Chaud

-
Image
  The New Friend  by Charlotte Zolotow illustrated by Benjamin Chaud Review Copy from Abrams Kid s Charlotte Zolotow (1915 - 2013) was a writer, poet, editor and publisher. She had her own imprint at HarperCollins and the Cooperative Children's Book Center  created an award in her name in 1998 that honors the author of the best picture book published each year. As her obituary in The New York Times notes, Zolotow stood out for plumbing "children's interior lives, often ranging over loneliness, loss, longing and other painful topics that earlier generations of children's books had either sugar coated or ignored outright." While children's books have evolved to address myriad experiences and emotions from increasingly diverse perspectives over the last fifty years, Zolotow's work remains relevant, although diversity in the illustrations would be welcome. Originally published in 1968, I began reading, despite having read (and owning) other books by Zolotow
Read more