The Wonder by Faye Hanson

-

Who is Faye Hanson and where did she come from? Her debut picture book, The Wonder is a story of imagination, creativity and recognition. The story is simple, yet meaningful and the illustrations are phenomenal, perfectly bringing the story to life!


The Wonder begins, "This is a boy whose head is filled with wonder. On the way to the bus, he wonders where the birds are flying to." As he makes his way to school, wondering all the way, adults all around him tell him to keep his head out of the clouds, to pay attention and to "wake up, daydreamer!"


At school, teachers tell him, not to be scatterbrained and "No daydreaming today!" But art class is different. At first, the boy finds the blank piece of paper his art teacher has set in front of him daunting. But, when she encourages him to, "Just use your imagination," everything changes for him. Up to this point, the palette has been soft browns with spots of pale yellow and grey. Small splashes of color come when the boy's imagination seeps onto the page. Once he is in art class and given permission to wonder, everything changes.




Readers are treated to FIVE two page spreads that bring the boy's imagination and creativity (and Hanson's) to life. As if these gorgeous, sumptuous illustrations you can get lost in weren't enough, Hanson ends the book on a very sweet note. When the boy is invited to share his creation, his teacher responds, "What an incredible imagination you have!" The penultimate illustration shows the boy's parents admiring his work as well. Teacher recognition! Parent admiration! And, the final illustration shows the boy whose head was filled with wonder grown up and sharing it with everyone as his creation is exhibited in a museum.I know I have told too much of the story here, but I think it is rare to find a picture book that so beautifully, magically presents the struggles that come with and the value of imagination (wonder) combined with magical, unforgettable, sumptuous illustrations that I wanted to make sure you know how spectacular and important The Wonder is! Give The Wonder as a gift to a child and that child will never forget it!
Source: Review Copy

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

Reading Levels: A Quick Guide to Determining if a Book Is Right for Your Reader

-
Image
While I wrote an article titled Reading Levels: How I Assign Reading Levels to Books, How the Publishers Do It and How You Can Help Your Reader Find the Right Book at the Right Time that discusses how reading levels are determined by professionals and amateurs like myself, there is more on this subject to discuss. Determining the reading level of a book from the children's section is never easy, mostly because there are several different standardized methods of determining reading levels. Add to this the fact that knowing their children's reading level is most often the only tool a parent is armed with when exploring the bookstore, library, website, etc, and the job becomes even more difficult. While I think that knowing a child's reading level is a very valuable tool if your child is reading below grade level, I think that it is a secondary consideration when finding books for children reading above, especially well above, grade level because, in most cases, content app
Read more