my four seasons

We’re diving into Dawid Ryski’s gorgeous stylized world of seasons today.  We join a family as they experience the changing of the year — the crunchy white snow of winter, spring’s air redolent of “pink cherry blossoms and apple trees” and summer filled with sunshine, evening barbecues and leisurely trips.  Before we know it, they’re drinking in the last soporific days of summer and trading them in for cool, brisk autumn mornings spent at school.  A book for all year round. 

My Four Seasons was illustrated by Dawid Ryski and will be published by Little Gestalten on June 22.

colette's lost pet

Colette is new to Mile End, and is reluctant to get out and explore her new environs.  An unexpected and playful opportunity to get to know the other neighborhood kids falls into her lap and she runs with it.  Inventive and absolutely charming, Colette's Lost Pet is the stuff childhood is made of.  We should all read this kind of magic to our kids—and ourselves—as often as we can.

Colette’s Lost Pet was written and illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault and published by Random House Books for Young Readers.

safe and sound

"You too, my little one, need us,

and that is why we're here,

and if you stay with us,

you won't have a anything to fear."

Undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of motherhood — keeping our kin safe and sound.  Happy Mother’s Day, all!

Safe & Sound was written by Jean Roussen, illustrated by Loris Lora and published by Flying Eye Books.

reading without walls

Have you all taken the Reading Without Walls challenge yet?  National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Gene Luen Yang encourages us to “find something new and different to read — and let books open up the world around you.”  Here are three ways to read without walls:

1. Read a book about a CHARACTER who doesn’t look like you or live like you.

2. Read a book about a TOPIC you don’t know much about.

3. Read a book in a FORMAT that you don’t normally read for fun. This might be a chapter book, a graphic novel, a book in verse, a picture book, or a hybrid book.

Be sure to download the Reading Without Walls Activity Kit here.  We'd love to see what everyone is reading — don’t forget to tag your photos with #ReadingWithoutWalls!