Picture Book Round-Up #9

Quickie round up of some 2022 picture books I missed because of delayed shippings, including some flavorful Jamaican stories, a bilingual story, an a lovely little Witch Frog Soup Story.

Granny’s Kitchen by Sade Smith, Illustrated by Ken Daley

Shelly-Anne lives in Jamaica with her grandmother, a renown gardener and cook. When Shelly-Anne decides to learn to cook from her grandmother, she learns the recipes aren’t always the easiest to master, but trying again is the best thing to do. The illustration style is full page and BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT, which is perfect for the context, and I love how flavorful the book feels, and the recipes included at the back. It’s a longer book, prose wise, but lovely.

Words to Make a Friend: A Story in Japanese and English by Donna Jo Napoli and Naoko Stoop

What a lovely little picture book. It’s not wordless, but the only words are in dialogue bubbles and one word at a time, English and Japanese, together. This would be great for looking at through an SEL lens, and perfect for winter. The girls build a snowman Godzilla, which is adorable, a fold origami, and drink warm drinks. The illustrations are full-page, lovely, delicate, and immersive. I felt so cold reading this! Obviously, a great way to show how languages are different, but how laughter is the same, etc.

A Monster is Eating This Book by Karen Kilpatrick, illustrated by German Blanco

A cute little book–very reminiscent of the Sesame Street book the title is calling back to. It’s simple, cartoonish bright, not full-page illustrations, and all about a mysterious monster who is eating the words of the book, so the story is all about speeding up, trying to circumnavigate the monster’s snacks, and then of course we discover who the monster is! I might use this in story time for a pre-k crowd.

Moon Light by Stephen Savage

A cute one-hued book about moonlight, poetically told in its many forms around the world, but otherwise, this was kind of a forgettable book. A great goodnight book, sure, but not much more to glom onto.

A Spoonful of Frogs by Casey Lyall, illustrated Vera Brosgol

What a fun book! Brosgol’s illustration style fits so perfectly with this tale of a witch sharing her recipe for frog soup–except getting the frogs into the soup proves to be an adventure in and of itself. I really enjoyed this. I think it might be fun to do for storytime if I gave kids little frog puppets (on popsicle sticks) and had them “bounce” while the witch chased them.