Picture Book Round-Up #12

An eclectic round-up today…with no particular theme. Some diverse titles, some not. Some non-fiction or adjacent, some so weird I don’t even know if they’re fiction. Lots of good illustrations in this round-up–check them out!

Impossible Moon by Breanna J. McDaniel, illustrated by Tonya Engel

The illustrations in this are GORGEOUS GORGEOUS GORGEOUS. Paint the nursery with them GORGEOUS. But the story kind of…doesn’t reach the moon it’s shooting for. It’s part astronomy with the constellations and part about history and part about dreaming and storytelling, and it just doesn’t feel as cohesive as I wanted it to be. But seriously–gorgeous.

Palace of Books by Patricia Polacco

I’m a sucker for Patricia Polacco books, even though I’ve never seen a kid organically pick one up in my life. I love her stories that fictionalize real things–mostly her life–and this one was a sweet tale of being the new kid in town, discovering public libraries, and full of her art and love for birds. An interesting read—but very verbose, like most of her books. Not the most emotionally moving, surprising—and I’m a librarian! I’m the prime audience!

The Unknown Soldier by Jess M. Brailier, illustrated by Jamie Peterson

Hm. I picked up this one thinking it would blow me away in some way, but while the watercolor-esque illustrations of the monuments are good, this book just falls flat. It’s poorly placed, lacks SO MUCH CONTEXT, and even the verbiage around the tomb is vague and weird. Sure, it’s nice that it inspires the kid to thank a soldier he doesn’t know at the airport–but that’s not enough. This book is super unbalanced, and unfulfilling for the reader. Also the people are drawn oddly but also clearly the mom is modeled on Jackie Kennedy?

Parfait, Not Parfait!

…What? That’s my main comment on this book, which I picked off a shelf for no good reason, but…what? It’s like about rhymes? But somehow also Abraham Lincoln is a character? Super super simple, kind of funny if your kid moderately understands rhymes, but…weird. Chill, low-stakes, but weird.

The Corgi and the Queen by Caroline L. Perry, illustrated by Lydia Corry

I am logging this in the PB category instead of PB Bios because my library catalogs it in non-fiction as 941, but not in 92. So..here we are. This came out AFTER the queen died, but I remember seeing it before she passed, so we’ll let it slide. This is an interesting way to look at the life of the Queen–and it does focus on her early years, her love of dogs, her puppy Susan, and how Susan was a comfort to her when she became queen. Did I cry a little bit at the end? Just a single tear! but the real treat, for me, is the nice illustration style, and the family tree of BOTH the Queen AND of Susan, haha.