One day, when Mama was away, Mel decided it was time to learn to fly. She had been in the nest for long enough. She was scared, but that wasn't going to stop her.
Max's Boat Pick:
MEL FELL
By Corey R. Tabor
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (February 2, 2021)
Can you tell me the origin story behind Mel Fell? CT: "I had the idea for Mel Fell at Green Lake Park in Seattle. I was sitting on a bench by the lake, looking up at a tree growing by the water and wondering about all the animals who called the tree home. I thought it would be fun to make a vertical picture book where you flip up and down the tree, seeing all the different animals, as you turn the pages. I knew I needed a character who would give the reader a reason to travel up and down the tree (a good idea for a picture book isn’t worth much if you don’t have a story to go with it) and that’s how I thought up Mel, the bold little bird ready to leap from her nest."
What have been your favorite picture books of 2021? "I absolutely love The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess by Tom Gauld. And On the Day the Horse Got Out by Audrey Helen Weber is just as great as its title."
What do you love reading to your son? "My wife and I have a three-year-old and he loves picture books. When’s My Birthday? by Julie Fogliano and Christian Robinson is a favorite. (I’ll happily read anything by Julie Fogliano and/or Christian Robinson.) We also read a lot of Taro Gomi, one of my all-time favorite picture book makers. Another favorite is I Know a Lot of Things by Ann and Paul Rand which is always fun to read aloud. I’ve learned to appreciate great read-alouds a lot more since having a kid."
What contemporary picture books do you hope will become the classics of the future? "Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis, Small in the City by Sydney Smith, This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen, A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip and Erin Stead, to name just a few of many."
What would be on your list of 100 best picture books of all time? "I’d have a hard time narrowing it down to 100. And it would probably be a different list from one day to the next. But a few books that would always be near the top are The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel, and Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni."
Updated: Dec 15, 2021
When an imaginative young child wakes up before their parents, they know that they’re supposed to stay in bed until the clock says 7:00. But that’s no fun—so what should they do instead?
Max's Boat Pick:
WHEN I WAKE UP
Written by Seth Fishman and illustrated by Jessixa Bagley
Publisher: Greenwillow Books (December 14, 2021)
The different-colored vignettes in When I Wake Up are just brilliant! How did that idea come about?
JB: "When I got the manuscript, the various storylines were broken up as A, B, C, D. I knew right away it needed something that would make it clear there were different versions of the kid’s day happening, so pretty much from the start I envisioned that part of the story broken up into four colors. I really wanted the book to be as visually interesting as possible, so I then paired the color-story concept with different ways I could break up the page into four parts. It was so much fun!"
Do you remember what you loved reading to your son at age three? At age five? "What a sweet question! It was a joy reading him some of my childhood favorites, like all the Beatrix Potter books and Maurice Sendak’s Nutshell Collection. I remember reading him Chicken Soup with Rice but singing it, like Carol King does, and I totally started crying because it was so special to get to share it with him. I feel like I’ve always read Baxter a mix of picture books and chapter books. He really loves it all. I really wanted him to have a tolerance for listening to longer text even at a young age, so I’d read him everything from simple classics like I Am a Bunny by Ole Risom and Richard Scarry to Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House to James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. His most favorite book I’ve read to him is probably El Deafo by Cece Bell. I think I first read him that at four. I’ve read it to him at least seven or eight times."
What have been your favorite picture books that came out in 2021? "After such a hard year of 2020 and so many authors' books getting overshadowed by the challenges of the world, it was nice to still see so many wonderful books come out in 2021. (I feel like I’m still catching up with books from 2020!) Books are one of my ways I heal, and I needed A LOT of healing coming into this year. I think LeUyen Pham’s Outside, Inside was so important to the world as it captured the global pandemic we all went through in such a heartfelt way. I also deeply love Nina: A Story of Nina Simone by Traci N. Todd and Christian Robinson. It is a gorgeous biography about Nina Simone and how she used her music to speak out about equal rights for blacks."
What contemporary picture books do you hope will become the classics of the future? "I think we’ve been in a true golden age of picture books for a while and there are SO many amazing books that I wished were around when I was a kid and that I hope will be around for generations. There is an astounding number of talented writers and illustrators making books right now who are attuned with the form. While my list could be QUITE long, I’ll give some of my top selections that make it into that classic realm for me: The Way Home in the Night by Akiko Miyakoshi, Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall, My Best Friend by Julie Fogliano and Jillian Tamaki, Julian Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love, Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis, The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, The Old Truck by the Pumphrey Brothers. And you know, it’s the ultimate dream for your own books to be classics one day so here’s wishing one of mine would make it there."
"Do you have a favorite sound?" little Yoshio asks. The musician answers, "The most beautiful sound is the sound of ma, of silence." But Yoshio lives in Tokyo, Japan: a giant, noisy, busy city. Will he be able to find the most beautiful sound of all?
Pick by Minh Lê, Drawn Together:
THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Written by Katrina Goldsaito and illustrated by Julia Kuo
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (August 2, 2016)
What inspired The Sound of Silence? KG: "Growing up, I knew Japan only through my father’s stories. He grew up in Tokyo and he only knew the United States through his mother’s stories (she was born in Colorado, but moved back to Tokyo when she was 14, and died when my father was 13). So there is this multi-generational longing in my lineage.
The Sound of Silence is inspired by a story he used to tell about the famous composer Toru Takemitsu, who told my father that his favorite sound was 'silence and the sound of wind through bamboo.'"
What books do you love that explore this longing? "It was only in talking to you, in this format, Ratha, that I realized that the books that speak to my heart are books that explore a third space, a space that crosses cultural and national boundaries. Existing as I do, a mixed heritage woman at the intersection of cultures, the works that speak to my heart are those about immigration, being a refugee, colonization, searching for unfamiliar words, living between worlds.
These are the books that move me to tears, all of which I would say, are the new classics of the future.
The London Jungle Book by Bhajju Shyam
Watercress by Andrea Wang and Jason Chin
The Journey by Francesca Sanna
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
When We Were Alone by David Robertson and Julie Flett
The Most Beautiful Thing by Kao Kalia Yang and Khoa Le
Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say
The Big Bath House by Kyo Maclear and Gracey Zhang"
Are there any other picture books you love that explore mindfulness? "When I first came to writing children’s books, Jon J. Muth’s Zen Shorts was the book I fell in love with. His earlier The Three Questions is also deeply moving and soothing to me.
So much of what I discovered in sharing The Sound of Silence in so many schools, was that silence was something children could access internally, any time.
That in the noisiest schools or the most difficult circumstances, they had this peace and equilibrium inside them.
I love Outside, Inside by LeUyen Pham both because it is a sweet and moving record of this pandemic time, and because it is about the dynamic shifts of our internal and external states. It’s about noticing what is happening all around us while still responding with a sense of connection.
I would also call the hilarious and relatable Leave me Alone! by Vera Brosgol, a wonderful reminder to find space in ourselves and for ourselves. (I am also a knitter with curious, energetic children).
And though this book hasn’t been born yet, I am eagerly awaiting Minh Lê’s A Lotus for You, the Thích Nhất Hạnh biography, illustrated by the stunning Cátia Chien."
Your book is like armchair travel for the picture book set! It's such a beautiful, bustling portrait of Tokyo. You lived nomadically for 3 years with three generations of your family, what books did you take on your travels? "One of our favorite books when we were living in a van in New Zealand is Peter Gossage’s collection, Maui and Other Maori Legends. I never get tired of reading it. We also love Bacon and Jahnke’s The Home of The Winds.
We’ve loved reading the entire No. 1 Car Spotter series by Atinuke and Warwick Johnson Cadwell. It takes place in an unnamed African village. Lots of tears, especially in No. 1 Fights the Factory.
One of the only books we brought to Colombia, where we lived for much of the pandemic, was our beloved signed copy of Raúl the Third's ¡Vamos!"
What did you love reading to your kids at age 3? At age 5? And now that your oldest is 7, and youngest is 3.5? "Our kiddos were both fairly obsessed with rhyming books when they were 2-3, which we would always try to invent complicated rhythms for them, taking the example of Ludacris rapping Llama Llama Red Pajama. With our first kiddo it was Little Blue Truck Leads The Way by Alice Schertle and Jill McElmurry, and with our second, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler on repeat.
We also regularly beatbox to Amy Wilson Sanger’s First Book of Sushi.
We are massive Owen Davey fans and are slowly collecting all of his animal books, Curious about Crocodiles is the current favorite.
We’ve been loving Hetxw’ms Gyetxw‘s The Grizzly Mother and the rest in the series.
Kaya Doi's Chirri and Chirra (every delicious weird book) are mainstays for our youngest, and our birdwatching oldest kiddo means that The Fog by Kyo Maclear and Kenard Pak is back in heavy rotation".
What would be on your list of 100 best picture books of all time? "Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say"