PBT Redux #21 Waiting for Spring & Easter

Today I post again about a picture book that is perfect for children just before spring and during the season of Lent, the liturgical season before Easter. 

Picture Book: Waiting for Wings

Author & Illustrator: Lois Ehlert

Summary: In clever verse, bold shapes, and interesting paper cuts, Lois Ehlert depicts the entire life cycle of 4 different kinds of butterflies. Beginning as tiny eggs hidden among the leaves of plants, these 4 creatures change form into caterpillars, build their cocoons, and become butterflies ready to lay eggs. This book may look simple (and sideways) from the cover, but the amount of information you'll find here is amazing! 

Hanna’s Comments: This picture book offers scientific concepts in an appealing context. Find in the back identifying tips for the 4 butterflies and the many flowers that star in this book, general butterfly information, and instructions on planting a butterfly garden. The butterfly has often been used as a metaphor for spiritual transformation. Even young children can begin to see the connections between changes over time in humans and how butterflies evolve. Because they are growing so rapidly and learning new skills, the idea of transformation is not foreign to young children. Also, the symbol of the cocoon and transformation to new life as a butterfly are natural metaphors for Lent (the 40 days before Easter). This book can help you explain to even the youngest children the symbolic darkness and ritual sacrifices of the Lenten season.

Publisher & Date of Publication: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 2001

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 4 and up, Pre and up

Formats other than Book: Audio, In the video collection: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type and More Amusing Animal Tales.

Scripture Connections: In general, this book connects to any Bible character for which there is great transformation such as Joseph (in Genesis), disciples such as Matthew (in the Gospels), the woman at the well (in John), Saul/Paul (in Acts), and Jesus (in the Easter story). The way in which a caterpillar cocoons and then becomes a butterfly also connects metaphorically to the seasons of Lent and Easter.

Idea(s) for Application: Use the book above and the author’s partner book about a rainbow of plants [here] to celebrate God’s creative diversity by connecting the butterflies and plants to various people in your faith community. With permission, talk about transformations that person has experienced. Then have the children color or draw that butterfly/plant and present their depiction to the person.

PBT Redux #16 Squirrel's New Year's Resolution

Picture Book: Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution

Author: Pat Miller

Illustrator: Kathi Ember

Summary: Squirrel hears about making a New Year’s Resolution on the radio, but she doesn’t know what that means so she asks Bear. Bear explains that a resolution is “a promise you make to yourself to be better or to help others. When we begin a new year, we make a fresh start.” Squirrel is intrigued. As she visits with her friends throughout the morning, she hears of their resolutions and helps them in their endeavors. When her friends are gathered at the diner for lunch, Squirrel is frustrated because all her friends have made New Year’s resolutions, but she has not. After realizing how helpful Squirrel has been to her friends all day, Rabbit suggests that Squirrel has already begun a wonderful resolution: To help someone every day. Squirrel agrees and predicts that it is going to be a very happy year.

Hanna’s Comments: The concept of making resolutions can be very confusing for young children. This story will offer a faith community, private school classroom, or homeschool group an opportunity to explore making resolutions for the new year. You may want to expand the concept to making a promise to God as well as self. Explain how God hopes we will continually develop our godly inclinations and expand righteous behaviors, especially those that benefit others. In the United Methodist Church, we call this moving on to perfection as well as what other denominations call this process: developing holy habits, growing discipleship, and/or spiritual formation. 

If you are hoping for deeper spiritual formation this year, may I suggest The Academy for Spiritual Formation, an international ecumenical retreat program (2 year or 5 day) designed for spiritually hungry people (lay people or church staff). There are 3 general components: academic learning, spiritual disciplines, and meaningful community. PBT is the result of my 2 year Academy. For that experience, I am forever grateful!

Publisher & Date of Publication: Whitman Books, 2010

Age & Grade Appropriateness:  5 and up, K and up

Formats other than Book: Tablet

Scripture Connections: The Lord is a shield to those who walk in integrity… Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path. (Proverbs 2:5); pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart (2 Timothy 2:22); let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:4); whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him. (1 John 2:5).
Idea(s) for Application: Use this book to help children in your faith community understand the concept of resolutions and how they can encourage us to become more godly in our thoughts and behaviors. Be sure to offer suggestions of simple ways your children could do this throughout the new year. Follow up with encouragement as the year progresses including sharing how you are doing with your own resolution.

PBT Series: Picture Book Classics #2

Here’s another one of my early posts that is worth sharing again. This little book is a treasure! It’s been in print for over 70 years and is typically read to very young children. In the post below, I suggest you consider a broader audience and give your faith family a chance to see the connections between this little guy's faith in a carrot seed and their own faith.  

Picture Book: The Carrot Seed

Author: Ruth Krauss

Illustrator: Crockett Johnson

Summary: This classic has a simple story but a powerful message about a lone boy’s faith in a carrot seed, which he planted and nurtures despite family members saying repeatedly, “It won’t come up.” Eventually the greens pop above the soil’s surface. Then the boy pulls a huge carrot out of the ground and loads it onto a wheel barrow. I wonder if he shared the carrot with his family. Ask your audience!

Hanna’s Comments: This picture book classic has a simple message of faith and nurturing that is universal and timeless. I think it should be in every toddler and preschooler’s library. Certainly it should be in your faith community’s nursery, preschool rooms, and community-wide library. Don't limit it's audience to just little ones. With elementary children and adults, use it as an intro. to a talk about naysayers and critics of faith and hope. Emphasize patience! Discuss the concept of tending your own personal faith like the boy nurtured his carrot seed. Point out that the carrot seed might have died had the boy not been so faithful to it. Ask: “What are some ways we “water” and “weed” our faith gardens?” Offer more personal examples of your faith practices. You might even describe your faith garden. Where is the beauty? What are the pests? How do you harvest and what do you glean from your faith garden?

You'll find a similar book with a more complicated plot and more text in a book by Pat Brisson and Maryann Cocca-Leffler. Wanda's Roses highlights a girl's determination to nurture a thorn bush in a vacant lot. She is sure it is a rose bush. She, and eventually some neighbors, clean up the lot. Through her many days of faithful hard work, Wanda keeps saying to naysayers the lot will be filled with roses. Wanda is right!

Publisher & Date of Publication: Harper & Row, 1945

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 4 and up, Pre and up

Formats other than Book: There are several videos to choose from including “Uncle Wally” Amos reading this book as a part of the Read it Loud library program on Youtube.com, Audio cassette

Scripture Connections: Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. (Matthew 13:8); If you have faith the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20) 

Idea(s) for Application: Because the concept of faith is so abstract, children (and sometimes adults) have difficulty understanding it. This little book offers a delightfully simple, but profound explanation of faith that is easy to relate to. Read this book in a Sunday school or other small group context and explore the concept of faith and how to "tend" and "nurture" it. 

PBT Series: God Book #4

Today I offer one of the treasures posted formerly here at PBT. Most of my featured books are secular because those are rich resources hidden in plain sight. However, now and then I post about a book that explicitly explores the nature of God. The book below is one of those God books. I originally offered it toward the end of my initial year of posting about a different picture book each day. That's why there are over 600 books at PBT for you to explore and consider for your faith family or your family at home. Add this book to both of those libraries for a way to expand each family's understanding of God and who we perceive God to be.

Picture Book: When God was a Little Girl

Author: David Weiss

Illustrator: Joan Hernadez Lindeman

Summary: A father and young daughter are on a long car trip. She wants a story about, “When God was a little girl.” Thus, begins a father’s imaginative retelling of the creation stories from Genesis. This personified God does art projects, giggles a lot, loves to sing colors into being, and invites the humans she creates to be echoes of the divine while She creates and sings the names of Earth’s creatures.

Hanna’s Comments: I was delighted to find this title on the storypath blog, a resource I highly recommend. You’ll find a link to that blog on my blog list here. My library didn’t have this book so I ordered it immediately. I was not disappointed! I love the artsy emphasis with both the music and the craft angles that children will enjoy. I especially appreciate how the young female images of God change in race and age. Don’t limit this book’s influence by reading it just to young girls or women. This is a wonderful book for expanding the image of God in a way that is non-threatening and delightful. Then have your audience consider other possibilities for expanding God’s image and encourage them to consider what these images say about God and what attributes for God are out of bounds for your group. Resources to supplement this book are at www.WhenGodWasaLittleGirl.com. At the back, the author and illustrator offer some details about their inspirations for this picture book.

Original Publisher & Date: Beaver’s Pond Press, 2013

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 4 and up, Pre and up 

Formats other than Book: None at present 

Scripture Connections: Creation Stories (Genesis 1 & 2)

Idea(s) for Application: Use this book to discuss and expand images of God in the Genesis creation stories and beyond. 

Sunrise Hope

Picture Book: Where the Sunrise Begins

Author: Douglas Wood

Illustrator: Wendy Popp

Summary: This beautiful book continually asks the question, “Where does the sunrise begin?” 

Focusing on one child at a time, the illustrations gently discount possible geographic locations as the place where the sunrise begins. This happens at first with a child at the beach, 

then with a child each in particular environs such as a wood and a lake, and then with a child in Africa,

Asia, 

and the Middle East. 

To wrap up the initial child is shown with his parents, 

and an explanation follows. Every moment brings the sunrise to someone in the world. “Wherever there is a heart that loves the light, that holds a place for hope, and feels gratitude for each new day, in that heart the sun is always rising and helping to fill the world with light. Where does the sunrise begin? The sunrise begins in you.”

Hanna’s Comments: This misty morning picture book encourages its readers to realize that each new day, for everyone in the world, there is an opportunity to embrace joy and look at the world through fresh eyes, with renewed hope. Note that this is a book written from a particular locale in the world, using the words “our own native land” and Asia, Africa, and the Middle East are away.

Original Publisher & Date: Simon & Schuster, 2010

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 3 and up, Pre and up

Formats other than Book: None at present

Scripture Connections: The steadfast love of the Lord is new every morning; great is your faithfulness (Lamentations:22-23); Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12); Connect this story to any Bible story that is about hope or a new day such as the Christmas or Easter events, Jeremiah 29:11-12, 2 Corinthians 5:17, or Revelation 21:1.

Idea(s) for Application: Read this book in a lesson for children about the hope and possibilities that each day brings because of your faith. This would be perfect for a lesson soon after Christmas Day or before or on New Year’s Day. 

Creation Celebration in Word and Song

Picture Book: All Things Bright and Beautiful

Author & Illustrator: Ashley Bryan

   Based on the hymn by Cecil F. Alexander

Summary: This inspired illustrator offers a brightly colored, paper-cut rendition of this beloved Irish hymn. An historical note about the hymn writer who is well-known for her verses, both hymns and poems, and a musical score, including 4 verses, can be found in the back of the picture book.

Here are the lyrics of the chorus:     

All things bright and beautiful                 

All creatures great and small                   

All things wise and wonderful                   

The Lord God made them all.

The illustrator offers a nice personal touch. He includes images of his mother’s sewing/embroidery scissors which were the tool he used to skillfully cut the colorful papers used in the beautiful collages of this picture book.  

Hanna’s Comments: The lyrics of this song are well worth simply reading to children if you are not inclined to sing or play the tune. The book is large so you may not need multiple copies of the book. If you do plan to sing it, it’s a good idea to read the text while showing the illustrations. Then talk about the ideas supporting the lyrics before teaching and singing the tune. Focus on these words in the chorus: bright, beautiful, great, small, wise, and wonderful. Plan a creation celebration after singing this much loved song. Focus your supplementary activities on the key words of the chorus listed above.

Original Publisher & Date of Publication: Atheneum Books, 2010

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 2 and up, Toddler and up

# of Pages: 40 

Available in Spanish? Not at present

Formats other than Book: Tablet

PBT Category: Song, Post 2K

Scripture Connections: Any scripture verses that celebrate the beauty of God’s creation

Idea(s) for Application: Use this book and sing the song as a part of a lesson for children on the extraordinary and beautiful creation that God has given us. 

3 Tips on How to Make a Graduation Gift More Meaningful and Fun

1.  Give a Picture Book. Suggested books are listed below.

2.  Write a personal note inside with the date. Be sure to explain why you chose that book for the graduate. Giving your own spiritual angle to the book you chose offers even more meaning to the lucky recipient. If your inspiration is lacking, choose a quote from the book and simply relate it to the graduate.

3.  Within the pages, place a gift card or cash, but make sure you give a hint in your note so that it will be found. Graduates are busy people!

All the books listed below are part of my A Picture Book a Day for a Year list except for the last book. Look in each set of parentheses to know where on this blog to find more about each book. At the end of this post, you’ll find details about that last book. 

For Those Who Will Do Great Things:

God’s Dream (Day 154, September 20, 2014)

  Authors: Desmond Tutu & Douglas Carlton Abrams

  Illustrator: LeUyen Pham  

  Let There Be Peace on Earth (Day 120 on August 17, 2014)

     Authors: Jill Jackson & Sy Miller                               

     Illustrator: David Diaz

  For Those Who Love to Travel:

  The World is Waiting for You (Day 350 on April 4, 2015)

     Author: Barbara Kerley

  Miss Rumphius (Day 49 on June 7, 2014)

     Author & Illustrator: Barbara Cooney

For Those Who Want to Make the World a Better Place:

The Three Questions (Day 16 on May 5, 2014)

   Author & Illustrator: Jon J. Muth

  The Curious Garden (Day 116 on August 13, 2014)

     Author & Illustrator: Peter Brown

For Those Who Have No Idea Where They are Going but are Sure to Have Fun Along the Way:

Sam and Dave Dig a Hole (Day 277 on January 21, 2015)

   Author: Mac Barnett

   Illustrator: Jon Klassen

  Is This Panama? (Day 123 on August 13, 2014)

     Author: Jan Thornhill

     Illustrator: Soyeon Kim

For Those Who Would Enjoy Some Nostalgia:

The Happy Owls (Day 184 on October 20, 2014)

   Author & Illustrator: Celestino Piatti

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

   Author & Illustrator: Dr. Seuss 

Summary: It seems Dr. Seuss created this book with graduates in mind. In fact, the book jacket calls it a “graduation speech”, but I don’t find evidence that the speech was ever given by Dr. Seuss. It has been quoted in many commencement speeches. You’ll find that Seusian quality of imaginative verse, contrived words, and other-worldly illustrations. The first verse is 

Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You’re off to Great Places.

You’re off and away! 

Here’s a PBT extra: You can find 25 quotes from this book at this link: http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2125304-oh-the-places-you-ll-go 

Hanna’s Comments: Don’t limit this book to graduates. It could be for encouragement at other thresholds such as for someone leaving on an extended tour of Europe, a new job adventure, or a graduate school program. Do note that the subject of the story is a male character referred to as “kid” so perhaps young people are the best recipients. There is also a sense of independence and a solo aspect to the journey ahead.   

Publisher & Date of Publication: Random House, 1990

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 4 and up, Pre and up

# of Pages: 56

Available in Spanish? Yes

Formats other than Book: Tablet, Audible, Youtube.com has this book being read aloud wonderfully by actor John Lithgow.

PBT Category: Pre 2K

Scripture Connections: Behold, I am doing a new thing… (Isaiah 43:19); arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. (Isaiah 60:1); anyone in Christ is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17); put off your old self…and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God… (Ephesians 4:22-24)

Idea(s) for Application: Besides giving this book to recent graduates, read this picture book at a program honoring graduates in your family of faith.