Beautiful Books

We are ever on the look out for new children's books with which to fall in love. In our last library haul, we happened upon THREE we can't stop reading/looking at.

Mary Had  A Little Lamb has been a favorite of Lucy's since she was a baby. We usually pick out a copy illustrated by Tomie dePaola to borrow, but this week we went for one illustrated by Salley Mavor. I am in love. She uses fabric relief to create her illustrations, and it is quite incredible. I love looking at the different materials and fabric patterns/textures she chose for each page.

Charlotte Zolotow is an author I have taken notice of in the past couple years. Like Cynthia Rylant, I have loved pretty much everything we have read by her. However, in her book When The Wind Stops not only is the author wonderful, but the illustrator is wonderful as well. Zolotow, combined with Stefano Vitale, makes for a winning combination. The story is very sweet as you hear a mama and little boy talking about how nothing ends, it just becomes something else.

The third book that caught my attention is one by Nikki McClure called Mama, Is It Summer Yet? While the illustrations in the other two books are fairly whimsical, these illustrations are bold, cut-paper art pieces that are simple yet dramatic. I also love the story of a boy asking his mother over and over, "mama, is it summer yet?" and her responses as she turns him to the cues of nature to seek out his answer.

Another book worth mentioning is by the same illustrator as When the Wind Stops, Stefano Vitale. The Folks in the Valley: A Pennsylvania Dutch ABC by Jim Aylesworth is a fun combination of ABCs review and a look into the simple life of the Pennsylvania Dutch--and you know how we love anything farm-based here!

So, there you have it. Some beautiful books. Any books you have fallen in love with recently?