Young Reader

Here’s a triptych of picture books by verbal-visual stuntman Jon Agee. These are each one-joke books, but they are very, very good jokes. Ages 3–8. - Ga

Read this aloud as if you’re King Arthur or Lancelot preparing to battle for the good of all. A zany, perfectly illustrated origin story of the game rock paper scissors. If only all war games were this one. Ages 4–8. - Ga

Words taken from the influential novel set us deep in this tale of passion and revenge, only to find the story is actually set in a bathtub as a young child enacts the drama of Moby Dick. It’s bedtime, and a parent pulls the plug, wraps the child in towels, tucks them in bed and, upon request, sings a ballad that begins:

Wide are the waters of the deep blue sea

Great is the whale that got away free...

Grades K–2. - Ga

In late-Renaissance Italy, while restoring musical instruments for Prince Ferdinando de Medici, Cristofori dreams of and invents an instrument that can play as quietly as a clavichord and as loudly as a harpsichord. Priceman’s gouache and ink illustrations create a whimsical, musical energy. Grades K–3. - Ga

Long before dawn, a boy and his father wake and quietly, companionably, drive to a pond at the city limit to fish for supper. In melting blues, deep red, occasional gold, and crisp inked outlines, we see the small fire the boy starts with a single match, the shared sandwiches, and the father’s face as he speaks to his son of a different pond in Vietnam where he and his brother fished together. Returning home, the boy helps his mother clean the fish, and both parents leave for work. In the evening, with his older siblings laughing and delicious food on the table, the kitchen bulb tenderly illuminates our narrator and his family. Grades K–3. - Ga

A child, coming home from school in her red-hooded parka, leans into a white prairie blizzard. On her way, she finds a wolf pup lost and frightened and carries it over hills and streams, through fields and woods, delivering it to its family. Exhausted, she starts home but loses her way. The wolves return, surrounding her, and howl and howl until her parents arrive. A last scene is a firelit interior, the child and her family, steaming mugs in hand, sitting by the hearth. Hearty heartfelt applause from me. Grades K–2. - Ga

A father and daughter break down their creekside campsite, stow gear, and climb out of the Inner Gorge and up through layer after layer of ancient rock formations and ecosystems to the top of the Grand Canyon. Jason Chin’s clear, scenic watercolors and detailed text give us a sense of geological time, which (though illustrated with scientific specificity) seems in fact magical. Grades 1–4. - Ga

“From my house, I can see the sea. It goes like this—house, road, grassy cliff, sea.” In a 1950s coastal mining town, a boy will follow his father’s footsteps. His ambivalence is mirrored in the stunning illustrations of the dark coal mine, which supports his family, and the light, shining sea. Text and pictures (watercolors, a bit of gouache, and delicate, strokey bold ink) harmonize in a rare and lovely way. Grades 1–4. - Ga

Two extraordinary picture book biographies about artists who view the world as outsiders—the musician Muddy Waters initially, and the visual artist James Castle perennially. Through the stories of their art, they reveal the wider, richer world outside the bounds. Grades 2–5. - Ga

Two extraordinary picture book biographies about artists who view the world as outsiders—the musician Muddy Waters initially, and the visual artist James Castle perennially. Through the stories of their art, they reveal the wider, richer world outside the bounds. Grades 2–5. - Ga