by Sally Sutton, illustrated by Brian Lovelock (Candlewick)
Rhyme, a zippy rhythm, repetition, and onomatopoeia (Whirr! Churr! Crunch!), which ends each stanza in big print, make this book feel loud and brisk. Wonderful pictures of enormous machines are shown in action, and the text brings in a sense of danger, dust, and change. We also learn some of what happens with what not only gets destroyed, but recycled. The book ends with a playground being built, and a page of Machine Facts. The fast pace, variety of machines including trucks, wrecking balls on cranes, cement crushers, and excavators are sure to engage readers who love action and stories with noise.
by Jane Buchanan, illustrated by Charlotte Riley-Webb (Peachtree)
The book reads almost like a song, starting with Birdman’s joy in feeding pigeons. He sees a beauty those around him don’t, though the bold paintings make it clear to readers. Rose accepts the seeds Birdman usually scatters for birds, and sets them on a windowsill. After watching, waiting, and dreaming, she’s rewarded with a singing garden of birds. The short, simple, and beautiful text is a perfect match for the vivid colors, painted with wide, wonderful strokes.
We’re so excited to welcome Lucy Cousins, creator of the bestselling Maisy books, to The Carle this Saturday. Guests on Saturday will have the opportunity to not only meet Lucy and Maisy the Mouse, but also see Lucy at work in our Art Studio. This video gives a taste of how Lucy Cousins creates Maisy, with simple bold outlines and lots of color! I loved listening to Lucy talk about Maisy like a dear friend. “She’s a good mouse.”
One of the things that I love so much about Maisy is that she’s a girl mouse, who doesn’t wear dresses all of the time or talk about princesses and the color pink. Instead Maisy is active, curious and kicks around in overalls, driving trucks and trains. Looking at the amazing number of Maisy books and the adventures she has, one of the most important lessons I learned from Maisy is that you can do anything. You can be into gardening, swimming, cooking, or dressing up. You can be a doctor or teacher or chef or explorer. Even a pirate if you want to! Maisy is a leader, a learner and a do-er and I think that makes her a great role model for all young readers of all genders.
Maisy™ is coming to The Carle Museum and she’s bringing a special friend!
Join us at The Carle this Saturday, September 15th, as we celebrate Maisy and her creator, Lucy Cousins. Meet both Artist and Mouse in a day filled with activities and fun including storytimes, art activities and the opportunity to assist Lucy Cousins in creating a “Maisy wall frieze” in our Art Studio. Take a picture with your favorite mouse, have a book signed by Lucy Cousins, see original Maisy artwork in our gallery and take home a gift from Maisy as a way to remember this special day.
Photo by Candlewick Press
Here’s the plan for the day:
10:15 – 10:30 Meet Maisy the Mouse
10:30 – 10:50 Special Maisy storytime in the Reading Library with Carle staff
11:00 – 12:00 Lucy Cousins in the Art Studio
1:00 – 1:20 Special Maisy storytime in the Reading Library with Carle staff
1:20 – 1:30 Meet Maisy the Mouse
1:30 – 3:30 Lucy Cousins book signing
Can’t make it to The Carle? We don’t want you to miss out on a signed book! Order your favorite Lucy Cousins books and we’ll ship them to you, autographed, after the event. Click here to shop online or call us at 413-658-1132.
Support for Our British Cousins: The Magical Art of Maisy & Friends has been generously provided by Candlewick Press.
We’ve had such a great summer with three fabulous exhibitions. We were so lucky to host original artwork from Eric Carle’s Slowly, Slowly, Slowly Said the Sloth in our West Gallery, a breath-taking collection of pieces by Ezra Jack Keats in our East Gallery and the bright cheerful work of Lucy Cousins in our Central Gallery all summer long!
As summer vacation comes to an end, we welcome a change of pace and season here at The Carle. We’re ready for changing leaves, cooler temperatures and the return of the yellow school bus. We’re lucky to be hosting Maisy artwork until November, so this week we thought a change was due to our Lucy Cousins book display. We’ve replaced our bestselling summer Maisy titles:
with a few new titles to get us in the back-to-school spirit.
Happy September everyone! What books do you like to read to get ready for fall?
by Ted Kooser, illustrated by Jon Klassen (Candlewick)
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser is the author of this picture book that addresses the themes of change and nature. The story was inspired by seeing a house help up by trees, and this tale shows how that might have come to be. The book begins with a house that looks rather lonely on a newly planted lawn, but we soon see it from the woods as the house is inhabited by a family. Time moves swiftly in this book, so within a page turn, the children have grown up, and before too long the beloved house is abandoned. But not by nature. Beautiful illustrations show changes wrought by time and weather, and trees with layers of texture that suggest their power. Jon Klassen, who created droll animals for I Want My Hat Back, here uses some of the same brown tones and elegant textures to fit this story’s meditative tone.
This volume contains poems that often burst with humor, puns, alliteration, and rhyme. Each poem is accompanied by a nugget of scientific fact and faces a page of bees with attitude, sometimes wearing fancy hats or jewelry. Many poems feature different bees, including queens, workers, scouts, and drones. Other poems focus on life cycles, pollination, the recent disappearance of bees, and beekeepers. We learn a lot, and with pleasure in the inventive language and simple, funny paintings with lots of green and gold, which are sometimes amid collage and rubber stamp work. Further reading is suggested at the end, along with a BEEbliography.
