|
|
Posts Tagged ‘Renata Liwska’
Tuesday, December 18th, 2012
The Christmas Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Renata Liwska (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012)
I loved The Quiet Book, which was also written and illustrated by this team, but the idea of a holiday follow-up didn’t charm me. So I’m glad that my local librarian gushed about this, and when I shrugged, left her desk to seek it out. A few pages through, we were smiling and reading favorite pages aloud to each other. How could that little bit of Grinch in me last while looking at three contented bears enjoying “Cocoa quiet,” or on the opposite page “Nutcracker quiet,” which showed an audience on red chairs including a proud mother rabbit, dozing bears, and a bored little moose. As in the other collaborations, the words are sparse and perfect. The animals are painted with textures that bring out their cuddliness, and expressive eyes that pull you right into an episode such as “hoping for a snow day quiet” or “shattered ornament quiet.” This is exactly the kind of book that will make you want to leave a desk to share it, or better yet, pore over before a sparkling tree on long nights that might include “listening for sleigh bells quiet” and “trying to stay awake quiet.”
Tags: christmas, Deborah Underwood, holiday, Renata Liwska, The Christmas Quiet Book
Posted in Books Ages 3-6, Recommended Books, Top of the Shelf | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
The Loud Book by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Renata Liwska (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
This small book is jam-packed with an assortment of adorable rabbits, bears, moose, lizards, and birds making or responding to an assortment of noises. As in the bestselling The Quiet Book, the text is spare, with pictures that play up the words or knock them in amusing directions. Several scenes take place at school, and there’s some emphasis on embarrassing kinds of louds, such as “oops louds,” “dropping your lunch tray loud,” or “spilling your marbles in the library loud.” There’s summer trouble and fun, ending with a campout and a bunny trying to sleep under a crescent moon when the world is “crickets loud.” I particularly like the variety of actions Renata Liwska packs in a crowd scene. In “crowded pool loud” we get lots of heads and tails, pink bathing caps and floaties. “Fireworks loud” is illustrated as if from overhead, and the view of wide-eyed faces evokes pure wonder. Another winner for this author-illustrator pair.
Pick up a copy of The Loud Book or read more Top of the Shelf book recommendations.
Tags: animals, cute, Deborah Underwood, loud, picture books, Renata Liwska, school, sounds
Posted in Recommended Books, Top of the Shelf | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
Red Wagon (Philomel Books) written and illustrated by Renata Liwska
This sweet picture book by the illustrator of THE QUIET BOOK, a New York Times bestseller, is short enough for the very young, but with enough to ponder that older readers will be charmed, too. We start with a brand-new little red wagon, and Lucy’s mother’s suggestion that she take it to the market, which sounds to Lucy like a chore. Her animal friends are busy flying kites, but are drawn to the red wagon, and chore quickly becomes adventure. While the short text stays true to reality, we see the red wagon become a ship as puddles turn to sea. As we turn pages, the red wagon becomes a covered wagon, part of a circus trailer, a train, a rocket ship, and a construction site truck.
The textured pictures are made from pencil, with a tactile quality that pulls you in, and digitally colored in warm tones. With their button-like eyes and jaunty footsteps, the bears, badgers, bears, raccoons, squirrels, and hedgehogs lean toward being toy-like, like E.H. Shepard’s illustrations for Winnie-the-Pooh. Plump and fuzzy, Lucy and her friends are sure to brighten both story hours and bedtime.
Pick up a copy of Red Wagon or read more Top of the Shelf book recommendations.
Tags: animals, bedtime, cute, imaginative, Red Wagon, Renata Liwska, storytime
Posted in Recommended Books, Top of the Shelf | 1 Comment »
|
