Building Picture Books

 Did I hook you with that title? Did you think this blog post was going to be about how to create a picture book? Homonyms can be clever--and difficult for English language learners! 

In this case, I'm using "building" as an adjective. The spring issue of Talking Story is coming out next week and Rebecca Wheeler and I are featuring books that are about building. We have four great giveaways and I'm introducing two of them here.

LET'S BUILD A LITTLE TRAIN (Sleeping Bear Press: 2022)

This informative yet entertaining picture book written by Julia Richardson and with colorful illustrations by Ryan O'Rourke is for the youngest reader in your home or school. Children will enjoy the simple rhyme, rhythm, and "Chugga Chugga Choo Chooo" which they can chime in with. 

Although the characters and some of the tools are contemporary-looking, the book shows the steps for building a 19th-century steam engine. It begins with this page:

The book shows the men and women who helped build it, some of their tasks, and the different parts of the steam engine. 

The engine pulls a beautiful train as it moves through the countryside.

Two pages of back matter show the history of steam trains, how they work, and photographs that define some of the words used in the book.

Young builders and their teachers and parents will enjoy reading this STEM book together. Writers, you will want to study this book for word choice, structure, and the framework of the story!

PRAIRIE BOY: Frank Lloyd Wright Turns The Heartland Into a Home

PRAIRIE BOY (Astra Publishing: 2019), written by Barb Rosenstock and perfectly illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal is about architecture, history, and dreams. It will educate and inspire an older audience than Let's Build a Little Train; I would recommend it for ages 5-9. 

Frank Lloyd Wright is a name familiar to many of us. Although adults might know him as a famous architect, this childhood-adulthood picture book shows readers (and the adults who read it to them!) what events inspired Wright's famous career. 

As you read this opening, consider Rosentock's use of verbs, alliteration, and shapes, AND how she shows the growth and personality of a young boy in one very tight paragraph:

FRANK WRIGHT TOOK HIS FIRST BREATH ON THE WISCONSIN PRAIRIE. He crawled in the paths of brush-footed butterflies and toddled through waves of tall grass. He skipped past oval milkweed sees, six-sided honeycombs, and trying-face badgers, growing into the kind of boy who wondered...

     

HOW DO BROWN FIELD ANTS

   HIDE IN WHITE QUEEN ANNE'S LACE?

WHEN DOES THE HARVEST MOON

   CHANGE SHAPE?

WHAT MAKES THE PRAIRIE

   FEEL LIKE HOME?

 

Frank moved five times in seven years and yearned for the "shapes of the heartland." His mother bought him a set of Froebel blocks which fascinated him as he discovered how shapes were connected to one another.

His mother bought him more blocks.

 

As a teenager, Frank began to dream.

He moved to Chicago, studied architecture, and watched as fancy houses went up on flat prairie lots. They reflected Greek Revival, Victorian, and Italian architecture.  Everyone liked them, except Frank.

He wanted to design new kinds of homes that fit new American families. So, that's what he did.

"Like magic, he shook dozens of shapes from his shirtsleeves- ovals, hexagons, triangles, cubes, spheres, and cylinders... He called the Prairie Houses...and spun the shapes he loved into America's homes."

The back matter includes photographs of several famous Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and the plans for Fallingwater; a famous home in Mill Run Pa. 

If I were using this book in the classroom, I would not only ask students to look for figurative language, but I would ask them to cite instances where the text emphasizes shapes. What a wonderful way to pay tribute to an architect who loved shapes. 

GIVEAWAYS!

I am giving away both of these books next week through Talking Story. I'd love it if you subscribed to this quarterly newsletter. You can use the QRC code below or click here to subscribe. If you leave me a comment below, please let me know which book you prefer. If you leave a comment through the newsletter, I'll enter your name twice. As always, if you are an educator, librarian, or a new subscriber to my blog, you will earn an additional chance. U.S. addresses only. The giveaway ends April 20. Make sure you leave your email address if you are new to my blog.