My Picture Book Picks

No Mush Todday
by Sally Derby illustrated by Nicole Tadgell













No Mush Today was a good read.  It might be suitable for the younger middle grades.  The main character, Nonie, is very relatable for middle school students.  Nonie is dealing with having a new baby brother which can be a very common situation for middle grades students.  The language used in the story is also very relatable for students because it sounds like Nonie is just talking like she would in her every day language.  The author makes the language sound less proper to make it seem more like a child is talking.  For example, she uses "'bout" instead of "about" and "laughin'" instead of "laughing." I also loved the symbol of the ducks in the story.  This would be a great discussion to have with a classroom after reading this book, especially to introduce the concept of a symbol in a story.  Nonie carries a stuffed animal duck around with her everywhere...it appears on every page.  Read ducks come up when Nonie and her dad are out in the paddleboat, and he makes mention that they always stick with their family.  Even though Nonie is obviously having a hard time adjusting to her new baby brother, she should still stick with her family.  Deep down she wants to, she just needs a little help with feeling loved and wanted.  One aspect of the book I didn't care for too much were the pictures.  They were not as lively or colorful as they could have been.  I just found them to be nothing spectacular, but maybe that was on purpose.  This story isn't one of anything super special or adventurous, but more of just the ordinary situations of life.  Maybe the illustrations were supposed to go along with that.  No Mush Today is also about a black family which is of course always great to read as African-Americans are not represented in a lot of children's literature.

Sir Cumference and the First Round Table
A Math Adventure
by Cindy Neuschwander illustrated by Wayne Geehan















I absolutely loved this book because it combined two of my favorite things: a story book and math! The first Sir Cumference book I read was in a sixth grade math class I was observing in at my middle school at home.  It was about the number pi and how it relates to a circle.  The teacher read it to her sixth graders before they worked on an activity with finding circumference.  As I observed the students working, I was surprised how many of them referenced things in the book to help remember how to do the problems on their page.  The great thing about this book is that it incorporates the history of King Author and the Knights of the Round Table and diameter, circumference, radius, and other shapes into a story.  It also uses diagrams and drawings to show the mathematical concepts in the book.  These drawings and characters make it so much easier for students to remember what certain content area vocabulary means.  For instance, they can associate Lady Di of Ameter with diameter knowing that she can stretch the length across the middle of the circle.  The illustrations are also bright and colorful which always helps in keeping the students' attention as well.  Overall, the Sir Cumference books are definitely some of my favorite picture books to incorporate into the classroom.

Black and White
by David Macaulay

Well, this book was rather interesting.  It was on a list for top picture books for middle school and also won a Caldecott Medal in 1991 (the year I was born!).  With all this recommendation, I expected a great book, but I didn't expect how very unique and creative it would be.  I would love to discuss Black and White with a middle school English class...or heck, even a high school or college class.  I have never seen a picture book written like this one.  It has four separate stories on four windows of the page, but by the end, they're all part of the same story.  Basically, a boy is on a train and observes some of the events that happen in the other stories.  One story is about the people waiting at the train depot for the train the boy is on which has gotten delayed because some cows escaped. There's a criminal hiding in the cows as well as other places like the train the boy is on. Another story is about parents who have been stuck at the depot for so long that they started dressing themselves in the newspaper they had been reading, so their kids think they have gone crazy.  The illustrations also eventually fade into each other and one story as well.  This is one of the best picture books I've ever seen.  I literally feel like I don't even know what to say about it because I'm so blown away by it!  If for no other reason, I would share it with my students just so they can witness the sheer creative genius of the author!