November Recommendations

Picture Books:

YOU ARE LIFE, written by Bao Phi and illustrated by Hannah Li, is an empowering prose poem, in which Phi’s text swoops and soars and sings out some of the many wonderful ways that children of immigrants are unique, seen, and loved. Li’s colorful illustrations interpret both real and fanciful elements to portray lives full of movement and reflection, caring and joy.

FOX AND CHICK: UP AND DOWN, by Sergio Ruzzier, is another pitch-perfect comics-style encounter between the two friends. In three short chapters, Fox helps Chick navigate being stuck in a tree, figuring out how much snow is enough for sledding, and solving the problem of where to keep a book (since it’s not a large meringue cake or four bags of potato chips). Ruzzier’s signature art style continues to delight. As friendship stories go, there’s Frog and Toad, George and Martha. Fox and Chick deserve to sit beside them.

In APPLE AND MAGNOLIA, written by Laura Gehl and illustrated by Patricia Metola, Britta knows that her two favorite trees are friends. Dad and Bronwyn don’t think this is so, but Nana understands that “unusual friendships can be the most powerful of all.” When Magnolia’s branches droop, her bark grows patchy, and her leaves turn brown, Nana supports Britta’s plan to help Apple draw on the power of Magnolia’s friendship in order to heal. The story is fancifully, lyrically told, and the illustrations are distinctive and lovely. An author’s note explains that trees can send nutrients and signals to each other, and scientists are understand how this works.

MUSHROOM RAIN, written by Laura K. Zimmermann and illustrated by Jamie Green, lyrically describes the world of mushrooms, those “bizarre blooms with strange scents,” which are “tattered and torn by hungry visitors,” or harvested by squirrels, ants, and “mushroom hunters, baskets in hand.” Mushrooms spread and grow, scatter and branch out, until they rise again “after a mushroom rain.” The art is glorious. And there’s plenty of back matter to supplement the text, including a couple of projects to help readers further appreciate the fungi.

In LUPE LOPEZ: ROCK STAR RULES! by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo and Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Joe Cepeda, Lupe’s a real-life, Texas-size rock star.” Clearly. But Lupe’s kindergarten teacher Ms. Quintanilla isn’t impressed and insists Lupe needs to follow school rules, just like everyone else—except what about Lupe’s own rock star rules?! Now, if she can only get some adoring fans she’d have some real star power… The authors have written a completely endearing, larger-than-life character in Lupe, who’s illustrated to perfection by Cepeda.

In PIP AND ZIP, written by Elana K. Arnold and illustrated by Doug Salati, a family goes for a walk during a time when “schools were closed and work was closed and everything fun was canceled.” They find two eggs in the park, and take them home. Since they can’t bring the eggs to a wildlife center, they borrow an incubator and settle in to wait and see. Twenty eight days later, Pip and Zip appear, “wet and small and sort of strange.” Arnold’s narrative—with “one foot in real life and one foot in fiction”—is engaging, and Salati’s skillful pencil and digital illustrations add clarity to this appealing story of hatching ducklings during a pandemic.

--Lynn