Most will know Walter Wick as the amazing photographer behind the I Spy series, as well as Can You See What I See?

After looking at many of these books full of intricate, cluttered images, the photographs in A Drop of Water are quite a contrast with their simplicity, portrayal of motion, and more minimalist approach. 

This book is a fascinating photographic exploration of many of the different properties and actions of water: freezing and melting, surface tension, evaporation and condensation, diffusion, frost and dew, refraction, and more. The photographs of the falling drops of water are particularly interesting, but there are also photos to illustrate the other concepts, including bubbles, steam, snowflakes, etc. 

While the text tends to focus on the smaller and more easily observable aspects of water, there is a little bit of "big picture" information as well, such as a brief description of the water cycle. This would be a great science supplement for elementary-age students and older. Even though the text was a bit wordy for my kindergartener (though it's not excessively so), we still very much enjoyed the photographs, and were even inspired to try an experiment after seeing the pictures of a drop of blue food coloring gradually diffusing through a glass of clear water.

Scrounged From: Our local library

Format: Hardcover
Author/Illustrator: Walter Wick
Pages: 40
Content Advisory: None

More Reviews at Amazon

National Parks of the U.S.A. is a wonderful collection of facts and intricate, textured illustrations highlighting some of the more popular national parks in the United States.

The book focuses on one region of the United States at a time, showing a blurb of each national park and where it's located on the map, and then features some of the more notable ones with a double-page spread of a larger illustration and summary, followed by another double-page spread with more details and tidbits about the park's interesting features, such as animals, plants, geologic formations, weather, Native American history, and more.

Many of the more popular parks are featured, such as Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Denali, Death Valley, the Badlands, etc. I was also glad to see my home state of Maine featured by way of Acadia.

Even though I'm kind of a homebody, this book made me want to travel! It's a great way for kids to learn more about the amazing natural wonders of our country, as well as some of the history of their preservation.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author: Kate Siber
Illustrator: Chris Turnham
Pages: 112
Content Advisory: None

More Reviews at Amazon

Since Father's Day is coming up, I thought it would be nice to collect some favorite picture books of ours that prominently feature father characters. Here are some of the best (in no particular order):

1. Winner of the Caldecott Medal in 1988, Jane Yolen's Owl Moon is the winter story of a father and daughter out for a quiet nighttime walk through the woods to see if they can see an owl. They're hoping for one as they give out the owl call, but as the girl has been told, "sometimes there's an owl and sometimes there isn't." Even though the father and daughter don't share many words, their shared experience is a picture of the many different forms that love can come in.

2. Speaking of fathers, daughters, and calling for birds, Crow Call, written by Lois Lowry (of The Giver series fame), also tells the story of a father and daughter who go for a walk in the woods looking for birds (though in this case they're hunting). Based on Lowry's own childhood, this book depicts a girl named Liz reconnecting with her father after his long absence in World War II. With lovely, realistic images by Bagram Ibatoulline, this story touches on several different themes, and ends with the hope that even a lapsed relationship can have a chance to begin again. It also makes a great autumn story.

3. I really like the artwork in Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. It consists of black-and-white photographs of urban locations, with cartoonish characters drawn over them. Trixie is a little girl who goes to the laundromat with her father, and inadvertently leaves her cherished Knuffle bunny there. She realizes this during the walk home, but since she can't talk, she has to find other toddler-level ways to attempt to communicate this fact to her father. Parents will probably all be quite familiar with this kind of toddler behavior, as well as the hero daddy who saves the day by simply recovering a beloved toy.

4. One thing I like about Guess How Much I Love You is that it's the only book in this list that's specifically a father/son story. And I also really like that it's just about how much they each love each other. Both Big and Little Nutbrown Hare use a variety of physical activities and distances to try to demonstrate the extent of their love -- and I think, in the end, the consensus must be that love is simply too big to measure. 

5. While the text of Mister Seahorse is fairly repetitive, Eric Carle's colorful illustrations are magnificent as always (I love the hippie-looking seahorses), and the book also includes some partially transparent pages with fish hiding behind them, which is fun for kids. I also like this book because it depicts several different species of fish in which it is the male that cares for the eggs (and sometimes even after they hatch), rather than the female. In a world where parent/child animal stories are often dominated by mothers, it is nice to see this exception, especially since it's based in fact!

Bonus: in some ways Ask Me is very opposite of Owl Moon in that the father and daughter do not have to be quiet -- in fact, the daughter is quite the chatterbox. The whole text of this story by Bernard Waber contains the back-and-forth musings, questions, and answers between a father and his talkative young daughter, aided by Suzy Lee's expressive and colorful illustrations.

Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess is an informative and whimsical look at what it might have been like to live in a castle in the Middle Ages, according to the fictional diary of Tobias Burgess, an eleven-year-old boy who becomes a page at his uncle's castle. 

Toby writes his entries over the course of a year (in a Medieval-sounding voice, even!), detailing the different things he is learning and experiencing -- from school to church, hunts to jousts, and basic day-to-day events such as meals, comradeship, and punishments, this is a fun way to learn about Medieval times, especially as they played out within the walls of a castle.

Scrounged From: AbeBooks.com

Format: Paperback
Author: Richard Platt
Illustrator: Chris Riddell
Pages: 128
Content Advisory: References to the dungeon/prisoners, cleaning "garderobes," and similar unsavory aspects of Medieval life.

More Reviews at Amazon

Continuing with our "tree theme" of late, as well as books that highlight people who made a difference in their communities, The Tree Lady is another inspiring story of a woman who brought trees to the San Diego area more than a hundred years ago. Not only did Kate Sessions become the first woman to obtain a science degree from the University of California, but she then made "tree hunting" and planting her career. She sought out the varieties of trees that would be just right for the sunny, dry climate of Southern California, and went to work making the place beautiful.

This picture book tells her story from her tree-loving childhood to her education and finally her determination to try and find a way where others may not have tried. The affirming repetition of "But Kate did" throughout the story helps to emphasize this sense of perseverence, and the story concludes with some information about the way her legacy still impacts the area she called home.

Scrounged From: Our local library

Format: Hardcover
Author: H. Joseph Hopkins
Illustrator: Jill McElmurry
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

More Reviews at Amazon