“Mama Zooms” by Jane Cowen-Fletcher,1993. Scholastic. Picture Book. Ages 3-6. Written from the point of view of a child, the narrator tells about the many things that he does together with his mother, who is wheelchair-bound. The day begins with Daddy putting the little boy in his mother’s lap. In her wheelchair, “mama zooms” him [...]
Category > Exploring children’s picture books
Shy Charles
“Shy Charles” by Rosemary Wells, 2001. Puffin. Picture Book. Ages 4-8. In her toddler and preschooler years, Joy was a very shy child. She did not want to participate in the singing during playgroup sessions, not to mention play Sunday School sing-alongs. I let her be, because I had been a shy child myself, and [...]
Of love and friendship
Black Dog by Pamela Allen, 1991. Penguin Books. Ages 5-8. Picture Book. What do you do when your best friend forgets about you? What do you do when you’ve let your best friend down? This story urges you to continue to hope and to love. Christina and her black dog are the best of friends. They live together on their own in the forest, doing things that dog and humans do- they play and become each other’s best companion. However, one winter’s day, Christina thinks she spies a strange, beautiful blue bird in a tree. This ‘bird’ fills her thoughts so much so that she presses her face against the window pane daily, waiting for it to emerge. The vision fills her dreams. In her fascination with this elusive bird, Christina forgets her very best friend, black dog, who waits in vain for her to play with him and be attentive to him again. [...]
Chinese superheroes
“The Seven Chinese Brothers” by Margaret Mahy, Illustrated by Jean and Mou-sien Tseng, 1990. Scholastic Publications. Picture Book. Ages 6-9. This is a tale of seven Chinese brothers who use their unusual individual abilities to outwit the tyrannical Chinese emperor, Ch’in Shih Huang. Hungry for fame and power, the emperor conscripts labourers from the peasantry to [...]
Big and ugly
Big Al by Andrew Clements and illustrations by Yoshi, 1997. Picture Book. Ages 5-8. The story of “Big Al’ is about a lonely fish who makes desperate attempts to make friends. Al is kind and gentle but he is also distinctly hideous. His enormous size doesn’t help and his clumsy attempts at impressing the other [...]
A cautionary tale
The Lazy Bear by Brian Wildsmith, 1973. Oxford University Press. Picture Book.Ages 3-6. This cautionary tale begins with a bear discovering a wagon on top of a hill. Having never seen one before, he sniffs, walks around it and finally decides to sit in it. The wagon rolls down the slope with the surprised bear [...]
