3 PICTURE BOOKS by Mary Murphy

I found all three of these at the Arivaca Library on 10/17/14.  The two librarians there turned me on to Mary Murphy.

Koala and the Flower

2001 Roaring Brook Press

HC & price

28 pgs  (I wonder if the end pages might have been pulled out?

Goodreads rating:

My rating: 4.5

     Badger and Raccoon see things n black and white.  They are always sure they are right.  Little gray Koala isn't sure about many things.  She asks lots of questions.
     What a clever book - and it has all sorts of atrributes!  Two pages of "graphic novel."  The appearance of a LIBRARY and BOOKS!  Two supposed friends who are subtle bullies.  The excitement of watching plants (flowers! grow from seeds with just a tiny bit of nurturing.  SO much to take in - and all of it was wonderful.

I Like It When ...
Board Book - 12 pgs.
1997

I like it when
     you hold my hand
     you let me help    (thank you)
     we eat new things   (surprise)
     we play peekaboo    (b00)
     you tickle me
     you dance with me
     you read to me
     you hug me tight
     we splash about
     we kiss goodnight

Say Hello Like This!
2014, Candlewick
ages 2 - 5
endpapers:  loud and cool - cows and cucks and chiks.

"A dog hello is licky and loud..."  (turn a half page and see what is described  - "a cat hello is prissy and proud"

Such a vibrant story - both in illustrations AND plot.  I'm not a huge animal person, but the front and back endpapers are just wonderful.

PICTURE BOOK - Maple - Lori Nichols

Illustrated by the author

2014 Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin

HC $16.99

32 pages

Goodreads rating: 4.25
My rating: 4/Delightful

Endpapers:  pale lime green with pale white drawings of leaves, trowels, watering cans, sprouts; rear end papers the same except light blue

Title Page: single page, facing white; top and bottom large maple leaves, title in cursive brown.

Illustrations: "Pencil on mylar, then digitally colored."  The girl's face is nicely expressive.

1^st line: Maple loved her name.  When she was still a whisper, her parents planted a tiny tree in her honor!"

My comments:  I was looking for new picture books at the library and grabbed this one for two reasons - I love books about tress, and because all the others appeared to be anthropomorphic...which aren't my favorites.  It was really cute, and quite joyous.  And - it's a wonderful book for a child that's about to have a new baby join the family.

Goodreads:  Lori Nichols’ enchanting debut features an irresistible, free-spirited, nature-loving little girl who greets the changing seasons and a new sibling with arms wide open.
          When Maple is tiny, her parents plant a maple tree in her honor. She and her tree grow up together, and even though a tree doesn’t always make an ideal playmate, it doesn’t mind when Maple is in the mood to be loud—which is often. Then Maple becomes a big sister, and finds that babies have their loud days, too. Fortunately, Maple and her beloved tree know just what the baby needs.

Thea's Tree - Alison Jackson

Illustrated by Janet Pedersen
Dutton Children's Books, 2008
32 pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Dark blue

Thea Teawinkle, a budding scientist who lives in Topeka, Kansas, plants a purple seed as the beginning of a choose-your-own research project. But it is a very unusual plant -- making the dirt ooze and turn purple, growing excedingly rapidly and quite huge. And so begins a series of letters between Thea and various experts in their fields.

Thea's letters show the rapid growth, the strange noises she hears from above, and items (like a huge golden egg) that begin to appear beneath the giant immovable "tree." The information she receives - from all sorts of sources - doesn't help her at all...but they're such fun to read.

There's humor everywhere - in the watercolor illustrations that completely cover each green-bordered page, in the condescending answers she gets, even all the salutations cover the gambit from Enthusiastically, Carl Capshaw, Curator to Doubtfully, Ada Adler, First Bank of Kansas to Importantly, Anna Applebaum, Arboreal Acquisitions. Such fun.

Perfect for a letter-writing lesson. And how about a twisted faiy tale?

Who Will Plant a Tree? Jerry Pallotta

Illustrated by Tom Leonard
Sleeping Bear Press, 2010
$15.95
32 pgs.
Rating: 3.5 ('cause I'm an info-freak and want a little more)
Endpapers: white (!)

This is a beautifully illustrated simple telling of the many different ways that trees get "planted" -- mostly naturally, by animals. Squirrels with acorns, bears and geese, dolphins and horses, beavers and monkeys, moose and ants, owls and pacu fish in the Amazon River, and camels and wrens. It ends with....kids (not the goat-type).

I wish there were a bit of information about germination, or the wind - but kids could take the book and add their own researched info as an afterword or author's-type note.

Tom Leonard's edge-of-page to edge-of-page illustrations are really wonderful.