PICTURE BOOK - Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco

Illustrated by the Author

1990 Philomel Books

32 pgs.. - 4830 ratings

Goodreads rating:  4.35

My rating:  5

Endpapers:  Dark Red

1^st line/s:  "On sultry summer days at my grandma's farm in Michigan, the air gets damp and heavy."

My comments:  I see absolutely no reason not to give this book a "5" rating.  It's wonderful.  Sometimes Polacco's books are really heavily texted, this one is not quite so.  And there are, of course, her wonderful illustrations.  A special grandmother-granddaughter relationship (I love that!), and a cool way to help the child be not so afraid of thunder as well as helping her realize that not everything is quite as scary as it seems.  Lots of great things in one beautiful picture book - plus a recipe that looks like a lot of fun to make, which adds some tomato the the chocolate flavoring....magic....

Goodreads:  Grandma consoles her frightened granddaughter by telling her that the dark clouds of the impending storm are nothing more than the ingredients for a Thunder Cake

Kami and the Yaks – Andrea Stenn Stryer

Illustrated by Bert Dodson

Bay Otter Press, Palo Alto, 2007

HC $16.95

Rating:  4

48 pages

Endpapers:  brick red

Large Book

Title Page:  Double page, left is illustrations of houses on the mountainside, right is solid navy with mustard and white font

Illustrations:  Really beautiful.  No white, pages that have only font use beige fond on dark navy.  Pictures are loarge and give the reader a wonderful feel for the setting.

Setting:  High in the Himalayas of Nepal in  small village of sherpas, contemporary .

OSS:  Kami helps his father find their four missing yaks as a huge storm – thunder, lightning, hail – approaches.

1^st sentence/s:  “High in a land where winds blow sonw clouds off tall mountain peaks, Kami stepped out into the early morning dark.  He sniffed the moistness.

Thoughts:  It is not revealed that Kami is deaf until the end of the fourth page, which firmly establishes that his disability is a part of his persona, not the definer.  He I, simply, a little boy that wants to help his father as well as find the four yaks he knows so well.

Since I have a friend who, just recently, made it to base camp at Mt. Everest, it made the story super-extra special.  It is a fit introduction into my examination of Nepal, Tibet, and the Himalayan region of Asia.

Stormy Weather - Debi Gliori

Walker & Co. 2009
$15.99
4.5
for preschoolers
Endpapers: see below

First glance at the cover - a snuggly appliqued quilt under which a mother/child fox share a book. Window curtains frame a starry sky. When you open the cover the endpapers show the two foxes romping through the winter woods. Trees are bent, it feels windy - but safe.

"Pull up the quilt, turn out the light,
dear child, it's time to say good night.
In darkness black and soft and deep,
I'll watch beside you while you sleep."

Yes, it's stormy - in the ocean, in the forest, in thunder and lightning, animals from snails to bears snuggle with their young. They are safe and warm and happy. Then we get to the final endpapers and see a calm outside winter world with a big tree. Within the openings of the tree are content aninmals living their lives - and the curtained window where the foxes reside.

Lovely book - perfect to give with a baby quilt at a shower!

Full page illustrations - stormy yet tranquil and safe. They're wonderful.

Groundhog Weather School - Joan Holub

Illustrated by Kristin Sorra
G. P. Putnam's, 2009
$16.99
32 pages
My rating: 5
Grades 1-4
Endpapers: 3 shades of aqua - blueprints of a groundhog's burrow.

Because the winter weather is different depending on where you live, the head weather groundhog decides to open a groundhog weather school. He advertises and we see many different animals examining the ads. School begins and we meet a number of the students. We read their reports on actual "real" famous groundhogs - from Punxatawny Phil in PA to Sir Walter Wally in NC to Buckeye Chuck in OH -- and even Pierre C. Shadeaux in LA - eight in total. We learn about natural weather predictors (ie: tree leaves curl up if there's moisture in the air). We learn a bit about famous weathermen, facts about groundhogs and their lives, the reasons for seasons, how shadows happen - and then we follow several of the students who graduate - and what happens between then and February 2nd (Groundhog's Day).

Comical. Clever. Entertaining. Interesting. Informative. Jam-packed with information, this book completely won me over: My 4th graders would love it - a fun, easy way to learn all SORTS of things!

Illustrations cover the page in medium tones...and the groundhogs are adorable!

And by-the-way...this very morning, February 2nd, the groundhog saw his shadow - so six more weeks of winter. A horrible thing for Northeast Harbor, Maine which wakes up to a frigid 8 degress this morning, but an awesome thing for sunny southern Arizona which wakes up to high-40's and gets leaves work in the 60's.....let's keep the heat down for as long as possible!

Tsunami - Kimiko Kajikawa

Illustrated by Ed Young
Philomel Books, 2009
(Ellsworth Library 8/3/09)
$16.99
32 pgs.
For: ages 6-10
rating: 3.5
Endpapers: orange

A "long ago in Japan" folktale, white font on black on bottom eighth of page, illustrations collaged on rest of double-page spreads.

Ojiisan - grandfather - lived high on a mountain overlooking the sea. One day, after what seemed like a minor earthquake, the sea receeded, making more and more and more beach. Ojiisan knew what would happen when the sea came back - and it would devour all 400 villagers. So he set fire to every bit of his valuable rice fields to beckon everyone up the mountan. He saved them all.

Good verbal description of a tsunami - the collages (purposely?) leave a great deal to the imagination.

The Tsunami Quilt - Anthony D. Fredericks

Grandfather's Story
Illustrator: Tammy Yee
Published: May, 2007
For: School-age kids (though it says 5-10, I'd go with the older end)
Rating: 4.5
Read 2-24-09 Himmel Lib.
17.95
Endpapers: White

After Kimo's grandfather, who is also his best firend, dies, his father tells him the story of how, on April 1, 1946, his grandfather watched his brother and 23 others be swept away in a tsunami. Kimo has accompanied his grandfather yearly to the memorial overlooking the sea where it happened -- but now he understands. Father and son also take a trip to the Pacific Tsunami Museum in Hilo, where one of the exhibits is a quilt created in honor of the twenty-four who lost thier lives at Laupahoehoe Point (Lah PAH hoy hoy) on that April day in 1946. However, the title's a bit misleading - the book is not about the quilt, just the story behind it.

Full page illustrations with text over the artwork - even the page with the copyright information. Sad story. Cool telling.