{"id":31349,"date":"2019-10-25T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T12:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=31349"},"modified":"2019-10-25T08:00:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T12:00:47","slug":"a-picture-book-free-for-all-winter-2020-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=31349","title":{"rendered":"A Glorious Picture Book Free-for-All: Spring 2020 Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I briefly previewed our staff\u2019s seasonal picture book review session, but I promised a deeper dive into all the reactions. From a septuagenarian\u00a0tightrope dancer to a disgruntled egg seeking some sun to a celebration of those who protect Earth\u2019s water, we found a lot to love! As \"\"<\/a>always, there were plenty of bold\u00a0pronouncements\u00a0in the room.
\n\u201cI would LOVE to see a 70 year old tightrope walker!\u201d\u00a0<\/em>
\n\u201cWhy\u00a0make a picture book and use bland colors?\u201d<\/em>
\n \u201cUh… Humpty Dumpty\u2019s a lot on the creepy side!\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cIf I don\u2019t like the pictures, I don\u2019t read it.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cEw! It\u2019s got a possum. No! No! No! No!\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cWait. Is pink still a thing?\u201d<\/em>
\nForgive the tangent, but although that last question might sound like heresy, we\u2019ve actually been seeing some cracks in\u00a0<\/em>pink\u2019s vibrant reign of terror. My colleague Annie reports that teal is definitely the new pink in her seven-year-old daughter\u2019s eyes. Which, according to Griffin, BookPeople\u2019s reliably random fact dispenser, means we\u2019ve come full circle since the ’90s, when he read all about the hot new teal trend in Plastics Factory Magazine<\/em>. So there you have it, folks. As definitive an answer as you can get. Pink is dead! Long live teal!
\nBut, anyway, back to the books!
\n

\"\"<\/a>

“This spread is me!” — Ellen Greene<\/p><\/div>
\nGenerating a range of passionate opinions, Humpty Dumpty Lived Near a Wall <\/em>by Derek Hughes will be perfect for fans of Gris Grimly. And despite the skeptical quote at the top of the blog, more than one bookseller weirdly (and terrifyingly?) identified with downtrodden Humpty, stuck in the shadows, dreaming of the sun over the wall. And while no easy victory awaits our determined egg at the end of his dark journey, the shining glimmer of hope offered by his\u00a0quest may just inspire quirky youngsters to dream just a little bigger nonetheless.
\nMy personal favorite, We Are Water Protectors <\/em>from Carole Lindstrom and Michaela Goade, offers a bold challenge right from the cover. Standing amid luminous waves, an Indigenous girl stares \"\"<\/a>unflinchingly at the reader, her clear gaze steady and calm, holding what seems like enough patience and strength to outlast anyone who threatens the resource she protects. Silhouettes on the horizon form a circle of stewards\u2014perhaps symbolizing those who came before united with those who continue to stand. Beautifully illustrated in rich, saturated colors, We Are Water Protectors <\/em>offers readers a resonant appreciation of the natural world, a passionate ode to the mission and beliefs of Native activists, and a powerful plea for us all to hear the call and do more to protect the planet we call home. Of Anishinaabe\/M\u00e9tis descent,\u00a0Carole Lindstrom is tribally enrolled with the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, and Michaela Goade is of Tlingit descent and is tribally enrolled with the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes. Author and illustrator notes illuminate traditions that informed their work\u00a0and also pay tribute to ongoing Indigenous-led campaigns to protect Earth\u2019s water against the black snakes of pipelines and urge readers to get involved!
\nWhat else turned our heads? Well, we all thought My\u00a0Best Friend\u00a0<\/em>by Julie Fogliano and Mariko Tamaki perfectly captures those inexplicable instant friendships that children fall into so easily at parks and public spaces\u2014and that adults yearn to recapture. Staci opined that the clever\u00a0Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots<\/em>\u00a0presents\u00a0a sorely needed lesson in our current cultural climate. Griffin deemed\u00a0Beehive <\/em>by Jorey Hurley “a pretty groovy concept book.” Merrillee raved that Ray Jayawardhana and Raul Col\u00f3n\u2019s Child of the Universe <\/em>is just as beautiful as you expect a book from Col\u00f3n to be. Holly, our resident chemist, delighted to find some beautiful nonfiction in the mix with Wildlives: 50 Extraordinary Animals That Made History.\u00a0<\/em>And we all thought\u00a0Friday Night Wrestlefest <\/em>offered an awesomely hilarious smackdown with trademark moves sure to inspire some fierce new family traditions. (We’ll see if I introduce said traditions to my kids\u2014although I could definitely throw down a mean “Flying Mom Bomb!”)
\n\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>
\nSpeaking of things that are funny (how’s that for a segue?),\u00a0I wanted to leave you with a pretty terrible (and amazing?) joke from book fair manager Ellen Greene that genuinely made me laugh. Try it at your next storytime. It just might be a hit!<\/p>\n

EG: Ask me if I\u2019m a truck.<\/p>\n

MG: OK. Are you?<\/p>\n

EG: Uh\u2026 no!<\/p>\n

(Are you laughing yet? Share your favorite storytime appropriate jokes below. I genuinely want to know!)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Booksellers highlight some personal favorites!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Booksellers talk color trends, tell terrible jokes, and happily sort through stacks of new books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}