Picture Books!

Posted on March 7, 2024 at 7:45 am by Gene Ambaum

My Very Own Special Particular Private And Personal Cat by Sandol Stoddard Warburg, designed and illustrated by Remy Charlip. Enchanted Lion, 2023. (Originally published in 1963.) 9781592703852.

I love everything about this book: the poetry, the illustrations, the orange-yellow paper, and especially the layout, which helps the words and illustrations work together. A child talks about playing with his cat, and the cat is clearly not having a good time and finally runs off. The story really gets going in the second half, when it shifts into the cat’s point of view.

Also: I loved the reproduction of Remy Charlip’s signature on the “This book belongs to ______” page.

Gravity Is Bringing Me Down by Wendelin Van Draanen, illustrated by Cornelia Li. Alfred A. Knopf, 2024. 9780593375921.

Gravity is in a bad mood, and it’s making Leda’s school day pretty rough. (Don’t worry, she makes up with gravity later in the book.) The story is great, and a fun way to introduce kids to science, but Li’s illustrations make the book amazing; the way she draws the sun is my favorite thing in the book.

Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, illustrated by Yas Imamura. Candlewick, 2022. Includes an author’s note at the end. 9781536204308.

The story of George and Tama Tokuda, the author’s maternal grandparents, who fell in love in the Minidoka incarceration camp in Idaho. (Tama worked in the library during their incarceration; George came in all the time and checked out more books than anyone could possibly read.) This is the best picture book on the internment of Japanese Americans I’ve read, and the most beautifully illustrated.