Phyllis RootRecensioni

In a cozy cabin high in the mountains of the Far North, Lucia and her family live a snug and contented life. But one day the wind screams fiercely and the sun does not rise over the mountain. Someone has stolen the sun! "Perhaps it has lost its way," says Lucia, who despite her mother's pleas sets out to find it with only a bit of bread, a tinderbox, and her milk-white cat to keep her company. Inspired by Nordic lore.

Subject
Automobile travel
Automobiles
Families
Fathers
Heat
Lakes
Maintenance and repair
Resourcefulness
Resourcefulness in children

Look closely and see if you can spot the moose!

Genre
Hidden-picture books
Picture books for children
Stories in rhyme
Subject
Animals
Children
Dogs
Forests
Moose
Nature
Quests
Swamps

Synergy: Celia Thaxter

CELIA THAXTER (1835-1894) is an American author, artist, and naturalist known for her love of gardens and the islands off the coast of New England.

Read the recently published nonfiction picture book for children, then extend the experience with the websites:

CELIA PLANTED A GARDEN written by Phyllis Root and Gary D. Schmidt and illustrated by Melissa Sweet shares the life of American author, artist, and naturalist Celia Thaxter who wrote and painted about her passion for island life off the coast of New England. The book’s illustrator skillfully weaves in quotes from Thaxter’s writings and features her passion for flowers and nature, while the authors explore the key events of Celia’s life and conclusion with a useful note, timeline, and bibliography.

ARC courtesy of Candlewick.

ABOUT CELIA THAXTER is a series of web pages from Shoals Marine Laboratory that explore the life, writing, and gardens of Celia Thaxter on Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire.

To visit the pages, go to https://www.shoalsmarinelaboratory.org/about-celia-thaxter

CELIA THAXTER’S GARDEN INSTALLATION AT SHOALS MARINE LAB is a short YouTube video that shares the process of re-creating the naturalist’s gardens on Thaxter’s beloved island.

To watch the video, go to https://youtu.be/y_3L6DmThps.

Many of Celia Thaxter’s works are available at Internet Archive including An Island Garden.

To read An Island Garden, go to https://archive.org/details/islandgarden00thax.

This brief well-written middle-grade novel focuses on 13-year-old Kiri, an indigenous girl. At age 5, when her parents do not return to the family tent during a snowstorm, she is brought to a village by a couple (from another aboriginal group) who have happened upon her while out hunting. From early childhood, Kiri has had the ability to enter into the bodies of animals and view the world through their eyes. She can also pick up on the emotions of other humans. In her new home, she is adopted by an elderly “singer”/healer/shaman, Mali, to whom she becomes deeply attached. He trains her in healing practices and in the use of herbs.

Over the eight years Kiri has been with him, Mali has grown weak, and now there is talk among the elders of sending the girl out on her vision quest at an unusual time of the year—early winter. The tribe cannot function without a healer, and it is essential that there is someone to take on the role when Mali dies. Within this tribe, the vision quest is intended to reveal to the young person his or her true name and calling. Kiri knows she possesses the requisite gifts to be a healer. She’s sensitive to voices on the wind, for example, and she strongly senses the pain of others. However, she fears the suffering that overtakes her when she is near sick people, and she resists her fate. Mali makes clear that it is Kiri's responsibility to leave on the quest that will usher her into adulthood. Out of love for him, she leaves, travelling far from her familiar surroundings, as he has counselled her to do. On her journey, she has mysterious dreams in which voices call her name across a wide lake. She also endures a number of physical challenges including the capsizing and wreck of her canoe and winter storms. After healing an injured “wolken”—wolf—(all the animal species in the story are given fantastical names), Kiri and the wild canid become friends. In fact, “Cloud Shadow”, as she calls him, becomes her spirit animal, guarding her and the makeshift “wellan”—wigwam—she’s created. He brings her small animals for food and sleeps beside her. The climax of the novel turns on Kiri’s interaction with a village boy a year older than she. Kiri has always been wary of Garen. A dark cloud seems to hang over his head, and Kiri senses something frightening and disturbing within him that drives him to act with cruelty. Like her, he is resistant to hearing his true name and calling, and, since his first vision quest was unsuccessful, he is sent out on a second at the same time Kiri is.

Rather than write an anthropologically accurate novel, Root has opted for a safer fantasy approach. There’s nothing particularly magical about the plot elements; it’s in the naming of animals that Root signals that even though this appears to be our world, it isn’t quite. I honestly found the odd names for recognizable animals distracting and irritating. Root does provide a glossary, however, for readers who might have trouble keeping track.

This is a nice little novel and it includes some effective black-and-white illustrations by Dennis McDermott, which help young readers to better envision the setting. Characterization is not a strong point, and there are gaps in people’s backstories. Kiri recalls that she and her parents were once part of a village, but for some unknown reason the family is living in a tent well away from their tribe at the time of her father and mother’s disappearance. How Garen came to be alone and troubled is also a mystery. Having said all that, I still enjoyed the novel and believe kids would, too.½

So the devil went down to Georgia... and it's better with the music.

This is a short J fiction book- about a young girl in a Native American tribe. At five years old, she's been living alone with her parents for some time. Her father leaves on a hunting trip and when he doesn't return, the mother goes out to find him. The girl Kiri waits and waits but nobody returns. A couple from another tribe comes across her tent and takes her in. She is at first shy in her new surroundings, not used to being around so many people in the new tribe. Kiri has a special ability to "put herself into the eyes of others"- I guess you would say she's an empath, able to deeply feel what others around her experience, and also to see the world through the eyes of animals. This can be useful- she can put herself into the eyes of a bird overhead and see something far off, for example. It's also hard to deal with in close quarters with other people, as when she can't avoid feeling the anger and resentment of a boy in the tribe named Garen. Seeing how disconcerted she is among others and recognizing her gift, the tribe's healer adopts her so she can live in relative seclusion in his tent, and learn his skills. But when she's asked to help him heal a sick person, she flinches away from the strong feelings of loneliness and pain that overwhelm her at the bedside. When Kiris turns thirteen, she has to go on a solitary journey to seek a spirit vision that will let her know what her purpose in life is, and her role in the tribe. She expects that it will be as a singer and healer. But she's afraid, doesn't feel ready for this responsibility. On the journey she runs into a storm and her boat is wrecked, leaving her stranded on a riverbank in unknown territory. So it turns into a survival story- how she finds food, builds a shelter, and so on. She finds an injured wolf, and tries to heal it. Then Garen shows up- he's been out on a spirit journey too, and he's hunting the wolf that she befriended. He's also half-starved and needs help. Kiri is torn between protecting her wolf companion or helping this disgruntled young man she's never really liked. Of course she does the right thing, even though it's hard- and when she finally reaches out to Garen with her healing skills, she finds to her surprise that they have something in common- a deep loneliness each has been carrying around for years.

In the end Kiri finally resolves having felt abandoned by her parents so long ago, and returns to her adopted tribe with confidence and peace. It's really a nice story with some complexity and depth of feeling I didn't expect for how short it is. I read it in one sitting. I really wished it had been twice as long- I wanted more of every aspect! There's also throughout the entire book, words like 'korlu' and 'skirre' which kind of threw me out of the narrative because I spent way too much time trying to figure out what they were. Every single animal in the story has a foreign word instead of English (and I have no idea if this is from a real tribe depicted, or a made-up one). While there's a glossary, it doesn't say " 'wolken'- a wolf" but instead " 'wolken'- an animal with slender legs, bushy tail, pointed nose, and keen eyesight and hearing". Is it a wolf? or did she befriend a fox? I just want to know and I wonder if kids would puzzle as much over this as I did, or just gloss over it and be absorbed in the story. The illustrations by Dennis McDermott are beautiful, rich with texture and detail that add a lot to the book.

from the Dogear Diary

This charming picture book tells the story of a very special place. Due to a surveying mishap in 1882 that rendered it more or less invisible, a small square of land in northern Minnesota remained untouched by the logging industry for three quarters of a century. In 1958 the error was finally discovered, and the forest service was thrilled to discover this precious patch of old-growth forest, one of few that remain in Minnesota. It was thrilling to learn about this location in my home state of Minnesota, and now it's on my list of places to go!

Used in Storytime 9/28/17

omg, so cute.

00006572

In the middle of a dark, stormy night, one child, then another, then a third wake their mother and ask to climb into the bed, but when the last member of the family arrives Papa declares there is no more room

This is one of three picture books I had left over from my stash of paper books I’d borrowed from the library before the pandemic shut things down. I’ve read/watched the other items I’d borrowed in early March/later February. I haven’t been in the mood to read them but in anticipation of reopening or at least be able to return library materials I’m attempting to finish the library books I have at home.

This real life history story is definitely worth 5 stars and I’m glad I leaned about what happened.

The book is wonderfully done, with maps (I always appreciate maps in books) and the story of what occurred and how the forest was eventually found, giving information about old growth forests and the plants & animals that live in their habitats, old growth forests in Minnesota where the lost forest was eventually properly identified, and information about surveyors including their implements and some applicable vocabulary, etc. There are many good illustrations and a couple of historical photographs. I thought that some of the illustrations were lovely.

I was elated reading about how the forest was “lost” because of how it had been identified as a lake and enjoyed reading about the trees that kept growing. If only humans had less of a footprint on the land/ecosystem. I felt sad when I thought about how not knowing it was there was what it took for it not to be cut down. I’m grateful for what old growth forest remains worldwide and sad that so much is gone.

The story of what happened is told in a straightforward manner. It’s interesting enough, I suppose.

Story and illustrations 3-1/2 stars. Real non-fiction story that needs to be told 5 stars. It’s a good book and I’m glad that I read it and glad that I learned about this forest.

Big Momma makes the world starts out with Big Momma floating around in water with a “baby sitting on her hip.” She creates the sky, sun, moon, stars, earth, plants, animals and people in six days and rests on the seventh. When looking at her work at the end of each day she says “That’s good. That’s real good.” She created people so she could sit on the front porch and “swap stories.” At the end of the sixth day she tells them to take care of the world. She sometimes looks down to tell the people to “straighten up” and sometimes saying “That’s good. That’s real good.”
I would use this book when studying the creation of the universe. On day five (Friday?) she decides to create the land animals in “One Big Bang.” Most students will be presented with two creation stories in their lives. I think Big Momma makes the world combines the Big Bang Theory with the idea of a creator without using any certain religion. This may help student with processing the two different theories.

Perfect book for sequencing activities. At bedtime, the members of the family all have some reason to go into the bed. Eventually, the bed "creaks". Children love to hear the ending of the story and make predictions throughout.

Phyllis Root's Scrawny Cat book was illustrated just like all of the other books I read by her. Instead of being in a monotone text the entire book, the emotion and feelings were well represented through the text style Phyllis Root used. The descriptive words really let us better understand how upset the cat was in the book and then how happy he got when he got his happy ending. Just like all of her other books, Scrawny Cat also had a happy ending and the solution was exactly what the cat hoped happened.

I absolutely loved the book Snowy Sunday! I thought it was illustrated so cute and fun for little kids. I have noticed Phyllis Root always writes books with happy endings. Each book I read was about a problem, had a climax in the middle of the book and then luckily at the end it was always exactly what the characters wanted in order to solve their problem.

In the book Meow Monday, Phyllis Root talks about a plant full of cats blooming in her backyard and that the plant is so loud, the other animals are unhappy, including Bonnie Bumble. I have noticed a trend that Phyllis Root uses in her books. She gives great descriptions about each scene and used different ways of showing emotions including texts and fonts. In the pictures in Meow Monday, she wrote the words "meow" and "bark" to show how loud the animals were being.

In the book Looking for a Moose, Phyllis Root really put a twist to her words and explained the emotions very well through the different fonts and text size of the words. When Phyllis root wanted something to sound loud or fierce, she put the words in big bold black letters to represent them being fierce and loud. She used exclamation points and different punctuation marks to express the emotions as well. I really liked how in one scene of the book, she was explaining a swamp and used squiggly letters for the font to represent wavy water.

In Kiss the Cow! Phyllis Root really does a great job with engaging the reader in the book. Even though it was a children's book, I constantly wanted to know if Annalisa was going to do what she needed to do. Will Hillenbrand (illustrator) did a great job with illustrating the pictures. He drew the cow really big to emphasize how big cows are, he had each page pertaining to exactly what was on that page. Just like Toot Toot Zoom!, the ending was a happy ending. I have noticed that the books are very suspenseful throughout the entire book and then the ending is what everyone hoped would happen.

In Toot Toot Zoom! Phyllis Root uses different fonts and punctuation marks to indicate the different emotions on each page of the story. The illustrator of the book, Matthew Cordell, illustrates the book on some pages by drawing the pictures vertically instead of horizontally which makes you flip the book. Matthew Cordell illustrates the long road the animals are traveling on around the mountain. This was a very cute book and I liked how the emotions really came to life on the pages.

The kindness and light spirit in this story is adorable. The illustrations are so cute and paint the picture of the story being told so well. The book tells of an "anywhere farm". I like that it speaks as if you can take flowers or plants or veggies or fruits anywhere you go, and share it with others because it's so simple to do! I would probably incorporate this into a lesson on rhyming seeing as the book has a little beat to it with the rhymes that the author chose. I think that it could also be tied into a science project about growing your own plant in the classroom! I will definitely be adding this book to the list of ones I want to use in my classroom in the future!

Momma's always have a soft spot for their children, especially when it comes to their children not wanting to sleep alone at night. When their children are not wanting to sleep alone one night, they all find a way to make it work. However, Dad is not too keen about the decision especially when the bed doesn't hold up! I think this was a cute book because it was funny how the mom kept saying yes to the children going in their room and the dad was knocked out snoring the whole time until something woke him up. I used to walk into my parents bedroom when I was a tiny kid and was scared to sleep alone. My mom always said yes to me sleeping with them and my dad was always knocked out sleeping the whole time! The text in this book and the illustrations really brought the book and the actions to life! This was a very cute book!