Picture Books I Want to Read in 2021

 

The Rock from the Sky written and illustrated by Jon Klassen

A New Day written by Brad Meltzer and illustrated by Dan Santat

The Worm Family Had Its Picture Taken written by Jennifer Frank and illustrated by David Ezra Stein

The Farmer and the Circus written and illustrated by Marla Frazee

Fred Gets Dressed written and illustrated by Peter Brown

Bear is a Bear written by Jonathan Stutzman and illustrated by Dan Santat

Keep the City Going written and illustrated by Brian Floca

Yes & No written and illustrated by Elisha Cooper

Opposites Abstract written and illustrated by Mo Willems

Time for Kenny written and illustrated by Brian Pinkney

Outside, Inside written and illustrated by LeUyen Pham 

Eyes That Kiss in the Corners written by Joanna Ho and illustrated by Dung Ho

Survivor Tree written by Marcie Colleen and illustrated by Aaron Becker

La Selva de Zonia (Zonia's Rainforest) written and illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal

Follow That Frog! written by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Matthew Cordell

The Tree in Me written and illustrated by Corinna Luyken

Shy Willow written and illustrated by Cat Min

Milo Imagines the World written by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson

 We Shall Overcome written and illustrated by Brian Pinkney

Bear Island written and illustrated by Matthew Cordell

Dreams for a Daughter written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Brian Pinkney

Cat Problems written by Jory John and illustrated by Lane Smith

The Welcome Chair written by Rosemary Wells and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

I don't want to hear you say that you can't read picture books anymore because your kids are grown. Read them anyway. Everyone knows the best books are picture books. 

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

One of My Three Good Things is Three Good Things

 

My emotions are like a yo-yo these days. I get my first vaccine and I feel optimistic. Then our state leadership opens everything back up, and I am in the pits of despair. I start hearing about more people being able to get shots and I begin to feel more hopeful...Then I hear that our library is opening up completely, even the 100-person meeting rooms, no masks required, and none of the staff has yet been vaccinated, and I see red and write angry emails to the head of the library and the county commissioners who made the decision and our governor...

Do you have any useful ideas for me to keep from these wild fluctuations of mood?

Dusk Night Dawn: On Revival and Courage by Anne Lamott (Author Event)

See You On Down the Road: A Retirement Journal by Leon Hale (Author Event)

A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Foster (1001 Children's Books)

One Hundred Poems from the Japanese edited by Kenneth Rexroth (Japanese Literature Challenge)

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett (Mood-Boosting Books)

Yes, and...Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr (Daily Meditation Reading)

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (Chapter-a-Day Read-Along)

All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot (Mood-Boosting Books)

The Makioka Sisters by Junichiko Tanizaki (Japanese Literature Challenge)

Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson (1001 Children's Books)

The Little Book of Lent (Daily Reading During Lent)

Three authors came (virtually) to Houston last week. British author Kazuo Ishiguro spoke via Inprint about his newest book, Klara and the Sun, on Sunday night. Babette Fraser Hale, wife of longtime newspaper columnist Leon Hale, spoke for her ailing almost-centenarian husband about his new book, See You On Down the Road, on Wednesday via Brazos Bookstore.  Author Anne Lamott spoke about her new book, Dusk Night Dawn, on Thursday via Brazos Bookstore.

During National Poetry Month in 2020, the Academy of American Poets asked readers to share a poem from its Poets.org collection that helped them find "courage, solace, and actionable energy." The month culminated in a Shelter in Poems live event. 

Good Thing #1:  3 Good Things

I signed up for a "pathway to happiness" using Greater Good in Action three weeks ago.

Look at what my practice is for Week 3.

Good Thing #2: Our Second Vaccine

We were able to get our second vaccine last week, and a sore arm was our only side effect.

We will be fully immunized on March 24th. Happy Day!

Good Thing #3: 2021 Picture Books

I started reading picture books for the 2021 Cybils. I know, I know, it's a bit early. The three books I read last week were all very good: Eyes That Kiss in the Corners; Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Pena and Christian Robinson; and Pirate Stew by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell. 

And, listen, you do not need to have a physical child in your life as an excuse to read picture books. Picture books are for all ages. 

I'm happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

Cookbook: Genuine Pizza

We love our pizzas here at my house, and we've never forgotten the pizza we ate in Rome in 2018. I was delighted to receive this book as a birthday present. The author, Michael Schwartz, created the Genuine Pizza restaurants. 

Schwartz tells us that there are several different kinds of pizza dough out there. He has chosen to take the most famous, the original Neapolitan dough, with nothing but flour, yeast, water, and salt, and add honey and beer. 

Here is his Pizza Dough recipe:

1/2 cup beer, at room temperature

2 tablespoons mild honey

1 packet active dry yeast

3 cups plus 6 tablespoons bread flour

1/2 cup whole-wheat flour

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

There is quite a bit of mixing and waiting and kneading to this recipe, but the instructions are too detailed to list here. It makes enough for four pizzas.

The tomato sauce Schwartz recommends is simple, with olive oil, tomatoes, salt, pepper.

One of the charms of the books, though, is that it offers simple for those of us who like simple, but it also offers complexity for those of us who prefer that. There are many pizza preferences in the world, and the book speaks to that, sharing combinations and recipes for every taste.

I made the Classic Cheese Pizza. The recipe uses pizza dough, tomato sauce, and 2/3 cup of cheese (Schwartz specifies Fontina cheese) along with salt and red pepper and 2 tablespoons of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

The oven and the baking stone are both preheated to 500 degrees. It cooks for ten minutes, and Schwartz looks for the crust to be rich brown and burnished, but we like our pizza a little less burned.

Happy with the result.

A Clean Sweep

What shall I read next?

Here's my plan for upcoming reads:

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, starting with The Color of Magic

James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small (I'm now reading Book 3 of 5)

Yes, And...: Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr

The World's Most Beautiful Libraries

Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores

A Girl of the Limberlost and any other 1001 Children's Books I can find

North American Birds and any other bird books I can find

Gutsy Women by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton

100 Poems from the Japanese

Comfort reads, folks. Any more suggestions for me?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

A Week of Comfort Reads

 

Let's open up Texas completely, shall we? And let's do it in time for spring break. Right? After all, there's the economy to consider. We only had 7,593 new cases of the virus in Texas yesterday. Texas ranks #48 out of 50 in the percentage of the population vaccinated. 

I'm so frustrated with our state's elected leaders.

All the books I finished last week were 1001 Children's Books:

Stone Cold by Robert Swindells 

Borka: The Adventures of a Good with No Feathers by John Burningham 

Sunday's Child by Gudrun Mebs 

My Friend Percy's Magical Shoes by Ulf Stark 
Captain Pugwash by John Ryan

It's so tense around here in my state. I'm back to reading comfort reads.

All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot (Mood-Boosting Books)

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett (Mood-Boosting Books)

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (Chapter-a-Day Read-Along)

Yes, and...Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr (Daily Meditation Reading)

The Makioka Sisters by Junichiko Tanizaki (Japanese Literature Challenge)

A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter (1001 Children's Books)

Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson (1001 Children's Books)

1. My husband and I got our first vaccine a few weeks back, and we get our second vaccine next week. Euphoric.

2. We finally got around to watching Sanditon. It really wasn't my husband's cup of tea, but I thought it was fairly Jane Austen-ish. Please share suggestions for where we might go next.

3. I'm happy to be reading from the 1001 Children's Books list again. My latest read, Tarka the Otter, is tough-going, though. What a vocabulary that author uses. Shillets and holts and weir-pools and yikkering and vuz-pegs. A perfect read for a future Wondrous Words post.

I'm happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

Wondrous Words: Seropurulent

Seropurulent \ ˌsir-ō-ˈpyu̇r-ə-lənt\

"He...wanted to sputter Seropurulent! which had been an ironic superlative they used in med school for terrible things that had to be overlooked."

From The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth Mckenzie.

To illustrate seropurulent, I'm sharing a photo of my husband and me that expresses the delight, the joy, the euphoria we felt after we received our first vaccine. At the same time, we must, for this moment, overlook the sadness that not everyone has been able to get a vaccine yet and the possibility that the immunity we now have will be short-lived or will not be conferred upon new strains of the virus. 

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative! It was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion and is now hosted at Elza Reads.

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Characters Whose Jobs I Wish I Had: Characters With Bookish Jobs

Librarian, of course, would be my top choice. As it was in real life.

Mrs. Elm is a librarian where patrons can choose books to relive their lives in The Midnight Library.

Nicole Anisse is a librarian in Paris in The Paris Librarian.

Sylvia Blackwell is a librarian in a 1950s quaint English market town in The Librarian.

Alison Sheffield is a librarian in The Dewey Decimal System of Love.

Alice Wright is a packhorse librarian in The Giver of Stars.

Israel Armstrong is a bookmobile driver in The Case of the Missing Books.

Matthias is an archivist at the Princeton Library in The Archivist.

A bookshop owner/bookseller would be fun.

Nina Redmond was a librarian and then is a mobile bookshop owner in The Bookshop on the Corner.

Clay Jansen is a bookseller at a magical bookshop in Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookshop.

Monsieur Perdu is a floating bookshop owner in Paris, mending broken hearts and souls, in The Little Paris Bookshop. 

Sarah Smith is a small-town bookshop owner who temporarily runs a bookshop in Paris for a friend in The Little Bookshop on the Seine.

Emilia is a bookshop owner in her small town in the Cotswolds in How to Find Love in a Bookshop. 

How about coffee shop owner?

Kei is a coffee shop owner in Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

Monica is a cafe owner in The Authenticity Project.

There are lots of other bookish jobs I'd like.

Maud Bailey is a scholar researching the lives of Victorian poets in Possession.

Casey Peabody is a (wanna-be) writer in Writers and Lovers.

Ramona Keene is a literary journey planner in Eighty Days to Elsewhere.

The Queen is the Queen of England who is guided in her decision-making by her obsessive reading in The Uncommon Reader. 

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.