November is Picture Book Month

...and as the Association for Library Service to Children published its favorite picture books here, I'm following suit. In no particular order: The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble, illustrated by Steven Kellogg. This is not your ordinary class field trip to the farm. It starts with a cow crying because a haystack fell on her, continues with pigs on the school bus eating kids' lunches and kids throwing eggs at each other in the barn, and ends with, well, a boa constrictor eating clothes off the clothesline. Hilarity abounds, and Kellogg's illustrations make it better. Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs by Tomie dePaola. This one has meant more to me as an adult who lost three grandparents in four years. But even as a child, the shooting star and "kiss from Nana Upstairs" reminded me of the great-grandmother I lost when I was five. A great story of family love and childhood experiences spending time with grandparents and great-grandparents, a story to which many kids will be able to relate--adults as well. Night Boat to Freedom by Margot Theis Raven. Another story of family love, but in a different context. "Christmas John" is a teenage slave who helps row other slaves to freedom over the Ohio River from Kentucky into Ohio in the dead of night. "Granny Judith" is the woman who raised him, and adds a patch to her quilt every time Christmas John makes it across the river with another slave. "What color is freedom tonight, Christmas John?" she asks as she adds a patch in the color of the dress or shirt that the newly-freed slave wore across the river. After several months of crossings, the danger worsens and Christmas John is encouraged to row himself to freedom. Granny Judith encourages him to leave her behind, being afraid he would slow her down. "Don't you cry for me, Christmas John, because love don't stop at a river, and ain't no river wide enough to keep us apart." But Christmas John's reaction was different: "What scares the head is best done with the heart. Let me take you across." "What scares the head is best done with the heart" is advice that can be carried over into the much-less-frightening situations that most of us face. Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown. I had the board book when my kids were babies, and enjoyed reading about the cycles of the animals' days...and the ending, when dusk came over the barn and they all settled down to sleep. For lack of better description, it's a peaceful book, about animals living and playing together, and then going to sleep under the stars in a quiet place.