- Mar 15
How Marie Procai Kept the
Ukranian Art of Pysanky Alive
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Calkins Creek
(Astra Books)
2.10.2026
48 pages
Ages 7 -1o
Author: Sandra Neil Wallace
Illustrator: Evan Turk
Character: Marie Procai
Overview:
" As a new immigrant to America living in Minneapolis, Marie Procai felt homesick and alone—she missed her homeland, Ukraine. She took comfort in the ancient Ukrainian art of making pysanky, intricately decorated eggs for Easter, an art she learned from her grandmother and brought with her to America. Cradling the pysanka in her hands felt like holding a piece of her homeland and giving her Baba a hug.
Making pysanky made Marie feel a little more hopeful when the Russia’s Red Army invaded Ukraine and forbade anyone from speaking Ukrainian or practicing their traditions, pysanky included. It sustained her spirit when her son was off fighting in World War II, and again when she welcomed Ukrainian refugees into her home after the war. A hardworking entrepreneur, Marie founded the Ukrainian Gift Shop in Minneapolis to keep Ukrainian culture alive in America and share it with everyone."
Tantalizing taste:
"To Marie, making pysanky at Easter with Baba was magical. For the legend goes that as long as pysanky are decorated, there will be good in the world.
While pots filled with sunflowers and juicy red beets bubbled on Baba's stove to color the eggs in dazzling dyes, Marie cradled a chicken egg.
She grasped a kistka the way Baba had taught her and, with its warm beeswax flowing like ink, Marie sketched a story, a wish, a prayer, a gift.
Symbols of swirling, golden wheat. Blue flowers for beauty.
Rays of sunshine, streaming bright.
Roosters clucking at the sky."
And something more: The author, Sandra Neil Wallace, shared in the Author's Note: "When Russia's Soviet regime attacked or suppressed Ukrainian culture, Marie made preserving and amplifying the art of pysanky her life's work. And she succeeded.
At a time when most work spaces were closed to women and their entrepreneurship was discouraged, Marie stood out. Marie and her family also became renowned for designing Ukrainian eggs...The art form became a global conversation."
Sandra has a wonderful personal connection to this picture book biography: "Growing up, my Ukrainian grandmother, Baba Neilipovitz, shared many cultural traditions with us that she'd brought with her from Ukraine as a teenager, just like Marie - including making pysanky. I would later discover that the kistka that she'd held was a writing tool from the Ukrainian Gift Shop."
- Mar 7
How the Apollo Moon Missions
Made Alma Thomas's Art Soar
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Millbrook Press
(Lerner Publishing)
(pub. 11.4.2025)
32 pages
Ages 6-10
Author and Illustrator: Nina Crews
Character: Alma Thomas
Overview:
" In 1969, people around the world watched as the Apollo 10 astronauts sent the first-ever live color television broadcasts from space. Abstract painter Alma Thomas was among those watching, and afterward, she began a series of bright, bold pieces inspired by the Moon missions and the marvels of space exploration.
A dual narrative weaves together key moments from the Apollo 10 mission with Alma’s process creating Snoopy Sees a Sunrise.
Tantalizing taste:
"The colors pop and glow. They shimmy, shake, and dance across the canvas. Slowly, steadily, the idea that Alma had in her mind takes shape. She's flying with Snoopy in an ebony-black sky.
Is that planet Earth in the distance?
Eight days after liftoff, the Apollo 10 command module returned to Earth, splashing down safely in the deepest blue sea. Mission accomplished."
And something more: Nina Crews dedicated the book "to the memory of my father-in-law - Dr. Albert C. Antoine, a NASA chemist who developed rocket fuels for spacecraft - ad my mother-in-law - Mrs. June Sallee Antoine, an educator and arts advocate."
The More About the Apollo Missions explains that "Reaching the Moon was an inspiring goal. The space program also created huge opportunities for many Americans because this enormous and complicated task involved hundreds of thousands of people... The space program got started during a time of progress for the Civil Rights Movement... Hiring a diverse group of workers at NASA helped pave the way for integrating other workplaces across the country."
And I so appreciate that our picture book biography, Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas illustrated by Loveis Wise (HarperCollins) is included in the Suggested Further Reading section.
A Walk with Charles Darwin
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Neal Porter Books
(Holiday House Publishing)
(pub. 1.13.2026)
32 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Nicholas Day
Illustrator: Hadley Hooper
Character: Wilma Dykeman
Overview:
" How do you work through a complicated idea, solve a tricky problem, or make a big discovery? Charles Darwin had a lot of ways to do it. He paced in circles and hit rocks with a stick. He studied the bones of his dinner. He even rode around the world on a boat called The Beagle.
These methods may sound unorthodox, but they led him to some pretty great thoughts—and discoveries about the origins of life as we know it."
Tantalizing taste:
"On these walks, Charles Darwin’s mind roamed.
That’s what the mind does on a walk. It finds its way around the normal routes. It finds it way past the usual barriers.
It finds its way to the hard thoughts.
When Darwin had a problem he measured it in terms of walking. Ordinary problems were one-rock problems. More difficult problems were two-rocks, three-rocks, even four-rocks.
And then there was the problem it took years of walking to solve...
Darwin walked his way to the idea of natural selection."
And something more: Nicholas Day writes at the end of the book: "I've just come back from a walk myself. It was not an extraordinary walk... And then I thought about coming home and writing these sentences, not because they are extraordinary, but because they are ordinary artifacts of an ordinary walk... Like Charles Darwin, we end up somewhere different from where we began. Like Charles Darwin, we end up somewhere no one else has ever been."
