Calkins Creek
(Astra Books for Young Readers)
(pub. 10.14.2025)
48 pages
Ages 7 -10
Author: Erin Frankel
Illustrator: Jasu Hu
Character: Mary Oliver
Overview:
" Young Mary Oliver was enthralled by nature. In the forest, she wondered about the birds and the lilies and the water in the stream—about all the things that cannot speak yet somehow spoke to Mary. She wondered, too, about poetry, about how words pieced together filled her with light and how some poems felt like they were written just for her. How could this be?
Author Erin Frankel shows how Mary Oliver held on to that sense of wonder from her childhood, channeling it into some of the most beloved poems of the past hundred years. Illustrator Jasu Hu’s lush nature scenes beautifully complement Frankel’s soulful writing about the creative process. Together text and art honor Mary Oliver and her astonishing poetry."
Tantalizing taste:
" Mary had many questions.
How would it feel to be a forest creature -
or to have wings and fly?
Is the center of a flower called the heart?
Are rocks somehow alive?...
She noticed
and listened
and wondered,
then wrote poems that long to be told –
poems meant for everyone.
Because Mary Oliver hoped that there was someone
just like you
on the other side of her words
holding onto wonder
just like Mary."
And something more: The author, Erin Frankel, shared in the Author's Note: "Mary did not have all the answers to her questioning, nor did she want them. To wonder and rejoice in the unknown was much more interesting. We all start out as children wondering, but it isn't easy to hold on to wonder in a world that favors knowing over not knowing. Holding on to wonder was the life work of Mary Oliver. Her words remind us that it can be our work too."
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Margaret Quinlin Books
(Peachtree)
pub. 2.10.2026
48 pages
Ages 6 - 9
Author: Patricia Newman
Illustrator: Isabelle Follath
Character: Beatrice Harrison
Overview:
"'On May 19, 1924, a duet between a young cellist and a male nightingale was broadcast across the British Commonwealth as far away as Canada, India, and Australia to over one million listeners. It was an unprecedented collective experience made possible by the invention of the radio and a new microphone that picked up sounds of nature.
Beatrice Harrison, considered one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century and a musical prodigy, was that cellist...
One evening while Beatrice was practicing her cello in the garden, she heard a creature repeating the music she was playing. It turned out to be a nightingale. She played many nights with the bird and was completely enthralled.
Wanting to share the experience, she convinced the head of the newly formed BBC to take a chance on a live broadcast from her garden. The resulting duet was a smashing success and Beatrice received more than 50,000 letters in response. Overnight, she became known as the Lady of the Nightingales and for twelve years thereafter the cellist and the bird were broadcast annually to BBC listeners from her garden in Surrey."
Tantalizing taste:
"Beatrice played Pietro (her cello) for almost two hours.
Rabbits gnawed the wires.
Insects buzzed.
Squirrels chittered.
The Harrisons' donkey brayed.
But the shy nightingale remained silent.
Beatrice and the engineers nearly gave up ...
Suddenly the nightingale burst into
song, his trills loud and sweet!
He followed Pietro's mellow sound
and added his own flair to a melody
that would surely attract a mate.
Listeners around the world heard the duet."
And something more: Patricia Newman in A Note from the Author explains: "In 1924, when Beatrice and the BBC first shared the nightingale's song over the airwaves, people usually visited concert halls to celebrate the beauty of music together... On top of all that, no bird had ever before been broadcast live from nature. A new, more sensitive microphone that could pick up sounds and convert them to electromagnetic waves made this crazy idea possible. Listeners were shocked because the sounds were so close to those in nature." A delightful story of a wonderful collaboration and connection!
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Feiwel & Friends
(MacKids)
(pub. 10.14.2025)
40 pages
Ages 2 - 5
Author and illustrator: Derek Desierto
Character: Henri Matisse
Overview:
" Henri Matisse loved color. He dreamed of being an artist. Even after his father pushed him to study for a 'serious' job, Henri followed his heart and went to art school. Color was all around him!
After a grueling illness, Henri had to reinvent the way he made art. And what he created became even more magical."
Tantalizing taste:
"With a few snips of his scissors,
interesting shapes started to appear.
Henri realized that he was drawing
with scissors.
He soon turned his studio
into a beautiful garden!
A swimming pool!
Even a jazz club!
His friends remarked that his studio
was like a magician's cave. Henri was a
magician of color!"
And something more: The author-illustrator, Derek Desierto, shares in A Note from the Author: "Matisse's remarkable sense of color and his innovative cutouts have been constant sources of inspiration for me...
But what I love the most is Matisse's unwavering passion and determination. Despite numerous health setbacks, he continued to create. When he could no longer paint, he turned to paper and scissors. His ability to 'make do' with what he had reminds me that creativity knows no bounds...
Just as Matisse did, may we all find our own ways to create and express ourselves, no matter the obstacles in our path."
