[review + recipes] V&A Introduces: Beatrix Potter by Katie Woolley and Ginnie Hsu

March 26, 2024June 25, 2024 ~ jama ~ 13 Comments

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you. Mine took me here. Where I belong.” ~ Beatrix Potter

Spring is Beatrix Potter time.

Every year as Easter rolls around, I enjoy rereading some of her Peter Rabbit tales and looking for new Potter-related books to add to my growing collection. Happily, there’s always more to learn about this remarkable woman, the world she created via her imagination, and the beautiful countryside she worked so hard to preserve for future generations.

Recently I stumbled upon a charming mini book, the latest title in the popular “V&A Introduces” series that celebrates icons in the world of art and design in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Beatrix Potter: Artist, Conservationist, Pioneer by Katie Woolley and Ginnie Hsu (Puffins Books, 2022), is a beautifully illustrated introduction to Potter’s life and accomplishments that includes original photographs and fascinating backstories to several of her most beloved tales.

Carefully curated facts are presented in twelve sections, giving readers a good sense of how unique Beatrix was as a fully self-realized creative who defied societal convention and attained financial independence:

Young Beatrice
Writing and Drawing
Escape to the Country
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Lake District
The Tailor of Gloucester
The Businesswoman
Hill Top Farm
Love & Marriage
The National Trust
Country Living
A Lasting Legacy

Peter Rabbit fans will enjoy learning how Beatrix became a master storyteller. As was typical for a girl from a wealthy Victorian family, she was looked after by a nanny and had lessons with a governess. She inherited a love of art from her parents, got lost in stories, and practiced drawing characters from the books she read.

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friday feast: emily dickinson’s poetry of flowers

March 21, 2014June 25, 2024 ~ jama ~ 76 Comments

“Earth is crammed with heaven.” ~ Emily Dickinson

*Please help yourself to Emily’s rice cakes and a cup of green tea.*

Hello Spring, is that really you? 🙂

Today we’re greeting the somewhat reluctant, much-awaited season of renewal, rebirth, and regrowth with a little help from esteemed poet Emily Dickinson.

I’m sure you know she was fond of sending friends and acquaintances fragrant bouquets with notes or verses tucked in them, sometimes with a gift of food.

What could be sweeter than homemade gingerbread or coconut cake, nasturtiums and peonies from her garden, and a heartfelt verse she’d penned just for you?

*from the New York Botanical Gardens Emily Dickinson Exhibit (2010)*

Though she may have eschewed personal contact with people outside the family, Emily was able to sustain longstanding friendships and express romantic inclinations on her own terms. She cultivated and excelled in all three of these pursuits — gardening, baking, writing — as a normal course of each day, all of them requiring practiced skill, time and devotion.

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friday feast: are your tomatoes laughing?

June 14, 2013September 14, 2017 ~ jama ~ 35 Comments

Seriously, who could resist a poetry book called Laughing Tomatoes?

Well, I certainly couldn’t, but I shamefully admit I didn’t actually know about this fabuloso feast of pure delight until just a few months ago.

This Pura Belpré Honor Award-winning bilingual 20-poem collection by Chicano poet Francisco X. Alarcón and Maya Christina Gonzalez was first published by Children’s Book Press back in 1997. Where was I?!

Likely staring at grumpy, aloof tomatoes and not appreciating strawberries for the “sweet tender hearts” they are, living a bland life full of ho-hum edibles, certainly not hearing the warm morning sun calling to me through my window, and — *shakes head* — totally oblivious to dew, “the fresh taste of the night.”

But now, having read this glorious, jubilant celebration of Spring and its earthly delights, family, culture and community, my life is complete!

I’m happy to say Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems/Jitomates Risueños y otros poemas de primavera is one of my favorite children’s poetry books ever. 🙂

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time for everything spring by jill esbaum!

March 22, 2010November 27, 2017 ~ jama ~ 2 Comments

Spring is finally here! Can you feel it?

Everything Spring by Jill Esbaum (National Geographic Kids, 2010), is the perfect little gem to bid the new season a cheery hello! Welcome, warmer days, we’re so happy you’re finally here!

This is Jill’s third title in the Picture the Seasons Series, which consists of 16-page paperback originals full of gorgeous color photographs just right for kids ages 4 to 8.

Everything Spring captures the excitement and wonder of the natural world awakening after a long winter’s nap. “Spring tiptoes in, stirring up earthy smells, coaxing color from the winter-brown woods.” We see green stalks poking up through snow-covered ground and leaves unfurling on the trees. Dandelions are scattered over a hillside, and a tadpole feels “froggier” in a clear, sparkling stream.

Best of all are the adorable baby animals — velvety bunnies with their noses “twitch-twitch-twitching,” fuzzy ducklings’ webby feet “piddle-paddling,” lambs with wobbly legs, and piglets rooting for breakfast. “Squeet!”

I love Jill’s simple, evocative language, which allows us to feel the warmth and cuddliness, drink in the color of flowers and field, and hear every chirp and peep of brand new life. Wonderful for classroom sharing, Everything Spring will make a nice addition to home or school libraries. With its very affordable price point, it makes sense to get the other titles in the series as well. Check out Apples for Everyone and Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie. And there’s another book coming out in October: Winter Wonderland! Yes, you’ll want them all ☺.