Category: Picture Books

Picture Book Reviews

In August 2022 I started writing and posting reviews on Amazon and Goodreads as a means of uplifting my fellow picture book authors. I hope my attempts at bringing attention to these books will boost sales. If you would like to see these reviews, their titles, dates of posting, and links are below. I will be updating these links monthly. Enjoy.

AUGUST (by date of posting)

4: Frank, Who Liked to Build, by Deborah Blumenthal, art by Maria Brzozowska: The life of Jewish-Canadian architect Frank Gehry

8: Together We Ride by Valerie Bolling, art by Kaylani Juanita: A father teaches his daughter how to ride a bike,

10: Bug on the Rug by Sophia Gholz, art by Susan Batori: Rhyming story of sharing and friendship

11: Bedtime for Maziks by Yael Levy, art by Nabila Adani: A day in the life of a mazik (Yiddish for imp) is described in rhyme

15: Too Many Pigs in the Pool by Wendy Hinote Lanier, art by Iris Amaya: A cautionary tale of swine and swimming

18: Rena Glickman, Queen of Judo by Eve Nadel Catarevas, art by Martina Peluso: The Jewish woman whose love and skill of Judo gets the sport in the Olympics for women.

25: Togo & Balto: The Dogs Who Saved a Town by Jodi Parachini, art by Keiron Ward and Jason Dewhirst: Tells the tale of the two famous sled dogs.

25: The Princess of Borscht by Leda Schubert, art by Bonnie Christensen: A child makes borscht for her hospitalized grandmother with dubious help from her neighbors.

SEPTEMBER (by date of posting)

1: Nathan’s Song by Leda Schubert, art by Maya Ish-Shalom: A Jewish immigrant’s story

9: Good Boy words and art by Sergio Ruzzier: A relationship between a boy and his dog. In the end we aren’t quite sure: who the good boy is exactly.

10: The Mysterious Guests: A Sukkot Story by Eric Kimmel, art by Katya Krenina. The name says it all.

18: Where Lily Isn’t by Julie Paschkis, art by Margaret Chodos-Irvine: Grieving a lost pet

19: Mom’s Sweater, words and art by Jayde Perkin: Dealing with grief over a lost mother (originally published in Great Britain)

22: I Hate Borsch! words and art by Yevgenia Nayberg: Oh, how she hates, then comes to love a traditional soup of her ancestors.

23: Tashlich at Turtle Rock, Susan Schnur, et al, art by Alex Steele-Morgan: One family’s Rosh Hashanah tradition of tossing their sins in the water.

OCTOBER (by date of posting)

1: Like a Diamond in the Sky: Jane Taylor’s Beloved Poem of Wonder and the Stars by Elizabeth Brown

1: I Miss My Grandpa by Jin Xiaojing in which a young girl finds out how like her unknown grandpa she is.

15: Don’t Sneeze at the Wedding by Pamela Mayer and art by Martha Aviles in which a young flower girl gets dubious advice from one and all on how to stifle her sneeze at her aunt’s wedding.

28: And There was Evening and There was Morning by Harriet Cohen Helfand and Ellen Kahan Zager (who also illustrated) in which the Biblical 7-day creation story is told in rhyme and amazing artwork.

NOVEMBER (by date of posting)

4: Everybody Says Shalom by Leslie Kimmelman in which a visiting family discovers the many cultural, religious, agricultural sides of Israel while saying “hello,” “goodbye,” or “peace.”

9: Cow Says Meow by Kirsti Call with art by Brandon James Scott, in which an ever growing and infuriating collection of animals speak in the wrong language accompanied by puns and onomatopoeia.

28: Over, Bear! Under, Where? by Julie Hedlund with art by Michael Slack is neither over-done nor under-done, but is a heartwarming tale of making a new friend.

30: Hanukkah Haiku by Harriet Ziefert describes the food, family, and fun of Hanukkah. The Marc Chagall-inspired artwork by Karla Gudeon give this book an extra kick.

DECEMBER (by date of posting)

14: By the Hanukkah Light by Sheldon Oberman, illustrated by Neil Waldman, in which a grandfather parallels the ancient Hanukkah story with events of WWII – proving Hanukkah’s relevance and significance in modern times.

22: Ride, Roll, Run: I was fortunate to be in a read-aloud for this new Valerie Bolling book. The children were engaged and anxious to share their own favorite outdoor games – and ready to go out and move! Terse verse, vibrant artwork by Sabrena Khadija, and a diverse cast of characters make this an attractive, let’s-read-it-again book for the littles.

30: Tofu Takes Time: In which a granddaughter and grandmother make tofu together. The little girl learns patience and all the complex elements that go into making a dish. Gently illustrated by Julie Jarema.

Stay tuned for more reviews in 2023.

Life is a Cabaret

Revisioned by Marilyn Wolpin

With apologies to John Kander and Fred Ebb

What good are stories unread in your files?

Go make an agent’s day.

Life is a Cabaret, my friend,

Life is a Cabaret.

Put down the journal,

The phone and the broom,

It’s time to send WIPs away.

Life is a Cabaret, my friend,

Life is a Cabaret.

Come on hit “send,”

And then again.

Throw fear away,

Start speculating.

Right this way,

Your “nos” are waiting.

What good is writing

A story or ten

That sit in a file at home?

Life is a Cabaret, my friend,

Life is a Cabaret.

I used to have a girl friend

Known as Glorie,

With whom I shared

A page or two of my kidlit stories.

She helped me make my words

Better for a while,

But then she went out

And published her own pile.

The day she won the writing prize

My nerves began to fluster –

So that’s what comes from

So much bravery and muster!

And when I saw her stand up

And take all the applause

I knew no matter what might come,

This was my new cause.

I think of Glorie to this day

I remember how she’d turn to me and say,

“What good are stories unread in your files?

Go send them out today.

Life is a Cabaret, my friend,

Life is a Cabaret.”

Being My Own Best Agent

by Marilyn Wolpin

I just spent a most disheartening hour researching agents. The agent I’d been stalking for almost two years sent me her latest “no thank you” yesterday and since that’s the third strike, I’ve decided it’s time to move on.

I have a database with 175 agent names. I love databases. They are orderly and have lots of information. But they are not static things. They are always in flux – agents leave the business, move to another agency, open their own agency, stop accepting submissions. So it’s a thing that must be maintained, managed, and manipulated. Databases don’t complain. I can massage them without a peep of resistance.

I researched twelve agents in my database today. Not one turned out to be someone I would or could reach out to. Here are my results: Four are closed, three don’t want picture books, two were illustrator only, and I rejected three for other reasons (cavalier attitude on MSWL, not enough information on what she’s looking for, and, let’s just say, other). Can I relate that to my work? If I have a dozen stories, is any one publisher or agent out there going to be interested in just one of them? Or conversely, if I send one story to twelve editors, will not even one editor fall in love with it?

I will wend my way through this maze of information and research more agents tomorrow and the next day until I find one who seems simpatico. But until then I will continue doing what I’ve been doing: Being my own best agent.

I am NOT an Aspiring Writer

by Marilyn Wolpin

I am NOT an aspiring writer. I AM a writer. I write stories for children, haikus, letters to the editor, blogs, and queries. I don’t aspire to write these. I just do it.

According to Webster’s to aspire is to hope to achieve something. Do you “aspiring” writers hope to achieve writing? I don’t think so.

I think the hope is that we become published writers. We believe this feat is validation that we are indeed writers. This victory must mean that our words have won over the gatekeepers: an agent, an editor, a team at the acquisition meeting. Oh, how our hopes have turned to reality. Now we are truly writers.

It also means that since I am published, I can remove “aspiring” from my Twitter or Facebook profile. No.

You are defeating yourself by saying you are an aspiring writer. You know the art and craft of writing. You use luscious language, you leave room for the illustrator, you use a combination of short and long sentences, you have a theme, an arc, all the elements. You go to your desk every morning or when you can. You type words into your computer. You revise. You revise some more. You think about your work in the shower, on your walks, in the grocery store, in your dreams.

Guess what that means? You are a writer. No “aspiring” necessary. You don’t need validation from the gatekeepers. You only need it from yourself.

Saying you are an aspiring writer is begging. It’s a psychological deterrent. A writer’s block. Does a musician call him or herself aspiring? When she practices a Bach two-part invention over and over, does she say I am an aspiring pianist? I hope she does not. Does an artist call herself aspiring before she has a show or sells her art? I think not.

So don’t ASPIRE to be a writer. Just DO it. The joy is in the doing. Stop hoping that you are a writer and start believing that you are a writer. I promise it will give you strength.

Libraries Are a Gift

by Marilyn Wolpin

I am lucky to live within a five-mile radius of three libraries – each in a different town. I use my computer to find the books I’m looking for and usually locate most of them in one of the three. Once a week I visit at least two of these libraries to pick up the children’s books I’ve ordered and drop off the ones I’ve read. This past week something happened at one of those libraries that shook my world.

A tall, dark man walked in carrying a small ginger-haired child. An older woman came as well. I assumed the man was the father and the woman the grandmother to this not more than three-year-old girl. The man went up to the librarian and without much of a discernable accent asked the librarian how to use the library.

Just drink that in for a moment. A person in our world who does not know how to use a library. Where in this world had he lived without one?

The librarian stepped away from her plexiglass enclosure and showed the family around. “These are the new books,” she said, indicating a row of child-level bins. “These are the board books,” she said, pointing out the room with a table and chairs.

“What are board books?” the man inquired.

Of course, I don’t need to tell you what they are. But again, drink that in. This family had lived in a world where there were no board books.

As the librarian finished her tour, the man spoke to his mother in a language I did not recognize (and I recognize a lot of languages). So I knew where they weren’t from: Europe, Japan, China, Israel, Russia, South America.

As I left with the ton of books I checked out (see previous TBR post), I noted the family seated in the board book room, child on daddy’s lap drinking in the wonders that are children’s books. What must this family think? There are places in America where you can just sit at your leisure and look at books? Impossible! Places you can go, show a tiny card and freely pick out books and take them home? Unbelievable! This has been possible all my life. I cannot imagine a world where it is not.

But where this family came from, it was not possible. Drink that in. No libraries all their lives. No place of delight and magic for child or adult.

I will no longer take libraries for granted. We are lucky. We are blessed.

Cherish and support your local library.

“I’ve Spent a Lot of Time on This Story Already”

There are many reasons to stop working on a story. You may have run out of ideas. You may have recognized that the message and the medium don’t match. Another story has come barreling into your consciousness and you feel you must work on that. Another way of saying what you meant to say has come to you and you are compelled to follow that thought. And I have also heard, “I’ve spent a lot of time on this already,” throwing poor “time” under the bus. I didn’t realize there was a time limit.

A published author was once asked, “How long does it take you to write a picture book?” Her answer was, “It depends. Some take a month, some take three months, some take three years. In other words, they take as long as they take.” And time you’ve already spent creating cannot be one of the reasons why you abandon a book.

I understand that time is a special commodity. For parents who work out of the home or in, sometimes the only time you have to work on a book is after the work is all done and the kids are in bed. And time becomes a balancing act. Should I work on something that’s just not coming or should I put my time against something that’s working out just beautifully? This is a decision every writer has to make. If a manuscript is giving you trouble, don’t claim time’s up and abandon it. Time shouldn’t be the excuse. Simply put it away and let it age. Your back burner brain will be working on it. You can always come back to it later. And maybe when age has had its way with it you may realize what a dumb idea it was or what a great idea it was and you’ll put more time against it.

Or you may simply realize that for whatever reason this story just isn’t going to work the way you hoped. I was trying to write a story about a rainbow. But my treatment goes against the whole world’s concept of rainbows as being miraculous, joyous, hopeful things. And as much as I think my story is funny and clever, I don’t think anyone would buy it. Too irreverent. I may have put a lot of time against this story and its many revisions, but I would never say I won’t work on it anymore because of the time spent. It was well spent. It was time spent learning the craft of writing picture books in general rather than that story in particular.

Time is not the excuse. Theme, structure, plot, character development, tone. These are the reasons a story works or doesn’t work and if these elements aren’t working then they are the proper “excuses” for abandoning a story.