Isabelle Malenfant – illustratör

Morris is a little boy who loves using his imagination. But most of all, Morris loves his classroom’s dress-up center and its tangerine dress.Morris is a little boy who loves using his imagination. He dreams about having space adventures, paints beautiful pictures and sings the loudest during circle time. But most of all, Morris loves his classroom’s dress-up center — he loves wearing the tangerine dress.But the children in Morris’s class don’t understand. Dresses, they say, are for girls. And Morris certainly isn’t welcome in the spaceship some of his classmates are building. Astronauts, they say, don’t wear dresses.One day when Morris feels all alone, and sick from the taunts of his classmates, his mother lets him stay home from school. Morris reads about elephants, and puts together a puzzle, and dreams of a fantastic space adventure with his cat, Moo.Inspired by his dream, Morris paints the incredible scene he saw, and brings it with him to school. He builds his own spaceship, hangs his painting on the front of it and takes two of his classmates on an outer space adventure.With warm, dreamy illustrations Isabelle Malenfant perfectly captures Morris’s vulnerability and the vibrancy of his imagination. This is a sweetly told story about the courage and creativity it takes to be different.Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.

This engaging story, told in chapter-like episodes, follows Pinny on a long, lazy summer day. As sunshine turns to rain and back to sun again, Pinny searches for a wishing rock, watches clouds, picks wild blueberries, feeds a seagull, and bakes a cake to share with her friends.An ideal book for children beginning to make the jump to independent reading, Pinny in Summer demonstrates the joy young people find in nature and an unstructured life. Pinny is allowed to explore her world freely, and her small setbacks and triumphs will be familiar to every child.With charming illustrations by Isabelle Malenfant and a spare, poetic text from author Joanne Schwartz, Pinny in Summer is a bright and inviting picture book that captures all the delight of a perfect summer day.

“Schwartz dreamily captures the small wonders of childhood and the air of magic that can accompany season’s change.” — Publishers Weekly, starred reviewOn a crisp fall day, Pinny decides to go for a walk. She packs a sweater, her rain hat, a book, a snack and her treasure pouch. Set for adventure, Pinny’s day includes a windy game of tag with her friends, an exciting call for help from the lighthouse keeper and a surprising encounter with the falling autumn leaves.From Joanne Schwartz, author of the acclaimed picture book Town Is by the Sea, comes a story of friendship, resourcefulness and the beauty of fall, all cast in the gentle light of Isabelle Malenfant’s soft pastel palette. The four short chapters in this book, suited for newly independent readers, capture the exhilarating feeling of a perfect fall day.Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7>With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.5Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting)CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

A child donates a can of food to their school food drive. But in an unexpected twist, they come to understand what it means to give and receive.A child is excited to donate a can of their favorite Zoodelicious to the school food drive. Their teacher has explained that the food will be given to people in need, along with mittens from the “mitten tree.”In the classroom, there’s a carpet with one hundred squares, and the goal is to fill each square with a can of food. When the child places their can of Zoodelicious on square 100, everyone cheers, and the teacher puts a snowflake sticker on top to celebrate.But a few days later, the child finds the same can of Zoodelicious among the groceries their mom has brought home. There’s a pair of red mitts, too. “Mom, are we the people in need?” the child asks.The next morning, after having thought of all the people who will receive food from the school and wondering what else they might need, the child donates their too-small blue mittens to the mitten tree at school.Created by an award-winning team, One Can tells a timely and touching story of a child who learns to give and receive—and wants only to give again in return.Key Text Featuresdialogueillustrations Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.