Josee Bisaillon – illustratör

New Telescope Sees All! Amazing Secrets to Be Revealed! So the headlines read in the New York Sun one day in the summer of 1835. For a week straight, the newspaper printed stories and pictures of the discoveries made using a new telescope in far-off Africa. And on the streets of New York City, hundreds of newsboys shouted the headlines at the top of their lungs: Heavens Filled with Buffalo! Moon Beavers! Man Bats! We Are Not Alone! Every day, newsboys Jake and Charlie sold their stacks of newspapers quickly. The good business paid off for them—they could even afford a room at a boarding house. As they jingled the coins in their pockets, they wondered about what they were reading. Would the man bats fly to Earth? Would a moon ship carry treasure hunters into the sky? And would their good fortune last?

In this charming picture book allegory of the creative writing process, happenstance and weather events symbolize the emotional ebb and flow of writing a poem.

I had a poem in my pocket,

but my pocket got a rip.

Rhymes tumbled down my leg

and trickled from my hip.

Thus begins the journey of a young poet’s words out into the world, where they join randomly with other words to form funny riffs and puns all over a busy city street. The child scrambles to capture the loose words and arrange them back into poem form, only to lose them again as a storm swoops in on a rushing wind. Eventually, the words plant themselves in the muddy ground, where they grow into something that might be even better than the original poem: a Poet-Tree.

Not only a fanciful rhyming adventure tale, Chris Tougas’s picture book is also a delightful allegory for the creative writing process. Perfect for classroom discussions about the emotional ups and downs of writing, this highly innovative book celebrating poetry and creativity is an excellent choice for National Poetry Month. It also showcases the magic of language and how much fun words can be. High-energy artwork by Josée Bisaillon is so full of words in flight and at play that children can pore over it again and again, and in the final spread, readers can search for rhyming pairs. An afterword discusses National Poetry Month and Poem in Your Pocket Day. This is a book that adult writers will also appreciate.

Poetic text and ethereal illustrations combine with science facts about wind in this delightful informational picture book.

“You can feel wind … but you can’t see it. What is wind?” This exploration of different types of wind pairs lyrical descriptions of wind types with accessible, informational sidebars about each. The whimsical narrative uses metaphor to help readers visualize wind’s characteristics: “Wind is a butterfly – fluffing flower petals and ruffling riverbank grasses.” Informative bubbles on each page complement these descriptions with short explanations of each wind type, which range from a light breeze to a hurricane. Evocative illustrations further bring the text to life in this fascinating introduction to the ever-changing wind.

Author Debra Kempf Shumaker uses figurative language and metaphors to capture the imagination of readers as they learn about wind. Her imagery will inspire readers to find their own words to represent the world around them, and in particular to answer the question at the end of the book: “How would you describe the wind today?” The breezy illustrations by award-winning, bestselling artist Josée Bisaillon help readers feel the movement of the air. With its easy-to-understand depictions of the types of wind, this is a perfect STEAM pick for lessons on daily and seasonal weather. More information about types of wind, the Beaufort scale and a list of resources for further learning are at the back of the book.