Rachel Isadora

This is for every parent or caregiver who's ever had to answer this question. So, basically, all of them!

In a style that harks back to Ruth Krauss, Isadora walks readers through the season asking for each one, "Do I have to wear a coat?" It starts with a spring day, no more coats except for raincoats! A group of pudgy children with thin legs and a diversity of hair types and skin colors play on a farm, ride bikes, and go on picnics. In the summer the kids have cool treats, play outdoors (two show more children in wheelchairs are shown playing tennis) and sit around a campfire. There are beach visits, rainbows, and four-leaf-clovers.

Fall begins with sweaters and falling leaves, shows kids playing soccer (one is in forearm crutches with a missing leg), visiting apple orchards and pumpkin fields, and celebrating Halloween. In the winter there are chilly scenes outdoors, as the tree that signals each season sits bare and chilly in the snow. Kids put on their coats, play in the snow, and then cuddle up inside with a book and friends.

The final page lists all the seasons again and what kids wore in each, from a raincoat in spring to a coat in winter. The art is spot art, with light shadows cast around the groupings of children in different seasons. This isn't a straight narrative so much as a celebration of different seasons, marked by traditions, clothing, and weather. It is definitely set in a climate with four well-defined seasons, and even then depicts a much milder spring than I've ever experienced in Wisconsin. The children show a diversity of skin colors, hair types, and some physical disabilities, but all present as healthy, happy children They also appear to be generally economically privileged, visiting the beach, wearing well-fitting and apparently new and clean clothing, ice skating, and more. However, there is a nice range of activities, including public parks, that should offer something for every child to relate to.

ISBN: A heartfelt look at the joys of each season; purchase in places with four seasons, where you can never have too many of these books, or if you want to introduce children to other climates.

ISBN: 9780525516606; Published March 2020 by Nancy Paulsen/Penguin; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library show less

With its silver and black cover, angled title, and silhouettes, Ben's Trumpet, a Caldecott Honor Book, announces to readers that they are in for a stylish ride. With simple text and stunning black and white illustrations, Isadora tells the story of Ben, a young boy who lives in the inner city, not far from the Zig Zag Jazz Club. On hot nights, Ben sits on the fire escape and plays his "trumpet" (even the cover communicates that it is an imaginary one) along with the trumpeter, who, as far as show more Ben is concerned, is "the cat's meow". Ben's family tolerates his "playing", but the candy store kids are less kind, shaming Ben for his imaginative playing. Isadora's tale has a rewarding and uplifting ending that involves one of the musicians from the jazz club taking Ben under his wing. All artistic creation, all achievement, the author seems to stay, begins in the imagination, but dreams require nurturing and mentoring, too.

I'm not sure what medium Isadora has used to create her illustrations. They appear to be pen and ink. Whatever they are, they're stunning: the epitome of "cool". Each of the musicians at the jazz club--the pianist, the trombonist, the drummer, the saxophonist, and the trumpeter--gets his own page, and Isadora manages to communicate through her art the effort and focus each musician brings to the jazz ensemble. The drummer's page is particularly notable--all done in jittery lines to suggest the rattling and percussion.

Ben's Trumpet would be a neat book to use to introduce jazz to kids, but it is an also provides interesting examples of how visual art can suggest movement and sound. show less

A young African girl named Lala, living with her family in a village on the veld, delays her bedtime for as long as she can, insisting that she must say goodnight to a variety of animals and objects. Having put off going to sleep for as long as possible, she finally settles in, saying goodnight to her book - the much-loved classic, Goodnight Moon.

I found I Just Want to Say Good Night quite charming, both for its presentation of that classic early childhood experience - delaying bedtime - and show more for the delightful illustrations it contains. I also appreciated author/illustrator Rachel Isadora's tribute to the Margaret Wise Brown classic, Goodnight Moon. All that said, I did wonder a bit at her decision to set her story in a generic "Africa," rather than in a specific country. It's true that the "veld" is to be found in the southern part of the continent, but there a number of countries which contain this ecosystem - why not choose one? Leaving that issue aside, I was pleased with this sweet story of a little African girl and her bedtime rituals. Recommended to anyone looking for goodnight books with an African cultural setting, or featuring black characters. show less

A young boy, who is - by the look of it - growing up in the 1920s, Ben loves to listen to the music spilling out of the local jazz joint, the Zig Zag Club, and to imagine that he too can play the trumpet. He watches the musicians, and feels the music. He 'plays' for his family on his invisible trumpet, and even receives a compliment from the club trumpeter, whose own playing is the "cat's meow." But when the neighborhood boys ridicule his imaginary instrument, Ben's trumpeting is at an end. show more Or is it...?

A Caldecott Honor book from 1980, this brief picture-book was chosen as one of our March selections, over in the Picture-Book Club to which I belong, where our theme this month is music. But although its themes are appealing, and its narrative - despite its brevity - engaging, the best part of Rachel Isadora's Ben's Trumpet is the dramatic black-and-white artwork, with its bold silhouettes, zigzagging lines, and curved figures. The illustrations here really come alive, and were well deserving of the honors they won! Recommended to all young would-be musicians and jazz lovers, as well as to anyone who appreciates a skilled melding of word and image. show less