Jeanne Titherington

This is a beautiful bedtime story for a very young child. It is imaginative, poetic and loving. It's about a baby sailing in a boat through the sky. The baby fishes from the boat, using a moonbeam for a line and a star for bait. The illustrations are large and rendered in soft colors, perfect for viewing at bedtime. The last line says, ..."Only don't forget to sail...Back again to me" which, of course made me cry because our little ones are so cherished.

Jamie plants a pumpkin seed in the spring in this seasonal picture book for younger children, watching it grow into a pumpkin plant, then flower, and then produce an actual pumpkin, as summer and then autumn come. When it is Halloween time, he carves the now massive pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern, saving some of the seeds he scooped out of it to plant next year...

Originally published in 1986, Pumpkin, Pumpkin is the first picture book I have read from author/illustrator Jeanne Titherington, show more whose beautiful colored pencil artwork really enhanced the experience. The text is very simple—no more than a sentence or phrase per two-page spread—describing the seasonal rhythms of a growing pumpkin, while the artwork captures the beauty of the natural world (it looks like a farm) in which Jamie lives. I particularly liked the various animals with which Jamie interacts, as he watches his pumpkin grow. Recommended to younger picture book readers and audiences—kindergarten and below, I would say—looking for pumpkin-centered tales for autumn. show less

"Sophy and Auntie Pearl" by Jeanne Titherington, is an imaginative, illustrated children's book. The themes of this story include family, bonds, and imagination. Within the story, we are shown the ability for the character Sophy to relate to her aunt, Pearl. They bond over the ability to fly, and none of their other family members believing that power is special.

The illustrations in this story bring it to life. There are words, but the pictures are very detailed and add depth to the show more storytelling. Titherington's ability to balance the neglectful family and fun moments with her aunt, contribute to this story being light-hearted and fun.

As a child, I found this story to be a fun adventure between an aunt and niece. After re-reading during adulthood, I am finding that this fun adventure was a distraction from parents being too busy to notice a child's special trait. show less

In the spring, Jamie plants a pumpkin seed. He watches all summer as the pumpkin grows and grows. In the fall, it is big enough to make a perfect Halloween jack-o’-lantern. But what will Jamie find inside the pumpkin?

The target audience for this charming picture book is preschool through primary grades, ages four through eight. The exquisite colored pencil illustrations are a highlight of this book. With their childlike innocence, they are sure to delight the young reader. The engaging show more illustrations are a perfect counterpart to the narrative as they clearly represent the simple science of planting seeds, watching them grow, and deciding when to harvest.

With its simple, repetitive narrative, this picture book is perfect for emerging readers. Picture clues help in decoding words while the narrative’s repetition builds confidence as the child reads.

Highly recommended for all young readers, especially emerging readers. Also recommended for autumn storytelling, for an introduction to the science of sowing seeds and growing plants [for which it won a New York Academy of Science Children’s Book Award], or for the beautiful artwork. This is a book that belongs in every primary grade classroom library. show less