My recent picture book reading day included a lot of books. So many in fact that I had to break them into two different reviews. Also read and now included in this review were Mary Had a Little Jam by Tammi Sauer and Vanessa Brantley-Newton and Pencil by Hye-Eun Kim. Well, Hye-Eun Kim’s book was more looked at than read as it is a wordless picture book.
And still Pencil is something that I can write several words about. The fun part of this book is that, as the book tells you (and gives you activities to do with what they tell you), this book is up to you to decide what it is really about. There are several lovely images that made me think about some adult themes: we have a forest, we take some of it to make a pencil that will have a child holding it so they are able to draw a forest. My interpretation does seem a bit dark, don’t you think? But that is okay. You might have a more positive interpretation.
And then we have Mary Had a Little Jam. This book was received by a coworker and he animatedly said, “Mary had a little jaam!” And we all wanted to know if it was jam as jelly or as jam as boogie! It was the latter. Then, I found an online reader copy to read. And boy does she jam and boogie and hoot and holler! But of course, that is after she and her friends (the nursery characters we know) come together to make some sweet music. A lot more busy, colorful and less sweet, but equally nice and fun as Pencil was, this book is for a more active reader. This is the second book after Mary Had a Little Glam, which I haven’t read (yet).
Both books were read via an online reader copy though both are currently available.