 Twenty-four thoughtful musical poems about a better world and future are illustrated with colorful, vibrant collages. Dreams of peace, harmony between nations, healing the planet, school friendships, and more are included in this manifesto of hope. Each spread contains four lines beginning with “if only” and ending with the call “Imagine!” Some rhyme; Some do not. The illustrated children are joyful and diverse. This is the first of Andersen Award Winner Tognolini’s works to appear in English. mjw |
| Title: Imagine!: Rhymes Of Hope To Shout Together Author: Bruno Tognolini Illustrator: Guila Orecchia Publisher: Red Comet Press, LLC. Brooklyn, NY Copyright: 2022 Original Language: Italian Translator: Denise Muir Original Title: Magari!: Rimi dei desideria da strillare insieme Original Publisher: Camelozampa Original Copyright: 2021 ISBN: 978-1-63655-014-5 Hardcover pages: 64 Age range: 5-8 Genre: Picture book, Poetry Author’s ethnicity: Italian Author’s residence: Bologna Illustrator’s ethnicity: Italian Illustrator’s residence: Milan Awards: Tognolini has won the Hans Christian Andersen Award (2007) Subjects: Activity, Emotions, Feelings, Hope, Imagination, Poetry |
Imagine!: Rhymes Of Hope To Shout Together
Leave a reply
After her parents’ divorce, ten-year-old Electra (Ellie) moves to a new town with her mother and older brother. She is a spunky and stubborn girl who wants to make friends at her new school. Unfortunately, all of her new classmates are into sports and her mother pushes her to join a sports team. She is clumsy, fails at every sport, and consequently gets bullied. One night she attends a ballet performance with her family and discovers that what she really wants to do is dance. A new boy at school helps her to realize her dream. This positive graphic novel for middle graders is filled with humor and energetic cartoon illustrations that will make young readers smile. mjw
This moving work of historical fiction spans over 50 years and three generations of a family. It starts in France in the 1920s and ends during the time of the 1960s Chinese Cultural Revolution in Shanghai. Young teen Ah Mei is close to her French grandmother. They even look alike. But in 1960s Shanghai, people are suspicious of their European heritage and looks, and of the grandmother’s interracial marriage. Maintaining the family’s silk business becomes difficult and the government takes the business away from them. They are left with very little, but there is still a way to live with grace and love and hope. The writing is beautiful, emotional, and very descriptive in this story of the importance of family bonds. mjw
The French six-year-old narrator in this gorgeous picture book loves spending time in his Spanish grandfather’s incredible garden. The grandfather, Luis, left Spain because of the terrible war. He didn’t have a chance to be a kid, and he never learned to read and write. Together they watch birds. Luis speaks BIRD language. They also draw what they see in the magnificent garden. Luis is a great cook, too, making his house always smell good. Luis speaks in a vibrant and unique language, hence the title of the book, At the Drop of a Cat, and another phrase like “the apple of his pie.” At the end of the story, Luis gives his grandchild a guitar. Even though Luis cannot read or write, he imparts wonderful knowledge about nature and life to his grandchild. Dreamy, colorful, and rich, plant-filled pictures in watercolor and collage depict their natural world effectively
This bilingual Spanish-English edition, the first illustrated selection of 70 questions from Pablo Neruda’s original poem (320 questions), The Book of Questions, is a glorious introduction to Neruda’s works for young children. “Why don’t they teach helicopters how to draw honey from the sun? How did the abandoned bicycle find its freedom? Does the earth chirp like a cricket in the symphony of the skies?” These are a few of the unanswerable imaginative questions posed in the text. The book is large and includes fold-out pages. Blues, reds, and yellows against black or white backgrounds created by pencil and ink have a folk art feel. This is a gorgeous book. mjw
OmniLibros 