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Rainstorm
Illustrated by Barbara Lehman
Houghton Mifflin, 2007

Do you remember being a kid and how horrible it was when you couldn’t go outside and play and you were bored out of your mind? I do. And this wordless picture book captures a child’s curiosity and imagination.

It’s raining. A little boy character looks out at the rain, tries to find something to do, but he’s just bored. He kicks a ball under a chair. When he goes to retrieve it, he discovers a key. He tries the key out on every object he can find that might require a key. Finally he finds a trunk. He opens it up and there’s a ladder inside that leads somewhere.

This story told solely through the pictures show where the boy goes in his imagination on a rainy day. There he meets up with other children who have also made their way there and want to keep going back to their special place.

This book reminds me of the imaginary places I had as a kid and the imaginary games I’d play on rainy days when I couldn’t go outside.

Of the three books I’ve reviewed, this the first one to have the title large and easily seen. The Red Book doesn’t have a title on the front cover. Museum Trip does, but it is in the form of a small stamp on the bottom right hand corner. Rainstorm’s title is right on the front.

Museum Trip
Illustrated by Barbara Lehman
Houghton Mifflin, 2006

This book begins by introducing us to our main character, a boy who lags a little behind when he goes on a school field trip to a museum. While the other children are looking at fascinating pictures and sculptures, the boy stops to tie his shoe. When he looks up, his class is gone. He looks for them briefly and then discovers more interesting things.

He goes through a door that leads to a room of pictures of mazes. He studies each one, imagining himself making his way through the twists and turns of each. As a reader we escape into these mazes with him and the mazes take on life-size existence. In the last maze, the boy enters a tower and receives a medal. After winning “the prize” for success in each maze, he rejoins his class, still looking at pictures in the museum. No one seems to have missed him while he was gone exploring his imagination. And in this book the reader notices that it’s not another child who has also escaped into the same imaginative exploring, but it’s the museum guide.

I love that last touch. I think it’s wonderful that Lehman celebrates not only a child’s imagination, but also an adult’s imagination.

One of my goals for my blog this year was to study a few authors/illustrators more in depth, to attempt to get my hands on as many books as they have created as possible. As I do my author/illustrator studies, I may not be able to address all of the books he/she has written. I will do my best to cover as much of their work as possible, with as many of the books I can get my hands on.

I begin with Barbara Lehman, illustrator of children’s picture books. She has illustrated at least eight other books written by other writers, including Abracadabra to Zigzag: An Alphabet Book by Nancy Lecourt and Susan Whitcher, Moonfall by Susan Whitcher. In this illustrator study, I will be reviewing the books she self-illustrated: The Red Book, Museum Trip, and Rainstorm.

I must admit, I’m fascinated by wordless picture books. Give me a fascinating David Wiesner or Barbara Lehman tale done completely in pictures, and I’m hooked. I think it’s because as a reader or a viewer, I can take part in deciding so much of the story myself.

I like Lehman's wordless picture books because her stories really capture the imagination of a child. Each child in the three books I’m reviewing this week are whisked away by their own imaginations, which leads them to places only imaginations can take them. And isn’t that the beauty of childhood?

The Red Book
Illustrated by Barbara Lehman
Houghton Mifflin, 2004

This book is probably one of the most easily recognized of Barbara Lehman’s book, probably because it got attention when it won a Caldecott honor. We follow a child who finds a red book in the snow. She takes it with her, and when she opens it up, she finds a map. The child imagines herself in the map, walking around the island. On that same island, a boy finds a red book. He opens it up and sees a picture of a snowy city. Then the little girl sees the boy looking at the book looking at her. Confused? In other words, they see each other through red books.

The girl finds a man selling balloons on the street and she buys them all. She loses the red book on her attempt to fly away to the island. She does reach the island and finds her friend. But someone else has picked up the red book she lost.

This book reminds me very much of the concept of Flotsam (by David Wiesner, Houghton Mifflin, 2006) because of how children are connected through their sense of imagination.

I really like how Barbara Lehman makes it easy to follow the characters in her book and see what they are seeing, but also giving us perspective. I have been studying some older wordless picture books. Many of them have so much on a page that it’s more like reading “Where’s Waldo” and hunting for the character on a busy page rather than feeling connected to a character on their journey. I don’t feel like that with modern wordless picture books, and especially not with Lehman’s work. Her characters are front and center and I am easily pulled into their stories of imagination and where they might take me…

I know it's early, but I want to let everyone know about the Burlington Book Festival coming up next month.  Burlington, VT hosts an incredible book festival each fall, just as the leaves are changing color in New England.  If you live in the Northeast (or even if you don't but you really, really like autumn leaves and books), it's worth the trip.  Most of the events are being held at Waterfront Theater on the shores of Lake Champlain.



I'll be presenting  on Sunday, September 16th at the Children's Literature Festival.  Here's my blurb from the festival website:

11:00 AM-12:00 PM

KATE MESSNER

Join Kate Messner for a trip back in time to the American Revolution on Lake Champlain. Kate will read from her middle grade historical novel Spitfire, set during the Battle of Valcour Island in 1776, sign books and present an interactive multimedia slide show about the real 12-year-old who fought in the battle. Kids will be invited to taste the food and try on the clothes of an 18th century sailor, handle artifact replicas and design their own powder horns to take home.

Waterfront Theatre Black Box, 3rd Floor

Right after my presentation, Linda Urban (lurban) will read from A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT and talk about the journey of writing and publishing a children's book.  (Even though Linda says it will make her nervous, my kids and I are definitely going to be in the audience!)

Also on tap for the Sunday kids' day... Tracey Campbell Pearson, James Kochalka, Anna Dewdney, Harry Bliss, Jim Arnosky, Barbara Seuling, Marie-Louise Gay, Barbara Lehman, and Warren Kimble.

And the rest of the Book Festival is nothing to scoff at either, with writers like Chris Bohjalian, Howard Frank Mosher, Russell Banks, and Joyce Carol Oates speaking on Saturday, September 15th.  The full schedule is posted at the festival website now. If you're in the area that weekend, please stop by the Children's Literature Festival and say hello!