If the flight of a hawk is poetry in motion, then this book is, too. Author Maria Gianferrari provides the poetry, and illustrator Brian Floca provides the hawk in motion. Parallel stories are at work here: Father Hawk hunts, while Mother Hawk stays with their chicks; a human girl, binoculars in hand, observes the hawk, […]
Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas
November 25, 2014 by 2 Comments
Since Brian Floca won the Caldecott last year for Locomotive, you can bet this year’s committee will be taking a look at his 2014 picture book. Written by long-distance swimmer Lynne Cox, this is a factual account of a particularly incorrigible elephant seal and the Christchurch, New Zealand, community that eventually made way for her. […]
Worlds collide
March 5, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Readers of this blog will know exactly why I am linking to this month’s School Library Journal‘s cover story: kudos to Brian Floca, Locomotive, and our own Robin Smith!
Studio Views: Pen, Ink, Watercolor, Repeat
February 19, 2014 by 1 Comment
I began my illustration career with black and white work. I was much more of a drawer than a painter, much more comfortable with line than with color. One of the things that attracted me to the combination of pen-and-ink and watercolor back then was that watercolor’s transparency allowed me to create color pieces while […]
Mr. Tiger Goes Wild and Locomotive: Compare and Contrast
January 16, 2014 by 8 Comments
On Tuesday Robin took a second look at Journey and Mr. Wuffles!; today I am grouping another two books with, perhaps, little in common except their excellence, their top-notch production values, their presence on many mock Caldecott winning ballots—and the distinct possibility that they’ll find a place on the real Caldecott table in Philadelphia. Can […]
Locomotive
September 25, 2013 by 8 Comments
The first thing you notice about Brian Floca’s Locomotive is its big, bold size and square shape. Jonathan Bean’s Building our House has a larger-than-average trim size as well, but this is different. This one has a lot more bells and whistles (literally: “CLANG-CLANG CLANG-CLANG” “WHOO-OOOOOO”). This one is in-your-face big; this one has a steam […]
Review of Locomotive
September 4, 2013 by 1 Comment
Locomotive by Brian Floca; illus. by the author Primary, Intermediate Jackson/Atheneum 64 pp. 9/13 978-1-4169-9415-2 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4424-8522-8 $12.99 Talk about a youth librarian’s dream come true: a big new book about those ever-popular trains from a bona fide picture-book-nonfiction all-star. Striking cinematic endpapers lay the groundwork, describing the creation of the Transcontinental […]
