Pelle’s New Suit by Elsa Beskow. The sweetest, most simple story of wool from a sheep being made into a suit with the help of the boy all along. Elsa Beskow evokes such a nostalgia for “the simple life.”
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. A woman tells her story… and does her part to beautify the world. Cooney is such a talented illustrator, a real artist.
Sun Bread by Elisa Kleven. Anything from Elisa Kleven is just pure eye candy. In this one, a dreery town wakes the sun up from its slumber…
Peter Spier’s Rain. A wordless delight. Peter Spier is one of my very favorites.
An Egg Is Quiet by Diana Hutts Aston. If one is going to limit herself to just ten, she may as well include educational delights as well. One reviewer somewhere pointed out that this book is the type you want to leave lying about for a child to discover, rather than making a point to read it aloud. Her accompanying titles A Seed Is Sleepy and A Butterfly Is Patient are gorgeous springtime gems also!
Andrew Henry’s Meadow by Doris Burn. An incredibly innovative, inspiring tale of a young lad who needs a place to have his creative genius appreciated. I am so happy this is back in print! Doris Burn is my very favorite…
Spring Is Here by Lois Lenski. Just an old, classic bit of fun rhyme and excitement about the season. Lois Lenski doesn’t add any profound wonder to this category, but children seem to love the small size of her books and the simplicity in the vintage, early 20th century images.
Persephone by Sally Clayton. This is a beautiful book to dive into with children. Not only do they get to delight in the story and superb illustrations, they become more culturally literate as they learn about the Greek mythology behind Persephone and springtime.
And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano. This is a new book and one that I think makes for an instant classic; it’s patient and thoughtful and lovely and everything an early spring book should be. I am so happy to own it and wrote about it more in depth here.
Hey, wait, that's MY top-ten list! Actually, it's my top-three list, on top there. The rest are new to me.
Three others that I couldn't do without are: The Root Children by Sybil von Olfers (a little, delicious waldorf-y fable about plants in spring), The Happy Day, and The Bears on Hemlock Mountain (which is technically more a February book…the drip drip drip part of Spring)
I love that Barbara Cooney keeps showing up. Are you familiar with Patricia Polacco?
I dig Sybil von Olfers too… our library only has a title or two in their inventory unfortunately and her books NEVER show up second hand… so we don't own any. Boo.
Patricia Polacco. Yes! Sia was the first to introduce me to her. Thundercake might make it onto my Top 10 Summer list. Just a couple weeks ago we did a study unit based around Rechenka's Eggs. Good stuff.