Three Picture Books to Welcome Spring

Spring is only two weeks away! I feel refreshed just perusing the soft, but bursting images of picture books about springtime, especially when they are crafted with the grace of a cherry blossom, like these:

Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit: A Book of Changing Seasons (in the UK as Brrrr: A Book of Winter) by Il Sung Na. A whimsy-laced but careful intention floods all of Na's art. I love The Thingamabob, but it's almost as if Na's signature speckle and swirl watercolor details were destined for the nature elements explored in this book.

Mama, Is It Summer Yet? by Nicole McClure. This book stretches through the changes and wonder of spring into summer. See more and learn more here, and read an interview that coincidentally lit up my Google Reader today.

I feel personally drawn to this book because Baby A has been asking to go swimming for weeks (she's a summer girl like me!) but I keep having to remind her that it is still winter. Now I can use this gorgeous book to find the images and words I'm searching for to explain the cues in nature for the coming of spring, and then summer on its heels.

Hi, Mr. Robin! by Alvin Tresselt, pictures by Roger Duvoisin. A beaut' first published in 1950, this stole my heart with its sweet text encapsulating a child's budding patience and eagerness for spring, and its classic, lively illustrations. It would be lovely to hear it read aloud by a Level 1-2 reader (in the most common edition it's 28 pages, with about half of those pages filled with medium-sized text).

I hope you'll soon be reading one of these with a child or with your inner child. 

P.S. Remember how blessed you are to be empowered by literacy on World Read Aloud Day, (tomorrow) March 7th!