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Featured books by
Henry Cole
Reading Rockets recommends the following books by Henry Cole.
In this cumulative tale, Jack plants, tends and harvests his garden. Not only will readers follow Jack's activities, they'll learn about gardens and gardening in this informative and animated book through text and highly detailed and well-labeled illustrations. (The author's background as a science teacher is pleasantly evident.)
Caroline doesn't see much of the name of their new street, Meadowview, as she and her family move to their new suburban neighborhood. When she saves a single flower from the lawn mower, she starts to change not only her backyard but ultimately the entire neighborhood. Soft illustrations and understated text convey story and an important concept.
Young readers are invited to look and listen as they join a girl on a summer morning walk to the beach. While she passes through the woods, a marsh, and the dunes, she stops to observe, and sometimes wonders what animals are watching her. A foldout reveals animals, birds, insects, and plants in each of the coastal settings, and are carefully listed on the final page.
Books illustrated by Henry Cole
A young boy's flight to freedom is shown from the animal's point of view in darkly hued, evocative illustrations. The animals reveal what the boy needs to know along the way – frogs point to fresh water, a mouse shows edible berries – until he emerges and is shown walking toward a safe house on the Underground Railroad. Text and illustration impart a taut, nocturnal journey.
Their city adventure begins when the four big chickens follow a bag of feed into the farmer's truck — and off they go! Lively language and comic illustrations combine to create a rowdy fowl adventure which ends happily back in the farmer's truck heading home.
The basics of the events that led up to the Boston Tea Party in 1773 are revealed gradually, building through the familiar cadence of "The House That Jack Built." Rhyming text and realistic illustrations successfully introduce the event that preceded the Revolutionary War. Small Colonial and English mice appear on each page, adding humor and a touch of information to this otherwise straightforward, clearly illustrated historical book.
Livingstone Mouse discovers that the woodland creatures just don't have the rhythm needed for an effective musical performance. Even though he's told to mind his own business, he puts a band together and makes it all work. The adventures of this mouse-explorer, first introduced in Livingstone Mouse (HarperCollins, 1996), are told and illustrated with humor and verve.
The rhyming conversation between a boy and his dad begins when a naughty chicken follows them home. As the father reads his newspaper, the boy asks, "You know what?" "What?" A turn of the page reveals the rhyming response. Rollicking good kid humor abounds in both the dialogue and the comic illustrations.
The rascally child introduced in Chicken Butt returns. Here, he gets his poor mom to say all kinds of rhyming words as he plays with homophones (think: but, butt; bare, bear). Cartoon illustrations add to the humor of the mother-son conversation.
After her mother lays the egg, Clara becomes a plain caterpillar and then, predictably, a plain butterfly. Her homely color, however, camouflages Clara and allows her to become a hero by saving her once-haughty friend from a hungry crow. Butterfly fact and utter imagination combine in this winning tale of courage and contentedness.
In this rendition of the classic fairy tale, the Cinderella role is played by – you guessed it – a dinosaur! Her Fairydactyl comes to the rescue and dresses our heroine, a big fuchsia dinosaur, in a prom gown. And while you're reading about how Dinorella dazzles the Duke at the Dinosaur Dance, children will be learning about the sound /d/ makes.
While their mother vacations in Florida, Fosdyke's siblings forage for food like typical foxes. Since the fowl on the farm have been warned, the results are disastrous. Meantime back at home, Fosdyke prepares tasty vegetarian dishes, which everyone ultimately enjoys together. Animated illustrations are perfectly suited to the fast, funny, and alliterative text; the letter F is well represented!
When Mimi the Swan sees ballet practice from the window of the Paris Opera House, she becomes obsessed with ballet. Though she tries to attend a performance, she is not allowed into the opera house. She finally follows a tardy dancer into the theater and gets her big break: Mimi becomes the star in none other than "Swan Lake!" The wry humor is conveyed in both text and witty illustrations in this appealing, comical story.
Meet Katy—a feisty ballerina-in-the-making who loves to twirl like a leaf, stretch like a flower, and float like a swan. She's all dance, all the time—until she faces the fear of dancing in front of everyone in her new ballet class at Mr. Tutu's School of Dance! Suddenly the once-bold Katy is overcome with a bad case of stage fright! What's a duck to do?
Katy Duck loved to dance through each season but was especially excited about the spring recital: "A show to celebrate spring!" Though Katy is disappointed with her assignment, she blossoms as a lowly caterpillar in this recognizable and humorous tale.
Can Tracker, Fritz, Sheena, and Jake find Rosie before the dogcatcher finds them all? The quest starts when Rosie heads back to the city to find her former owner. Each puppy has his or her distinct personality; each lives with loving humans in Buxton, a small town where Rosie comes to live, too. The canine sleuths are captivating in this and other books in the series. Black and white sketches throughout enhance the dogs' individuality.
A little lion cub cannot understand why no one, from 1 red monkey to 8 brown gazelles, wants to play with him. His roar is not frightening to the 9 yellow lion cubs he meets, however, and the ROAR of 10 playful lions sends all the animals stampeding away! The rhythmic text with the repeated "roar" encourages participation as children follow the energetic, gently humorous illustrations and explore animal habitats as well as numbers and colors.
Grandmother has a surprise for Mayumie — is it a visit to the zoo, a museum, or the big city? When they finally reach their destination, Mayumie understands what makes visiting a cherry blossom grove so special: the beautiful pink flowers only bloom once a year! Readers will be enchanted by the magic of the story and the illustrations that capture the stunning colors of the cherry blossom trees. An author's note provides historical details, as well as information on the cherry blossom trees in Washington, DC.
One warm Wednesday morning, the sun winked through Wombat's window and woke her up. "What a wonderful day to wander the world," she thought. What if Wombat woke one Wednesday with wanderlust? What if she wrangled her wander-worthy companions – Weasel and Woodchuck – to wend their way through the world with her? What if the world, the woods, and its wicked things wrestled with their wishes for wild adventure? But what if these wily wanderers used their wits to ward off worries and all the world's wild creatures? Why, then it would be a most wonderful day to wander the world.
"Things were quiet on the Tuckers' farm..." but really took off once a peacock came to live with them. The chickens become jealous and so trade places with the peacock with very funny results. Cartoon illustrations add humor and charm to the understated, appealing text.
Nocturnal animals wake up as everyone else goes to sleep. Illustrations show their nighttime activities illuminated by moonlight while the gently rhyming text creates a soothing rhythm. Filled with movement, all of which starts with wake-up kisses, this is a comfortable and comforting story to be shared at bedtime.
As they make cupcakes, a group of messy warthogs count to ten then eat their work and end with zero. Energetic, cartoon-like illustrations and a lively, rhyming text result in a slapstick comedy that may inspire an attempt to try one of the recipes included.
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