In “Ellie Mae Dreams Big,” author Kristina McMorris collaborated with her sister, illustrator Amanda Yoshida, to create a cheerful tale of possibilities.
Picture books can be the gateway to a lifelong reading habit, so if you have an incipient reader in your life, let’s take a look at the latest offerings from some Portland-area authors and illustrators.
Kristina McMorris is a New York Times bestselling author of two novellas and eight historical novels, but for “Ellie Mae Dreams Big” she writes about 24 hours in the life of a grade school student whose teacher has issued a challenging homework assignment.
Mr. O’Donnell asks the students in his class to come to school the next day dressed as what they want to be when they grow up.
Back at home that evening, Ellie Mae has a terrible time deciding — “She thought and thought, and ate and thought,” McMorris writes.
But Ellie Mae had trouble narrowing down her choices. Should she be an astronaut? A candy farmer? A pirate? A dentist?
As she ponders this rich array of possibilities, readers will be flipping through pages of colorful illustrations of career mashups — the candy farm is so abundant with fields of candy corn, lollipop flowers and cotton candy trees, it will make your teeth ache!
These were devised by Amanda Yoshida, who is not only an award-winning illustrator but also McMorris’ sister.
In a recent online interview, Yoshida, who is Asian American, noted that while she always loved picture books growing up, she rarely saw someone like herself represented in their pages.
So in “Ellie Mae Dreams Big,” the illustrator ensures that Ellie Mae’s classroom represents kids of many different ethnic and racial backgrounds, and the heroine herself is Asian American.
When readers get to the end of this book, they will find that Ellie Mae’s solution to her homework problem is all-encompassing and a cheerful invitation to other kids to dream big.
Another recent book by a Portland author and illustrator takes a more philosophical approach to looking to the future.
Margaux Meganck’s “Speck” tells the story of a fascating dot in a tide pool.
Margaux Meganck’s “Speck” is about a mere dot — one of many — in a tide pool. We’re not exactly sure what or who these specks are, but they’re represented on each page as itty-bitty gleams. When the tide rushes in, the specks are carried out by ocean currents.
Meganck uses watercolor and colored pencil to create dreamy underwater scenes populated by crabs, seals, sea turtles, schools of fish and, of course, the specks. Early pages show swirling swarms of these miniature entities, but with each passing page, they seem to scatter further apart.
The minimal text talks about tides shifting and specks drifting, a subtle acknowledgment of the changing nature of things, and how that sometimes can feel overwhelming or scary. But new situations also can be filled with wondrous new things to consider.
Where the heroic speck of our story ends up will delight readers and reveal the speck’s identity. The book conveys a reassuring conclusion that applies not just to the speck, but to anyone reading the story.
This post was originally published on here
