The Zoo by Suzy Lee

How many times have you gone to the Zoo only to leave feeling like you haven't seen a single animal? The Zoo by Suzy Lee is a darling book about a family who goes to the zoo. This book tells two stories...the story of the parents who are pictured in greyscale along with the "real" zoo and the story of their child...a pancho clad girl with red cheeks. She immediately notices what no one else sees; a brilliant peacock who she follows for the entirety of the book, even when she "gets lost". This book is very cute and the pictures are absolutely darling. A good one for before and after your Zoo visit.

The World that Loved Books by Stephen Parlato

The simple premise of this book is showcased through beautifully rendered pictures made of photo collage. The whole idea of the book is that "There once was a world where everyone loved books...so much that when they read their books, they became what they read." Following this simple statement are 14 collages...examples of animals and people who became what they read...like the rabbit who became turtles. The picture is so intricate and uses dozens of pictures of turtles cut and arranged in such a way to make a very believable rabbit. Take a look at this book to appreciate the simple message and study the very cool pictures.

The Umbrella Queen by Shirin Yim Bridges

During these trying economic times many people have had to make sacrifices to keep their heads above water. I'm getting ready to move back in with my mom, to help both her and me save a little more money, just in case. For me, moving back in with mom will also allow me to have a bit more extra money and with the extra money I'm looking forward to joining a gym, taking back up my violin lessons, and being able to see my friends out more. So, the extra is actually allowing me to be more of an individual even though I won't have the independence of living by myself. A balence. But I digress.

This picture book, set in Thailand, is about a little girl named Noot. She lives in a village where the one thing the village does to earn money is to paint umbrellas. The make the frames of the umbrellas, they make the paper of the umbrellas, and they paint them themselves. Always they paint butterflies and flowers. Noot tries her hand at painting and discovers that she is a good umbrella painter, however, she "ruins" a few umbrellas by painting elephants on them. This saddens her mother who has to explain to Noot that they can't paint just what they like, they have to paint what sells and what sells are flowers and butterflies. So Noot goes back to painting what sells, but makes her own tiny elephant umbrellas at night to keep herself happy and to celebrate her individuality.

I enjoyed the pictures and the story in this book. The ending reinforces the theme that balence is important in life. Noot eventually gets rewarded for painting from her heart, but she still understands the importance of helping her family by painting the expected butterflies and flowers. I would personally buy the elephant umbrella...but that's just me.