Published in the Family Post Winter 2006

Contributed by Michelle Jarrett

On the Day You Were Born
by Debra Frasier

It begins with “On the eve of your birth, word of your coming passed from animal to animal.” and ends with “We are so glad you've come!”. To me, this book is a beautiful poem welcoming a new human being to this marvelous planet. Every line is illustrated and poetically describes a facet of the earth's ecosystem and how it will sustain “you”, the new arrival.

I hope this book reminds my children how special they are and how amazing our natural world is. It reminds me of the excitement I felt before their births and the wonder I felt at their arrivals.

Concepts mentioned in the story, such as gravity, rain, migration are described in more detail at the end of the book.(My kids love that.)

Big Blue
by Shelly Gill
illustrated by Ann Barrow

Based on a true event, Big Blue describes a young girl's dream to swim with a blue whale. It's a great read-aloud book with realistic illustrations. I also envision my kids enjoying it when they can read it themselves. The main character loves learning about whales and through her research, the reader learns about their precarious existence, their past abundance and decline at the hands of people.

Big Blue depicts whales as our friends and fosters questions about their predicament. The realization of the girl's dream is exciting and sends the message that anything is possible!

Since reading the book, I fantasize about swimming with whales, myself.

The World That We Want
by Kim Michelle Toft

This book demonstrates the interconnectedness of life on earth. A silk painting technique was used for the art work. The paintings are gorgeous and portray various ecosystems as blended, connected, and crowded with colorful creatures. My children enjoy searching for the animals in each illustration.

“This is the mangrove that follows the river that weaves through the forest that filters the air that circles the world that we want.” The associations build to show that all life is interdependent. The narrative is followed by informative descriptions of various habitats and their inhabitants.

Have Fries, Will Travel
by Linda Hempel
illustrated by Kathy Dotson

This book, written by local author Linda Hempel and illustrated by her daughter, Kathy Dotson, introduces the concepts of alternative energy sources as well as political activism. It is upbeat and has a happy ending despite some politically motivated carnapping and a senator who doesn't like change. The illustrations are engaging and cheerful. However, I found the text too long, with excessive inner dialog by Tiny, the protagonist, a biodiesel car. Still, the book's messages can't be beat. And it was printed with recycled paper!

Michelle Jarrett is a software engineer and mother of two energetic boys. Books are one of the few things they'll sit still for! She hopes they'll love to read as much as she does.