Kevin Henkes is the winner of the 2020 Children’s
Literature Legacy Award that honors an author or illustrator published in the
United States, whose books have made a significant and lasting contribution to
literature for children. A few years ago, I wrote a mentor text author study featuring his books. Today I’ll look at a few picture books
published since then.
His picture book series, When Spring Comes, In the
Middle of Fall, Winter Is Here and Summer Song, illustrated by Laura Dronzek,
introduces the seasons to a very young audience. In each book children explore
and the outdoors and experience what each season brings through text and pictures.
Henkes invites kids to observe their surroundings. The sparse poetic text is filled with imagery, repetition, and alliteration.
Before the Spring comes,
The trees look like black sticks against the sky.
…the sky is mostly gray
and the air is chilly,
…and the apples are like ornaments…
It’s everywhere.
It’s falling from the sky.
If you slow down and think about it, you can feel the Summer Song.
It’s warm
and then hot
and then hotter.
Picture books by Henkes are stellar examples
of how to capture wonder in words for a young audience.
These are nice samples. Simple observant, and lovely.
ReplyDeleteThese are beautiful. I love his books. I aspire to write like that in my poetry and children's writing.
ReplyDeleteI love that all four seasons are featured. Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the excerpts. Lovely text and art!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing Kevin's amazing work, Keila :) He's one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteI love these examples!
ReplyDelete