Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Favourite nonFiction Picturebooks

NonFiction (also called information books) are not what a lot of people think of when they think of picturebooks. My favourites have artistic illustrations, imaginative design, warmth, and humour.

Board and concept books 

Colours


from Black Bear Red Fox by Julie Flett



Counting and Alphabet


.
A madcap, hilarious chase through the alphabet.


A counting book that also makes a commentary on the evil of keeping monkeys 
and apes in zoos–a recurring them for Browne.



The pages in this ingenious counting book are shaped as an open mouth 
and gradually increase in size.

Some concept books combine concepts into one book. 
Denise Fleming's In the Small, Small Pond has counting
and a journey through the seasons of the pond told in rhyming couplets.


Seasons



A deceptively simple meditation on a year in the life of a calf.







A video page-through of the brilliant pop-up book by Yoojin Kim 
on the ways that leaves provide for animals.

Science and Nature


from Jessie Hartland's true account, How the Meteorite Got to the Museum.



from Elise Gravel's Disgusting Critters book series, 
introducing animals like the rat, the slug, the spider 
and other unfairly maligned creatures.



An excellent handbook to take on a nature walk.



How water gets into our taps.



This series also includes Over and Under the Canyon, Over and Under the Rainforest,
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt, Over and Under the Pond.




Biography



The best bio of Mary Shelley, author of  Frankenstein



Gorgeous telling of Matisse's childhood.



A whimsical bio of Jane Goodall, focusing on her childhood.



Josephine Baker, singer, dancer and WWII hero.



Lovely bio of the New York artist who died tragically young.



I was fortunate to be commissioned to make an animated trailer 
for the wonderful bio Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos.