Picture Books
Forthcoming Titles:
- All the Water in the World, Atheneum
The Pirate of Kindergarten
Illustrated by Lynne Avril
Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books
1416950249, $16.99, hardcover, Grades P-3
ISBN-13: 9781416950240
“Ginny suffers from undiagnosed double vision, and seeing two of everything is causing her difficulties in school. On vision screening day, a nurse discovers the problem, and the prescribed eye patch gives Ginny a new identity—the pirate of kindergarten. Lyon's short, descriptive sentences set up the situation deftly, and Avril's astute chalk, pencil, and acrylic drawings of "two of everything" provide a vivid window into Ginny's pre-treatment world. It is not until the end of the story that Ginny declares herself a pirate, but as a metaphor for confidence and competence, her patch effectively declares her to be captain of her own ship.” — School Library Journal
“Ginny loves reading circle, but getting there is a bit of a challenge because only half the chairs are real. Figuring out which words to read is tough, too. See, 'Ginny's eyes [play] tricks'-she's got double vision and doesn't realize that's unusual...Lyon's simple, declarative text effortlessly puts readers into Ginny's head, and Avril's whimsical mixed-media illustrations give them her eyes, overlaying one image slightly off its original in a satisfyingly disorienting fashion.” — starred review, Kirkus Reviews
“Without lecturing or making Ginny the object of pity, Lyons (Sleepsong) and Avril (Every Cowgirl Needs a Horse), who works in cheery but remarkably expressive pastels, show how disorientating and alienating it feels when something as fundamental as visual perception goes awry. ‘If she didn't keep her mind tied tight when Ms. Cleo gave them rabbit pictures, she might cut out one ear and another and another. Once she got so mad, she stuck the scissors in the paste.’” — starred review, Publishers Weekly
“Created with pastels, acrylics, and colored pencils, Avril’s bold and wonderfully vivid mixed-media illustrations sometimes portray the classroom through Ginny’s eyes, with overlapping images of chairs, books, and people, though they usually present an outside perspective. Based on Lyon’s own experience, the sensitively written story radiates empathy and good humor. Even children who have not experienced Ginny’s problem will understand her occasional frustration and find it intriguing that one person can literally see the world differently from another.” — Booklist
You and Me and Home Sweet Home
Illustrated by Stephanie Anderson
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
0689875894, $17.99, hardcover, Grades K-4
ISBN-13: 9780689875892
“Lyon's reputation for lyrical writing is well established, and the pleasing cadences in this moving story do not disappoint. … [An] author's note explains Lyon's participation with Habitat for Humanity in Kentucky, and the experience lends particular voices and authentic material to portray the effect of a caring community and the people who manipulate the power tools.” — School Library Journal
“Lyon masterfully tells Sharonda's story, unfurling the child's disbelief that her dream is coming true, the hard work and time volunteers contribute, Sharonda's excitement as she sees the house being constructed, her anticipation of sleeping there and the joy and peace she feels when she and her mother walk through the door for the first time. … A heartfelt, welcome addition to any collection...”
— Kirkus Reviews
Awards
- 2010 CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book
- 2010 CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children's Book Center)
Sleepsong
Illustrated by Peter Catalanotto
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
0689869738, $16.99 hardcover, Ages 1 month - 3 years
ISBN-13: 9780689869730
Includes music and lyrics.
 Listen to George Ella sing her lullaby, "Sleepsong."
“Lyon's sonorous words meld with Catalanotto's dreamy gouache-and-watercolor paintings in this tender lullaby...Words and images together create a gentle rock-a-bye rhythm, topping off a collaborative effort that should grace all children's collections. ” — Kirkus Reviews
“Lyon and Catalanotto have teamed up again to depict another everyday occurrence in the life of a small child. A lyrical text tells of a mother and father preparing their child for bed: 'Everything nests-Shh shh/Everything rests shh/Time to turn in/-To put play away/Turn out the light-/Call it a day. All of the spreads show full-color paintings of the parents and their child on the upper portion and scenes of animals asleep in muted shades of blue and violet on the lower part.” — School Library Journal
My Friend the Starfinder
Illustrated by Stephen Gammell
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
1-4169-2738-7, $14.99 hardcover, Grades P-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-2738-9
“Stories and the people who tell them form one of the main themes of Lyon's poetic work, and this sumptuously illustrated book, perhaps Gammell's finest, is no exception. . . . Text and art are sure to evoke wonder in readers of all ages. ” — starred review, Publishers Weekly
“Lyon's sensitive tale, spun from a childhood memory, is doubly ruminative: its female narrator relates two boyhood reminiscences told her by an elderly neighbor. . . . Gammell's characteristic mixed-media pictures fully develop Lyon's themes of cosmic and earthly connection. . . . Lovely.” — starred review, Kirkus Reviews
“. . . . where the text is restrained, the illustrations fairly holler with light and joy. During each of the Starfinder's stories, the palette begins with hushed expectation in black and white, gradually adding colors until the whole page is glowing. This is not to belie the power of Lyon's spare text-it is only in the tension between the carefully chosen words and vivid pictures that the stories' magic emerges. A lovely collaboration.” —School Library Journal
“Though poetic, Lyon's words are spare, never florid, for an elegantly powerful effect with silence built in, allowing readers space to use their own imaginations. Gammell's art begins with exuberant shades, but when the story enters the past, the pictures are as gray as Dorothy's Kansas until the boy finds the star . . . . The rainbow then spectacularly spills its colors over the boy, and the book closes with the little girl and the Starfinder looking out at the universe, filled with colorful planets and golden light.”
—The Horn Book
Awards
- Bank Street Best Children's Books of the Year 2009
Trucks Roll!
Illustrated by Craig Frazier
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
1-4169-2435-3, $14.99 hardcover, Grades PreS-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-2435-7
“Can there ever be enough truck books? With a simple playful rhyme and big, bright pictures of powerful vehicles close up, this one is sure to be in demand. The word is BIG, not only for the vehicles but also for their trailers and wheels and other parts; for all the different loads they carry, from spaceships to toys: 'Trucks bring ice cream. / Trucks bring blocks, / books and bulldozers, dolls and clocks.' . . . After many read-alouds, lap-sit listeners will still want to point at the pictures and play.” — Booklist
“Standing out as bright and unique in an increasingly competitive genre of picture books highlighting wheeled machines, Lyon and Frazier team up to seamlessly combine loads of truck facts with some funky whimsy to mesmerize the tot that can't get enough.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Solid, up-to-date information about a major preschool enthusiasm is leavened with lively verse and a touch of whimsy.” — Horn Book Magazine
Awards
- Beginning With Books' Best Books for Babies 2008
No Dessert Forever!
Illustrated by Peter Catalanotto
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
1-4169-0385-2, $16.95 hardcover, Grades K-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-0385-7
“Lyon's thoughtful story is greatly enhanced by Catalanotto's realistic illustrations of watercolor and gouache, and by a decision to let several of the pictures speak for themselves, with no text. An offbeat winner.” - Kirkus Reviews
“...bringing a warm glow to the goings-on, which many children--and adults--will find utterly familiar.”
- Booklist
Counting on the Woods
Photographs by Ann W. Olson
DK Ink
Grades K-3
0-789-42480-0, $15.95 hardcover (LIMITED QUANTITIES)
0-789-42662-5, $5.95 paperback (LIMITED QUANTITIES)
“A short poem illustrated with stunning full-color photographs, this counting book is a simple lesson in ecology that reminds children of the importance of green space. It is clear that humans and animals count on trees to be there, to 'clean the air/for everything/that breathes.' Lyon's lyrical voice is concisely interpreted by lush photographs of the Kentucky woods.” - School Library Journal
“Teachers and parents seeking to help children
appreciate the simple beauty to be found on a walk
through the woods will treasure this exquisite book.” -
starred review, Publishers Weekly
“A gem of a counting book...” - starred review,
Booklist
Mother to Tigers
Illustrated by Peter Catalanotto
Atheneum 2003
0-689-84221-x, $17.95 hardcover, Grades K-3
“Arresting art illuminates Lyon and Catalanotto's tribute to Helen Martini, founder of the Bronx Zoo's animal nursery...[T]he story cannot miss its mark as animal lovers appreciate Helen's love for and commitment to saving nature's newest members.” - Publishers Weekly
 “This handsome and intriguing real-life story will be savored as independent and shared reading and useful as simple nonfiction for varied classroom purposes.” - starred review, School Library Journal
“Lyon's succinct, yet elegant, prose emphasizes Martini's dedication to the animals in her care, detailing how she and her husband often spent evenings at the zoo tending to the needy babies. Catalanotto's...art is particularly effective here...This will be popular with animal fans and classes studying zoos and careers.” - Booklist
“Based on a true story, this beautifully illustrated picture book introduces young readers to Helen Frances Theresa Delaney Martini, the first woman zookeeper at the Bronx Zoo and founder of the zoo's animal nursery in 1944...Catalanotto's remarkable illustrations are a wonderful combination of watercolor, charcoal and torn paper. The author also includes a fascinating 'Author's Note' at the end.” - Children's Literature
Awards
- Junior Library Guild Selection
- Parents' Choice Silver Medal 2003
- Best 'Information Please' Books, Nick Jr. Magazine
- Amelia Bloomer Project: Recommended Feminist Books for Youth 2004
- Girl Power! - Strong Girls, Strong Women, University of Iowa
Nominated for:
- Children's Crown Award
- Young Hoosier Book Award
- Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice
- Mockingbird Award
- Washington Children's Choice
Weaving the Rainbow
Illustrated by Stephanie Anderson
Atheneum 2004
0-689-85169-3, $16.95 hardcover, Grades PreS-2
An artist raises sheep, shears them, cards and spins the wool, dyes it, and then weaves a colorful picture of the Kentucky pasture where her lambs were born.
And, as Lester Laminack and Barbara Bell say in Language Arts, “It is so much more than that. It is a story of envisioning, planning, working toward something beautiful that lives within you, a story of believing your vision into reality.”
“The beauty of the pictures and the rhythm of the language will entrance children even if they have never thought about sheep, or weaving at all, and they will come away with a bit of knowledge wrapped around a weft of joy.” - Kirkus
“Limpid verse and luminous watercolors form the warp
and weft of the beautifully crafted book.”
- Publisher's Weekly
"A beautifully presented walk through one person's artistic process.” - School Library Journal
“Elementary-school art teachers may find it especially useful for introducing kids to less-common forms of creative expression and for communicating a gentle
message about the rewards of patient labor.” - Booklist
“Is it possible for someone to make a rainbow? In lovely, precisely phrased prose, George Ella Lyon looks over the shoulder of a young weaver...” - Nicholas Basbanes
"Lyon makes the process of weaving into a mystical, magical experience...The respect and affection for the sheep, the weaver and her craft are clearly depicted.” - Children's Literature
Fiction
Borrowed Children
University Press of Kentucky
0-813-10972-8, $9.95 paperback
“With eloquence and an economy of language, Lyon tells a story of dreams, of journeys, of family love and acceptance, set in Kentucky during the Depression...Borrowed Children is fresh, different, and totally captivating.”
- School Library Journal
“Lyon is a sure-handed writer who picks her words with precision. As Amanda slowly unravels the threads that make up the familial skein, readers cannot help but become involved in the generational complexities. A choice coming-of-age story, whose tellingis subtle and whose writing is vivid.” - starred review, Booklist
Awards:
- Winner of the Golden Kite Award
- Booklist, Editor's Choice
- School Library Journal Best Books of the Year
- Publisher's Weekly Best Books of the Year
- NY Public Library's One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing
- Library of Congress' Best Books of the Year
Autobiography
A Wordful Child
Photographs by Ann W. Olson
Richard Owen, 1996 (Meet-the-Author Series
1-572-74016-7, $14.95 hardcover, Grades 2-5
“Lyon...speaks eloquently about her love of words. One of her most important memories is of her extended family telling stories around the dinner table. Some of these stories later became books, such as A Regular Rolling Noah. Lyon recounts the years of hard work it took to become a published author.”
- School Library Journal
|
