When You Can Swim

Wong, Jack. When You Can Swim. New York: Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2023.
When you can swim, a whole new world opens up. Treetops drift overhead as you float on your back. Fields of reeds appear as you dive down under the water. Fish feast on insects as you tread water in the twilight. Amazing wonders, exciting adventures, all await you once you can swim. Evocative full-page illustrations help to tell this story written as poetry. Told from the second person point of view and accompanied by an afterword explaining how the author learned to overcome his fear of swimming when he came to Canada as an immigrant child, this beautiful picture book is highly recommended for readers of all ages. (P.S. Teachers will find it invaluable for showing students how to write powerfully without using the rules of punctuation.)

More stories told from the second person point of view

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Sometimes I Feel Like a River

Daniel, Danielle. Sometimes I Feel Like a River. Toronto: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2023.
There are many picture books about emotions, but this one is unique in using to describe feelings and their effects upon behaviour. Feeling like a rainbow makes others smile. Feeling like the rain helps others grow. Twelve different similes Рwritten as short poems Рencourage readers to connect with the wonders of our natural world. Full-page illustrations by Jos̩e Bisaillon enhance this imaginative story highly recommended as a read-aloud and discussion-starter for kids 5 to 11 years old.

More books about nature

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My Baba’s Garden

Scott, Jordan. My Baba’s  Garden. New York: Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, 2023.
How does the love of nature begin? For the little boy in this story, it begins with seeing his grandmother’s house filled with food from her garden: carrots, apples, garlic, beets, jars of pickles. It begins with walking to school with her and watching her rescue worms on rainy days. It begins with planting tiny tomato seeds in a small pot on a window sill and paying attention. A wonderfully evocative picture book based on the author’s childhood in Port Moody, British Columbia and illustrated by Sydney Smith. Highly recommended for children 5 to 10 years old. Highly recommended for readers learning how illustrations and words work together to tell a story. Highly recommended for readers of any age who want to learn how to include descriptive details in their writing.

More stories to inspire your own writing

More stories about grandparents

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One more story by Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith