March Favorite Books

I read a lot of so-so books in March, but there were a handful of gems.  Here they are!

Mother Earth and Her Children by Sibylle von Offers and illustrated by Sieglinde Schoen-Smith (Picture Book)

The illustrations are close-up pictures of an actual quilt! Sieglinde Schoen Smith's interpretation of Sibylle Von Olfers' fairy tale is beautiful, whimsical, and quite impressive.  I read it before reading the original, so it will be my favorite for that reason.  The original, however, is just as beautiful.

When Sadness is at Your Door by Eva Eland (Picture Book)

This book gives its readers a wonderful opportunity to talk about feelings and how important and healthy it is to acknowledge them. My favorite part happens when the author talks about different activities you can do while you're sad. We're all going to have glum days, but there's lots of things we can still do while we work through our sadness. And some of the things we do help can make it disappear or morph it into something beautiful.

You Hold Me Up by Monique Gray Smith and illustrated Danielle Daniel (Picture Book)

Beautiful, unique illustrations, a positive message, and an interesting author's note make this book a winner for me.

Botanicum by Kathy Willis and illustrated by Katie Scott (Juvenile Nonfiction)

The illustrations in this book are so beautiful it's tough to look away. There are also lovely facts and descriptions about the different types of plants. Turkey-Tail Fungus is my new favorite thing.

The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. series) by Jonathan Stroud (Juvenile Fiction)

Stroud's worldbuilding skills, and hilarious, atmospheric, and descriptive language made this a page-turner for me. I especially enjoyed how he described characters, all the intricacies of ghostbusting, and the places where the hauntings took place. Stroud definitely has that rare ability to create an alternate reality that feels just as real as the one we live in. It helps that A. I believe anything is possible, including ghosts. I also think if ghosts do exist, kids are way more likely to notice them. B. There may be a day when all our ghosts stage a revolt and/or become restless. And C. Stroud's done an incredible amount of work and research to build this world and make it believable. At the end, as I was reading about Lucy, George, and Lockwood descending the screaming staircase with all those monks screaming and raising hell, my husband came home from work, somehow snuck up on me, and put his hand on my shoulder. I nearly jumped through the roof. I may never recover. This is definitely an action-packed read with lots of terrifying ghosts and ghostbusting adventures. About 50 pages in I discovered the glossary in the back of the book, which lists the different types of ghosts, hauntings, materials used to banish ghosts, and all the terrible things the ghosts are capable of. I promptly memorized the glossary before continuing on with the book. I would highly recommend you read the glossary first so you aren't constantly needing to check it.