Reading Roundup: May 2011

By the Numbers
Picture Books: 12 (yeah, it was a pretty skimpy month.)

Sources
Review Copies: 1
Library: 11

Standouts
Writing: Just Because by Rebecca Elliot
A boy and his sister, who has a disability, do everything together. She may not be able to get out of her wheelchair, but she's always ready to join in her brother's imagination in her own special way.
Illustration: Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudi by Rachel Victoria Rodriguez, illustrated by Julie Paschkis
Just the book for your budding architect. Paschkis takes the lines and shapes that influenced Gaudi's most famous buildings and works them into her illustrations. The minute I closed the book, I had to hit the Internet see if Gaudi's work really was that wild . . . and what do you know, it was! (Side note: Okay, I've totally decided I have an illustrator-crush on Julie Paschkis. I loooooove her work.)
Overall: I Know the River Loves Me/Yo Se Que El Rio Me Ama by Maya Christina Gonzalez
Side-by-side English and Spanish versions of the same poem sing the praises of a river that a little girl loves, and the swirling, flowing illustrations bring both river and girl to life.

Because I Want To Awards
Concepts You Don't Often See in Picture Books: Small, Medium, Large by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Tomasz Bogacki (out in August)