Children's books: environment: "Pitter Patty Finds Another Day", "The Power of Snow", and "Coyote's Wild Home"

Pitter Patty Finds Another Day by Andrew Hiller, illustrated by Yvonne Frederick (DreamPunk Press)
The Power of Snow by Bob Raczka, illustrated by Bryony Clarkson (Millbrook Press)
Coyote's Wild Home by Lily Kingsolver and Barbara Kingsolver, illustrated by Paul Mirocha (The Gryphon Press)

Diving into the world of picture books! These three are all designed to teach kids something about nature and the environment...and sometimes a bit more than that.

In Pitter Patty Finds Another Day, Pitter Patty wants acceptance, just like everyone else—but she's a cloud, and when her raindrops start to fall, the people down below start to sing: Rain, rain, go away...

This makes for a fun, playful look at clouds and weather. I read this in June, when my area was expecting the driest summer on record, and I'd welcome Pitter Patty in the skies any day. The illustrations are simple but richly colored, and children will enjoy the occasional rhymes (and of course the 'Rain, rain, go away' song!). If there's a follow-up, I'd like to see Pitter Patty make a friend or two, and maybe some child-friendly explanations of how clouds come to be, since Pitter Patty's rain doesn't come from nowhere!

In a colder part of the year, The Power of Snow is a sneaky, sneaky math lesson, wrapped up in gorgeous illustrations on a winter day. Snowflakes play and twirl, flurry and swirl through the pages. I love the illustrator's note at the end about how she ensured the right number of snowflakes per page, and I guarantee that many a child will try and try to count them all.

I'm reminded a little of the picture book The Doorbell Rang, which I checked out from the library over and over again as a child and which also (admittedly, a bit more stealthily) slides a math lesson into the pages. Kids who don't want to learn the math, or just aren't ready to think about exponential growth, can still enjoy the illustrations and rhymes, but this might spark a math interest for others.

And finally, Coyote's Wild Home tells two parallel stories—one of a young coyote, just beginning to learn about the world outside its den, and one of a young girl, also learning about the wild that exists outside her usual borders.

This is written for slightly older picture book readers, or to be read by adults who don't mind a longer read—there's a fair amount of text as the book shows readers what a young coyote's day in the woods might look like versus a young camper's. It's a love letter to the wild, and the end of the book provides more facts about coyotes and why they're important to the environment.

The illustrations of the woods and the coyotes are gorgeous and rich. I don't like the illustrations of the humans quite as much (I think something about the girl's depiction reminds me of that eerie quality of AI art), but the level of depth on the trees in particular is fantastic. A good summer read, especially if you're planning to get out into the woods with young kids anytime soon!

Takeaways: Each book serves a slightly different purpose and targets a slightly different audience. The Power of Snow is the one I'd most like to stock kids' bookshelves with, but Coyote's Wild Home would be a great resource when taking kids out into the wild, and I could see Pitter Patty as part of a kindergarten unit on weather.

Thanks to the authors and publishers for providing review copies through NetGalley.