Readers and authors: picture books for children

After the long holiday weekend, it’s time for the little ones to slow down and look at picture books that are fun and teach them a lot, even if the little ones don’t even realize they are learning something.

“A family tree”: by Staci Lola Drouillard, illustrated by Kate Gardiner (Clarion Books, $19.99 on the cover; $15.99 on the publisher’s website)

What a beautiful and important book for children of all ethnicities. Drouillard, a descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe, tells a tender story about a little girl as old as a spruce sapling on her grandparents’ land:

“The tree, like Francis, grew slowly. While Francis learned to walk on two little feet, the spruce walked in its own way – extending its roots into the ground, where they communicated with the roots of the other trees in the garden.”

Eventually, Grandma and Grandpa get too old to maintain their property and have to move. Francis worries that the new owners might not understand that trees communicate with each other underground, or that mother trees help their little ones stay strong by nourishing the seedlings with their own roots. And so the family decides to take the young spruce and plant it at Auntie’s, where the grandparents will live. Grandpa plants it facing north, toward their former home, and soon the little tree is taller than Francis. She decorates her friend with bright lights during the winter, celebrating the family’s connection to the trees, rocks, and water of far northern Minnesota.

In an author’s note, Drouillard, who lives in Grand Marais, writes that the book is based on the true story of a tiny white spruce tree that once lived in Grand Portage and now sprouts new buds each spring in the safety of its garden. She gives a brief summary of the history of the Ojibwe people and their connection to the land from which they were displaced.

“For the Ojibwe, losing access to their traditional homeland is like losing their place in the cyclical world of natural things,” she writes. “But like the little spruce tree, we continue to adapt and change while retaining the wisdom and knowledge of the forest taught to us by our elders, who learned from their predecessors.”

Drouillard, who won a Minnesota Book Award for “Seven Aunts,” sprinkles words from the Ojibwemowin language throughout the story and includes a glossary at the end. This is a beautiful book on the outside, too, with Kate Gardiner’s clean, contemporary illustrations in muted natural colors that sometimes wrap around the text or complement a line on a page. Gardiner is an illustrator of Native American heritage who lives in New England.

“Loaf the cat goes to the powwow”: by Nicholas DeShaw, illustrated by Tara Audibert (Nancy Paulson Books, $18.99)

Loaf the cat loves living with “his boy.” One day, there were plenty of ribbons for him to pounce on: “‘This is my regalia, Loaf. I’m going to be a grass dancer at the powwow,’ my boy told me. He started jumping and twirling around.”

Loaf senses that something big is happening in his son’s life, and as the family leaves, he jumps out the window and follows them to the powwow grounds. He watches the grand procession, hears the veterans’ honor song accompanied by the host’s drum, and is proud when his son is welcomed as the newest grass dancer: “The ribbons that I like so much moved so fast with him!/It was so beautiful! I loved seeing him!”

At the end, the boy and the purring cat snuggle up and take a nap.

This is the first picture book by DeShaw, who lives in St. Paul. He is an Anishinaabe father, educator and traditional lacrosse coach. Illustrator Audibert, who is of Native American and French descent, enriches the cheerful text with lovable characters with huge eyes and mouths. And Loaf really does look just like a loaf of brown bread.

“The quiet Violet finds her voice”: by Gabrielle Nidus, illustrated by Stephanie Dehennin (Free Spirit Publishing, $18.99)

Violet likes to fit in so that no one notices her at school. But she’s confident in the kitchen, which is lucky because when a practical lesson on measuring goes awry, Violet is the only one who can save a celebrated chef from a terrifying encounter with a very salty cookie. The author lives in Houston and the illustrator in the Flemish countryside. Her book is part of Minneapolis-based Free Spirit Publishing’s 19-part series “Mental Health for Kindergarten, First, and Second Grades” by various authors.

“The Birth of the Bicycle: A Bumpy History of the Bicycle in America 1819-1900”: by Sarah Nelson, illustrated by Iacopo Bruno (Candlewick Press, $18.99)

This lively book begins with the wooden velocipedes of the 19th century and ends with the elegant machines that have their own mark in some cities today, including St. Paul and Minneapolis. The author traces the bicycle’s evolution from the luxury of the rich to the necessity of the working class. The illustrations are wonderful, from the top-hatted gentlemen riding bicycles with large front wheels in 1819 to the 1868 fairground act of men balancing on bicycles on the tightrope and the first fashionable garments for women riding bicycles.

Sarah Nelson writes children’s books in prose and poetry, including “Frogness” and “A Park Connects Us,” inspired by Lake Como in St. Paul. Bruno is an Italian graphic designer whose illustrations for “Birth of the Bicycle” capture the past.