Ella Bailey has started a charming series of picture books on the different habitats on our planet.  The first, One Day On Our Blue Planet: In the Savannah, follows an energetic lion cub from dusk to dawn.

This is a beautifully illustrated book that introduces children to a whole host of animals, and it does so in a way that even very young children can understand.

 

A day is a length of time that children understand.  The book underscores all that can happen in that brief period of time that for children isn’t brief at all.  It gives them a window on a different environment and how animals spend their days.

For the very young it’s got a delightful narrative.

For the older reader, there’s a lot of information on how animals share their environment.  Bailey shows how lions hunt but spares us the grisly details you’d find in a nature documentary.  The little cub is still living on mother’s milk.  And when the pride isn’t hunting, it co-exists with the other animals that share the savannah.

 

I love books that spark conversation and the hunting scene always does that.  Children identify both with the hunter and hunted.  This book gives them a chance to think and talk about the cycle of life.

The second book in the series was just released.  One Day On Our Blue Planet:  In the Antarctic follows a little penguin through her day on an ice shelf.  We find out what she and her family eat, and what they do for fun.

I love the endpapers of each book.  They show all the animals of each environment.  You get an idea of how big and diverse the world is.  You see that many animals share each environment.  In the coldest and warmest worlds there is a way for animals to co-exist.

Maybe one day humans will learn how to do that, too.

Ella Bailey is also the author of No Such Thing, and At the Animal Ball.  You can find her website here.

The One Day On Our Blue Planet series is published by the innovative press Flying Eye Books.  You can find a wonderful interview with Ella Bailey here.

Hope your day on this blue planet is full of color and adventure.

Thanks for reading my blog.

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This Blog is a Children’s Book Week Champion.  Children’s Book Week is May 2 – 8, 2016.

Established in 1919, Children’s Book Week is the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country. Every year, commemorative events are held nationwide at schools, libraries, bookstores, homes — wherever young readers and books connect!

Voting opens March 8 at ccbookawards.com for the ninth annual Children’s Choice Book Awards, the only national book awards program where the winning titles are selected by kids and teens. You can read all about the amazing 2016 finalists here. Last year over 1.3 million votes were cast.  Let’s see if we can surpass that number in 2016.

Children’s Book Week is administered by Every Child A Reader, a 501(c)(3) literacy organization dedicated to instilling a lifelong love of reading in children. The Children’s Book Council, the national non-profit trade association for children’s book publishers, is an anchor sponsor. Find out more about it here:

http://www.bookweekonline.com/