Dillon, Leo Books

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale

Verna Aardema

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This is an awesome tale! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I read this book as a small child when it originally received the Caldecott medal and I have loved it ever since. It has even become a favorite of my children who love the pictures and laugh everytime the mosquito gets WHACKED at the end. This is a also a great story to use to discuss cause and effect and I have had some wonderful discussions with my students utilizing this book. I would consider this a must read for any little person and adults alike!

Onomatopoeia 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I randomly selected this book at the library and was surprised to find that I could use it in my classroom! We just happened to be studying onomatopoeia at the time. Onomatopoeia is the use of words that imitates the sound it is describing (buzz, bam, pow, hiss, etc.). I had my seventh graders listen to the story as I read it aloud. They had to write each example of onomatopoeia that they heard. They loved the story, and it was a great reinforcement for what we were studying.

Editorial Review:

In this Caldecott Medal winner, Mosquito tells a story that causes a jungle disaster. "Elegance has become the Dillons' hallmark. . . . Matching the art is Aardema's uniquely onomatopoeic text . . . An impressive showpiece."--Booklist, starred review. Full color.

Dream: A Tale of Wonder, Wisdom & Wishes

Susan V. Bosak

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Dream" is a winner of 10 national awards: * International Reading Association Children's Choice -- 10,000 children across the country vote on the books they like best! * Teachers' Choice * Pinnacle Award -- Best Gift Book * Benjamin Franklin Award -- Best Book Celebrating the Human Spirit * Independent Publisher Award -- Best Children's Book * ForeWord Book of the Year Award -- Children's * American Booksellers Association Book Sense Children's Pick * Children's Book Center -- Starred "Our Choice" * iParenting Award * Adding Wisdom Award

15 of the top illustrators in the world each offer a gorgeously illustrated page in a beautifully told poetic story about life's hopes and dreams from childhood to adulthood, inspiring both children and adults.

From the smallest personal beginnings to the largest human triumphs, why are we here if not to dream? As you open the Dream Chest, you're whisked away on a colorful journey of a lifetime. WHOOSH through the teddy bears and castles of childhood. WHOOSH again into the labyrinths and mountains of adolescence and adulthood. Richly detailed contemporary art, thought-provoking quotations from historical sages, and a multilayered story combine to convey a simple yet powerful message -- you're never too young or too old to dream.

"Dream: A Tale of Wonder, Wisdom & Wishes" is a one-of-a-kind collaboration five years in the making. Bestselling author Susan V. Bosak (Something to Remember Me By, Science Is...) has teamed with fifteen internationally-acclaimed illustrators -- including winners of the Hans Christian Andersen Medal and Caldecott Medal. You'll find original illustrations by Wayne Anderson, James Bennett, Christian Birmingham, Raúl Colón, Leo and Diane Dillon, Robert Ingpen, Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher, Michèle Lemieux, Barbara Reid, Shaun Tan, and more.

Don't forget to hunt for the star each artist has hidden in their illustration -- and make a new wish with each one you find! Teachers can get classroom-tested reading tips and activities to use with "Dream" at legacyproject.org.

This is an inspiring celebration of living and dreaming for all ages. It's a book to explore and discuss with children, a keepsake and collector's item, and a lovely gift book for milestones like a birth or graduation, the holidays and birthdays. "Dream" offers wonder, wisdom, and good wishes -- for everyone who dreams.

To Every Thing There Is A Season

Leo Dillon, Diane Dillon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Leo and Diane Dillon have collaborated on 40 illustrated books and won a shelfful of major awards for their artistic work, including two Caldecott Medals. No surprise, then, that this book is a feast for the eyes--but it's remarkable even by their exalted standards. The text, printed in large, clear capitals along the bottom of the pages, consists simply of the famous verses from Ecclesiastes: "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die...." Each phrase is illustrated by one of 16 panels, and each panel stems from the artistic style of a different culture, from Egyptian tomb friezes, to Japanese harvest scenes, to Aboriginal bark paintings, to Greek vase paintings. The rich, sophisticated illustrations may appeal more to parents than to their children--and verses like "a time to kill" may be too much for the very young--but there could be no more beautiful vehicle for the old wisdom that we have to know, expect, and live with both the good and the bad that life will inevitably bring us. At the end of the book the authors provide interesting information on the style and the art history behind each illustration. (Click to see a sample spread. Illustrations copyright © 1998 by Leo & Diane Dillon. Permission from The Blue Sky Press, Scholastic, Inc.) (Ages 5 and older) --Richard Farr

The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales

Virginia Hamilton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Virginia Hamilton, Newbery Medal winner and recipient of the National Book Award and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, teams up with two-time Caldecott Medal winners, Leo and Diane Dillon, in this classic collection of American black folktales, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. By turns droll, grisly, and spine-tingling, the 24 stories celebrate the indomitable human spirit, surviving under the most crushing circumstances of slavery. Traditionally, storytelling has helped people to push through sorrow and pain, especially when the stories are saturated with magic, mysticism, and fantasy. Bruh Rabbit, He Lion, Tar Baby, and other animals populate many of the stories. In others, John, the traditional trickster hero, outwits the slave owner time after time to win his freedom.

Included with this very special edition is a CD featuring the commanding voices of Hamilton and actor James Earl Jones. Eleven selections, including "The Peculiar Such Thing," "John and the Devil's Daughter," "A Wolf and Little Daughter," and "The People Could Fly," bring to life the rhythm and lyrical energy of Hamilton's text. Leo and Diane Dillon's strikingly beautiful black and white illustrations continue to mesmerize and haunt the reader. (All ages) --Emilie Coulter

The People Could Fly: The Picture Book (New York Times Best Illustrated Books (Awards))

Virginia Hamilton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

“THE PEOPLE COULD FLY,” the title story in Virginia Hamilton’s prize-winning American Black folktale collection, is a fantasy tale of the slaves who possessed the ancient magic words that enabled them to literally fly away to freedom. And it is a moving tale of those who did not have the opportunity to “fly” away, who remained slaves with only their imaginations to set them free as they told and retold this tale.

Leo and Diane Dillon have created powerful new illustrations in full color for every page of this picture book presentation of Virginia Hamilton’s most beloved tale. The author’s original historical note as well as her previously unpublished notes are included.

Awards for The People Could Fly collection:

A Coretta Scott King Award

A Booklist Children’s Editors’ Choice

A School Library Journal Best Books of the Year

A Horn Book Fanfare

An ALA Notable Book

An NCTE Teachers’ Choice

A New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books of the Year

Rap A Tap Tap (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books)

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Arts & Music -> Performing Arts -> Dance -> Fiction

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Tribute to the Greatest Tap Dancer of All Time..... 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

As Leo and Diane Dillon tell the reader in their illuminating Afterword: "Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878-1949) is know as the greatest tap dancer of all time. His fame has reached mythic proportions. He had charm and charisma and, it was said "He talked with his feet." His rhythms were so intricate and fast it was impossible for other dancers to repeat some of them..." The Dillon's introduce a whole new generation to the sheer joy of Mr Bojangles, a dancer who made "art with his feet" in this deceptively simple and creative picture book biographical sketch. Their short rhyming text with its engaging and repetitive "Rap a tap tap-think of that!" is filled with rhythm and motion. But it's their clever, bold, bright, and elegant illustrations that make this book stand out and sparkle, and youngsters will feel the passion and energy with each page turn as they watch Bojangles almost dance off the pages. Perfect for little ones 3-7, Rap A Tap Tap is a playful and captivating, interactive celebration of both Bill Robinson and tap dance...Rap a tap tap-think of that!

Editorial Review:

This simple book for young children tells the life story of a ground-breaking African-American tap dancer. Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1920s-30s. People said he "talked with his feet," and in the Dillons' graceful paintings of old New York, he dances from page to page to the tune of a toe-tapping rhyme.

The Hundred Penny Box (Picture Puffin Books)

Sharon Bell Mathis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Intergenerational Friendship 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

The Hundred Penny Box tells the story of young Michael and his Great-Great Aunt Dew.
Aunt Dew moved in with Michael and his family so that they could assist with her care
because her failing health made it impossible for her to stay in her home alone. Aunt
Dew is 100 years old and as proof she has a box, which she calls the "Hundred Penny Box"
which contains her collection of 100 pennies. The pennies in her collection represent
the years she has lived, and each birthday she adds a newly minted penny to her
collection. Michael and Aunt Dew play a special game where he counts the pennies while
she interjects memories about what was going on in her life during a that particular
year. Aunt Dew has told her nephew many times that if someone were to take her Hundred
Penny Box they would be taking her life. Because Michael's mother often makes decisions
without discussing them with Aunt Dew the two women do not have the closest of
relationships. When one of Michael's mother's decisions puts the Hundred Penny Box in
danger, what will Michael do to protect it?

While the illustrations in this book clearly reflect the abilities of the Dillon team
they seemed to miss the mark in this book. I felt the artwork took away from the story
considerably and overall it gave a heartwarming story an eerie vibe. Still this is an
enjoyable story about a special intergenerational friendship and love.

Reviewed by Stacey Seay...

Editorial Review:

Michael loves his great-great-aunt Dew, even if she can’t always remember his name. He especially loves to spend time with her and her beloved hundred penny box, listening to stories about each of the hundred years of her life. Michael’s mother wants to throw out the battered old box that holds the pennies, but Michael understands that the box itself is as important to Aunt Dew as the memories it contains. Winner of a Newbery Honor, this beautiful story will be available in a collector’s edition featuring heavy interior stock embossing and silver ink on the cover, and a thread-sewn binding for added durability. A timeless story of the relationship between a boy and his elderly relative, this new edition is one that families young and old will treasure for years to come.

Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom

Virginia Hamilton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Many Thousand Gone 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

An excellent collection of stories of early African Americans, Many Thousand Gone begins with the first slaves arriving in the United States in 1619 and goes through the close of the Civil War and the end of slavery. Each chapter relates an easy to read account of people who represent the events surrounding slavery, particularly during the 1800s. Accounts of escapes along the Underground Railroad are included as well as the stories of individuals who played a significant part of black history. These include Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Soujourner Truth, and many others. All in all, this book was a joy to read and very informative.

Editorial Review:

Unavailable for several years, Virginia Hamilton’s award-winning companion to The People Could Fly traces the history of slavery in America in the voices and stories of those who lived it. Leo and Diane Dillon’s brilliant black-and-white illustrations echo the stories’ subtlety and power, making this book as stunning to look at as it is to read.

“There is probably no better way to convey the meaning of the institution of slavery as it existed in the United States to young readers than by using, as a text to share and discuss, Many Thousand Gone.”
—The New York Times Book Review

Earth Mother

Ellen Jackson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Earth Mother Shines 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

At a time when quieter books for children are sadly few and far between, reading Ellen Jackson's EARTH MOTHER is especially rewarding. The illustrations illuminate her lyrical text, with phrases such as "a robe fringed with falling rain" and "placed a piece of summer in a flower's seed." Earth Mother smiling and walking on with no verbal response to the complaints from Man and Frog is as it should be, and my 4-year-old nodded along approvingly. She already knows, as Jackson does, that Earth Mother knows best.

I would recommend this book for anyone interested in sharing the beauty and wonder of the world with a child.

Editorial Review:

The circle of life turns in unexpected ways.
Earth Mother awakes with the dawn. As she walks the land, swims the seas, and climbs the mountains, nurturing all of creation, she comes across
Man, Frog, and Mosquito. They each give her thanks for nature’s bounty,
yet can’t help but give her advice about making their lives better. Everybody’s got an opinion, it seems, and Earth Mother is amused when it becomes clear that the circle of life is not without a healthy dose of cosmic humor.
Leo and Diane Dillon lend their formidable talents to Ellen Jackson’s original folktale about the unexpected and sometimes humorous ways that life
is interconnected.

The People Could Fly Picture Book and CD

Virginia Hamilton

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Editorial Review:

LEO AND DIANE DILLON'S award-winning picture book interpretation of Newbery Medalist Virginia Hamilton's beloved tale now includes an unforgettable word-for-word CD narration by James Earl Jones and Virginia Hamilton. This tale of slaves who could fly to freedom offered hope in the darkly brutal times of slavery. "That is what Virginia Hamilton set out to show, what the Dillons have so astutely expounded on and what ultimately makes this version of 'People' so powerful. Think of it as a triad of words, pictures, and storytelling." - New York Times Book Review

An elegant gift for reading, looking, and listening.