My Best Friend Is As Sharp As a Pencil: And Other Funny Classroom Portraits

My Best Friend Is As Sharp As a Pencil: And Other Funny Classroom Portraits
Author: Hanoch Piven
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade
Total Pages: 41
Release: 2011-02-23
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0375982787

Here's the perfect back-to-school gift for budding artists. Like the creator's previous picture book, My Dog Is as Smelly as Dirty Socks, this picture book encourages children to be creative and make their own object portraits. It's a fun activity for home or for the classroom. You can even check out portraits made by other readers in the "kids' gallery" of author Hanoch Piven's Web site, www.pivenworld.com—and while you're at it, send in your own! Learn how to create a funny librarian, a colorful art teacher, or your best friend by seeing how one girl does it in this simple, playful picture book that's comprised of portraits made of objects. Once the girl has talked about—and drawn—the key figures in her school, she ends with the pièce de résistance—a class portrait!

My Dog Is As Smelly As Dirty Socks

My Dog Is As Smelly As Dirty Socks
Author: Hanoch Piven
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade
Total Pages: 49
Release: 2013-06-26
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0307983641

How do you draw your smelly dog? Your playful daddy? Your yummy mommy? See how one girl does it in this simple, clever picture book that's comprised of family portraits made out of objects. For example, her baby brother is so noisy—he's as loud as a whistle, a horn, and even a fire truck!—that she creates a picture of him with whistles for eyes, a horn mouth, and holding a fire truck. After the girl has described everyone in her family (including herself, in great detail), she asks, "What does your special family look like?" encouraging readers to create their own portraits. With a list of objects at the end of the book to use as a guide, this is the ideal choice for budding artists everywhere. Here's a wonderful exploration of simile and metaphor for young readers. And don't miss the companion book My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil!

Faces

Faces
Author: Hanoch Piven
Publisher: Pomegranate
Total Pages: 104
Release: 2002
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780764921315

Hanoch Piven has taken the art of caricature to a whole new level. With a minimalist stroke of his deft hand, combined with an object related to what the subject is noted for -- along with his sharp wit -- Piven presents his vision of the celebrities he portrays. The stories Piven tells about each face are enlivened by elemental puns, developed from a three-step creative process. As Piven is sketching the subject in pencil, he is coming up with a word or two to describe the person: "Americana" for Bruce Springsteen, "media" for Jesse Jackson. Now he goes out "to the field" to find the appropriate object, the field being anything from a toy store to a hardware store. Then he lays out all the stuff he has found and combines the objects, adding or culling as necessary, until he achieves the minimum amount of information the viewer needs to recognize the person. Thus we have Steven Spielberg's beard and moustache expressed with strips of film; Jesse Jackson's mouth is a speaker. Within the seven categories of TV, film, music, American politics, the world, finance, and miscellaneous, Faces by Hanoch Piven presents 76 deliciously wicked takes on the likes of such diverse folks as Sigmund Freud, Marilyn Monroe, and the Unabomber.

The Perfect Purple Feather

The Perfect Purple Feather
Author: Hanoch Piven
Publisher: Megan Tingley Books
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2002
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9780316766579

Rhyming text and illustrations take the reader on a journey, in which a simple purple feather becomes a whisker for a cat, a pen for an owl, a quill for a porcupine, and more.

Crazy Like a Fox

Crazy Like a Fox
Author: Loreen Leedy
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009-09-15
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0823422488

Rufus the fox is up to something-- find out why he's acting so crazy in this clever simile story. All night, he's been sleeping like a log. When the sun rises, he feels as fresh as a daisy. In a story told entirely with similes, Rufus sneaks up and startles his friend Babette, and leads her on a wild chase through the woods. Perfect for teaching figurative language, this brightly-illustrated picture book includes the definition of a simile, as well as a brief introduction to idioms and cliches-- and examples on every page of different sayings and similes. Loreen Leedy's zany illustrations depic the figurative sayings in literal ways-- a wooden fox sleeping like a log, a yellow and black striped sheep who's as mad as a hornet-- to bring home the meanings of the expressions. Perfect for kids studying creative writing, or English language learners who may not be familiar with common but less literal sayings, Crazy Like a Fox will make readers happy as a clam-- and help them incorporate similes into their own writing.

My Dog's a Chicken

My Dog's a Chicken
Author: Susan McElroy Montanari
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade
Total Pages: 22
Release: 2016-02-09
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0385384920

Lula Mae wants a puppy, but times are hard and she’ll just have to make do. Her family has plenty of chickens, so she decides maybe a chicken can be a dog. Pookie, as Lula Mae names her, is an ordinary chicken, but Lula Mae thinks she is very doglike indeed. With a bow in Pookie’s hair, Lula Mae declares her a show dog. When she runs circles around the other chickens, Pookie is a shepherd dog. And when Cousin Tater sneaks up with a snake and Pookie starts bawk, bawk, bawking, well, she’s a guard dog, too. Then Lula Mae’s brother, Baby Berry, wanders away, and who do you think comes to the rescue? Readers will cheer for plucky Lula Mae and giggle over her beloved Pookie, who quite unknowingly saves the day.

Dear Data

Dear Data
Author: Giorgia Lupi
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2016-09-13
Genre: Design
ISBN: 1616895462

Equal parts mail art, data visualization, and affectionate correspondence, Dear Data celebrates "the infinitesimal, incomplete, imperfect, yet exquisitely human details of life," in the words of Maria Popova (Brain Pickings), who introduces this charming and graphically powerful book. For one year, Giorgia Lupi, an Italian living in New York, and Stefanie Posavec, an American in London, mapped the particulars of their daily lives as a series of hand-drawn postcards they exchanged via mail weekly—small portraits as full of emotion as they are data, both mundane and magical. Dear Data reproduces in pinpoint detail the full year's set of cards, front and back, providing a remarkable portrait of two artists connected by their attention to the details of their lives—including complaints, distractions, phone addictions, physical contact, and desires. These details illuminate the lives of two remarkable young women and also inspire us to map our own lives, including specific suggestions on what data to draw and how. A captivating and unique book for designers, artists, correspondents, friends, and lovers everywhere.

The Library Book

The Library Book
Author: Tom Chapin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2017-10-03
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1481460927

Using the lyrics to Tom Chapin and Michael Mark's "The Library Song," this picture book celebrates the magic of reading and of libraries.

We Beat the Street

We Beat the Street
Author: Sampson Davis
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2006-04-20
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780142406274

Growing up on the rough streets of Newark, New Jersey, Rameck, George,and Sampson could easily have followed their childhood friends into drug dealing, gangs, and prison. But when a presentation at their school made the three boys aware of the opportunities available to them in the medical and dental professions, they made a pact among themselves that they would become doctors. It took a lot of determination—and a lot of support from one another—but despite all the hardships along the way, the three succeeded. Retold with the help of an award-winning author, this younger adaptation of the adult hit novel The Pact is a hard-hitting, powerful, and inspirational book that will speak to young readers everywhere.

I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die

I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die
Author: Sarah J. Robinson
Publisher: WaterBrook
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0593193539

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.