July: What is New and Noteworthy
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The July subscription booklists are available today! Get ready for a gentle and simple summer routine with A Daily Picture Book’s booklists. Summer is for slowing down, no matter if you school year round or not. It is important to include leisure in our daily life, as mentioned here and here. Summer has a special predisposition for slowing us down and enjoying a more gentle pace. So let’s enjoy a gentle education through the summer with lots of picture books, yummy treats and delightful activities.
July
The July subscription booklists are so full of wonder igniting, curiosity kindling and intriguing people and events. The picture books are perfect for a slow summer of inquisitiveness and discoveries. From national heroes to football player turned artist, July is a month for encountering new historical figures, legends and tall tales that have impacted and shaped our country and its culture. The feast that we are invited to in July is really delightful!
One year anniversary
July is also the one year anniversary of A Daily Picture Book! At least the website’s anniversary. The lifestyle has been well anchored in our home for many, many years. It came upon us gradually and we still revel in it. Our curriculums, interests and rhythms have all changed so much through our homeschooling years but the Daily Picture Book lifestyle has been our anchor. Every day we still read a picture book, delight in it and explore some of its rabbit trails. Picture books have been the thread that keeps uniting our family, no matter how grown up the children are. It always amazes me how unifying reading aloud is.
A Daily Picture Book lifestyle
What is a Daily Picture Book lifestyle you ask? Oh it is the simplest and best family lifestyle. Ever since I can remember I have either been read aloud to or I have been reading aloud to others. I am not sure how it started but I remember bedtime stories with my mom. I remember stories on my grandmother’s laps, some from books, some from real life. Then I remember reading picture books to my younger sisters, and then, quite suddenly, to my own children. To this day I just need to sit on the couch with a picture book for everyone to be drawn to it like a magnet. It has been a blessing many times over. A Daily Picture Book lifestyle is simply this: reading a picture book to the people in our life. And exploring the ideas and rabbit trails that are ignited by the story. I can even imagine myself reading one to my husband once we are empty nesters, lol! It’s so addictive and triggers so many wonderful discoveries!
The Gino Bartali effect
I call it the Gino Bartali effect, but it happens with every book. The picture book, Bartali’s Bicycle: The True Story of Gino Bartali, Italy’s Secret Hero, by Megan Hoyt, illustrated by Iacopo Bruno launched me on some fascinating rabbit trails. I was working on the July booklists when I came across this fabulous picture book. It can be found in the Booklover booklist for this month. Since I have read the picture book, I have read Gino Bartali’s biography, Road to Valor: A True Story of WWII Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation by Aili McConnon and Andres McConnon. I have learned so much about cycling and the Tour de France. Which is hilarious as I really do not like cycling. I have learned about Italy during World War II, which I knew very little about. And I have grown to appreciate a man that I had never heard of before. He has become a friend. And I have done quite a bit of “travelling” through Italy and France alongside him. All from a picture book.
Picture books are not just for babies
There is this myth out there that picture books are for preschoolers and below. It is a fallacy! I would have never, in a hundred years, picked up Road to Valor without having read Bartali’s Bicycle first. Well written, well illustrated picture books can be the catalysts for continuing self-education in ways that are truly incredible. And maybe that is why I love them so much… They are my go-to for self-education. I would read them even if I did not have kids to read them to. When you are a busy Mom, juggling all that we juggle, it is easy to find the time to read a picture book. Either to ourselves or to our children, we can always find the 15 to 20 minutes in our day to read one. And with each picture book that I read, I learn. I learn something new, I discover something I had never heard of previously. I finally understand something that I had known of for years! As in my encounter with Jérôme Lejeune. I never want to stop learning.
Living picture books
Of course, not all picture books have that effect… Some are just pure twaddle, a waste of talent and paper. And I think those are the ones that pop in people’s minds when they think about picture books. The picture books that I love, that I curate and list for you here at A Daily Picture Books are LIVING picture books. They tell a story, they are beautifully written in rich language and their illustrations are a delight. These are the picture books worth hunting for at used book sales and library sales. They are the picture books that will help you grow, no matter if you are 5 or 55. Living picture books are treasures that impact your life in such a way that you leave that couch a little bit different.
The Storybook Nook
Tada! In an effort to make the site more navigable and enjoyable I have created a “freebie library”! And I have named it The Storybook Nook. Because “freebie library” was just boring, lol. You can access it here! The Storybook Nook is a growing collection of beautiful, free printables designed for families who delight in picture books, nature and wonder. It is still a work in progress, but feel free to drop ideas in the comments of things you would like to see more of and of things that you need.
Announcement
In a Daily Picture Book I have, until now, greatly focused on historical picture books. But living picture books come in all genres. As of this month of July I have started to include other genres than biographical and historical genres. So do not be surprised if fairy tales, myths, feel good and fiction pop up here and there. I am ready for another year of A Daily Picture Book, and I can’t wait to share all of my new discoveries with yall! So don’t wait too long to subscribe to your booklist of choice and to join me for another year of wonder, discovery and learning!
Love,
Mattie
PS: The quote in the title image is from the beautiful poem July, by George Meredith.
