sweet as pie in July

Pie is for Sharing, written by Stephanie Parsley Ledyard, illustrated by Jason Chin
published in 2018, a Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press

My grandmother made the best blueberry pie imaginable, exploding with the tiny, wild blueberries she picked, and a sugary, butter-crisp, crust stained purple with their vivid juice. Yum!

Pie and the Fourth of July are a blue-ribbon match-up, and sharing some of that fresh berry goodness beneath a sunny sky with a happy bunch of cousins and perhaps a loyal dog or two — there’s just something so quintessentially summery and glad about it.

Join this merry Independence Day party and discover lots more things to share, from a fantastic climbing tree to a warm, dry towel on the beach, and even something as intangible as time. That’s such an important thing to share with one another, isn’t it?

What a fractious, heart-heavy time of it we are having in the United States just now. I think many of us will carry some mixed emotions in our Fourth of July celebrating. Honestly, this book with its warm vision of sharing soothed my soul. With spare, lyrical text, Ledyard captures the beauty and gladness of kindness and community, and does so with all the freshness of a summer breeze.

And it couldn’t have been matched with a better illustrator than Jason Chin. His human figures are ever-lovely in form, posture, relationship; his settings are idyllic; and his talent for displaying the beauty of diversity makes his books some of my absolute favorites. This one is tender, playful, cheery, lovely…rich. Don’t miss it, for ages 2 and up.

Besides this brand new gem, I’ve got a whole list of books made-to-order for  Fourth of July celebrating, which you can find here.

I’ll highlight just one of them which is, for me, the perfect choice for celebrating the vibrant diversity-through-immigration that has enriched America.

We Came to America, written and illustrated by Faith Ringgold
published in 2016 by Knopf Books for Young Readers
read my full review of it here