Tag Archives: Patterns

Elem. – Poppy’s Family Patterns

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Semmer, Lauren. Poppy’s Family Patterns. Crown Books for Young Readers, 2024. Unpaged. $18.99. Grades K-3.

Poppy’s toy bunny has a torn dress. Her mother has the ideal solution: from a basket of fabric scraps, she fashions a patchwork dress for Poppy and one for the toy. As Poppy’s mother puts it together, she shows her daughter the different types of fabric and explains each one’s connection to a significant event in their family. The simple story is made more interesting by Lauren Semmer’s bold and vibrant full-page illustrations featuring African American, biracial, and white characters. Offering a pattern library with pictures and descriptions of such fabric designs as paisley, polka dot, chevron, and lace, Poppy’s Family Patterns can be a good prelude to the reading of Valerie Flournoy’s classic, The Patchwork Quilt, a picture book that shows a similar connection of fabric to sentiment on a deeper level. 

THOUGHTS: Each page of this picture book is saturated with color, and it is pretty to look at. Teachers of primary grades can follow up with sorting different types of fabric or matching them or creating fabric-based pictures, Ezra Jack Keats style. Students could also bring in a piece of fabric and relate a family memory to stitch together a story quilt. 

Picture Book
Realistic Fiction 

Elem. – Look

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Snyder, Gabi. Look. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers/Paula Wiseman Book,  2024. 978-1-665-90540-4. $18.99. Grades PreK-3.

In this amazing vast world we live in, have you ever stopped to just look? Perhaps if you did, you would see amazing shapes, patterns, and colors all around you. This whimsical book allows readers to stop and just look at the surroundings and take it all in. Find the patterns, find the shapes, find the colors… just look and enjoy.

THOUGHTS: Uniquely illustrated, this book is full of amazing patterns, shapes, and colors. This book is filled with patterns that are unexpected and make you want to stop and look at your surroundings to find the magic in the moment.

Picture Book

Elem. – Bracelets for Bina’s Brothers

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LaRocca, Rajani, and Chaaya Prabhat. Bracelets for Bina’s Brothers. Charlesbridge, 2021. 978-1-623-54129-3. unpaged. $15.99. Grades K-2.

The sibling holiday of Raksha Bandhan was coming soon, and Bina wanted to make the traditional bracelets for her brothers by herself this year. First she does some investigating to find out each brother’s color preferences. She learns that Vijay likes blue best but green the least; Siddharth loves green but can’t stand orange; and Arjun’s fav is orange but not blue. As readers will guess, once the process of putting together each personalized bracelet begins, Bina needs to do some problem solving. The patterns that come from her process are fun, allowing readers to play the part of Tara, the faithful family dog, to help Bina when she is stuck. Prabhat creates a colorful animated world to enjoy, and LaRocca adds her cultural note and math connections at the end to help make Bina’s story special.

THOUGHTS: The bracelet patterns are not advanced, but serve as a starting point to bigger pattern projects. The holiday of Raksha Bandhan gets a rare spotlight which siblings both familiar and new to the day should appreciate. This is a solid series to celebrate “Math, diversity, and the power of story.” Recommended.

Picture Book          Dustin Brackbill, State College Area SD

In preparation for Raksha Bandhan, an Indian holiday celebrating the bond between brothers and sisters, Bina, who has three (sometimes annoying) older brothers, decides she is old enough to make bracelet gifts with the help of her dog Tara. Bina works to figure out each brother’s favorite and least favorite colors as well as special interests to create a unique bracelet for each one. While investigating, she learns more about each of her brothers and asks them not to call her names like Giggles, Piggles, and Wiggles. After a trip to the craft store with her mom, Bina has the right colored beads and “extra-special beads for extra-special brothers.” She has to figure out the right colors and patterns, being careful not to use colors her brothers don’t like and to have repeating patterns on each bracelet. With Tara’s careful supervision, will Bina be able to make unique bracelets for each of her brothers. An author’s cultural note, exploring the math, and website (https://www.charlesbridge.com/pages/storytellingmath) are included for extension activities.

THOUGHTS: A beautiful celebration of siblings, Bracelets for Bina’s Brothers is an excellent addition to elementary collections looking to add holiday representation and family stories. Highly recommended (and be sure to check out other Storytelling Math titles at the link above).

Picture Book          Maryalice Bond, South Middleton SD