(3) K-3 Illustrated by Pascal Milelli. Canadian artist Tom Thomson teaches a young girl how to paint in an imagined chronicle of real events during the summer of 1914. Vande Griek paints with bold, visually descriptive words in the poetic text, regularly musing on the varying ways "the west wind blows." Milelli's oils on canvas vividly evoke the artist's style and the lakeside landscape. More on Thomson is appended. Reading list.

Reviewer: Jeannie Coutant

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Pascal Milelli. After Finn, a young fisher, rescues a magical shape-shifting seal (or selkie), she takes the form of a human girl to join him on land. When a sudden storm comes up, she saves Finn's life but then must return to the sea forever. Dramatic oil paintings, particularly effective in their portrayal of the ocean and the selkie, illustrate the bittersweet, evocative story.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(3) K-3 Tales of the World series. Illustrated by Pascal Milelli. Eight-year-old Zulviya and the girls in her family spend their days weaving rugs, just like their mothers and grandmothers have always done. Impressionistic paintings in muted colors accompany Zulviya's lyrical description of her Afghan homeland and her yearning to escape "the shadow of the loom." An author's note provides details about illegal child labor in the Afghani rug-making industry.

Reviewer: Miriam Steinberg-Egeth

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Pascal Milelli. Set in the 1900s and based on the life of Emily Carr, a Northwest Coast painter, the text is narrated by children who study drawing and painting with Miss Carr. Milelli's oil on canvas illustrations are appropriately painterly, allowing his darker underpaint colors to show through in flatter areas. The lack of plot probably won't matter to young artists or to teachers looking for historically accurate material about women painters.

Reviewer: Lolly Robinson