The Secret Garden of George Washington Carver.

George Washington Carver tended a secret garden of flowers before becoming known for his skill in agriculture. The book opens in 1921 as Carver addresses the U.S. Congress, astounding them with dozens of uses for the peanut. The narration then takes readers back to Carver’s childhood to discover how he reached that career highlight. As a child, he loved flowers, but he was warned not to waste time on plants that couldn’t be eaten or sold, so he kept his colorful garden hidden in the woods. Shut out of schools because he was black, he studied nature independently and learned through experimentation. Eventually, he started caring for neighbors’ sick plants, becoming known as “the Plant Doctor.” At 12, he left the farm on which he was raised and attained a formal education, after which he taught students at the Tuskegee Institute and farmers with a mobile classroom mounted on a wagon. This journey through Carver’s childhood and accomplishments ends with Carver’s simple but memorable words, “Regard Nature. Revere Nature. Respect Nature.” The substantial text holds readers on each spread long enough to appreciate not only the subject matter of the painted illustrations, but Morrison’s artistic techniques—strong strokes and careful dots, artful combinations of textures and shapes—which create lush forest scenes and portraitlike human faces and forms. The childhood story feels more cohesive than the final pages, which list his adult accomplishments but lack the narrative thread. Memorable art earns this biography a respectable place on the shelf. (timeline, bibliography, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 4-9)

On Monday, April 4th, I was honored to speak at the prestigious 92nd St.Y in New York about my picture book: “Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo Da Vinci.” If you’d like to see it, here’s the link:
Check It Out

So cool to see that Now & Ben is on sale at The Benjamin Franklin House in London! Thanks for the photo, Bill Ochester!

IT’S OFFICIAL! Another Publisher’s Weekly announcement. Finally getting to make my passion project! Thank you, Christy Ottaviano.

It’s official in Publisher’s Weekly! Illustrator Craig Orback and I are going to bring some much needed attention to a guy named Spielberg.

OUT TODAY!!! THE BASS PLAYS THE BASS AND OTHER HOMOGRAPHS! (Formerly: Zoola Palooza).
Now that the trilogy is complete, collect all three and never get your homonyms, homophones, or homographs wrong ever again.

TODAY!!! “THE BAT CAN BAT: A BOOK OF TRUE HOMONYMS” is available wherever books are sold! Hey MUPPET Peeps, you may just see your cameo in this book!

Thank you, School Library Journal for the wonderful review for: The Bat Can Bat: A Book of True Homonyms.”

Gr 2-4–Sports and animals are perennially popular, and Barretta uses them as the common denominator in this collection of illustrated homonyms. It begins with the easily understood “The bat can bat!” featuring a bat playing baseball, then progresses to more difficult examples. The font is simple, in black or white, depending on the background color of the full-bleed illustrations. The homonyms are printed in capital letters. The use of horizontal and vertical spreads is helpful in explaining the finer points of homonyms. One of the vertical illustrations features a two-tiered, high diving board—the top deck hosts an angry, red-faced rhino who is throwing a fit over the fit of his ridiculously tiny swimsuit. For comic relief, on the lower diving deck, a young girl casts a nervous glance upwards. A “Note to the Reader” includes useful definitions of homonyms, homophones, and homographs. VERDICT More concept book than storybook, this is a fundamental purchase for school libraries and public libraries with heavy educator usage.–Lisa Taylor, Florida State College, Jacksonville

THANK YOU, KIRKUS! For the wonderful review of my next release, The Bat Can Bat: A Book of True Homonyms. (Feb 2018)
“Homonym pairs describe the action as an array of unlikely animals play sports with varying degrees of success and hilarity. The titular BAT wields his BAT for a home run, causing the president to announce a new law declaring that all animals have the RIGHT to play sports. “That’s RIGHT!” he says. Double-page spreads depict a variety of animals taking part in all kinds of sporting events, employing one or more sets of true homonyms, which stand out in bold uppercase letters. (A note to readers orients them on the nuanced differences among homonyms, homophones, and homographs.) Some examples involve pairings with straightforward meanings that are easily understood by young readers. Rabbits TRAIN for races by racing a TRAIN. In other examples, details in the illustrations highlight possibly unfamiliar meanings. The dolphin can STAND on a wave as it faces the judges’ STAND, where there is a sign over a diverse group of people in a structure helpfully labeled “Judges.” Barretta is a master of wordplay (Dear Deer, 2007; Zoola Palooza, 2011), and his hugely expressive, brightly hued watercolor cartoons certainly depict both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, all with endless humor and charm. That poor water buffalo is totally embarrassed when his horn is caught in the basketball net, and the monkey looks absolutely gleeful when he deliberately throws the football in the wrong direction. Youngsters will laugh out loud while they are unconsciously, painlessly learning. (Picture book. 6-9) “