Blog Tour: Crow Made a Friend written and illustrated by Margaret Peot

Crow Made a Friend by Margaret Peot
An "I Like to Read" book
Holiday House
2015, 24 pages
Ages 4-8

About the Book:
Try, try again is the lesson Crow teaches beginning readers in this picture book reader.

Crow was all alone.  But like all crows, he was very clever.  Using autumn leaves for wings, sticks for the body and a crab apple for the head, Crow made a  friend!  But winter winds blew in, destroying his creation.  Undaunted, Crow fashioned another bird friend out of snow but could not prevent it from melting in the warm spring sun.  Alone again, Crow heard the caw, caw, caw of a real live bird. Together they built a nest and by summer, Crow had a family. This warm, satisfying story celebrated perseverance and ingenuity.

This is surely one of my favorite picture books so far this year.

When I first open the package the Crow Made a Friend came in, I was stuck by the beautiful colors that Margaret Peot chose to use for her ink and watercolor illustrations.  As a teacher, the illustrations are the first thing I look for beginning readers.  Are they bright? Clear? Uncluttered? And do they match the text.  Peot's book certainly met those criteria.  Not only the colors, but the illustrations are all simply wonderful.

The next thing I look at is the text.  Simple declarative sentences work best and that is how each sentence in Crow Made a Friend written.  My little tester, Lilly, who is 6 and learning to read this year, loved being able to read most of this book on her own.

But what I really like about Crow Made a Friend is that it not only shows the rewards of perseverance and resourcefulness.  Kids often get frustrated when they want to master a difficult task yesterday.  Reading about Crow's first two unsuccessful attempts at making a friend over the course of the autumn and winter teaches kids that if they keep trying, they have a good chance of succeeding.

Crow was a mighty unhappy, lonely bird until he made a real friend and finally had a family.  Crow Made a Friend has a wonderful message not just about not giving up, but also one about the importance of family and friends in our lives - a lovely thought to remember for kids and everyone else.

Now for the Goodies:
Margaret Peot has some wonderful sheets for young readers.  There are coloring pages, a crow fact wheel kids can out together to learn all about crows, there's even a fully illustrated crow paper doll with movable wings that that you can make as well as a crow paper doll that can be colored in.  These can be downloaded and printed out HERE

Meet the Author:

Margaret is an artist, writer and costume painter. She is looking forward to the publication of two new books in 2015, Stencil Craft: Techniques for Fashion, Art and Home (June 26, 2015, F&W) and an early reader picture book, Crow Made a Friend (July 1, 2015. Holiday House).Margaret's book Inkblot: Drip, Splat and Squish Your Way to Creativity (Boyds Mills 2011) was awarded a Eureka! Silver Medal for non-fiction children's books. She is also the author of The Successful Artist's Career Guide (F&W 2012), Alternative Art Journals (F&W 2012), and Make Your Mark (Chronicle Books, 2004), voted one of Library Journal's best how-to books of 2004. 

An avid believer that art making can be for everyone, Margaret has presented art workshops with cancer survivors, elders, children, parent and teen groups, writers, nurses and caregivers, at The Creative Center at University Settlement's Creative Aging conferences, and their Artist-in-Residence Training program, with EngAGE Utah, at Gilda's Club, The Huntsman Cancer Institute, Operation Exodus in NYC, and at Miami University at Scripps and Opening Minds Through Art.

***TLC Book Tours is Giving Away a Copy of Crow Made a Friend to one random reader. To Enter all you have to do is simply leave a comment below with an email address, so I can contact you. Also, please “Like” Randomly Reading on Facebook.  Ends Monday 11/09/2015.

I would like to thank TLC for inviting me to be a part of this book review blog tour.