Books with author Josephine Nobisso

While other children’s religious titles focus on Saint Francis of Assisi as an adult, few, if any, have concentrated on the early life of the patron saint of animals and the environment. Stunning illustrations punctuate this beautifully told story of Saint Francis as a boy as he communes with nature and treats even the fiercest of animals—a hungry wolf—with the same compassion he would show his grandmother. In a fearless display of courage, tolerance, and understanding, the young Francis makes peace with the wolf, foreshadowing his teachings of harmony with the world around us and man’s duty to protect nature.

While the rest of her family sleeps, a young girl takes her little brother—whom she knows will be frightened by the windstorm raging around their seaside house—on an imaginary voyage with his favorite animal, the humpback whale. The bed lifts and the waters welcome them as they embark on an undersea odyssey to swim and breach with the gentle creature who rocks them gently to sleep in a rumbling, shimmering hammock made of waves.

While the rest of her family sleeps, a young girl takes her little brother—whom she knows will be frightened by the windstorm raging around their seaside house—on an imaginary voyage with his favorite animal, the humpback whale. The bed lifts and the waters welcome them as they embark on an undersea odyssey to swim and breach with the gentle creature who rocks them gently to sleep in a rumbling, shimmering hammock made of waves.

When Maria finds the lost key to her neighborhood’s city playground, she gathers all her friends together for a rollicking, rolling good time of outdoor fun in this vividly illustrated, artfully narrated, rhyming adventure. Just as the kids are about to leave their newly found turf, the grown-ups crash the party and join in on the fun—hand-clapping, rope-jumping, and high-swinging together in a colorful multicultural celebration. Teaching children the fundamentals of storytelling, this picture book provides an impeccable working model for storytelling using straight rhymes, slant rhymes, and meter. Masterfully presenting poetic tools in an accessible manner, this is a book whose story sings and leaps off the page, causing kids to dance and cheer.