Nathalie Dion

The uplifting journey of a cloud ("kumo" in Japanese) who overcomes her shyness -- and discovers the rewards of feeling seen. Kumo is a bashful cloud whose only wish is to float unseen. When she's assigned cloud duty for the day, she feels overwhelmed by self-doubt and her fear of being noticed. But after learning that closing your eyes isn't a good solution to your troubles, Kumo pulls her fluff together and does her duties -- drifting, releasing rain and providing shelter -- meeting some new friends along the way and inspiring the imagination (and capturing the heart) of a small daydreamer like her. Kyo Maclear's sweetly humorous and lyrical parable about overcoming shyness, inspired by her own experience as an author, and vividly brought to life by Nathalie's Dion's ethereal illustrations, is an affirmation of the pleasures of community and the confidence that can arise from friendship and visibility.

Thanks to her wild head of hair, Malie gets all tangled up with an unexpected cast of characters in this funny, stylish twist of a tall tale. Malie is a little girl with huge, uncontrollable hair. And this morning, it seems wilder than ever. She tries to comb it. She tries to hide it, but nothing works! And things go from bad to worse when her mother sends her out to run some errands. At the bakery, Malie’s hair sweeps a tray of cupcakes off the counter. A flock of birds makes her irresistible nest a home. A child on a tricycle slips and flips — but enjoys the softest landing in Malie’s hair. Her wild mane becomes more and more of a burden, both physically and emotionally. But after a quick nap, Malie can appreciate the world anew. She smells delicious cupcakes, hears a chorus of birds singing, and meets a new friend who happens to have curly hair, too. In her eagerly anticipated authorial debut, Nathalie Dion draws on personal experience, hilarious hyperbole and delightful idioms to spin a tall tale that will tickle all readers — curly-haired or not. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.3 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7 With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.