I feel like Du Iz Tak offers a great opportunity to have a conversation with kids about having a growth mindset and about not giving up just because something is hard or unfamiliar.

Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis - LoveReading4Kids Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis - LoveReading4Kids

EDIT: Carson Ellis tweeted @ me (which made my morning) and let me know that this one is actually “kids.” So I missed 1 out of 19. Not bad. The fort collapses and the bugs, looking not terribly distraught — perhaps because they know that this is nature’s way, perhaps because they know that they too will soon follow the flower’s fate in this unstoppable cycle of life — say farewell and walk off. A visual feast. One thing is certain; I’ll never look at a woodlouse the same way again. Ta ta furt. The discoverers of the shoot enlist the help of a wise and many-legged elder who lives inside a tree stump — a character reminiscent in spirit of Owl in Winnie-the-Pooh. He lends the operation his ladder and the team begins building an elaborate fort onto the speedily growing plant.When Doris and Delilah wake up to find something strange and sparkly has fallen from the sky, they are inspired to put on the world’s greatest magic show! But HOW do you make real magic happen? What ingredients do you need and who can help them? The book’s title— What Is That? in English—had to be changed in all its foreign-language iterations. Dutch bugs ask Kek Iz Tak?; their Portuguese cousins query Ke Iz Tuk? In Germany, bugs who want to know What Is That? wonder Wazn Teez? Told though the language of insects, Du Iz Tak? is a story about the cycle of life and all its impermanence. Come and peer into a miniature world of little puppets to see a delightful group of friends exploring their ever-changing home. The marvelously illustrated story is written in the imagined language of bugs, the meaning of which the reader deduces with delight from the familiar human emotions they experience throughout the story — surprise, exhilaration, fear, despair, pride, joy. We take the title to mean “What is that?”— the exclamation which the ento-protagonists issue upon discovering a swirling shoot of new growth, which becomes the centerpiece of the story as the bugs try to make sense, then make use, of this mysterious addition to their homeland. “Ma nazoot,” answers another —“I don’t know.”

Du Iz Tak? | Carson Ellis | 9781406373431 - Little Linguist Du Iz Tak? | Carson Ellis | 9781406373431 - Little Linguist

Complement the impossibly wonderful Du Iz Tak? with the Japanese pop-up masterpiece Little Tree— a very different meditation on the cycle of life based on a similar sylvan metaphor — then revisit Ellis’s Home, one of the greatest children’s books of 2015. Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - You can also become a spontaneous supporter with a one-time donation in any amount: GIVE NOW BITCOIN DONATION Not since The Very Hungry Caterpillar has insect life been celebrated with such style and originality. ~ Andrea Reece But their joyful plan is unceremoniously interrupted by a giant spider, who envelops their new playground in a web — a reminder that in nature, where one creature’s loss is another’s gain and vice versa, gain and loss are always counterbalanced in perfect equilibrium with no ultimate right and ultimate wrong.After we finish, I ask them what they thought about it. They always tell me that, at first, it made them uncomfortable when they realized that the book wasn’t in their language, and they thought it would be hard to follow the story. Night comes, then autumn, bringing their own magic as the world silently performs its eternal duty of churning the cycle of growth and decay. Partial to Bitcoin? You can beam some bit-love my way: 197usDS6AsL9wDKxtGM6xaWjmR5ejgqem7 CANCEL MONTHLY SUPPORT Need to cancel an existing donation? (It's okay — life changes course. I treasure your kindness and appreciate your Du Iz Tak? A Lyrical Illustrated Story About the Cycle of Life and the Eternal Equilibrium of Growth and Decay – The Marginalian