Southwest Sunrise

The beauty of thoughtfully curated children's books from a company such as Brownish Books is that they introduce you to books such as Southwest Sunrise. Brownish Books does the research to bring up-to-date inclusive children's books and delivering them to your door.

Southwest Sunrise written by Nikki Grimes & illustrated by Wendell Minor is a story about a young boy who moves from New York City to New Mexico. Filled with uncertainty in finding this new place as a home, he discovers the beauty of the natural world by taking a walk outside.

One of the pages that struck me was when Jayden first started his walk and he spotted bright shades of flowers he didn't expect to find. Wine-cups, yellow-bells, red-firewheels, and calypso flowers surrounded him.

When reading this book at home or in a classroom, you can extend the literacy experience with a process-art invitation that deepens the connection. This invitation is to create sunset flowers. You will need yellow, orange, red, pink and purple liquid water colors. Droppers or pipettes as the tool to paint. Coffee filters that you will glue on cardboard or poster paper together. Simply ask the child to drop liquid water colors onto the coffee filters to create beautiful sunset flowers just like the story.