Carpenter's Helper - by Sybil Rosen (Hardcover)

About the Book

Renata and her father halt work on their new bathroom when a pair of wrens builds a nest over the bathtub, allowing Renata to see their chicks hatch and begin to fly.

Book Synopsis

A warm, wonderful picture book that gently reminds us of the importance of respecting our natural world and highlights the joys and rewards of helping others.

Join a girl as she helps a mama and papa bird build a nest in her bathroom, hatch their eggs, and teach their babies to fly away.
Renata and her Papi are hard at work at renovating their bathroom. Renata can't wait to build castles of bubbles in the deep, old-fashioned bathtub. But one morning, she finds dried leaves and pine needles heaped on a shelf in the corner. How did they get there? She soon realizes that a bird has built a nest on the shelf, and inside it are four rosy eggs! Weeks pass, and Renata watches as the wrens come and go, building a home in her bathroom... until, one day, with a little help from Renata, the birds are ready to fly.

Review Quotes

"Renata's wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story." --Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"Excelling in natural illustrations with a slightly cartoonish bent, Garoche offers fine-lined pencil art colored digitally in a soft color palette. This gentle story, with its respect for family, nature, construction, and collaboration, will lift readers' spirits as surely as Renata boosts the wrens." --Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

About the Author

Sybil Rosen is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She received a Fellowship in Playwriting/Screenwriting from The New York State Council on the Arts. Her young adult novel, Speed of Light, published by Simon & Schuster, won the Sydney Taylor Award for Older Readers and was nominated for the Mark Twain Award. Riding the Dog, a collection of short stories which all take place on a Greyhound bus, won the Gold Medal for Fiction/Short Story for The Readers' Favorite International Book Award. She is the author of Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley, which was recently adapted for the movie BLAZE. Sybil co-wrote the screenplay for the film, which was directed by Ethan Hawke.

Camille Garoche studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Cergy and the Maryse Eloy. Her 3-D, cut-paper illustrations have been exhibited throughout Europe. She is the author-illustrator of Fox's Garden and The Snow Rabbit. Camille lives in Paris with her partner and two daughters. Visit her at camille.garoche.me, or follow her on Instagram (@camille_garoche_illustatrice) and Twitter (@PrincesseCamca.)