In this book Pat Cummings interviews fourteen distinguished picture book artists in an attempt to encourage aspiring artists. Victoria Chess, David Weisner, and other illustrators talk about how they first started srawing. It was surprising to see that most of them were drawing from a very young age. However, not all of them were encouraged by their parents. The interviews were insightful and honest and answers were personal and casual.
It was funny to see that they all admitted to including family, friends or pets in the drawings the do, whether intentionally or not. Each interview included samples of the artists' first pieces of work as well as some of the work they've done professionally. The artists speak of what they use to make their pictures from colored pencils to water colors or pastels. It was interesting to read that they all research a project prior to starting on it and they all maintain pictures and other useful information as reference.
This is a good book for aspiring artists to read so that they main gain knowledge form people who are in the business and realize that it isn't an easy job to do and that you must prove yourself in order to get recognized.
Rohmann, Eric. 2002. MY FRIEND RABBIT. Connecticut: Roaring Book Press. ISBN: 0761315357.
The opening text sums up the story: "My friend Rabbit means well. But whatever he does, where ever he goes, trouble follows." Mouse lends rabbit his plane only to find that rabbit gets in trouble as a result. After Rabbit flies nouse's toy plane into a tree, Rabbit assures Mouse that he will take care of the problem. Rabbit proceeds to build a pyramid of reluctant animals in an effort to retrieve the plane only to find that bogger trouble follows. At the climax of the story, the book must be turned to view a pyramid of animals with questionable looks on their faces. When the pyramid topples over ther is no doubt about how the animals feel as the expressions on their face is that of utter annoyance and disbelief.
Throughout the story Mouse shows that true friendship has no boundaries when he doesn't get upset after Rabbit flies his airplane into a tree. The true meaning of friendship is revealed when Mouse rescues Rabbit from an angry group of animals.
A picture speaks louder than words is truely the case with this book which contains few words yet gets the story across to even the youngest reader through the use of colorful prints. The expressions on the faces of the characters in the story clearly demonstrate the astonishment and annoyance so ther is no need for words to accompany them.
A group of second grade students enjoyed the story and all of them participated in filling in the blanks through the use of the prints. They didn't mind the lack of words because the pictures tell the story all by themselves.
Walter, the main character in the book, seems to think that nothing is as important as the mechanical gadgets of the future until his bed takes him to various places during the course of the night. Walter learns that the future is not as bright as he imagined ito to be due to the neglect of people. Walter realizes that it is the little things he can do, such as recycle and not litter, that make a difference in the future. What he criticized as a dumb gift, a tree, when his neighbor Rose was planting it turned out to be the best gift of all at his birthday party several days later. On the night of his birthday, Walter takes another trip to the future and finds that the trees he and Rose planted provide abundant shade for others.
The illustrations in this book are surreal as they attempt to represent the workings of the unconscious mind by creating a dreamlike state. Students listening to the story and viewing the illustrations concluded that since most of the story took place in a dream the pictures should be hazy looking. They pointed out that no one is sure they dream in color and mostr of the time the people being dreamt about are fuzzy looking. Their conclusion was that the illustrations matched the seriousness of the story and that it taught them a lesson on the importance of recycling.
Bajaj, Varsha. 2004. HOW MANY KISSES DO YOU WANT TONIGHT? Illustrated by Ivan Bates. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN: 0316110264.
As nighttime falls, each little animal nestles into its own cozy place andwaits for good-night kisses. The parents ask, "How many kisses do you want tonight?" while the baby animals playfully respond with the number required to get the to sleep. Little Girl "princess pink" asks her daddy for a hundred kisses, and Little Boy "brave knight" asks his mommy for a million. From one to ten, and then some, tender kisses are part of a warn and reassuring bedtime ritual for animals and people alilke. Sweet, softly colored watercolors set off each loving pair of parent and child in cozy bedtime scenes. The colors used at the beginning of the story, when the scenes are inside, give a sense of warmth while later in the book the colors slowly change to reflect the night sky outside.
This is a good book to teach children their numbers form one to ten as wellas teach rhyming words. A second grade student was quick to notice that each animal asked for one more kiss the the one before. They thought it was funny that a spider with eight legs would ask for eight kisses from its mother. Another student picked up on the rhyming words at the end of the sentences. They had been studying rhyming words the previous day and it was a good book for reinforcement. They thoroughly enjoyed the book and thought all the animals were cute.
