Encourage your children to run with an idea and see where it will take them!
The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, written and illustrated by Eric Carle, Philomel, $17.99, ages 4-8, 32 pages, 2011. Due out Oct. 4. From the beloved creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar comes a joyful celebration of artistic expression. Inspired by German painter Franz Marc, Carle's story depicts a boy painting animals in colors that don't occur in nature: a lion that's green, a polar bear that's black, a donkey with polka-dots and eventually a horse that's blue. The blue horse, like the one on the cover, is a tribute to Marc's famous and controversial 1911 work Blue Horse I. Marc believed that color had emotional meaning and he wasn't afraid to use it in unconventional ways. And here, Carle beautifully echoes that idea, showing readers that they don't have to follow every rule of art: Embrace what you see in your imagination, he seems to say, and be true to yourself. Carle makes his point with such joie de vivre that readers will feel energized to get out there and paint just as their heart desires. Also encouraging, every picture in the book looks like a child could paint it: animal shapes are simple collages and fur looks as if it were textured with fingers or the hard ends of paintbrushes. Brilliantly simple, this one's a pat on the back to any young artist who yearns to do things differently.
Boy Wonders, written and illustrated by Calef Brown, Atheneum, $16.99, ages 4-8, 40 pages, 2011. In this spirited, fun book, the creator of Flamingos on the Roof captures a boy's eagerness to understand the world. He also gets readers excited about playing with words and asking questions too. Rhyming questions spill onto the page, as the boy makes leaps of logic and reasons through ideas in nonsensical ways. In the first spread, Brown zooms in on the boy's face staring back at readers: "Are you ever perplexed? " the boy asks with beseeching eyes. "Completely vexed? / Do you have questions? / Queries? / Odd Theories?" Well yes, you say to yourself, of course! And from there on, a stream of funny questions gushes out of the boy, suggesting how quickly ideas can spring into a curious mind. On one page the boy inquires, "Do paper plates / and two-by-fours / remember being trees?" On another, he asks a brain-twister. "If I, as the class clown, / am given a paper crown / as a trophy for being goofy, / have I, alas, / bee
0 Comments on 8. I Like How You Think. as of 1/1/1900
Add a Comment