Feed Me Books Friday: Up Close and Personal

Most children’s books would be incomplete if not useless without their illustrations. Yet most books I review catch my attention for their story line or moral, and the pictures are secondary.  Recently we borrowed A Closer Look, by Mary McCarthy, from the library and the pictures as well as the concept have me wanting to go explore the world in a new way. The paper collage illustrations look at several objects from a series of perspectives: ultra-close-up, close, and complete object. Children are challenged to guess what they are looking at before the complete object is revealed. Likely to incite some creative discussion as well as some giggles. For a more realistic approach, check out any of Tana Hoban’s Look books, or Shelly Rotner’s Close, Closer, Closest. We’ve enjoyed more that one of Hoban’s adventures in the zoom lens thanks to our library – they make me want to explore some creative photography of my own. We have not read Rotner’s book, but found it associated with my other choices on Amazon and I’ll now be on the look-out for it!

Appropriate for toddlers, preschool, primary grades.

Any of these titles could be inspiration for some artwork – collage or photographic – of your own.  B enjoys the mystery pictures and guessing their identity, I’m not confident he has the cognitive development to generate multiple perspectives on the same picture without a model. I’m thinking we could go on a photography adventure together, then use photographs at various stages of zoom to replicate in another medium. Artistic and crafty readers: help me flesh out this idea! Photography buffs: ever attempted something like this?

Looking for good reads for Halloween? You can check out my Halloween suggestions from last year for now, and I’ll be adding my favorites for this year next week. I invite you to share your Halloween choices next week too, though of course any book links are always welcome!

eye photo courtesy Look Into My Eyes on flickr