You may not have heard of Edwin Binney but chances are you’ve used his invention: Crayola crayons. Binney’s determination to come up with ways for children to create and draw with non-dusty color led to the invention. His life and legacy (and even how the name Crayola was crafted) makes a memorable story. Illustrated in color and brought right up to contemporary crayon making, this is a fascinating and well documented look at one man’s continuing legacy.
The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons
What does a piece of art make you feel? This is what the poet/editor, Lee Bennett Hopkins, asked a diverse group of poets. Each examined work from the Metropolitan Museum and answered in a poem to create a unique and handsome collection.
World Make Way: New Poems Inspired by Art from the Metropolitan Museum
Born in England in the early 19th century, Anna was encouraged by her father to observe, study, and document the natural world. Together, they also experimented with light as a way to photograph and record her botanic specimens. Unfortunately, none of the photographs exist today as the “prints faded over time, like memories.” Later she created books using cyanotype (known today as sun prints). Lush but muted illustrations in blues and white evoke the period and this scientist’s work. Additional resources are included.
The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the First Book of Photographs
What does pink call to mind? Something feminine? Something in nature? How about blue? Or black, white? Short poems and brief notes about what a color evokes are presented on illustrated double page spreads sure to generate thought, discussion, and perhaps art.
Vivid: Poems and Notes about Color
If an ordinary hamster drew a dinosaur, it would look nothing like the one Leonardo da Vinci may have created. In fact, few classic works would. Humor, art and art history combine in this very clever, slightly irreverent, but fascinating introduction to art and artists in this companion to If Picasso Painted a Snowman. (opens in a new window)
If da Vinci Painted a Dinosaur
Featuring charming visuals and lively, often lyrical prose, this picture book introduces Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, interweaving biographical details while highlighting her special relationships with pets. Folk-art style illustrations vividly evoke the Mexican environment.
Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos
What is a maker? “A maker starts with/empty space/ideas/hope/and stuff.” With those things, one can craft a boat, a card, a tie-dye shirt, or even a sock puppet. Poetry, art, and ideas come together in a charming whole to encourage, inspire, and stimulate creativity. Textured illustrations show a range of children creating, sharing and more.
With My Hands: Poems about Making Things
Tasty treats create shapes which turn into an array of creatures with just a few additional lines and a lot of creativity. Baklava Squirrels are made from the edible Greek parallelogram; oval jelly beams make colorful butterflies, and more in this original – and appetizing – look at shapes.
Sweet Shapes: A Forest of Tasty Shapes
In this companion to Triangle (opens in a new window), Square’s block is seen and greatly appreciated by Circle. Circle declares that Square is a genius, but is he? This second installment in Barnett’s trilogy is sure to amuse as well as confound.
Square
A child visits his grandfather but has trouble communicating; they literally don’t speak the other’s language. That is until they find another way to share thoughts and feelings through art. As each of them expresses himself creating unique superheroes, two generations are drawn together. Universal emotions are placed in a specific but nonetheless moving context.
Drawn Together
Eric Carle’s favorite color is yellow, William Low’s is brown, while Uri Shulevitz likes all colors. A veritable who’s who of illustrators answer the question posed in the book’s title accompanied by an original illustration, sure to spark discussion and a quest to find more books by the illustrators’ books.
What’s Your Favorite Color?
As an artist lays out tools needed to paint, she seeks inspiration from the masters. Along the way, well-known paintings from the National Gallery of Art are presented grouped by genre. Readers can examine each then read more about them on concluding pages, as the artist does “what [she] really love[s].”
Masterpiece Mix
What can you do with a pencil? Create lines that skate across a page with a single figure in a red hat and mittens. When lines become too chaotic, an eraser smooths them and a new skater is introduced. Just imagine what happens when more lively but delicate lines, skaters, and erasures come together in the last pages of this inventive book.
Lines
Vincent Van Gogh often had trouble sleeping. As a child, his parents fussed but Vincent continued to travel in his imagination, which precluded sleep. Glowing illustrations suggest the artist’s style and a rhythmic text provides an engaging introduction to Van Gogh and his powerful paintings. An author’s note includes additional information as well as images of several of Van Gogh’s paintings.
Vincent Can’t Sleep
GW, the hamster enjoys his evenings with his animal friends and is even beginning to like the second graders with whom he shares the room during the day. It is up to GW and his friends save the art show from the dastardly plot of mouse Harriet and her minions in this amusing, short graphic novel. A new story in the Pets on the Loose series.
The Great Art Caper
James Castle was born deaf and mute in 1899 on a farm in Idaho. The story of this child who grew up to become an artist is told in his nephew’s voice and illustrated in dark-hued illustrations that evoke not only the artist’s work but also his difficult life. Allen Say’s appreciation of this artist and his work is sophisticated and memorable, presenting a unique and truly original artist.
Silent Days, Silent Dreams
A mistake: a splat of ink. In fact, “it started with one mistake.” That mistake became a pattern, then a good idea, then ultimately into a remarkable work of imagination. Don’t let the format let you race through this book. Slow down; examine each double page spread to discover the hidden treasures in it — and maybe inspire your own book of mistakes.
The Book of Mistakes
The story follows Anno as he rides through the streets and countryside of Northern Europe. This wordless picture book tells the stories of each hamlet, farmyard, circus, and town square in visually rich, and often surprising detail. The author introduces geography and science by focusing on children and adults at work and play, as well as on art, architecture, composers, and painters, as he conducts an imaginary tour of England
Anno’s Journey
Long ago, a bespectacled boy dreamed of color in his drab industrial French town. Henri’s world exploded with color when, as an adult, he was given a box of paints. The contrast in Henri’s life is brought to life through straightforward text and black and white illustrations juxtaposed with those brilliantly hued to evoke the artist’s recognizable style.
Colorful Dreamer: The Story of Artist Henri Matisse
Jean-Michel Basquiat, an American artist born of a Haitian father and a Brooklyn born mother of Puerto Rican decent, became known as an artist whose work effectively made social commentary. The original illustrations call to mind Basquiat’s visual style while presenting his life and unique work, which broke old tenets of art to became popular in the 1980s.
Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
Photographs — many taken during the event and on site — document the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his now-famous “I Have a Dream” speech. A lucid text provides information about the Civil Rights Movement, general information about the period, and its impact. The images, however, have their own power even without the worthy narration.
Martin’s Dream Day
In 1958, photographer Art Kane gathered up a who’s who of jazz musicians on a New York City street for what is now an iconic image of African American artists. Original poems accompanied by vivid paintings depict the period, the people, and more. Not only is the original photo included, so are short biographies of each of the musicians as well as additional resources sure to inspire further exploration.
Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph
Writer extraordinaire, Walter Dean Myers, created original poetry to accompany selections of late 19th (perhaps early 20th) Century monochromatic photographs of African American children. The result is a handsome, sepia-toned album of poems and pictures that not only read aloud well but also capture the universal joys of children and childhood.
Brown Angels: An Album of Pictures and Verse
The best thing to calm Ansel down was the outdoors. The story of how a fidgety boy would evolve into a celebrated nature photographer is told in textured collages and lively text. Additional information about Adams and several of his iconic photographs conclude this engaging book.