Art Adventures

What can elevate a visit to an art gallery from being merely interesting, to exciting and wonderful? Imagine walking into a room and recognizing a painting that you’ve seen in a book - a real painting, in its full splendor – wouldn’t that be an absolute delight?

image source ebay.com

Katie and the Sunflowers
By James Mayhew
Orchard Books
Ages 3+

The Katie series is a lovely introduction to art, and makes art appealing to young children.  These books make a visit to an art gallery a fun adventure!

Rain makes Katie and her grandma find an alternative to gardening. The museum it is!

Katie discovers she can reach in and touch the flowers in van Gogh’s Sunflowers. In trying to get some seeds, she knocks over the vase. That sets off a chain of events. Soon enough, we have two girls and a dog, Zazou, pop out of Paul Gaugin’s Breton Girls Dancing. The four-some climb into and out of paintings. Amid the chaos and madcap fun, we are introduced to Sunflowers, Café Terrace at Night, Breton Girls Dancing, Tahitian Pastorals and Still life with Apples and Oranges. Chasing Zazou who has snatched the sunflowers, the girls bump into café tables, sending plates flying. Trying to escape an angry waiter, they tip over bowls of fruit. All of this happens at the museum, with people tumbling out of frames! Vincent’s Chair, The Starry Night, van Gogh’s self-portrait and Wheatfields can be spotted in the background. Young readers have taken in masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin and Paul Cézanne without even knowing it!

The afterword tells us where we can see the paintings reproduced in the book, along with a brief introduction to each of the three postimpressionist masters featured. The resident five-year old finds it most interesting that it took Cézanne a long time to paint a picture. That meant if he painted people, they had to sit still for many days. It was easier to paint still lifes and landscapes.

Other books in the series that we enjoyed are ‘Katie and The Mona Lisa’, ‘Katie Meets The Impressionists’ and ‘Katie's Sunday Afternoon’. The books reminded me ofTulika’s Looking at Art series reviewed here. The Katie books deal with three masters in each book, unlike the Tulikas with a book devoted to an artist. The Katie series, therefore, does not go into as much detail about an artist or his work, but a great introduction to art, nonetheless, and judging by the reception from the five-year old – these books work splendidly with the intended audience.

It is these books that made our visit to the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C an experience to cherish.

image source books.google.com

What Makes A Van Gogh A Van Gogh
By Richard Muhlberger
Viking & Metropolitan Museum of Art
All ages

Co-published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this series contains a biography of the artist, photographs of all major works, an analysis of paintings and insight into the artist’s technique.

The ‘What Makes a…’ series features Raphael, Rembrandt, Bruegel, Leonardo, Cassatt, Goya, Degas, Monet, Picasso and Vincent van Gogh. The series is suitable for all ages; I read out excerpts from the books to the five year-old, as we studied the reproductions of the artists’ work. What makes a van Gogh a van Gogh was his favorite in the series (and mine!), with the one on Degas being a close contender.

Thanks to these books we learnt about each artist’s style, work, and life.

We’d also pored over a couple of other series - books from Anholt’s series and Mike Venezia’s ‘Getting to know…’ series reviewed here.

image source books.google.com

A Bird or Two
By Bijou Le Tord
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
Ages 3+

Bijou Le Tord's ‘A Bird or Two’ about Henri Matisse’s time in Nice and how it influenced his style, talks about what motivated him to paint. A tribute to Henri Matisse, the book captures Matisse’s spirit but doesn’t go into details about his works or life. What it does, though, is inspire. And for that, it is definitely worth a read.

He said "I am strong because I do what is in my mind."

"What I had to do, I did the best I could"

image source amazon.com

The Knight Who Took All Day
By James Mayhew
The Chicken House
Ages 3+

James Mayhew’s humorous take on the story of St. George and the Dragon is not really a book about art, but it did lead to an art adventure. The five year-old walked into a room in the National Gallery of Art, and exclaimed “Hey! I know this painting”. The painting in question was a Renaissance masterpiece - Raphael’s St. George and the Dragon.

That’s not the only reason I think it rocks. A pompous knight who is more interested in appearances than action is left in the lurch by a quick-witted princess who takes matters into her own hands. Tired of waiting, she tames the fire-breathing dragon herself! I would’ve liked it more if the story had ended there, and not with the princess marrying the vain knight’s squire. Oh well, I’m glad she didn’t wait for the knight to rescue her and end up marrying him!

Paper donkeys, noodle hair : Three books in collage

I cannot resist a book illustrated in collage. There is something almost magical about images fashioned from things which were once something else -  magazine pages, toffee wrappers, found objects, mummy’s old sari. I like to think that each piece of a collage brings with it its own history, its own story blending silently into the one being illustrated.  And, given how engulfed we are these days by sophisticated, digitally enhanced images,  the quiet, wholesome  charms of hand crafted art are a refreshing change.

Here are three recent books by Indian publishers that celebrate collage in different ways.

Kaka and Munni: A folktale from Punjab

Retold and Illustrated by Natasha Sharma

Pratham Books

 Ages  4+

Kaka and Munni is a cumulative tale,  partly in verse, starring  clever sparrow Munni  and  Kaka, the crow she outwits.   Munni  sits quietly in her  nest by the wheat fields. Along comes the village bully, Kaka, intending to snack on her eggs. Quick thinking Munni agrees, but asks Kaka to go wash his beak first. Silly Kaka, who is very vain about his appearance, is upset by the idea of not looking his best and agrees. Only, things aren’t going to be as simple as that, are they? He asks the stream for water to wash himself, only to be told to fetch a cup first. So he goes to the potter for a cup, only to be told to fetch some mud. And the fields are baked hard in the summer sun, so Kaka needs a sharp tool to dig up the mud.  And so on, until Kaka learns a painful lesson.

I enjoyed the rich, vibrant colours of the illustrations in this book, and the innovative way scale has been played with. The  lively mix of textures, prints and colours  makes each page a pleasure to pore over, even rub with your fingers.    I did feel sorry for poor Kaka, though!

Incidentally, the author/ illustrator, also gave us the hilarious Icky, Yucky, Mucky, reviewed here. 

Paper Play

Written by Mala Kumar

Illustrated by Ruchi Shah

Pratham Books

  Ages  4+

‘Swoosh!’ A piece of paper floats in through the window, and Manju nearly throws it away. But in walks Wasim and, in his hands, the crumpled ball of paper becomes a ball. Then Syeda picks it up and, voila! The ball of paper is now a lollipop, like the ones she will sell one day when she has her own sweet shop. But now Bittu walks in and the lollipop is transformed ..again!   

Paper Play celebrates that greatest of childhood toys – the imagination. The simplest of things – a piece of paper – sets Manju and her friends off on an imaginative journey, with each one taking turns to conjure up clever interpretations of the paper . In keeping with the whimsical theme, the illustrations too make inventive use of paper scraps. Shredded noodles of paper become the children’s hair; flowers bloom out of newspaper sheets; pieces of coloured paper become clouds, trees, windows, birds – even a hungry little donkey!

This book could be a good introduction to paper craft for young readers. The book ends with a page of instructions to turn a square of paper into a little hut – an easy introduction to origami.  I also liked its subtle environmental  message – don’t throw stuff away, it just might have a second life as something else. Like a whole book !

The Magic Feather

Written and illustrated by Roma Singh

Tulika Publishers

Ages 4+ 

A little girl walks into a forest, looking for her friends. She finds a feather instead. When she tucks it into her hair, she finds herself in a land of feathers. Then she finds a lily that transports her into  a land of lilies. Then she finds a stone and discovers – you guessed it! – a land of colourful stones. And finally, she finds a book. What do you think happens next?

The Magic Feather has a very simple storyline. In fact, the plot reads like little more than a vehicle to carry its readers from one fantastic illustration to the next. Though this is a book about the joys of reading,  I could easily imagine it being wordless,  leaving the narrative entirely to the reader’s imagination. 

The star attraction of the book is, of course, the little girl herself - an old diary with simple cutout shapes for features and a lovely head of shredded paper hair. ( Judging from the print visible on the illustrations, Roma Singh seems to have raided the paper shredders at  IIT Mumbai!) Like Paper Play, this book too uses a mix of handmade and digital collage.  I would have liked to see more of the former, though – compared to the charming tactile characters, the digitally rendered parts of the illustrations of The Magic Feather are a little disappointing in their flat colours and lack of depth.

Two Roomy Tales

These are two stories that are set in completely different lands and cultures.  What can Bhutan and Scotland have in common, I mused. These two stories prove that ‘goodness’ and ‘warmth’ feel the same across languages and cultures.

Room In Your Heart

Original Story by: Kunzang Choden

Illustrated by: Pema Tshering

Publisher: Young Zubaan Books

{Picture Courtesy: Young Zubaan}

On a quiet evening in the hills, an old lady with her grey cat, a yellow dog and a brown speckled hen are getting ready for dinner. As the dinner is simmering on the stove, a gentle voice calls, “Neypo Shong gna? (Is there room for me?)”  The guest, a gentle monk is honoured with the best place in her humble abode. Just when dinner is getting ready, there’s another voice at the door but the question is the same, “Neypo Shong gna?” The old lady shifts a few things around to find some room for her new guest to settle down. As she gets ready to serve dinner, there are more voices, the same request each time, “Neypo Shong gna?”

How the old lady finds room each time for her new guest in her little hut and how they joyfully share the dinner makes the rest of the story. This story drives home the point that it is not material comfort that make your guests feel welcome but kindness and a warm smile. As you read through the book, tender warmth envelops you and you believe in all the goodness in this world. You think of summer holidays at grandma’s when all cousins huddled together in one bed, how the house teemed with people, filled with laughter and radiated joy. It even reminded me of the random lady on a crowded train who ‘adjusted’ to make space for me. Like I said, it makes you believe that there’s so much goodness in the world still, if you care to see it.

The water colours are heartwarming reflections of the culture and lifestyle of Bhutan.  The simple lucid style portrays the mood of the story effectively

Always Room for One More

Written by: Sorche Nic Leodhas

Illustrated by: Nonny Hogrogian

Publisher:  Owlet Book

{Picture Courtesy: Amazon.com}

                                                                                        

 Imagine Scottish music, Bagpipes, gaiety and laughter. Now imagine our hero Lachie MacLachlan as he stands outside his ‘wee house’ calling out to every passing traveler to spend the stormy night at his house. “There’s room galore …there’s room for one more” he calls merrily, despite the fact that the ‘wee house on the heather’ already houses a family of twelve. So there comes a tinker and then a tailor, a sailor and a whole lot many till the house is literally bursting at its seams.

There’s so much fun and frolic, dancing and singing, there’s so much din that the house can’t take it anymore. So Lachie MacLachlan, his wife and his bairns all tumble out together and gape at the place where once stood the ‘wee house’.  The rest of the story is about how the guests repay our big hearted Lachie and his family for their kindness.

This Scottish folktale has all the elements of a folktale – the rhyme, the reason, the message and a peek into the culture. The story exudes warmth and generosity through the rather merry style of narrative. Lachie, our hero is endearing  in his clownish and funny way.

The illustrations stand out. Soft water colour forms the background landscape while the elements of the story (people, animals, carts, house, etc) are drawn in simple pen and ink style.

366 words in Kolkata

Author: Vaishali Basu

Illustrator: Devaki Neogi Kiran

Concept: Preeti Vyas

Publisher: FunOKplease

As a travel enthusiast, this series caught my interest and eye. I have not seen any in this genre for Indian cities, targeted at children.

I was inducted into the series through 366 words in Bengaluru. Though I had been a resident for over a year, I found it a useful way to introduce and discover new things about the city to my six year old.

The series maintains a consistent look and feel through the four books. The yellow and black zebra line border, the size of the book and the title fonts, certainly ensure that you notice the book.

After a child friendly map , there is a text-heavy, two-page introduction to the city which my child wanted to skip. Older children and adult readers will find it interesting/ informative and can help the younger child through it.

The book really gets going from there on. It takes you on a ride in and around the city.

There is a full page dedicated to each landmark / theme ranging from the modern to the traditional, capturing the culture- from food to transport and basically anything that adds distinct character to the city.

The text on each location/ subject is crisp and reader friendly. Having visited Kolkata a few times, I felt the book was informative and comprehensive. I smiled as the author doffed her cap at gender equality, when the child says that her father cooks a special dish on Sundays.

The art work of the locations have been done painstakingly and there are small quirky touches in many a corner.  Some aspects of the picture are left unexplained to encourage further investigation by the child. eg. Swami Vivekananda's visual on the Metro page.

There is a sometimes a bit too much going on, on some pages, since individual words also need highlighting along with their pictures. True to the book's claim, the words target a mix of ages and are of different levels of familiarity across the 3- 8 age group.

The book ends with a page full of suggested excursions close to the city. Pretty exhaustive is again the feeling one gets.

As expected, the authors of the series are either natives of the city or have spent  a large portion of their life there. This is true of the illustrators as well. Thus there is a lot of love for the city, that gets reflected in the work.

Another charming titbit is that the actual names of the kids of all the authors and illustrators are part of all the books.

Since the content and concept are really fresh in the Indian context, I found the rendering of the two kids (who are the narrators) a bit uninspired. But this does not detract from the book.

The book will appeal to any curious child and he can use it for reference every now and then and discover something new each time - about the city he lives in or the one he plans to visit soon.

How To Write Poetry

Poems of all sorts, from silly to informative, thought-provoking to amusing, was sought after and enjoyed last year by the older child at home. And then, this summer, we've been reading about How To Write Poetry.

What is poetry and why is it so? The answer can be a bit ambiguous, even for an adult. So, we tried not to get too technical, but just learn from other poets and see how it inspires us.

Without further ado, here are a few books that demystified the concept and offered practical tips for writing poetry.

Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry
by Jack Prelutsky
(Children's Poet Laureate)

With a catchy title like that, and an easy conversational tone that engages a young reader, Prelutsky has presented a 190-page volume that am sure will amuse and instruct the kids (and adults).

The book is about sharing the creative process, so no academic discourse about dactyls, quatrains or iambic pentameters (my favorite!)

The one thing repeatedly emphasized in this book is to carry an "Ideas Book" with you always - to jot down an idea for a poem, a story, even just a feeling, which we can then expand later. If not written down, it surely escapes the mind and never returns easily.

Another important message was to use the tools available - like the Rhyming dictionary and  Thesaurus - when stuck for words. Although poems don't have to rhyme always, it helps to have a lilt/rhythm and a format for the words to flow easily.

The biggest tip of all was how the process can range from a few hours to a few days to even a year or more to finish a poem. Prelutsky shares how he sometimes had difficulty finishing a poem - finding the right way to end it so the poem feels complete. And, in fact the book encourages budding writers to write, ruminate, rewrite and repeat till it feels done.

With Writing Tips and sample poetry to illustrate the point, Prelutsky's book seems to have made quite an impact on the 7 year old. Especially anecdotes from his childhood where he seems to not have been Mr.Goody-Two-Shoes.


[image source:  harpercollins.com]
[Sample this book at: Browse Inside Harper Collins]

Words, Wit, and Wonder
Writing Your Own Poem
by Nancy Loewen
illustrated by Christopher Lyles

The team has collaborated on a few of The Writer's Toolbox picture books that inspire readers to turn into writers.

How are poems different from other kinds of writing? is addressed in the first page.

The following pages present 12 tools, one tool per page, with colorful illustrations and sample poems, explained in easy-to-follow language.

Tool 1 is Rhythm, and Limerick is given as an example. Limericks are possibly the most amusing and much-enjoyed form of poetry around the world, something about the format and meter tickles the young minds.

Tool 3 is Alliteration and Going To St.Ives is the poem given as an example, which is also a riddle. There's two great ideas in it for creating a poem!

Similes, Metaphors, Onomatopoeia are all explained as tools to creating poetry. And then a few poetic forms are discussed, including Acrostic, Cinquain, Concrete Poem, Haiku, and Limerick. All in compact one double-page spread with the sample poem and illustrations.

[image source: amazon.com]

How To Write Poetry
by Paul B. Janeczko

Along the lines of Jack Prelutsky's book above, Janeczko (A Kick In The Head, A Poke In The I, A Foot in the Mouth, Poetry from A to Z) shares writing tips and creative process with "Poet Craft" and "Try this..." sections to inspire the aspiring poet.

Poet Craft sections include tips like using Figurative Language for vivid comparisons that make the poem come alive.

Try This sections sets you to work right away. Like,

Try This... Before you read another word, open your journal to a fresh page and write down some of your favorite words. Don't stop to think or analyze your choices. Just write.

I liked the chapter, Starting To Write, early on as it broke down the process roughly with the well-established steps: brainstorming, drafting, editing, revising, and finally publishing.

Submitting Poems To A Publisher section offers a few insider tips for the more serious young poet.

This book is geared towards Upper Elementary and Middle School writers than younger writers but is very useful for anybody who wants to try their hand at this beautiful and creative form.

[image source: amazon.com]

Nest, Nook, & Cranny
Poems by Susan Blackaby
illustrated by Jamie Hogan

Although not directly a How To Write Poetry book, the poems here are gems - from tongue-in-cheek sonnet to lyrical free verse, the collection presents homes of various animals, be it shoreline, wetland or grassland, or even tide pool!

Yes indeed, we came across this book during our Tide Pool exploration phase and held on to it.

But the reason I wanted to include it in the How To books is that: at the back of the book, the author explains why she chose a particular poetic form for that poem and how it captures/highlights/represents the theme of the poem well, and what tools she used to get that across. Example:

Tide Pool

Shallow pools in rocky ledges
Etched by sand and scored by sea.
Are beachfront homes for stranded creatures:
Starfish, snails, anemones.
Twice each day the sea seeps in
When the changing tide runs high.
Battered by the salty spray,
Sodden lodgers cling and sway,
Waterlogged before the drought,
Parching when the tide goes out.

Susan explains that: For creatures in a tidepool, living conditions - either all wet or mostly dry - follow certain rules, but the transition period from one extreme to the other is marked by instability and chance. This poem follows similar pattern. It begins at low tide with one rhyme scheme (ab cb), gets interrupted midway through when the tide comes in (an unrhymed couplet to suggest disorder), and ends at high tide with a different rhyme scheme (dd ee).

The notes mostly inspired me, not the resident 7 yo who liked the poems and the sparse yet elegant charcoal pencil drawings on textured paper.

The few pages at the back of the book that deconstruct and explain the poems can easily be expanded to a  How-To book for writing poetry - why choose a particular form, how to bring out the feelings/mood of the poem through clever use of a particular form - all quite informative and inspiring.

[image source: charlesbridge.com]

A Kick in the Head
An Everyday Guide To Poetic Forms
selected by Paul B. Janeczko
illustrated by Chris Raschka

A Kick in the Head was much-loved book for Sandhya as she shared here at ST a while back.

However, not including it here among the How To Write Poetry books seemed incomplete somehow for me as it inspired us to try out at least a dozen if not all 29 forms therein. So, here it is.

Primarily, the torn-paper-and-paint collage illustrations inspired us first, and then the clever, succint presentation of the poetic forms.

29 poetic forms are presented in this book, with skillful illustrations by Raschka that give pictorial clues about the poetic form on each page, a representative poem, and the rhyming scheme used for this poetic form. Back of the book gives further information about each poetic form. This book is just amazing and inspiring all-round.

More about this book at Sandhya's inspiring post.

[image source: http://www.candlewick.com]

Meet Roomani Kulkarni, illustrator of Have You Seen This?

photo courtesy behance.net

Arthi Anand Navaneeth's first book Have You Seen This? will be launched in Chennai and Bangalore  on Saturday, 4th August 2012. The appeal of the book lies as much in the zany illustrations by first time illustrator, Roomani Kulkarni as with Arthi's quirky lines.

Roomani Kulkarni is from Mumbai, and a student of graphic design from DJ Academy of Design, Coimbatore, and this is her first book too, done during her internship with Tulika books. You can see more of her work here. Take a look at this lovely illuminated manuscript and these sketches.

Here's Roomani in her words.

ST: Is this your first published book?
Roomani: Yes, this is my first published book. Actually it’s also the very first book I worked on.

ST: What is the medium you normally use? What is the medium in the book?
Roomani: I normally use water colours, pencil colours and photo ink colours. I wanted to try a new medium in this book. These illustrations needed to be very colourful and vibrant to match the text, so I thought acrylic colours were the best choice for this.

ST: The blurb on the book says, "She illustrated this book during an internship with Tulika." Please tell our readers how you go about doing an internship, and what it entails.
Roomani: Yes I illustrated this with one another book during the summer internship with Tulika. Internship is basically working on what you like with a professional company, organization or a design studio. I was always interested in illustration. I came across this wonderful children’s illustrated books publishing house: Tulika. Really loved some of their illustrations, so I sent them my portfolio. They got in touch with me for two projects, one of which is this book.

ST: How did you collaborate with the writer, Arthi Anand Navaneeth?
Roomani: I did not correspond directly with Arthi. Tulika books sent me the test, and I sent them the illustrations, which they then ran past Arthi, and sent me the feedback. When I read the text of Have You Seen This? for the first time, I was pretty amused by the crazy, cute ideas in it. Also it was a challenge for me to put those ideas on paper in the form of vibrant, weird yet innocent illustrations. I really needed to connect with writer and understand what she wanted to say.

ST: Everyone who has read the book has remarked on the pair of children romping around the narrative. Tell us more about them. Especially the boy's hairstyle.
Roomani: The pair of children was to support main characters on each page but later they became an important part of the story telling. The absent presence of both the characters spices up the story. That’s what I feel! The boy’s hair style? Well it was the result of crazy text. The text inspired me to come up with both the characters having their own unique personalities. Also I imagined myself as a child and thought, what would excite me?

ST: Tell us more about yourself.
Roomani: Well, I always loved listening to stories as a child and as a student. I never thought someday I would tell stories through my illustrations. Since I was in school I loved creating my own stories around the drawings I made. I started liking creating characters keeping certain attributes in mind.

ST: From your portfolio on behance.net, one can see that you have an interest in photography as well as sketching. Your sketches show a lot of motion. Comment?
Roomani: Yes I really love photography. I like how old photographs narrate your own past to you. There is a story hidden in every photograph I click and I love looking at them every now and then. Sketching is like always having a book to read with you. I sketch things I see around me, so sometimes it is about the motion. Sketching keeps me busy when I’m bored and alone.

ST: What would you like to say to those who are artistically inclined among our readers?
Roomani: I would tell them to observe more, read more, sketch scribble draw more!