In the early 1990’s I happily accompanied my mom on trips to the public library to switch out her brightly colored milk crates full of books for ones that paralleled her newest first grade teaching unit. I lunched in King Bidgood’s bathtub, clung to the smooth scales of Rainbow Fish, and assisted the Jolly Postman in delivering his letters. Two decades later, I’m working in state government and only look at picture books every few months when I visit my two-year-old nephew in Indianapolis. I lost much of my appreciation for a beautifully written and illustrated children’s book, and like much of the public, had come to believe that these picture books were simple books intended for children exclusively.
A year ago, I started working on my MLIS and am now just a few courses away from earning my degree. I’ve imagined myself working at the Ohio Supreme Court Law Library or another information-related government gig. On a whim, I decided to take a children’s literature course, which has quickly become one of my favorites. My living room contains stacks of children’s books from my local library sitting by my fireplace, and again I am devouring these books as I did when I was in elementary school.
One aspect of my current job involves collaborating with the Ohio Arts Council on putting together an exhibition of outstanding Ohio high school student’s artwork. This project had me thinking about the books piled in my living room and especially the artwork that helps tell each story. I came to the realization that children’s books really are like mobile art galleries with detailed curation. Each book has illustrations that can be interpreted in many different ways and seen through a variety of lenses.
Sometimes the curation takes place though the text complimenting the work, like Jon Klassen’s books that make me giggle at the seemingly simply storyline and delightfully minimal illustrations. Other times the curation can take place through the reader’s own perceptions when reading a book without words, like David Weisner’s Flotsam. My nostalgia comes flooding back when I take in works like King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub by Audrey and Don Wood, and I find myself transported back to digging through my mom’s crates and handing the book to my older sister to read to me in her floor to ceiling pink ruffled bedroom.
You don’t have to go to a museum or visit a specific exhibition to fully enjoy the art that exists in a children’s picture book. These masterpieces were intended to be taken in while held in the hands of children and adults alike. These mobile galleries can be thrown into a purse, backpack, or briefcase and enjoyed wherever you happen to be.
I’m grateful I decided to take Dr. Marianne Martens’ “Art and Story: The Study of Children’s Picturebooks” course and will never again consider children’s picture books to be simple books, intended just for children.
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Today’s guest post was written by Cora Slack. Cora is an MLIS student at the Kent State School of Library and Information Science. She can be reached at cslaack@kent.edu.
Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.
If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com.
Teresa K. Cain
Picture books never lose the ability to inspire us — to imagine greater things, to understand other people, and to learn who we are ourselves.