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The Art of Reading: Forty Illustrators Celebrate RIF's 40th Anniversary

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Please confess! If you are connected in any way with children's books, then you must have a favorite illustrator! Not one, but several? Yes, me too! In that case, you will love "The Art of Reading" because it holds the imaginative works of forty illustrators. Let me explain...

Reading Is Fundamental, the nation's largest nonprofit literacy organization, invited forty children's illustrator's to re-imagine the art of their favorite children's book. In other words, what book inspired them as children and how would they create one scene from that book? What a clever idea! What wonderful results!

Robert Lawson writes: "No one can possibly tell what tiny detail of a drawing or what seemingly trivial phrase in a story will be the spark that sets off a great flash in the mind of some child, a flash that will leave a glow there until the day he dies." Lawson created "Make Way for Ducklings" and "Blueberries for Sal."

David Wiesner, creator of three Caldecott Medal books, re-imagines one scene from "2001: Space Odyssey" --the obelisk. Instead of appearing in the open as a catalyst for early man's thinking, it becomes a big, black book in one boy's bedroom, a catalyst for Wiesner's connection with books and art. In fact, his explanation of how one movie, one book, then a book explaining the making of the movie from the book is a wonderful piece of writing and inspiration to a new generation of illustrators!

William Joyce, an artist who happens to live in my city of Shreveport, re-imagines a scene from "Where the Wild Things Are," by Maurice Sendak. "I got lost in that book and haven't come out since." His depiction shows a wild-haired little boy standing at the edge of a giant book (or perhaps he is a teeny boy), reading a sentence that says: "That very night in Max's room a forest grew."

Richard Egielski was influenced by the Classic Comics of Moby Dick. His explanation of the complexities and symbolism of Moby Dick and how he missed them with each version of the story is most amusing.

Eric Rohmann loved "Millions of Cats" by Wanda Gag. Jerry Pinkney re-creates a scene from "Little Black Sambo." Mary Azarian's recreation of a scene from "A Girl of Limberlost" is quite beautiful. Mark Teague, who read and reread "The Silver Chair" from the Narnia Chronicles, re-imagines a scene in his fantastic artwork.

"The Art of Reading" is a treasure chest of how artists were influenced by one specific book. For lovers of children's literature, it is a joy to own, to refer to from time to time, perhaps work into a classroom lesson or after reading the original classic to your child, show how the artist would re-imagine that scene.

Perhaps this artwork will become a springboard for a future artist sitting right there in your lap!

This delightful book is an intriguing -- and inspiring -- tribute to the power of creativity and the joys of discovering both books and art. Forty of the top children's book illustrators in the country were asked by Reading Is Fundamental to "re-imagine" a favorite book from their childhood as a way of celebrating the birth of their personal interest in reading and art. Short statements from the artists accompany the full-page illustrations (almost all of which are original to this book) and demonstrate that there are many ways young people can come to the reading experience.

The essays are a charming window into the childhoods of these artists, but the heart of the book is the illustrations themselves. Every artist brings his or her own sensibility to the task, which makes this a rare side-by-side compendium of children's book illustration styles and creative philosophies. It's a thrill to move from David Wiesner to Raul Colon to Bryan Collier to Jerry Pinkney to Peter Sis to Nina Laden to William Joyce, and on and on. RIF has put together an illustrator all-star team, packed with Caldecott and Coretta Scott King winners and a diverse mixture of established stars and up-and-comers.

This book would be a great addition to any family library and should be placed in every elementary school reading and art classroom and used as a tool to inspire kids, parents, and even teachers. In fact, it would also make a great gift for reading and art teachers, librarians, and anyone who cares about how readers, writers, and artists are born - or anyone who remembers fondly their own early reading experiences.

Among the delights in this book, "The Art of Reading", are artists respectfully mimicking other artists, sharing memories of favorite books, of authors & illustrators; each one encouraging their audience to read and ENJOY. The cover illustration, by the late influential Fred Marcellino, was chosen for its appropriate subject of cat and mouse cozily reading together!

First, I raced through, looking for my favorite illustrators. Then I would pause often to laugh at someone's adaptation, as for example Paul Zelinsky's wonderfully amusing interpretation of "The Color Kittens" and his delightful essay. 'All bases are covered' in this handsome book: it salutes childhood favorites and teachers who were mentors while exploring a variety of mediums & styles. How different and imaginative are the creations of Lois Ehlert, Raul Colon, David McPhail. Bryan Collier with his layers of art and photo collages inspires the detective in us, trying to figure out the source of materials.

All the artists stir some regret that we do not share their talents, yet we love the trips back to happy lap-times and those exciting years of discovering the meaning of words. RIF (*Reading is Fundamental*), an important non-profit literacy organization, has compiled for their 40th anniversary celebration this elegant gift for all who love to read. Reviewer mcHAIKU 'toasts' all the happy memories forever attached to magical artists such as Wanda Gag, Maurice Sendak and Garth Williams.

As an elementary librarian I am always interested to see what books people have loved since childhood. It's fun to see how many can conjure up warm feelings about their mothers, or teachers or even a book's character that they identified with as a child.

How delightful to see what books influenced some of our most talented children's illustrators by reading The Art of Reading! And like the "cherry on top", we get to see their creation in salute to the book.

This is a wonderfully conceived book that gives a really good overview of children's literature. For new parents looking to educate themselves about books thier children will enjoy, this book can't be beat. You get to see the styles of so many authors and illustrators that you're an instant expert. It also takes you down memory lane - reminding you of so many great books from your own childhood.

The cover of this book caught my eye but if you are looking for illustrations I was a bit disappointed. There are lots of stories and history of various artists though.

This collection of artwork is an inspiration to future illustrators. It is helpful for teachers trying to show students that reading is important for many reasons.

A really beautiful picture book for adults showcasing a variety of different children's illustrators to showcase an array of picture book art. I picked this up at a conference and I think it is great for librarians or anyone who loves books.

There was a book about children's book illustrators that I came across a couple years ago at my school's library that I just couldn't put down; I was forever checking it out just to see the variety of illustrations and to read about the illustrators' take on their craft. Looking for that book, the title of which I've forgotten, I found the Art of Reading, and got that instead. This was probably a mistake.

The subtitle, Forty Illustrators Celebrate RIF's 40th Anniversary, explains the concept. Each illustrator is given a 2-page spread. One full page is devoted to an illustration by the artist, while the facing page has a 3/4 to 1/4 format, with the smaller portion of the page containing a photo of the illustrator and a picture of a seminal book from his or her childhood, and the larger portion of the page containing a narrative about the illustrator's experience with that book. The full page illustration is inspired by the favorite book.

Conceptually, this seems like a great idea for a book, but somehow, somewhere, the execution just fails, fails, fails, at least for me. The order of the artists covered follows no apparent rhyme or reason, i.e. alphabetical, chronological, or even in terms of importance/fame as evidenced by awards received, etc. This makes it difficult to casually find a specific artist and/or necessitates the use of the index. In addition, I found the overall format to be more than a little forced; quite a few of the artists seem to have rather dispiritedly churned out a minumum of copy. (Four sentences, for instance, are attribued to William Joyce.) I don't blame the artists for this. The concept itself is just so heavy-handed and narrow. It appears that the artists weren't allowed to refer to their own books in the text. If you want to find out about the work of the featured artists, you have to page through a biography section in the back to find out. Why? This seems like such a missed opportunity, as well as a huge disservice--almost a slap in the face--to the the artists featured. This is such a shame. I would have loved to hear about how the work of these favorites influenced a specific book or character rather than read over and over a version of how "books have changed my life" blah blah.

I can see why a school librarian would love this book; I don't think it has much to offer the average reader, however. That said, I've decided to keep it anyway. Amazon's special rate of $7.00+ is more than reasonable and I didn't see any actual damage to the book I got. (Amazon gave fair warning that the books may not be "perfect".) The $7.00+ is worth it for an illustrated reference of children's book artists.

40 Illustrators of Children's books ruminate on their favorite childhood tomes while providing a custom illustration from their favorite tale. Most of the usual suspects are contained within ('Charlotte's Web', 'Harold and the Purple Crayon', etc) but there are some surprises such as Arthur C. Clarke's, '2001: A Space Odyssey' and Bradbury's 'Martian Chronicles.' This is a quick book, very easy to get through but surprisingly a bit disappointing in regards to the actual quality of the custom artwork.