The Littlest Bookworm

The blond head, the pjs, the chair, the owl on the bookshelves...I love this sweet illustration.  Just wish I knew what it was from and who the artist was!

Fall Book Giveaway: "A Gift For Matthew" Could Be A Gift for YOU

Today I'm excited to offer a review and giveaway for a very special picture book (about heavenly pictures) recently out from Ancient Faith Publishing:  A Gift for Matthew by Nick Muzekari.

"Reminders of heaven."

"Visual sermons."

"Theology in color."

Icons have been called all these things. Most of us are familiar with the Gospel verses where Jesus says,

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

Iconography as God's Word in art is a "window to heaven" that helps us to experience the mystery of God and his truths in the way children do:  through our eyes and hearts.

Sacred images have long played a part in teaching Christians about their faith. In the earliest days, icons of the Church were a means of depicting Gospel events to Christians who may not have been able to read the Gospel themselves.

In A Gift for Matthew, a boy visits a peaceful monastery with his mother.  He meets the monastery cat, and learns from a kind monk, Brother Justin, what actually goes into painting - or "writing" - an icon.

As he helps the monk, Matthew discovers the symbolism behind the thin sheets of gold leaf and the egg tempera paints that are used; how prayer and layers of color are an integral part of icon painting; and that we can accomplish much with a quiet heart and patience.

I learned a lot about iconography from this book, and so will your child!  It's great for any age, but it will become a special treasure for children between the ages of 4-8 who love to draw, sketch, or paint, and for anyone who is drawn to the beauty of holy icons.

Masha Lobastov's warm and rich illustrations are a lovely accompaniment to Nick Muzekari's thoughtful and engaging story.  Kids will love the monastery cat, and enjoy the satisfying ending when Matthew receives a surprise gift from the monk!

To enter my giveaway for this unique book, A Gift For Matthew, please leave a comment at the end of this post by midnight (PST) Friday, October 2, 2015.  A winner will be chosen from a random drawing (I use list randomizer from random.org) on Saturday, October 3, 2015.

Go here to see a digital preview and trailer of A Gift For Matthew.  You can read more about icons and iconography in this article.

A Poet, An Artist, and a Stinky Cheese Man

September 8th marks the birthdays of three significant contributors to the world of children's books - Poet Jack Pretlutsky, Artist Michael Hague, and Writer Jon Sciezska.

These three men's books were favorites of my oldest son when he was between the ages of 8 and 12; and I think their books were very influential in my son's chosen vocation as a stop motion animator, contributing to his sense of rhythmic timing, art, and humor in his projects.  

Take a look at some of our family favorites...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Egg Crafts and Traditions For Easter

Because new life emerges from an egg when a chick hatches, eggs  have long been associated with Easter and are a symbol of the Resurrection. As an egg lays dormant, it contains a new life sealed within it, just as Christ's body was resurrected to new life from the sealed tomb.

To go along with some beautiful Easter picture books about eggs, I found several fun egg crafts to share with you - these are perfect to try with your children over spring break, when they are home and have time to be creative with you.

This folktale describes the origin of pysanky, the process of decorating Easter eggs with intricate, colorful patterns. Katrusya and her grandfather are walking in freshly fallen snow when they discover a flock of tiny golden birds that has been overcome by the sudden cold. They rescue as many as possible from the drifts and stuff them inside their coats, then hurry back to the village for assistance. Soon everyone rushes out to help, and the priest opens the church to shelter the animals and preaches to his congregation that with every chirp the birds worship God with perfect faith. Shortly before spring arrives, the feathered creatures clamor to be released, saddening the villagers, who have grown to love them. Easter comes, and Katrusya and the other children find gorgeous, brilliantly colored eggs in the grass. When the people wonder at their source, the priest points to the golden birds, now perched above, and explains that these eggs are their Easter gifts. As each one is different and precious, he says, so is every living creature in God's eyes.

"Pysanky" is an Easter folk art craft that I have attempted over the years during Lent (post and book recommendations here). There are lots of books available about this ancient Ukrainian folk art, and you can search the Internet to find how-to videos and classes in your area.

Sound too ambitious? You can make an easier version with your kids at home - wax resits on paper.  You just need food coloring, paper, crayons, and an iron!

source

Here's another version - a pastel resist paper egg (you need paper, pencil, oil pastels, and tempera paints).

source

Take a look at these gorgeous (and easy, mess free) silk dyed Easter Eggs? My daughter and I can't wait to make these!

source and tutorial

How about baking Italian Easter Egg Bread?

source and recipe

You could try the Greek Easter Bread Version:

source and recipe (Food Network)

In Orthodox Churches, Easter (May 5, because our calendar is different), or "Pascha" eggs will be red, symbolic of the blood of Christ ...

 ©iStockphoto.com/ vaskoni

Tradition relates that in Italy Mary Magdalene visited Emperor Tiberius and proclaimed to him Christ’s Resurrection. She gave him a red egg as a symbol of the Resurrection, a symbol of new life with the words: “Christ is Risen!”  Thanks to Mary Magdalene the custom to give each other paschal eggs on the day of the Radiant Resurrection of Christ spread among Christians over all the world. [source]

For all my readers who follow the Western calendar, have a blessed Holy Week and Easter. 

Book Making Ideas for Kids Part 2

If you read my previous post about making books with kids, you'll see some of the types of projects I did with my own children in our homeschooling days, including journaling, pop-up books, and alphabet books. 

Today I want to share some super creative "make your own" book ideas...

Accordian Style Book-in-a-Box

source: Martha Stewart

I love this idea! Here's a simple way for kids to store their sticker, button, or stamp collections: Accordion-fold a strip of paper, and glue the first and last pages to the inside of a box's lid and bottom. Keep some pages empty so the collection can grow.

Flip Books 

(source: Martha Stewart)

Make a stack of 20 or more index cards held together with "bulldog clips". Hand illustrate the cards (or use rubber stamps, stickers, or cut-out paper). The objects that are supposed to "move" should be shifted by 1/8 to 3/8 inch from card to card. If it looks too jumpy, make additional cards whose images show smaller changes, and insert them in between every other page. To put all the pages in the right order for viewing, the book should begin with the last page: You flip from back to front.  More detailed instructions and video here.

Paper Bag Books

source: Rosy-Posy

Paper bag books are another great way to showcase nature or sticker collections, paper dolls, homeschool projects, and much more. Here's a Video how-to for making paper bag books:



You can find lots more DIY book ideas on this website: Making Books.

Books about Making Books!
The Pocket Paper Engineer, Carol Barton


Making Books That Fly, Fold, Wrap, Hide, Pop-up, Twist and Turn, Gwen Diehn


Making Mini Books, Kathleen McCafferty

BOOK MAKING IDEAS FOR KIDS...

I was always looking for fun projects that would keep my kids' creative imaginations active during their carefree summer days...

 image by Alta.C from Fotolia.com

JOURNALING: One activity they really enjoyed was making their own books.  Sometimes we'd come home from a memorable outing, such as the circus, or a day trip to a local aquarium, and they'd be inspired to put together a little book about the experience.  Depending on the age and interest of my child, the book would be their dictated or hand-written account of the activity (when they were very young, it was often only one sentence per page with an illustration or photo).  We laminated the pages, and they've lasted for years.  I still treasure them and am sure their own children will enjoy seeing them someday!

Here are some more ideas for homemade books that kids can make...

1. MAKE A POP-UP BOOK:  Visit ROBERT SABUDA'S website for ideas and free downloadable print-outs (projects from simple to advanced). Also - Chinaberry (one of my favorite online sources) has a cute kit you can purchase for creating pop-up books.

2. Write a book of "MY FAVORITE THINGS": Staple together ten blank pages and ask your child to think of that many favorite things. Help with ideas. (i.e. What's your favorite food? Who's your best friend? What's your favorite book? Write one thing on each page and have your child draw a picture or glue a photo cut out from a magazine to go with it.) Do you own a child-friendly camera?  You might find out you have a budding photo-journalist!


3.  Make an ALPHABET BOOK:  On each page, help your child write a letter of the alphabet. For a kinesthetic learner, it works great to cut the letter out of sandpaper, so they can trace it with their finger as they say the letter or sound. You can also glue different materials onto the outline of the letter, such as dried peas, yarn, glitter, etc., to create interesting textures. Then go through and draw or glue pictures of objects that begin with that letter sound on each page.

photo by miscellaneaarts

4. Going on a summer vacation or road trip?  Kids love making TRAVEL JOURNALS.  Start it at home - with a map of where you're going and maybe some fun stickers glued onto the cover of a spiral notebook or sketchpad - then add to it during the trip as you buy postcards and they dictate or write about what they see each day. Leave empty spaces for photos so the kids can finish it when you're back home and have your pictures developed. (Kids grades 3-6 will find inspiration from the book LINNEA IN MONET'S GARDEN, which is like a travel scrapbook).


5. Visit Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord's MAKING BOOKS WITH CHILDREN website, for more creative ideas, including a POEM BOOK, LEAF BOOK and ACCORDION BOOKS.

Not crazy about crafts?  You can always buy this Dr. Seuss book and let your child fill in the blanks...
MY BOOK ABOUT ME, by ME, Myself

IT'S ONLY MAKE BELIEVE...

My readers living in Southern California will have probably heard of THE PAGEANT OF THE MASTERS, a major part of Laguna Beach's annual Festival of the Arts.  After my daughter and her husband attended the opening night last week, she immediately called me and said I should include a post about it for my blog, because this year's program, ONLY MAKE BELIEVE,  showcased the work of artists "who devoted themselves to conjuring everything from Victorian historical fantasies to illustrations for fairytales beginning 'Once Upon a Time'..." (from their press release, read more below):

Performed each night in the Irvine Bowl by the Pageant orchestra, live music remains a key part of the theatrical magic of this 78-year-old presentation of "art that lives and breathes."


From the mythological legends of ancient Greece to evocations of classic stories of buried treasure, spooky encounters and the simple pleasures of playing dress-up, the 2011 Pageant promises no shortage of fantasy fun for the entire family.

If you've never experienced this spectacle, all I can say is that you have to see it to understand and appreciate it.  It is an amazing show of "art come to life", with volunteers from the community placed into a backdrop with props and lighting that recreates a famous work of art.  They also recreate famous statues. The website describes it as a "uniquely theatrical celebration of tableaux vivants – "living pictures".

This year's pageant opens with Charles Buchel's 1904 Lithograph, "PETER PAN AND WENDY".

Another fun painting they bring to life is John Falter's TRICK OR TREATING IN THE BURBS (1958).

Some of the ethereal illustrations of Virginia Sterrett's ARABIAN NIGHTS are presented, as well Sir John Tenniel's wood block prints from ALICE IN WONDERLAND.

Their casting call: "CAN YOU STAND STILL?"
Photo source HERE

And if that doesn't convince you to go, there is a whole tribute to DRAGONS at the end of the first act.  For ticket information, click here. Can't quite picture what I'm describing?  Watch this quick video:

ART IN SILHOUETTE

by Henry Lawrence Oakley

Silhouettes harken back to the art of Ancient Egypt and Greece, as images painted on tomb walls or pottery.  What today are considered to be traditional profile silhouettes, painted or cut from black paper, were first used in 18th Century portraiture, before the invention of the camera - which led to the end of the silhouette's widespread use for portraits.  But if you've ever been to Main Street, Disneyland, you may have noticed a shop where artists quickly hand-cut portraits in profile. I'm not getting paid to promote Disney, but their interesting and informative (1-minute long) video about this studio and silhouette portraits is worth watching. 

from RHYMES ABOUT THE COUNTRY
by Margaret Chute

Like the quick "click" of a camera shot, or children playing freeze tag, a silhouette captures the image of a moment in time we might otherwise have missed or forgotten. This art makes us stop and admire the lines and curves of the seemingly back-lit, darkened subjects of the scene. Because silhouettes communicate the whimsy and fleeting nature of childhood, I think they are wonderfully employed as illustrations for children's literature -- be it poetry, fantasy, or just a simple story. 


Hans Christian Andersen would often accompany his public story-telling with impromptu designs and small scenes, as he cut them out by hand from paper. Though not specifically silhouette portraits, they were called "paper cuts".

THE AMAZING PAPER CUTTINGS OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN  
by Beth Wagner Brust

Many countries, including China and Turkey, have a history of paper-cutting art.  The French used the term silhouette, after a man by the name of Eteinne de Silhouette, whose very affordable hobby was making cut-out portraits in the profile style; but in Germany, this art was called schernschnitte, which means "scissor cut". 


Starting in the late 19th and early 20th century, some illustrators began using this paper cutting technique for books. Silhouette pictures could easily be printed by blocks that were cheaper to produce and lasted longer than detailed black and white hand drawn illustrations.  Arthur Rackham was one of the earliest illustrators who used silhouette scenes in several of his books.

Modern day children's book illustrators who use paper cuts include DAVID WISNIEWSKI, JAN PIENKOWSKI, CLAY RICE, and NIKKI McCLURE.  (Click on each name to read about their art and books).

Nikki McClure, from The Great Chicken Escape

Clay Rice, The Lonely Shadow

David Wisniewski, The Warrior and the Wise Man

Jan Pienkowski,  from The Thousand Nights and One Night

Source links for more information:
Portrait Silhouettes
History of Paper Cutters
Charles Burns Silhouette Parlour