Tuesday, May 31, 2011

If...

If... opens doors to so many ideas and possibilities. Picture books open these doors on many levels for those who are willing to read more than just the text. Here are some ifs to get your going!


Leslie McGuirk's If Rocks Could Sing is an extraordinary alphabet book, the result of years worth of beachcombing to find just the right rock to do the job. Photographs of amazing rocks in the shapes of letters and numbers beg me to open my eyes to look on the ground to see what I may have been missing. Apparently, it took the longest to find a rock that looks like a "K"! McGuirk's patience paid off but she reminds us in a note at the end of the book called Rock Talk "For many years I waited for the letter K to appear. There was nothing I could do to make it show up. I understood that nature has its own timing, and my job was to be aware and expectant."




If... by Sarah Perry, published in 1995 is a timeless book of surreal images and preposterous thoughts that compel us to consider the impossible. Reminicent of Rob Gonsalves' illustrations in his Imagine a Day, Imagine a Night and Imagine a Place books, Perry's simple text and illustrations provoke our imagination. For example, "if frogs ate rainbows..., if mice were hair..., if ugly were beautiful..." what then?



Jim Averbeck's Except If tells it like it is! "An egg is just an egg except if, after hatching, it becomes something else." Mind stretching ideas push readers to think of the possibilities. Simple, bold illustrations make it happen.

Finally, What If? by Laura Vaccaro Seeger asks us to consider one situation and a variety of possible outcomes. WHAT IF a boy found a beach ball and kicked it into the ocean? WHAT IF two seals found it and began to play? WHAT IF a third seal appeared on the beach looking for a friend? In this spare and deceptively simple book, Laura Vaccaro Seeger shows us the same story with three different outcomes, each highlighting the possibility in possibilities.Youngest children will enjoy this visit to the beach and the chance to guess what happens when different choices are made.

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful little collection, Judy! I'm enjoying your blog and reviews! Hope all is well with you! Deborah Black

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