I love the thingness of picture books! Maybe it’s why I love them so much? I hope I don’t upset anyone when I say there aren’t many things sadder than a digital picture book.
I love this post, and those tiny little books. Writing them is a true work of art. As a teacher, young learners will learn much even from the smallest books.
I love these tiny books! The artists that staff our local independent comic store in Dublin, Ireland showed our kids how to make tiny zines out of a folded sheet of paper, but sometimes they try to squeeze bigger stories in and get frustrated. Now I'm going to show the kids this post so they can see how simple but complete the stories can be when they create their zines!
I have the great pleasure/torture of having found the entire set of these books, intact, in their original packaging. The problem is that they are sealed, and I am too scared to open the (very cool!) packaging to get at the tantalizing books inside! I've had them for years, and I still haven't read them - any of them! GAH!
This also makes me think about how publishers condense popular picture books into board books, and it often just... does not work. You have to axe a lot of the story(telling) and it ends up feeling anemic and unsatisfying. I'm trying to think of a good example -- A Sick Day for Amos McGee comes to mind. (I could be misremembering; I'm not in my library right now so can't check. Tell me if I'm wrong!) But I seem to recall reading it to my kids and being kind of depressed and forlorn after. It felt like the guts had been scooped out of the narrative, and the images compressed, and so nothing landed the same. Whereas board books that are these little purpose-built jewel boxes, conceived of and created respective to the form itself, can be so satisfying. See: my hero, Sandra Boynton, who will deliver you into a dark night of the soul and back up to the mountaintop of joy in maybe five spreads, all while bouncing you along with a rhyme that scans PEERLESSLY. Also, clearly Richard Scarry. These shape books are such a great find!!
This reminds me -- would love to see you guys tackle books that intended to be sung, in part or as a whole. So many are bad! So many are LIFE CHANGING. I also love the element where there's no prescribed melody, so everybody does a different version that then becomes canon in your community or family. My kids could sing Snuggle Puppy by heart, my students could sing you the boogie-down sections of Earworm -- but they would be totally different than the next person's. Which is so cool.
I love the thingness of picture books! Maybe it’s why I love them so much? I hope I don’t upset anyone when I say there aren’t many things sadder than a digital picture book.
I love this post, and those tiny little books. Writing them is a true work of art. As a teacher, young learners will learn much even from the smallest books.
As short as the time it takes to kick your leg in the air?
I love these tiny books! The artists that staff our local independent comic store in Dublin, Ireland showed our kids how to make tiny zines out of a folded sheet of paper, but sometimes they try to squeeze bigger stories in and get frustrated. Now I'm going to show the kids this post so they can see how simple but complete the stories can be when they create their zines!
LOVE.
I have the great pleasure/torture of having found the entire set of these books, intact, in their original packaging. The problem is that they are sealed, and I am too scared to open the (very cool!) packaging to get at the tantalizing books inside! I've had them for years, and I still haven't read them - any of them! GAH!
http://img.davidhuyck.com/share/Scarry_TeenyTinyTales_1k.jpg
That's amazing!
This also makes me think about how publishers condense popular picture books into board books, and it often just... does not work. You have to axe a lot of the story(telling) and it ends up feeling anemic and unsatisfying. I'm trying to think of a good example -- A Sick Day for Amos McGee comes to mind. (I could be misremembering; I'm not in my library right now so can't check. Tell me if I'm wrong!) But I seem to recall reading it to my kids and being kind of depressed and forlorn after. It felt like the guts had been scooped out of the narrative, and the images compressed, and so nothing landed the same. Whereas board books that are these little purpose-built jewel boxes, conceived of and created respective to the form itself, can be so satisfying. See: my hero, Sandra Boynton, who will deliver you into a dark night of the soul and back up to the mountaintop of joy in maybe five spreads, all while bouncing you along with a rhyme that scans PEERLESSLY. Also, clearly Richard Scarry. These shape books are such a great find!!
This reminds me -- would love to see you guys tackle books that intended to be sung, in part or as a whole. So many are bad! So many are LIFE CHANGING. I also love the element where there's no prescribed melody, so everybody does a different version that then becomes canon in your community or family. My kids could sing Snuggle Puppy by heart, my students could sing you the boogie-down sections of Earworm -- but they would be totally different than the next person's. Which is so cool.
See also the Ant and Bee books by Angela Banner. Love these!!
I love these!
What a hoozie. When you become FAMOUS & successful you can get away with STUFF like this. (I heard that somewhere recently...)
Glorious!
Hot damn I need The Fishing Cat! And I've been trying to get to Pillow-Cat Books for sooooo long — lucky!