Vincent Young

I believe with those who believe picture books are an art form. I appreciate the art of the picture book. I have written about my appreciation of the picture book before.

Despite being in town this summer, the children did not participate in the New York Public Library’s Summer Reading Program. We meant to but for one reason or another never got around to signing up.

Now that school is back in session, we have already returned to our routine bi-weekly visits. I thought this might be a nice opportunity to share some of the picture books that have caught my eye. And in return have you share some of the books that have caught yours. I am always eager to find new books for the kids and me.

There were two books that caught my eye on our last visit:

 

Boy Dumplings works for me on this existential level: A lazy ghost believes the living are making nightly offerings to him. As it turns out they are simply putting out the trash. As a parable it is a rich description of self image and that society puts upon you.

I don’t know the jargon that describes the book visually but can say the illustrations remind me of the old MGM cartoons that they used to show on Boomerang. The drawings are high contrast with sharp clear lines.

Oh No is published by Disney Hyperion books so it has this stylized feel that reminds me of Disney DVD bonus features where they show you colored drawings they did for the movie’s storyboard.

The story: A girl’s science project – a giant robot – goes on a rampage. It begins the girl’s succession of regret at not providing her robot with some “features."