Thursday, May 31, 2012

Green




May has somehow slipped by me.  It has been filled with recovering from a tonsillectomy (my daughter's), travel, gardening, and not nearly enough reading.  But I did get my hands on a copy of Laura Vaccaro Seeger's latest book Green.  And while I have spent a vast amount of time transplanting green hostas and planting green vegetable plants, that is not what drew me to this book: the artwork is amazing.

The book is simple in concept - it explores all shades of green - lime green, forest green, glow green and wacky green, to name a few.  But it is the beautiful acrylic artwork that tells the story of green: of catching fireflies and reading under the shade of a green tree, of sea green turtles swimming in the sea and the tiger hiding in the green leaves.  The texture of the painting nearly pops off of the page.  An added dimension of interest in the book are the die cuts - a leaf on one page turns to a fish on the next, a lime on another becomes a spoon.  Children will love studying the art work and following the changing die cuts.  

This is one of my favorite books so far in 2012 and I think it is Caldecott discussion worthy.  Pick it up and read it under your favorite apple tree or at dusk just at the first firefly emerges.  It is fabulous.

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