MONDAY MONTAGE. Illustrators—Children’s Books.

The Turtle and The Moon is a good example of a beautifully illustrated, well-written story for children. You can probably find a copy in your local library. The author is Charles Turner (who gave me an autographed copy) and it is illustrated by Melissa Bay Mathis.

Even though it is neither a Newberry nor a Caldecott “winner”, it is a “winner” on my Book List because it has artistic merit on different levels. As part of a read-aloud activity, we can invite children to look closely at the details of the drawings, to figure out some of the illustrator’s art techniques, to identify the predominate color palette and to name some of the shapes in the artwork.

This book is also easy to re-read aloud on different occasions for different emphases. For instance, it offers inspiration for an art project focused on pond life and turtles. And since much of the artwork is done with pastels, it could be used to teach different color blending techniques with soft pastels.

Get out your artbox and a book by one of your favorite illustrators and give it a go!