Great Reads for November and Beyond!
Willow’s art teacher wears a tight bun and a scowl every day in art class. When she asks her students to paint a tree, she expects green leaves and blue sky. But Willow sees the world differently than everyone else—she sees it through the filter of her technicolor imagination. Willow’s tree is pink; her sky is yellow. And over time, she helps her art teacher remember how to see this way, too.
Willow is just one of the books Arts For Life teachers are using this month, during Books and Book Arts Month, to inspire and help kids explore their creativity. We have lots of students like Willow at our art tables across the state, and rather than being like Willow’s teacher, our teachers are wholeheartedly encouraging students to bring their wildest imaginations to life with these beautiful, whimsical cats.
At Duke Children’s, Arts For Life students Calla and Elana (right) both gravitated to the Willow-inspired project, opting for a rainbow of bright colors for their cats (who are named, by the way, Cuckoo and Kiyana respectively). In a seasonal spin on the same project, Arts For Life Asheville student Abigail created the beautiful turkey above to adorn her family’s wall on Thanksgiving day.
Here are some more of our favorite creativity-inspiring books:
- The Ice-Cream Cone Coot (and other Rare Birds) by Arnold Lobel is a classic—with amazingly wild and detailed illustrations, it is sure to inspire budding artists and poets.
- The Dot and Ish, both by Peter Reynolds, are brilliant reminders that we all possess the skills and creativity within us to be true artists.
- Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis reminds us that even the most mundane of objects has the power to ignite imagination, when you look at it the right way.
- Alphab’art by Anne Guery invites readers to look more closely at some very famous works of art.
Arts For Life students are reading all of these books at our art tables this month.
What creative books have inspired you and your family? Tell us on Facebook and Twitter!