Suggested Family Activity • Art 🎨 Collage
Suggested Family Activity • Art 🎨 Collage
The world of children’s literature was saddened recently to lose two wonderful children’s book authors. Eric Carle brought the natural world to life through such titles as The Very Hungry Caterpillar and A House for Hermit Crab. His beautiful artwork was made by layering hand-painted and tinted tissue paper together to create colorful images. Later in life, he created the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amhurst, Massachusetts. The mission of this non-profit organization is “to inspire a love of art and reading through picture books”. To find out more about the Museum, visit https://www.carlemuseum.org/ or for more about Carle’s life and works, visit his website at https://eric-carle.com/.
Children’s book illustrator Lois Ehlert worked in a collage medium as well. Her most famous title, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, featured text by Bill Martin (who also collaborated with Eric Carle) and depicted the letters of the alphabet climbing a tree. President Obama honored this title in 2013 by reading it to children at the White House Easter Egg Roll. To view the video, click on this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8idHmAXdPc. To find more titles by both Carle and Ehlert, ask at your local library branch.
To celebrate the life of these two great artists, why not make your own collages today? You can use tissue paper like Eric Carle or torn up pieces of any kind of scrap paper like Lois Ehlert – magazines, newspapers, flyers, etc. Then use pencils, crayons, markers, or paint to enhance your artistic creations. We would love to see what your creativity unleashes – send photos to summerreading@nereg.lib.ms.us
