So much depends on a ® Pantone 200 Radish Red Wagon

Last week I had the luxury of spending most of a day with the other talented MCFL children's librarians to do nothing but talk about children's books and eat lentil soup and persimmon pudding. 

Alas, the notion that we librarians are able to spend our work days reading blissfully in silence at our desks is a lovely fantasy but quite far from reality.  So it's wonderful when we do get a chance to spend time talking about award winning books and reading recommendations and what great reads are not to be missed.

 Here are a few of my very favorite art books that are fantastic choices for all ages and especially artists and teachers looking for inspiration.

© 2012 Abrams Appleseed

This board book, Colors by Pantone, amuses me greatly. I don't know of many toddlers quite ready to delve into the ®Pantone color system, but this is a fantastic tool for any person studying color.  It  is especially wonderful for early learning with the bright illustrations on the right side of the book for your toddler to identify and the lush ®Pantone color spectrum on the left side of the book for you to surreptitiously dream about a serene color palette for your own secret getaway hideout sanctuary. 

©2008 Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

This sweet little red wagon made me think of sublime poet William Carlos Williams.
Melissa Sweet's 2008 picture book biography of him, A River of Words,  is not to be missed.
I've written about Melissa Sweet many times on this blog; I can't help it! I just love her work.

Let us take a look at how she illustrates the same lovely poem in the 2014 poetry book, Firefly July: year of very short poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko.

©2014 Candlewick Press

So much depends on a library card and access to beautiful books. The Usborne Book of Art Projects is one my favorite series for art technique. Here's a beautiful tissue paper collage from it to get you started on your own colorful path which I hope includes a library card but may or may not include white chickens.

©2004 Usborne Publishing