Art of Reading: Forty Illustrators Celebrate RIFs 40th Anniversary. This item is unavailable.Art of Reading: Forty Illustrators Celebrate RIFs 40th Anniversary

For 40 years, Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation's largest nonprofit literacy organization, has been putting books into the hands of children across America. To commemorate its 40th anniversary, RIF has brought together 40 of the most beloved children's book illustrators working today & asked them each to re-imagine a classic book from their childhood. The result is this collection of beautiful & entertaining images & insightful essays that remind us how a child's early experiences with books can be powerful & lasting -- & can help to create writers & artists. Here is a celebration of the brightest stars in children's books & the varied inspirations that sparked their lifelong passion for books. Illustrations.

Starred Review. Grade 3 Up–Forty well-known, well-loved children's book illustrators share memories of a book (and even a comic book) seminal to their development as readers and artists, and offer accompanying pieces of art–re-imagined from those books. From its cozy cover image (created by the late Fred Marcellino) of a cat and mouse companionably enthralled by the open book on which they perch, to the satisfying thumbnail biographies appended, this is a lovingly conceived, cohesive, and distinctively designed treasure. Each spread is dedicated to one of the contributors; half of it is occupied by an art piece, and half by the illustrator's reminiscence, a sidebar featuring a cameo photo-portrait of the artist, and a vividly reproduced image of the cover of the book (or, in Peter Sis's case, of the etching) that so captured the imagination and sparked the flame of creativity. Most of the art was specially created for this volume. Leonard S. Marcus's insightful and affecting foreword sets just the right anticipatory tone for readers who will be treated to spectacular pictures and often-moving personal statements. In an introductory note, Reading Is Fundamental President and CEO Carol H. Rasco says this is a book about the ability of children's literature to change lives and open hearts. She is so right. This tribute is a thing of beauty and a joy for anyone whose life has ever been electrified by the experience of a book.–Kathy Krasniewicz, Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CT
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