Perfect Picture Book Friday -- Pocket Full of Colors

Hello World, It's #PPBF time!

Title: Pocket Full of Colors: The magical world of Mary Blair, Disney artist extraordinaire
Authors: Amy Guglielmo and Jacqueline Tourville
Illustrated by: Brigette Barrager
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2017

Ages: 6 and up

Themes: Biography, Artists, Women


First page: Under a wide blue sky, on a red dirt road,in a lemon-yellow house, there lived a girl named Mary. Other children collected marbles or dolls, but Mary collected colors of every shade and hue.

Why I love this book:

I am sorry to admit that until Vanessa Brantley Newton talked about the art and style of Mary Blair in my character design class, I didn't know who she was. But, it's never too late to learn.

Over the past couple of years, I have taken a much closer look at who the artists and illustrators are in picture books. I try to figure out their medium and style. Vanessa talks about the little feet that Mary Blair incorporated into her drawings of people. I realized, I needed to put a face to those little feet. I looked her up and came across this picture book biography.

It is a beautiful book which takes you through Mary's life and ties it all together with her love of color and her unique and daring style of art.

As you can see, Brigette Barrager used the bright swirls of color throughout Mary's life to show her never ending love of color.  In the last image above, you get a glimpse of the men she was working with at Disney. The are all in brown and white. While Walt Disney loved her colors and vibrant style, the other men's ideas and acceptance of Mary's style paled in comparison. Mary never gave up her dreams. She went off and created illustrations for many books with Little Golden Books.

When I was 10, our family went to Disney World. I fell in love with the "It's a Small World" exhibit/ride. Little did I know, that this was the work of Mary Blair. I wanted to go through that ride over and over again. Today, it would be kind of boring compared to the glitz and glamour of rides today, but back then, when the world felt so big, before everything was on the internet, when we hardly talked about all the cultures of the world, the It's a Small World, boat ride through tunnels and animated characters from around the world, inspired my love of people, color, and art. If Mary Blair were alive today, the ride would likely be bigger and brighter, and even more exotic, but it would have her same flair.

So I love this book because it tells me the story of a courageous artist who didn't give up, when others wanted her to be different. She persevered and created exciting art for her time inspiring artists to create and experiment with their own style and flair.

It is beautifully written and illustrated.

Activities:

Learn more about Amy Guglielmo
Learn more about Jacqueline Tourville
And Brigette Barrager
Learn more about Mary Blair

Create a Color Bingo game to collect colors when you travel.

Find your color. A friend posted this video of Sam Adams skin color comedy routine on Facebook, and it feels so appropriate here. It's good clean comedy. I am currently three colors: Indulgent Peach (sun tan/burn), Provincial peach (where the sun hasn't shined), and my freckles are Reindeer Herd according to Sherwin Williams color charts. What's your color/colors?

Make art!

Sing along: It's a Small World After All

Under the Sea, Three Books You Should See

Well, it may officially be fall here in the Midwest, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about water and the ocean.

I love the ocean. I love water. I grew up on Lake Michigan and have gone in swimming soon after the last of the ice was gone for the season. Throughout my youth, we played in the waves and tooled around on little boats, fished, and watched many sunsets. Sadly, I never took the love of water any further than being able to swim and spend time there.

I remember the first time I swam in the ocean, I was afraid to get off the raft because I could see these strange creatures lying around on the bottom. (Sea cucumbers and starfish) I was stunned when I held a starfish and it suctioned itself to my hand at my aunt and uncle's cabin outside Seattle, Washington.

The next time I was in the ocean, I was quite a bit older and in Hawaii. Everything is so blue there. From shore, we watched dolphins leaping and jumping. I saw humpback whales and sea turtles. I was truly in love and awe of what the ocean had to offer. We went on whale watches, I read books, I listened to everything that anyone had to tell me about ocean life. That was vacation time, then I would go back to the reality of living in the Midwestern cornfields with the closest large body of water 65 miles away. That doesn't sound very far, but when you have a job and family obligations, it takes planning to spend a day at the beach.

The most recent body of water I spent my time in was the Kishwaukee River. We had a great time, but my knees didn't even get wet. We saw frogs and polliwogs, minnows, mussels, macro invertebrates, and damselflies landed on my arm. There is so much to see and learn about in any water.

When I can't be in the water, it's fun to read about it. Here are three titles that take you deep into the sea with courageous people who changed our understanding of the ocean.

She fell in love at the aquarium. With the sharks. She was told this wasn't a career for a woman. She didn't care. Her love of sharks, drove her toward her passion. This beautiful picture book biography by Jess Keating about Eugenie Clark offers an overview of her life as well as a look into the lives of sharks. She started the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida. Don't miss the authors notes and added information at the end of the book. You can also check out the article about her from the Mote Aquarium.

I discovered this book at the library recently. It is quite a story or two courageous men who wanted to discover what was deep in the ocean. When they met, they worked together to find a way to see the deep blue sea. As I read the story of the bathysphere going deeper and deeper in the ocean, my heart rate went up, and I felt the thrill and fear of this dangerous journey. Exhilarating and scary. Be sure to read the author and illustrator notes to learn mire about their research in creating this wonderful book.

Even with the Bathysphere, the world deep in the ocean is remains largely uncharted territory.

Since 1964, Alvin began making dives and more and more discoveries in the ocean. Michelle Cusolito takes you on a day trip down in Alvin a deep sea submersible. Her simple text reads like a poem and her use of onomatopoeia bring the sounds of the journey to life. Nicole Long's illustrations are beautiful and full of detail. The back matter provides details bout the author and illustrator's journey to create their book, facts about Alvin, a glossary, and details about the organisms seen on the trek to the bottom of the sea. Such a lovely book taking us to a world within our world.

As an additional note, these books were written and illustrated by women. It is wonderful to see more and more children's literature being published by women.