Happy Birthday Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan turns seventy today. The photo was taken in Woodstock, NY at a place where Dylan stayed.

Here are two picture books—written for kids but great for adults as well. When Bob Met Woody is brand new by Gary Golio who also wrote an excellent picture book about Jimi Hendrix. Forever Young is the lyrics to the song. Great illustrations with lots of little biographical details tucked in.

Invitation to World Literature

Thanks to Susan Stephenson of Australia who has a great blog about children's learning, literacy, and literature called The Book Chook for this link. Invitation to World Literature is a production of WGBH Educational Foundation with Seftel Productions for Annenberg Media, sharing not just information, but wisdom and knowledge—stories from ancient times to today.

The thirteen books include The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Popol Vuh, The Bhagavad Gita, The Odyssey, The Thousand and One Nights, and the more contemporary Things Fall Apart and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

For each book, there are three categories:

WATCH (a video introducing each book with historical context and thoughts from scholars, writers, artists, and teachers)

READ (Getting Started, Read the Text, Expert's Views, Translations and Editions, and a Glossary with pronunciations to listen to)

EXPLORE (Timeline & Map, Slideshow, Connections, Key Points)

There are hours and hours of learning and adventure to be found at the Invitation to World Literature.

A Free ebook at lulu.com

Over the years I have a published a series of e-books on bookmaking. After many experiments, I have decided that lulu.com is the best home for them.

I chose lulu as the host for two reasons. One: you can easily preview the books before purchase. Two and best of all: you have an account. Any e-book you purchase will always remain in your account--no more worrying about losing the file on your computer.

Visit lulu and get a free copy of the illustrated Recycled Materials for Making Books. While you're there, check out the selection of e-books priced from $2.95 to $19.95.

And a note for schools and libraries: Purchase orders are welcome. The books can be viewed on lulu and ordered directly from me with this order form.

Milton Glaser/To Inform and Delight

I recently watched (twice) the documentary, To Inform and Delight, about the designer Milton Glaser. What an amazing man! He is funny, wise, and eloquent. His work is wide-ranging (the Dylan record cover, I (heart) NY, the Rubin Museum of Art in NY—one of my favorite museums, posters, books, magazines, The Underground Gourmet, New York magazine, Brooklyn Brewery), deep, and innovative. After seeing the film, I wanted to know and hear more. His website, miltonglaser.com, is a treasure trove of information and inspiration. He values teaching and the website is a course in itself. While most of the website is visual, make sure you visit the Milton page where there are essays and interviews, biographical information, and a short film. It is hard to choose any one passage to share, but I love his answer to the question "What is your view of the poster and its relation to ‘high art?’" in Commercial Art.

When does ‘high art’ meet ‘low art?’ At this encounter is everything above the line ‘art’ and everything below ‘non-art’? What shall we call the material below the line craft, applied art, commercial art, decoration? Who invented this question? Who is served by the distinction? Does it matter? The search for ‘high art’ is a theological issue, like the search for the true cross. The culture priests attempt to protect the world from false religion or faith, a never-ending task. I have a modest proposal; why don’t we discard the word ‘art’ and replace it with the word ‘work?’ Those objects made with care and extraordinary talent we can call ‘great work’, those deserving special attention, but not breathtaking, we call ‘good work’. Honest, appropriately made objects without special distinction we name ‘work’ alone. And what remains deserves the title ‘bad work’. One simple fact encourages me in this proposal; we value a good rug, a beautiful book, or a good poster over any bad painting.

I recently watched (twice) the documentary, To Inform and Delight, about the designer Milton Glaser. What an amazing man! He is funny, wise, and eloquent. His work is wide-ranging (the Dylan record cover, I (heart) NY, the Rubin Museum of Art in NY—one of my favorite museums, posters, books, magazines, The Underground Gourmet, New York magazine, Brooklyn Brewery), deep, and innovative. After seeing the film, I wanted to know and hear more. His website, miltonglaser.com, is a treasure trove of information and inspiration. He values teaching and the website is a course in itself. While most of the website is visual, make sure you visit the Milton page where there are essays and interviews, biographical information, and a short film. It is hard to choose any one passage to share, but I love his answer to the question "What is your view of the poster and its relation to ‘high art?’" in Commercial Art.

When does ‘high art’ meet ‘low art?’ At this encounter is everything above the line ‘art’ and everything below ‘non-art’? What shall we call the material below the line craft, applied art, commercial art, decoration? Who invented this question? Who is served by the distinction? Does it matter? The search for ‘high art’ is a theological issue, like the search for the true cross. The culture priests attempt to protect the world from false religion or faith, a never-ending task. I have a modest proposal; why don’t we discard the word ‘art’ and replace it with the word ‘work?’ Those objects made with care and extraordinary talent we can call ‘great work’, those deserving special attention, but not breathtaking, we call ‘good work’. Honest, appropriately made objects without special distinction we name ‘work’ alone. And what remains deserves the title ‘bad work’. One simple fact encourages me in this proposal; we value a good rug, a beautiful book, or a good poster over any bad painting.

I am... Book

Last month, I gave a series of workshops at the Cutler School in Hamilton, MA. At their request, I designed the projects around their theme for the year: Be responsible/Be respectful/Be your best.

I made this book with the second graders. I used the Who Am I? Book form in which four flaps open to reveal a center image. For my sample the front of the flaps said:

Front of flap:
1. I am responsible when I
On other side of lifted flap:
prepare for my classes.

2. I am respectful when I
listen to others.

3. I am my best when I
help others.

4. I am
Susan

I used the back panel of a grocery bag for the pages and a front or back panel of a cereal box for the cover which was then covered with papers from the collage box. The blue strip in the middle with the yellow and white leaves came from the chopstick sleeve at a Thai restaurant. Velcro was used for the closure. If the order in which the pages are read matters to you, you should number the pages. Also noticed how I fixed an error on Susan. For some reason, I first wrote it with a small s. I wrote an upper case S on a small piece of grocery bag and glued it over the small S--an easy way to fix a mistake.

Written Directions

In Spanish

See all the pages on flickr

Happy Birthday Roger Hargreaves

Today is Roger Hargreaves' birthday. He's the author of the Little Miss and Mister books which were loved in this house. I remember the thrilling moment when I found a whole stack of them at the library book sale. Google has a rotating series of images today celebrating the author and the books. What fun!

Book Arts Hotspots Worldwide

Peter Verheyen of Syracuse University is a hero in the book arts world. He does so much to keep it connected across the globe. First and foremost is the Book Arts List which he started in 1994 and tirelessly keeps going. If you are interested in book arts, it is well worth joining. The members are incredibly knowledgeable and always willing to share. There are occasional philosophical discussions, frequent postings of book arts exhibitions and classes (with equally frequent pleas to posters to put the location in the subject line), and lots of technical information. His site, The Book Arts Web, has links to Professional Organizations, Book Arts Education, Bookbinders and Book Artists, Tutorials & Reference, Suppliers, and much, much more. As if that isn't enough, he also is the publisher and editor of the now annual online magazine, The Bonefolder: e-journal for the book binder and book artist. And now his most recent aid for connectivity—Book Arts Hotspots Worldwide through google maps. Another wonderful resource. Thank you Peter!

Bookmaking in Cuba

Deb Dannelly has sent these wonderful photos of children's bookmaking in Cuba. Thanks so much Deb. I know many others will be as inspired as I am. Beautiful!

I also wanted to send you photos of some of the children’s nature/flower books that were completed about three weeks ago in Havana in one of the workshops I conducted there. It was a big class of 18,mixed ages, probably from about 5yrs to 16yrs!!! With this class I tried to include as many as I could in the neighbourhood. The covers were made from donated centre cuts from art matboards from a framer which I brought with me to Cuba, the paper for the accordion was a nice heavier weight paper. I know you are a huge promoter of recycled materials but in the case of Cuba, I like to bring them beautiful papers that they may have never seen before...it is a real treat for them. The images were made from their choices of beautiful collage papers, stamps and ink pads, and various sizes of coloured markers, or as you will see, all three!! They loved the workshop and there was paper, glue sticks, and ink pads flying...it looked like a cyclone had swept through....

I have sent one photo of the workshop in action and then individual shots of open books. Hope you enjoy them. I have told the children that I was sending you some photos and they were thrilled to think that someone else they didn’t even know,wanted to see them.