A Booklist by the Youth Services Staff of the Torrance Public Library
In conjunction with the Torrance Art Museum and Torrance Public Library Stories in Art program for the exhibits "Telling", "Mirages from the Bedroom Window", and "Information and Intuition."
Usually, a book involves the story and pictures working together, allowing the author to tell you a great tale and the artist to make it come alive with pictures that help you imagine the story. These books don't quite work that way. Sometimes there is another story hidden in the pictures. Sometimes the pictures tell a different story. Sometimes the pictures stand alone and the story is up to you to tell. Explore these books and see what you come up with!
Non-Fiction Books
J 153.7 G Gardner, Beau The look again . and again, and again, and again book
A single graphic, turned four different ways, can be four different things. Can you think of more?
J 428.1 G Gwynne, Fred A Little Pigeon Toad and The Sixteen Hand Horse
Homonyms, idioms and other double-meanings in the English language are explored through word and illustration in these volumes. What does it mean when someone says their nose is running?
Picture Books
E Arnold, Tedd Parts and More Parts
What do we mean when we say things like "give me a hand" or "hold your tongue"? Could we really mean what we say, and what would happen if we did?
E Banyai, Istvan Zoom and Re-Zoom
What you see and what you think is there is all a matter of perspective.
E Billout, Guy Something's Not Quite Right
Large, surreal paintings illustrate single words. Is "faith" a butterfly holding up a building, and can an earthquake split a rainbow? What do you think?
E Garland, Michael Mystery Mansion
Tommy visits his eccentric Aunt Jane in her mansion and discovers rhyming clues, surreal rooms, four hundred creatures (some hidden), and camouflaged letters that spell out a secret message.
E Grahn, Geoffrey What's Going on in There?
You may think you know what's going on inside these buildings just by peeking in the windows, but do you really?
E Handford, Martin Where's Waldo?
Waldo, an intrepid traveler in stripes and specs, manages to hide in plain sight in these intricate drawings. Can you find Waldo?
E Henrietta A Mouse in the House: A Real-Life Game of Hide and Seek
A bouncy rhyme accompanies this visual hide and seek as a mouse secretly attends a birthday party and invites you to find him on every page.
E Hoban, Tana Look! Look! Look! and Look Book
From a small piece of a picture, can you guess what the whole picture will be?
E Jonas, Ann Round Trip and Reflections
The story goes one way, and matches the pictures until you turn the book over, then the same picture is of something different!
E Macaulay, David Black and White
This book contains four separate stories, or is it one single story? As words and pictures and actions overlap, who can be sure!
E McMillan, Bruce Mouse Views: What the Class Pet Saw
Ordinary objects look unfamiliar when seen from a different point of view.
E Priceman, Marjorie It's Me, Marva! A Story About Color
Optical illusions of color are woven into a story about a disastrous trip to the hair salon.
E Weisner, David Tuesday
Readers and viewers are invited to make up their own story to accompany these vivid pictures of frogs . flying?
E Wick, Walter I Spy
This series of books invites readers to take the clues buried in a rhyme and find things in the inventive photographs.
Optical Illusions
What do you see? Is there something else there? A piece of art that is designed to trick the eye is called an optical illusion. Look at some of these and see how quickly your eye is fooled, then search our library catalog for the subject "optical illusions" to find more!
J 152.14 F Science, Art and Visual Illusions
J 152.14 W Walter Wick's Optical Tricks
J 152.148 D Eye-Popping Optical Illusions
J 152.148 S Now You See It, Now You Don't: The Amazing World of Optical Illusions
Wordless Picture Books
What can you do with a wordless book? Tell the story yourself! Try some of these and see how many ways you can reinvent the story, then search our library catalog for the subject "stories without words" to find even more!
E Anno Anno's Journey
E Bang, Molly The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher
E Blake, Quentin Clown
E Briggs, Raymond The Snowman
E Mayer, Mercer A Boy, A Dog, and A Frog
E Rohmann, Eric Time Flies
E Spier, Peter Peter Spier's Rain
E Weitzman, Jacqueline
You Can't Take a Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum
You Can't Take a Balloon Into the Museum of Fine Arts
Concrete Poetry
In concrete poetry, the words of the poem simultaneously form a picture that enhances or explains the poem. Try some of these books to experience another form of words and picture mixing and colliding to tell stories - the concrete poem.
J 811 P A Poke in the I
J 811.6 B Burg, Brad Outside the Lines, Poetry at Play
J 811.6 G Grandits, John Technically, It's Not My Fault
Surreal Art
Art can be composed of entirely fantasy images such as you would see in a dream, or realistic but irrational things, such as a solid surface that bends, or stairs that go nowhere. Search our library catalog for the subject "surrealism" to find more, then look at some of these famous surrealistic art pieces and see what you can come up with!
J 709.04 B Surrealism
J 759.949 M Now You See It Now You Don't
J Fiction Garland, Michele Dinner at Magritte's
JB DAL Salvador Dali
