A CLOSER LOOK

Often, we have to step back to see the bigger picture: Step back from a single black spot to see that indeed it is only one of a pair upon a ladybug’s back. Retreat further still and see that this bug is just one among many in a fine and colorful garden that was earlier outside our field of vision. Cunningly combed feathering on full-bleed endpapers has quite a different impact when viewed macroscopically from the effect it has when miniaturized to become the delicate plumage of a hummingbird’s wing. Step back and see. McCarthy is a papermaker/calligrapher/collage artist whose marvelous hand-made book creations have been privately collected and displayed in eminent institutions for years. She applies her keen sense of color, concept and craft here in a dynamic demonstration of the impact of perspective, which inexorably affects understanding and will challenge young readers to look closer. Add this to Barbara Lehman’s The Red Book (2004) and Istvan Banyai’s Zoom (1995) for a captivating concept study in the art room, the science lab or for a lesson in visual literacy. (Picture book. 5-10)