A couple weekends ago I took Cole & Harper to the Asheville Art Museum for the opening reception of their new children’s book exhibit: Nouns: Children’s Book Artists Look at People, Places and Things! I don’t think they’re necessarily used to seeing children at the Museum very often, or maybe we just hit them on an off day (when we arrived to purchase our tickets they asked if we were looking for The Health Adventure. Although I love The Health Adventure, I’m smart enough to know when I walk through two doors labeled “The Asheville Art Museum” that chances are I’m going to end up in the Museum.)

So anyway, although you might get a bit of a frosty reception when you bring your kids to visit, rest assured that the exhibit itself is kid-friendly and fun. As you can tell from that really crappy photo from my phone (taken with permission, I might add) they have a little desk & chairs set up for kids and hands-on copies of almost all of the books on display. (Harper enjoyed matching the books to the images on display. Cole enjoyed the fruit & crackers that came with the opening reception. To be fair, he also liked the book about George Washington.) The docent who helped us was very patient & kind to the children, and she definitely made our visit worthwhile. Besides seeing the artwork in person, which was great! I had a hard time keeping my hands off the framed images, too.

This is the second time I’ve been able to view a collection of children’s book art up close & personal. The first time was waaay back in 2000 at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibit was: Once upon a Picture: Caldecott Medal and Honor Books. Simms Taback, David Wiesner…mmm, that was such a memorable experience! If you live by the Art Institute of Chicago, I envy you.

Another place I would love to visit is The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

All this to say, if you have the opportunity to see the artwork of some of your favorite children’s books, or just artwork in general, go do it! Introduce your kids early on to art museums and art galleries. (M’s Art School, taught by M, in Hendersonville, incorporates visits to the local art galleries into her classes. Not only does she strive to introduce her students to different kinds of art but she also wants them to know the proper etiquette for visiting a museum or gallery. Be sure to check out her summer camps for kids!)

Seeing & studying artwork is a great way to illustrate for your children the whole process of creation and design that takes place before a book can even be published. And it’s just fun to do something new once in a while, too.

After 3 consecutive snow days I was super happy to stick the kids in school and get out and enjoy the sunshine… (that just sounds wrong, doesn’t it?) Along the Parkway I found more evidence of spring – the melting of hundreds of icicles along the rocks. The sound of all that drip, drip, dripping was pretty enjoyable, too.

After a quick stop at Starbucks (I swear that’s not the only reason I use the Parkway) I tried to photograph the mountains. But alas, big barricades prevent dummies like me from driving up tall, winding mountain roads in icy conditions. So I settled for this view from the back of a car lot (not on the Parkway!) I will say that the snow does make the mountains pretty – they’re not as brown & hairy with a nice coating of dandruff on top. Okay, that sounds gross. Really, truly, they’re pretty.

After meandering some more I headed over to the park by the French Broad river, which was gurgling and bubbling and practically overflowing with all that extra mountain ice & snow melting into it. When I first pulled into the park I was totally admiring that gorgeous blue water (from my car) when I spotted…

…this. This opossum. Having never encountered an opossum before, I found myself wondering whether it could be a vicious attack animal. I didn’t really want to find out, so I called Mark (had I been thinking I would have just looked up “opossum” on Wikipedia on my phone and spared Mark the amusement.) He assured me that they moved pretty slowly but warned me to stay away from it if it was foaming at the mouth. Since I didn’t have a telephoto lens with me, I couldn’t really tell if it was foaming at the mouth…but I did get out of the car and he/she didn’t seem very keen on chasing me…so I took some pictures.

When I showed the kids these photos they said, “Awww, cute!” And I said, “Really? You think that thing is cute?”

It should also be noted that Mark never did call me back to see if I survived my vicious animal encounter.

After taking a few more photos it was time to pick up Harper from preschool, thus ending my adventurous (and enjoyable) morning out! All hail the kinder, gentler weather that is in the forecast. Too bad Cole has to go to school on Saturdays to make up for the snow days…

Dear Snow: It’s time to go.

In honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday (in addition to the fact that it’s Read Across America day) we are celebrating this evening by reading books by Dr. Seuss. Outloud. Simultaneously. Because that seems to be the perfect Seuss style!

A few of our [many] favorites include:
Horton Hatches the Egg
Horton Hears a Who!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Green Eggs and Ham
If I Ran the Zoo
Hop on Pop
The Foot Book
My Many Colored Days

PS. We also love Go, Dog. Go! which is not by Dr. Seuss but reminds us of him.

Our library card is responsible for providing an ever-rotating selection of books for the kids & myself. The best part, of course, is that it’s all free (except for those times when we have a small fine because Harper has decided to hide her very small, very flat books under the rug in her room and then forgets where she put them and we can’t find them in time.) The second best part is that we can request books from any of the libraries in our system and pick them up at our local branch, which is about 2 minutes from the house. The third best part is that it comes with other perks, like storytime, Friends of the Library book sales, and friendly librarians. And lastly, the most helpful thing is that our library is online, and I have a free computer application that keeps track of all the books we have out and alerts me the day before they’re due. Needless to say, we love the library!

…are you really that desperate for snow?
PJs and tennishoes, taken this past Saturday after yet another snowfall.

The winner of the 2010 Caldecott award, awarded this past January, is this lovely book, “The Lion and the Mouse.”

The illustrations are exquisite! The illustrator is Jerry Pickney, who has a huge body of work. Seriously, what a talented man!

If you’re looking for books with great artwork, a Caldecott Medal or Caldecott Honor award winner is usually a great place to start. (That’s not to say that all beautifully illustrated books have won this award — and some of them are very text-heavy, too, as the books span many different reading levels.) You can view the complete list of books here. I have so, so many favorites on this list…and so many more that I still need to read! I don’t think I’ll ever catch up!

Happy Valentine’s Day, Grandma!