The first video below is my readaloud of It Began With a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way, written by Kyo Maclear and illustrated by Julie Morstad. The books children read, or hear read aloud, shape how they see the world from a very early, very impressionable age. Biases are present all text, assumptions are made, and images depict selectively. This is not to say authors and illustrators are bad people with nefarious purposes! It's just unavoidable. Gyo Fujikawa is not a household name, but she was time and again a true trailblazer--attending college when few women did, traveling to develop her skills as an artist, making her way during World War II's prejudice against Japanese-Americans, and in the 1960s creating children's books with a striking difference: her illustrations were among the first to depict multiracial girls and boys playing together. Her impact on writing, illustrating, and publishing children's books continues to resonate today.
The second video below is by two of today's brightest stars of the picture book world, Christian Robinson, illustrator, and Mac Barnett, author. During safer-at-home time, Christian Robinson has been doing a terrific series of videos he calls "Making Space." The series encourages using creativity to explore and connect while living with the boundaries of social distancing. The videos are themed on meaningful topics such as caregivers and friendship. The one I've selected (below) is on the benefits of limitations when doing creative work, and includes Mac Barnett, author of so many Pennekamp favorites. Can Christian really do a drawing in under one minute? Can Mac really write a one-sentence story? Does their tin-can telephone really work? Watch this excellent video and find out.
The second video below is by two of today's brightest stars of the picture book world, Christian Robinson, illustrator, and Mac Barnett, author. During safer-at-home time, Christian Robinson has been doing a terrific series of videos he calls "Making Space." The series encourages using creativity to explore and connect while living with the boundaries of social distancing. The videos are themed on meaningful topics such as caregivers and friendship. The one I've selected (below) is on the benefits of limitations when doing creative work, and includes Mac Barnett, author of so many Pennekamp favorites. Can Christian really do a drawing in under one minute? Can Mac really write a one-sentence story? Does their tin-can telephone really work? Watch this excellent video and find out.
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