Draw Me A Star - Eric Carle

As I browsed my bookshelves during a recent studio overhaul, I saw this wonderful favourite and decided to feature it in this months blog. It is not a new book. My oldest son, now 25, found a copy on our weekly trip to our local library,he was about five years old. We bought it home. My son was excited because it was a book full of colour and stars, and I was excited because it was an Eric Carle book I had not yet discovered. It quickly became my favourite of all his books. If you haven't read this one before, I encourage you to add it to your reading bucket list. Obviously, we bought our own copy and it was and is well read and loved by myself and all of my now adult children.

Carle uses is iconic painted collage illustration style to intricately build this visual story inspired by a nonsense poem told to him by his German Oma. It was a way to teach children how to draw a star. Carle features this poem along with the star drawing instructions, written in his own hand, at the end of the book. On this page, following the poem, he talks about how he was inspired to write this story. If you follow Eric Carle on Face Book you will know he is a very personable man with a gentle and generous heart, and this shines through his work, and particularly when he adds these insights for his readers.

KRI KRA KROTEN-FUSS, GANSE LAUFEN BAR-FUSS
(KRI KRA TOAD"S FOOT, GEESE WALK BARE-FOOT)

I have always loved Carle's work, his complexity of story relying so heavily on visual narrative, his visual narrative so simple yet strong and powerful.

Seek this book out if it isn't already on your shelf or in your library. Go on a journey with Eric Carle about creation, the creative mind and the wonder of story.

Draw Me A Star, by Eric Carle (Penguin Putnam Books) ISBN: 978 0 698 11632 0