A Closer Look: A Picture Book About Discovery Through Beautiful Handmade Collages for Kids

by Mary McCarthy

Open your eyes. Open your mind. Open your imagination. Look! What do you see? Mary McCarthy's beautiful handmade-paper collages will transport young children on a journey of discovery.

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime, Childrens, Nature, Gardening, Science, Birds

40 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Mary McCarthy's one-of-a-kind and limited edition artist's books have been collected by private collectors and major institutions across the United States, including the Library of Congress and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She has taught bookmaking and she is the co-author of the popular manual Making Books by Hand. Mary McCarthy lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[babyhippoface]

McCarthy emphasizes the beauty of nature's simplicity in her picture book, which features successions of cut-paper collages showing three living things--a ladybug, a flower, and a hummingbird--from five different perspectives. As each illustration zooms out to give a broader view of the object (the ladybug begins as just one big, black dot on a field of red and eventually moves out to show the ladybug on a leaf) readers are asked to look closely to identify what they're seeing: "Look!/What do you.../see? A bug."

The red and green illustrations are lovely and detailed, but the repetitive text is likely to cause readers to hurry through the pages. Elementary Art teachers may choose to use this book in conjunction with lessons on perspective or patterns in nature.

[Alia]

I liked the concept of looking more closely at plants and animals but I didn't love this book. For one, I wished that there were more plants and animals being examined. The last page shows a whole garden but we only take a closer look at three things. The other things that bugged me was the illustrations. They are really neat art-wise but it seems as though McCarthy didn't consider the fact that books have gutters and that gets in the way of enjoying the full page spreads.

[Marissa Elera]

Challenge their minds with this dazzling, interactive storytime option! McCarthy starts off her illustrations of bugs, birds, and plants in super zoomed in views, scaling out as the pages go on to reveal the full subject. This book will keep them guessing as they try to figure out what they are looking at, and inspire spirited dialogue and intrigue for your storytime attendants. The sparse text and arresting art will especially delight lovers of visual puzzles.

[Alicia]

Kids are asked to study each close-up picture in turn and then we slowly see more and more of the image. They get a chance to guess what the image is and a lot of them can do it quite quickly. I thought the idea was cute, but the images are pretty easy to guess and the book is very short so reading it takes about a minute. I could see this being good for very young kids, but it's not necessarily good for a wide age range.

[Amy]

A very clever book and so fun to read with your kids. It is a type of "lift the flap" book where on one page it gives you a small glimpse of something and you continue to get bigger and bigger glimpses until the who scene is revealed. It is so fun to try and guess what the picture is and kids love reading it over and over and over...

[Karen]

My four-year-old son checked this book out from the library this week.

This is a GREAT concept book -- for a younger child. It is beautifully illustrated, and the concept is beautifully executed, and the book is very short. I'm not sure what the age range for this book is, but I'm guessing under four years.

[Mimo]

While not overly exciting, this book is pretty cool. It shows small details of nature and then "zooms out", starting with a ladybug's spot and working up to the whole garden. I could definitely use this as a guessing game for preschool storytime.

[Molly]

Great for Bunny Hop, as the parents would fill in what the kids were seeing. Also, the pages that say only 'look' served to get the kid's attention each time! Preschooler's would enjoy guessing what each page contains.

[Lara]

Close up views of subjects like bugs and flowers are followed by the zoomed out version to identify the subject. This would work well with kids in storytime guessing what each up close view is of and then turning the page to show them what the author says it is.

[Paige]

Too young; okay illustrations, but nothing special. (Of course, like I can draw anything more than stick figures!)

[Kari]

Interesting book, the kids enjoy it...a little boring?

[Amberly]

A lovely picture book great for working on predicting skills. A nice short read.

[Angela]

Best for kids ages 4 and up
Early Literacy Skills: Print Motivation

From cover:
Open your eyes. Open your mind. Open your imagination. Look! What do you see?

Interesting book to get kids thinking.

[Beverly]

Beautiful, large pictures; cute guessing game for toddlers and preschoolers.

[Alice]

A very simple book. I LOVE Ladybugs SO this one was really fun for me! Simple, and makes you think!

[Paula]

Detailed collage illustrations accompanied by simple text present expanding views of familiar objects in nature, such as a bug and a flower.

[Kelly Carey]

A great book for teaching predictions, visual cues, and inferences to younger students.

[Heather]

36 months - good book for the under two crowd, she is well beyond at this point.

[Kerry]

Great to use in a preschool garden story time

[Rose Rosetree]

Yes indeed, this is a book that delivers exactly what's promised in the title. Readers learn to take a closer look, gently guided by artist and author Mary McCarthy.

FIVE STARS for opening up visual imagination for young readers!

Personally I'll note that most picture books are not so specialized. If, like me, you're not terribly interested in visuals... this book won't be for you. Even charming, creative books are not necessarily for everyone. Without any rancor, more a sense of humor about this, I'm going to point this out explicitly.

Although I'm very interested in deeper perception -- Hello, my blog is called "Deeper Perception Made Practical" -- I know (as Mary McCarthy likely knows) that different human beings use different gifts for learning, imagination, and more. Like me, many of you other Goodreaders may have perceptual specialties that aren't about how things physically look.

As a result, this book was about as relevant to my life as if the text of the book were the same on every page:
This book will show you a wonderful time, but only if your name is Norman.

[Cecilia]

Art style isn't exactly to my tastes, but I think this book could be a good book for kids struggling with smaller OR bigger picture perspectives. It doesn't have very many words. This could be a good book to read with a group. I feel like it could make some kids feel really smart if they figure out what the image is supposed to be early, and it can make other kids have brain waves when they can't, urging them to reread the book. This would be a book where it would be interesting to hear a child's perspective.

[Wendy]

Cool concept with the book's artwork going from close-up views to basically zooming out to see the larger picture. It was fun to have my little one guess at what the pictures would turn out to be but that only works the first time you read the book. I like how it all connected in the end but I wish it had been longer with more examples of the expanding viewpoints.

[Marissa Ellis]

I gave this book four stars because of its simple organization and vibrant illustrations. I enjoyed how the book gradually zoomed out as the story progressed. This would be a very easy read for young children.

Guided Reading: A
Lexile: BR

[Michelle]

It helps your kid look closer at the world around them

[Matthew]

This book reminds me of Zoom and Rezoom by Barbara Lehman, except that this focuses on a garden. Clever book. Very enjoyable.

[Aarvik]

Nice one!

[Michael Guillot]

So much page flipping for so few words...

[Ms. Madalyn]

Really short, might be okay for a storytime for younger children, but I'm not sure if it would hold the attention of PK and up.

[Erin]

This is a great storytime book.

[DeA]

This is a really cute book that slowly expands on a single picture, highlighting three things in a large garden. It was a lot of fun having the children guess what this picture was of. They even got it right once. Recommend to anyone with small children, especially curious ones.