Tamara Shopsin: What Is This?

by Tamara Shopsin (artist)

It is never too early to learn about abstraction--especially if celebrated illustrator Tamara Shopsin is doing the teaching. "What Is This?" is Shopsin's wordless children's book that will encourage imaginative thinking in readers both young and old. The miniature book, made for small hands, is filled with simple line drawings, executed with characteristic charm by Shopsin. Each drawing playfully adds to and alters the same basic squiggle, which is transformed across different contexts on each successive page: first the squiggle appears as the petals of a flower, next as a bird's nest, then a cowboy's lasso, then a plume of smoke from a factory chimney. Each time, only a few extra lines are required to suggest the conversion. By the end of the book, faced with an innocent squiggle, the question is not "what is this?" but rather, "what isn't this?" Tamara Shopsin (born 1979) is a graphic designer and illustrator whose work has been featured in The "New York Times," "Good," "Time," "Wired" and "Newsweek." She is the author of the memoir "Mumbai New York Scranton," designer of the "5 Year Diary" and coauthor, with Jason Fulford, of the children's book "This Equals That." She is also a cook at her family's restaurant, Shopsin's, in New York.

Genres: Art

40 pages, Hardcover

First published July 28, 2015

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very inventive little picture book for all ages, truly: take the squiggle on the cover and on each successive page it becomes something different! A fish, the lasso of a cowboy, a flower, etc. I loved turning each page to see what new creative picture awaited, and by the end the reader discovers the answer to the question "What is This?" is truly: anything you can imagine!

[dv · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice small (very small!) book. Shopsin's illustrations are clever and humorous, so is this idea of starting from a casual shape to put into context and give it meaning.