I could talk about endpapers... endlessly! It's one of the first book design elements I started noticing and calling kids attention to looooong before I read Megan Dowd Lambert's
Reading Picture Books with Children book, so I was excited last week when one of the kiddos said, "I'm tired of talking about the size and shape of the book, can we talk about something else? Like endpapers or something?"
First, I consulted Lambert's
fantastic round-up of book titles with exceptionally interesting endpapers and through that I discovered Ruzzio's
This is not a picture book. The difference between the endpapers at the beginning and end of this book is subtle but SO, SOOOO significant!
The kids also noticed how the background of the pages is utterly blank until the duckling begins to read and then... the world becomes full of color and detail. So many great design details here in the illustrations and endpapers--just check it out for yourself!
The first book we actually read together was Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett. I LOVE how the subtle endpapers tie in to the story (hint, check out the trees). The kids loved how the endpapers matched my outfit today!
We didn't even READ Britta Teckentrup's book,
Neon Leon but the endpapers tell the whole story in just a few simple shapes:
And the kids DID insist that I read
Nanette's Baguette by Mo Willems but I think that was because they wanted to hear me struggle with all of the tight rhyming, whew!
We also did a little finger play:
And I gave a sneak peek into one of next week's books:
Blocks by Irene Dickson by just comparing the beginning and ending endpapers:
And we ended with an exploration of
The Very Hungry Caterpillar: Creative Play app (it allows users to cut virtual shapes out of full "sheets" of Eric Carle's great painted textures that he uses for collage in his own books!):
What are your favorite endpapers?
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