Unearthed after nearly forty years, What Can I Be?, a stunning concept book written by Ann Rand and illustrated by Ingrid King, is sure to delight children with its superb graphics and vivid palette. Triangles, squares, circles, lines, and colors spring to life in various and creative formations as they ask, "What can I be?" A green triangle asks to become a tent, a kite, a Christmas tree, or the sail of a boat, or why not all of these things?

Amy Guglielmo, Jacqueline Tourville, and Brigette Barrager team up to tell the joyful and unique story of the trailblazing Disney artist Mary Blair. Mary Blair lived her life in color: vivid, wild color.
From her imaginative childhood to her career as an illustrator, designer, and animator for Walt Disney Studios, Mary wouldn’t play by the rules. At a time when studios wanted to hire men and think in black and white, Mary painted twinkling emerald skies, peach giraffes with tangerine spots, and magenta horses that could fly. She painted her world.

A glittery, rhyming introduction to line.  After we read this book, we try to find all the different kinds of lines we can remember reading about.  My only wish is that they had a book like this for all the elements of art!

Your essential guide to warming up creative thinking skills, brainstorming, and introducing a lesson requiring imagination and innovation.  Not a Box follows a cute bunny through his imaginary adventures with a cardboard box: It’s a rocket ship, it’s a fire truck, it’s a robot, etc.  Not a Stick further encourages its audience to “think outside the box”, developing different uses for shapes, forms, and objects.  

Okay, I cheated by naming two, but no art room (or art teacher) is complete without these two stories. Both stories are about young artists learning to express themselves and overcoming hurdles in the creative process.  The Dot’ssimple phrase, “Make a mark, and see where it takes you” stuck with my kiddos throughout the year.  More cheating: also check out The Museum by Susan Verde, Illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds.

I LOVE this book, and so do my students.  It encourages young artists to embrace their mistakes and make them into something beautiful…a “beautiful oops”.  This is a great message for all ages.  Throughout the year, many catastrophes were avoided as my students acknowledged their mistakes as beautiful oops’. This book also has the hidden moral gem that teaches the valuable lesson of adapting and using critical thinking skills to endure and achieve success.