BOARD BOOKS Bring on the ART

A catchphrase I often use when writing about or speaking about (or thinking about) picture books is "You never outgrown your need for picture books". On the flip side, you're never too YOUNG for picture books. 
Or for ART. 
That's especially true when provided via quality, sturdy, thoughtfully designed board books. 

Board Books is a category that has blossomed far beyond PAT THE BUNNY (although that book remains a timeless classic) to explore high concepts and stimulating subjects. In 2018 I was a Cybils panelist for this category and posted several times (HERE, HERE, and HERE) about how amazed I was at the variety, creativity, and overall awesomeness of board books currently being published.Take a look if you're shopping for a new baby or for shower gifts.
Among the remarkable board books I examined in 2018 were several released by PHAIDON.com. The latest of their releases to land in my lap is another of their titles with a forward-looking-interactive approach to ART! 

PHAIDON Publishing

ART THIS WAY is the product of the creative couple Tamara Shopsin and Jason Fulford. 
Following my notes about this book, consider clicking on the links I'll provide about early infant brain development, related to language, visual perception, and also the impact of screen time in infant development.

The approach to this sturdy and little-finger-friendly book is to reproduce images (in very high resolution) of innovative and eye-popping art, inviting twists, turns, flaps, colors, and offering some basic informative text. The cover art looks the same upside down, and the authors' opening  directive is to 

"Walk around, open up, 

look down, and up 

and in and out, 

look close, 

look behind, 

and keep looking."

Each reproduction can be explored through lift pages, flaps, mirrors, shifts in dimensions, and brief text prompts.The works include sculptures, photography, mobiles, screeenprints, and compilation installations. The final double spread repeats miniature images of each piece of art with attribution to the modern artist and the media. All are from the Whitney Museum's collection, featuring art by Calder, Christa, Herrara, Levitt, Lichtenstein, Marison, Sherman, and Warhol. 

If you are skeptical about the appeal of such a topic to the youngest audiences, just flash back to the way infant eyes and hands love to explore curls of ribbon, empty boxes, and sticky labels during the recent holidays. The impulse to explore, examine, contort and consider the world around them is a universal fact of infancy. One that is welcomed by this board book.
One that, sadly, diminishes rapidly with age (and with obsessive screen time.
Think about it. 
Screens require interactivity, but it is all dictated by the machine, not the child! If a device is reoriented, it straightens itself. Random twists, turn, flips produce nothing meaningful. Only preprogrammed actions and responses are productive. 
The child in your lap and arms has unlimited potential to CREATE ART, to IMAGINE possibility, to view the world from every angle. Whether or not their work is ever displayed in a gallery is not the question at stake. The crucial question is: 
Are we encouraging (or limiting) their development of  individual insight into, appreciation of, and curiosity about the physical world, and their internal world, too. Books like this one are better than screens by any measure.

And here's my evidence for that claim, with clicks to the content I promised about some of the more recent science findings regarding early infant brain development:

First, this is a reader-friendly summary of the advice from America's pediatricians;
next, this is a summary of the value of reading aloud ANYTHING with young children;
and here are even more board books, new and classic, to replace those screens.

I recently wrapped up my work as a round one panelist for CYBILS AWARDS in the nonfiction categories for elementary and middle grades for 2019. Stay tuned, HERE, for the announcements and blurbs for ALL categories, coming on New Year's Day. You're gonna LOVE these finalists!