Invisible is a wordless book about an afternoon spent in a seaside town full of interesting characters. Not only will you smile at the Kamm’s observations about the rich panoply of life, from nuns to peeing dogs, you’ll enjoy the tricks the pictures play on your eye; on each spread something appears invisible because it blends in with the background colour. Only the negative shape left behind gives a clue as to what has become invisible, and so it becomes a game to see if you can work out what that is before you turn the page.

The illusions are clever and witty, and the bright, bold, saturated colours give this book a fresh feel. The game is fun even (or perhaps especially) once you know what’s going on – there’s something delightful about being tricked, about falling for the illusion (in this way it reminded me a little of Tullet’s much acclaimed Press Here).

Image copyright: Katja Kamm

This spunky book might not appeal to everyone. There’s nudity (well, invisible nudity…), buxom punks, as well as an anatomically correct male dog doing what dogs like best to do on the pavement, and I do feel uncomfortable about the scene where the nuns are frightened by something in the (black) night – it turns out to be a black man. But it’s nevertheless a fun, original read that I’d definitely recommend to anyone interested in illustration or design: I thought Invisible was a breath of fresh air and am delighted to have discovered it thanks to Gathering Books’ Award Winning Book Challenge.

Of course the girls (and I) wanted to play at being invisible after reading this super book. Making an entire child (or mum) invisible is a little tricky, but I did show the girls how they could make a stamp or a sticker (appear to be) invisible.

I sent the girls out of the room whilst I got everything ready: I put two lidded jam jars on the worksurface. One was filled with water, and underneath it I placed a stamp.

I then invited the girls in and asked them to take a look at the jars. Did either of the jars have something underneath them?, I asked… No, came the rather unexcited reply.

I then took the lids off the jars and asked the girls to look from the top. Now could they see anything underneath either of the jars?

Ah, yes! A stamp (and no ordinary stamp at that!). The girls looked again from the side and once again the stamp seemed invisible, yet when they looked from the top, Matilda was smiling back at them.

Having replaced the lids, I picked up the jars and the girls got to investigate what difference the water made in the jars. First the empty jar was placed on the stamp, then the jar filled with water. With the empty jar on top, the stamp was clearly visible from the side…

…but with the water-filled jar on top, the stamp suddenly became invisible! Ta-da!

So very simple, but so very effective

And what’s going on here? Very simply put, when light passes from water to air it gets bent, making the object appear to be somewhere else. In this case, the water makes the stamp appear higher up, nearer the surface of the water. Looking from the side, the refracted image can’t be seen, but looking from above it can.

Whilst making stamps disappear, we listened to:

(I also considered Invisible Touch by Genesis, Invisible by Alison Moyet, but they didn’t make the cut )

Other creative ideas that work well with Invisible include:

Now at the top of this post I talked about two personal goals for Playing by the book this year. To help me achieve my second goal, I’ve signed up for Pinterest. You can find me here on Pinterest, where I’ll be gathering my favourite creative ideas from around the web, especially creative ideas to do with books. I’ve even created a board with more invisibility ideas if you’re looking for yet more fun things to do alongside Katje Kamm’s Invisible.

If a newborn is going to receive a book or two as a welcome-to-the-world gift, it’s a nigh-on certainty that there’ll be stories or illustrations from Carle included. I know when M was born we were sent multiple copies of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and the first book I specifically bought for M, when she was still in utero, was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?

Next week sees the publication of the first new picture book by Eric Carle since I last had a newborn of my own: four years after Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? (which co-incidentally was the first book I bought specifically for J), The Artist who Painted a Blue Horse is about to start making its journey into homes, hands and childhoods.

“I am an artist and I paint…” not quite what you might expect.

Although the book follows a pattern that mirrors Brown Bear, Brown Bear and its partner books, with a single boldly coloured animal in instantly recognisable Carle style on each double page spread, there is something of a surprise thrown in. Not one of the animals is the colour they “should” be; there’s a blue horse, a yellow cow and a green lion, for starters.

Children will enjoy the humour in these “mismatches”, but the book also contains a powerful message about creativity, imagination and being encouraged to explore beyond what is expected of you. The artist who paints these “wrongly” coloured animals is described as “a good artist“.

Although I suspect this book will be bought primarily for the preschool crowd because of its simple text (most pages have just 4 words on them), I actually think this is a great picture book for slightly older children, in their first years of schooling. Inspired by the work of the Expressionist painter Franz Marc (the book includes examples of Marc’s paintings and a short biography inside the back cover) it’s a great catalyst for discussing “What IS art?” and how we decide whether we think an artist is any good or not.

Thus my advice would have to be, next time you’re buying a gift for a new baby, choose The Artist who Painted a Blue Horse for the baby’s older sibling and treat the new arrival to Brown Bear, Brown Bear – together these books make a brilliant introduction to Carle, colours and creativity.

Inspired by Eric Carle‘s textured collages the girls set about exploring his technique. First they spread paint over large sheets of card before using various implements to make marks in the paint.

A plastic fork was J’s favourite tool…

… whilst M enjoyed making patterns with her fingers in the paint. We also used bubble wrap, rollers, sponges, sieves and “combs” made from cardboard. Given the pretty physical nature of this painting and exploring of the paint I’d definitely advise using card rather than paper; paper might tear too easily when covered in wet paint and “distressed” with different tools.

When the card was dry the girls snipped out shapes…

…and J used these to make creatures of her own.

Not very à la Carle, but we couldn’t resist adding Googly eyes

The girls really enjoyed this simple but very expressive, sensory activity. And it was a moment for me to reflect – as an younger child M hated all messy play (she wouldn’t even play with playdough as she didn’t like the feeling on her skin). But now, looking at her get stuck in, I was delighted to see she no longer had that fear of feeling!

Whilst we painted we listened to:

Other activities which go well with The Artist who Painted a Blue Horse include:

Do you have a favourite Eric Carle book or image? Have you ever tried Eric Carle style collage with your kids? Do let me know your thoughts and experiences

Photo: bortescristian

Peely Wally is a very happy bird. She has just laid an egg and is proud and thrilled. But in her excitement at the impending arrival of her baby, she bounces so hard on her twig that the egg rolls off and away. The poor egg tumbles down here, over there, only just avoids being eaten and eventually, with the help of all the neighbouring animals, survives the adventure and is returned to a much relieved Mum.

But then the most exciting thing of all happens… the egg cracks, and… well I’m sure you can guess what happens, but it’s nevertheless lovely, heartwarming and fun to reveal.

This simple tale is great fun for the younger crowd. There’s just the right amount of adventure, a suggestion of disaster, a reassuring rescue, and a great deal of love and care. But it’s the vibrant illustrations which will really get the kids coming back for more. Created in collage style, inevitably (and successfully) reminiscent of Eric Carle, they zing with colour and texture.

What’s more, I suspect that many kids won’t just listen to the story, they will actually play with this book: A dotted line across every page indicates the path of the egg and my kids love tracing this with their finger while the slopes and loop-the-loops encourage me to read the text in an even more sing-song fashion than normal.

Although I’d wholeheartedly recommend this book to any young family I bumped into in the bookshop, two tiny question marks hang over the book for me. First, the eponymous title. Personally, I like it – it suggests something fun and unusual. But I do wonder if some might be turned off by it (and perhaps the editors have thought this too – the book is being released outside of the UK under the title “Roly-Poly Egg”). It puts me in mind of another book I enjoy reading with the girls, but which I’ve heard hasn’t been very successful because of its title – The Terrible, Greedy Fossifoo by Charles Fuge.

Second, as this book will be a hit with the youngest of readers, and contains a wonderful lift-the-flaps page at the denouement of the story, it really deserved to be published on much more robust paper or even as a board book. The flaps, such as they are, will soon be torn, for they are thin and flimsy. This is such a shame for instead of letting my kids excitedly unveil what’s behind the flaps, I’m nervous about pages being ripped and this somewhat diminishes the story’s final impact.

However, put aside these two tiny gripes and what you have here is the perfect nonreligious book for Easter, an ideal gift for Mums-to-be and a peppy pick-me-up tonic to banish the winter blues. A treat for the preschool crowd, and a book that’s received a big thumbs up from both my girls. Do look out for it next week when it hits the shelves around the world!

Having read the book we wanted to make our own Peely Wallys to brighten up our day. At first I thought about painting them and using collage, just like Kali Stileman, but in the end we went for a 3D version, creating a small flock to inhabit our apple tree. Here’s how we did it.

First we go a pair of long pipecleaners (chenille stems) and several strips of tissue paper.

Next we scrunched up the tissue paper around the pipecleaners.

Googly eyes and a beak made from a folded diamond of card were added with a dab of glue…

… then the birds started to flock to the apple tree, and by winding the pipecleaners around the branches they happily perched where they landed.

Our Peely Wally flock has added a lovely splash of optimistic colour to the garden, and makes me smile every time I look out of the kitchen window whilst I’m washing up!

Peely Wally: ** (two out of three stars). Not a groundbreakingly original book, in story or style, but told with enough panache and boldness as to warrant seeking out.

Whilst making our Peely Wallys we listened to

Instead of making our own family of Peely Wallys, other activities we could have gotten up to alongside reading this book include:

The eggs and birds also reminded me of two past posts here on Playing by the book – our Magic Flute inspired birds and making cascarones. Good memories

Peely Wally provided us with a very welcome splash of colour. What’s bringing a little bit of colour into your lives at the moment?