Modern Art Books for Babies

As I mentioned earlier today, we are celebrating the fact that our adoption of our youngest child was finalized yesterday! In celebration of that fact, I have a fun little surprise for FIVE of you!

As I have also mentioned before, our youngest was not really very interested (at all) in books upon his arrival. I've been constantly scouting out books that I think might have some appeal to him. These days - I am delighted to say! - it's quite normal to find him with a book in hand. He seems to have dived into the book world with gusto (making me one very happy mommy to two very happy readers!) Naturally when I went to the Book Expo, I was on the lookout for books that I thought would be bright and appealing to Bookworm2. I was looking for something that would grab his attention and engage him. When I came upon the Tundra Books booth and saw a series by Marthe Jocelyn and Tom Slaughter, I had a feeling they were onto something, not only for reluctant readers, but babies in general. Check these out:






This is a series of book written and designed by husband and wife team, Tom Slaughter and Marthe Jocelyn. The first book in this series - 1 2 3 was put together by Tom Slaughter, a New York City based artist whose works are featured in the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum. The rest of the books followed in quick succession with his wife's participation and partnership.

The books are illustrated with paper cuts, using primary colors which create bright, bold pictures. The books are described as "deceptively simple" and they are that. They are very attractive to the eye and draw children in. I held up one of the books in this seven book series for Bookworm2 to see and he was instantly and visibly excited about them. Bookworm1 enjoyed them also, as they feature a lot of animals (including a sperm whale!)

Each book in the series teaches a different concept. Out of the seven, these three were our particular favorites:

ABC x 3 English, Espanol, Francais - Teaches children the alphabet in three different languages: English, Spanish and French! (I cannot confess to being able to pronounce a single syllable in French, but the concept of the book is pretty awesome!)

One Some Many - Teaches the concept of counting multiple objections. How much is "some?" How much is "many?" These are the questions the young reader is asked in this book which is filled with bold, simplistic pictures which represent the concepts in discussion.

Eats - In this book we see what different animals eat. Bears eat fish, bees eat nectar, a whale eats a squid. While this book is one of our favorites, I must also point out for Bookworm1's sake that they didn't give the squid ten tentacles. "They got it wrong, Mommy!") SO...it's more like a jellyfish, really. To be all technical about our sea life and everything. But other than that, this book was a true delight.

Each book in this series is interesting in some particular way. We enjoyed the paper cuts of the bees most especially and looked for them throughout our reading.

Slaughter's goal is to introduce children to the concept of modern art and develop an appreciation for it at an early age. These books also serve a significant educational purpose as well, by introducing children to basic concepts (such as counting) at the same time. I think these books fulfill their purpose perfectly and we've enjoyed them.

I am therefore delighted to let you know that Tundra Books has very, very generously offered up FIVE SETS of these seven titles to Reading to Know readers. Yes. You read that correctly. Five of you will each win the seven books in the Slaughter/Jocelyn series.

I'm so happy to be able to host this contest on a day of celebration around here and am glad to pass these along. To win? Simply leave a comment below. This contest is open to U.S. Residents only and will be open through July 1st.

I know that many of you are adoptive parents and so, if you are connected to adoption in some way that is close to your immediate family's heart - then please leave a second comment for a second entry!

In the meantime, if you get a chance to check out these books - do!

To learn more about Tundra Books you can visit their website (by clicking on their name.) You can also follow the Tundra Books blog and for the rogue Twitter-ite, you can catch Tundra on Twitter and stay up to date with what they have to offer and stay in the loop regarding a variety of giveaways.

Good luck and have fun!

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!