Handimals: Animals in Art and Nature

by Silvia Lopez, Guido Daniele (Illustrator)

Overview

Discover the beauty of Handimals: hands modeled and painted into animals paired with facts and photos of the corresponding animals in nature.

With a gift for fine art and a lifelong love of nature, Guido paints magnificent animal subjects on an unconventional canvas—human hands. This awe–inspiring collection showcases sixteen creatures ranging from polar bears to alpacas to Komodo dragons and provides factual information about the various species.

Silvia Lopez brings her sharp eye to these important animals with insightful facts to raise awareness and appreciation for Earth’s precious wildlife. A perfect choice for artists and environmentalists of all ages.

Christy Ottaviano Books

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627798914
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	04/30/2019
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	11.99(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.42(d)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Silvia Lopez holds both a BA in English and a Specialist degree in Educational Technology, as well as a Masters in Library Science. She served for four years on the Sunshine State Young Readers Award selection committee. Silvia is a National Board Certified teacher and has been a children’s librarian in Miami-Dade County Public Schools for over two decades. Handimals marks her picture book debut.

Guido Daniele is an internationally acclaimed artist who pioneered a body painting technique, which he calls Handimals or Manimali in his native Italian. Daniele is also an environmentalist and the recipient of Animal Planet’s Hero of the Year Award. Guido lives and works in Italy.

Editorial Reviews

Winner of the Nautilus Book Award

"This informational picture book uses Daniele’s Manimali, or Handimals in English, to highlight 16 threatened and endangered animal species around the world. A concluding roundup offers even more facts about each animal, particularly why humans have caused it to become vulnerable and endangered. Plenty of animal titles abound, but few are as quirky and enthralling as this picture book. —Booklist, starred review

"Daniele crafts animal heads of startling realism. A worthy successor to Mario Mariotti and Roberto Marchriori's Hanimals, with a low-key message about the importance of animal conservation carried in a handful of nature notes."—Kirkus

From the Publisher

2019-03-03

A gallery of animal portraits guaranteed to cause double takes, as they are all made up of painted human hands.

Incorporating nails, knuckles, and skin textures as well as paint, Daniele crafts animal heads of startling realism, from an alpaca and a polar bear that really look furry to a chameleon on which every tiny scale shimmers with nuanced colors. Some, such as the toucan and flamingo, are composed of single hands, but most use more, topping out at the six that are intricately folded together to create a mandarin duck. Several photos are digitally assembled (in more ways than one, in the case of the giant panda, which crouches in a thicket of fingers painted like bamboo), but the artist claims that none of the original paintings are retouched. Opposite each of the 16 close-ups, general descriptions of the animal and, often, its offspring are paired to an actual nature photo that shows off the artist's attention to detail and color. Lopez adds further facts about the animals at the end, noting that nine are rated "vulnerable" or "endangered." Daniele concludes with a punchline ("we must give animals a hand if they are to survive") and a description of his working methods.

A worthy successor to Mario Mariotti and Roberto Marchriori's Hanimals (1988), with a low-key message about the importance of animal conservation carried in a handful of nature notes. (Informational picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews