If...

by Sarah Perry

Overview

In her first book, artist Sarah Perry has created twenty magical watercolors that are an open invitation to the imaginations of children. Beautifully produced in full color, these fantastic images conjure up a world of limitless possibilities where anything can happen: leaves turn into green fish...cats fly about on wings...and butterflies become a little girl's coat of many colors. Children of all ages will enjoy this book, the Getty Museum's first co-publication with the Children's Library Press of Venice, California.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892363216
Publisher:	Getty Publications
Publication date:	11/28/1995
Series:	Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum Series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	44
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.13(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	BR (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Sarah Perry is an artist living in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

"Can you imagine what would happen if cats could fly of if leaves on trees were actually fish? What would happen if ants could count or spiders could read braille? These premises and illustrations serve as writing prompts as children consider what the world would be like in each case."—Bookalogues

From the Publisher

In her first book for children, Perry, an artist, suggests a series of impossible propositions, then makes each come true in striking if sometimes disturbing paintings. Her text sets up one scenario after another (``If frogs ate rainbows''; ``If dogs were mountains'') and ends with the suggestion ``If this is the end.../ Then dream up some more!'' Many concepts are funny (``If zebras had stars and stripes''); many are both intriguing and comic. ``If ugly were beautiful,'' for example, is paired with a painting of a warthog-with warts, bristles, wrinkles and all-wearing a glittering diamond tiara fit for a beauty queen. Other visions are more surrealistic: ``If mice were hair'' captions a picture of a child's head aswarm with lanky, squirming mice. Elsewhere, a girl in green sunglasses parts her lips to reveal a row of realistically drawn toes; a blue toddler marches off with a green elephant, holding its tail-which closely resembles the child's own. While the artwork is arresting, the premise would be better served with a more supple, varied text and a stronger ending. Ages 3-up. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 1-3Twenty full-page, mixed-media color paintings with fantastic themes are offered here. The subjects include some children and numerous animals; most of them are depicted with atypical limbs, in strange environments, or engaged in unexpected activities. Whales swim in outer space; frogs swallow rainbows; a nude child sporting a tail is led by an elephant. The text consists of one phrase in the center of an otherwise blank page opposite each illustration that begins with the word, "If," e.g., "If cats could fly . . . ", "If worms had wheels . . ." While many of the stark illustrations are striking, the story itself is not fulfilling. Nothing happens, no points are madeeach picture is simply a dead end. Also, the painting of a child sporting writhing mice instead of hair is repugnant. Chris Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (Houghton, 1984) presents drawings full of possibilities, well matched with a minimal text that hints at supernatural presences and weird adventures about to happen. Judi Barrett's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Atheneum, 1978) has an internal logic that suspends disbelief. If Perry's title offered a story or a cogent thought it might work; as it is, only her sense of whimsy is indulged.Karey Wehner, San Francisco Public Library

School Library Journal

ges 610. Imagination is the name of the game, and Perry plays it with distinction. Each left-hand page carries a short phrase beginning with the word "If" and trailing off in a series of dots, phrases ranging from the strange ("If toes were teeth . . ." ) to the bizarre ("If caterpillars were toothpaste . . ." ) to the striking ("If lightning made rhinos . . ." ) to the enigmatic ("If music could be held . . ." ). The words are mere jumping-off places for Perry's visual flights of fancy. On each right-hand page is an eye-catching, mind-bending illustration of the phrase. The artwork, evidently done in pastels, features rich colors, subtle shading, and enough realism in the technique to make the entertaining and implausible pictures believable. Since the book is made to be shared ("Look at "this "one!" ), teachers may want to show it to the whole class at once, then pass out the art supplies so that children can play the game, too.

Carolyn Phelan