
I like to talk to children about the artists who illustrated their books. In The Christmas Tree Tangle for example I'll ask them 'How does the artist make it look like you are up in the tree looking down?' and 'How does the artist show that the lights are switched on?' In The Gift From St Nicholas I'll say 'How has Maja Dusikova shown that St Nicholas is going very fast?' Raymond Briggs The Snowman is of course brilliant for this kind of looking....'How does the artist show that they are even higher in the sky?'
It adds another dimension to the child's pleasure in the book, gives credit to the illustrator and lets the child know that there is such a job as book illustrator/artist.
Shirley Hughes, author and illustrator of more than 200 popular children's books, has written a delightful autobiography called, cleverly, A Life Drawing .
She made me laugh describing her younger self : 'Being Arty was an unthinkable social handicap, second only to being Brainy'.