Julie Morstad’s 2013 picture book how to is lovely.
The text is minimalist, but, again, lovely. Each two-page spread has a single “how to” statement, such as “how to go fast.” The rest of the spread illustrates a myriad of hows. For those pages, kids run, but they also run carrying others, run wearing butterfly wings, ride a scooter, and use stilts. There’s a lot of open space on the pages: the kids shown appear either against a white page or a single-color page. (The girl being a mermaid has a beige wall behind, for example.) Some of the images, like the pile of mattresses on the “how to have a good sleep,” use color and contrast strikingly. Some, like the illustration on “how to make new friends” or “how to make a sandwich,” are complex, and require a bit of visual investigation to really decipher what’s shown here and/or what’s being done.
All of the how to illustrations are possible for kids, though many draw them forward into new arenas or seeing their lives in new ways.
Near the end, the rhythm shifts, to a four-page spread, and then to one spread without a how to.
This book is perfect for thoughtful kids, kids who love to dream, kids who love images, and adults with living hearts.
Highly recommended. I’ll be reading anything Morstad publishes, and looking for the other books she illustrates.
