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December 17, 2003

SCIENCE, BOOKS, & SIS

This Tuesday, the NYTimes Science Section published an interesting article on creating children's science books during the age of discovery. The article focused on Peter Sis, one of my favorite writers/artists. Here is an excerpt about Sis' work on his latest book, The Tree of Life:

Mr. Sís had originally drawn Darwin as right-handed. But toward the end of the project, he saw a documentary and other material that portrayed Darwin as left-handed. He redrew part of the book, shifting the pen to the other hand. Only then he did he learn that the actor portraying Darwin just happened to be left-handed.

Back to the drawing board, this time with an X-Acto knife. In the final version of "The Tree of Life," the pen disappeared from the hand. (Writing Science for Children in an Age of Discovery, NYTimes 12/16/03).

You can read the article (which I found pretty fascinating) and make your own judgments. I for one was primarily excited that there was a big article about Peter Sis.

Anyone who rides the new subway cars would recognize a piece of Sis' work-- that awesome intricate pen and ink/watercolor drawing of NYC as a giant whale. I loved it so much that I stalked the Transit Museum Store until they began selling extras, and then bought two.

Sis' illustrations are thrillingly detailed yet so simple-- they consistently evoke that magical feeling within, particularly when he draws images of NYC, which he has done often, particularly in his Madlenka series and a piece included in a books of comfort prose for children, made after September 11th. Good books have always elicited this response from me.

One day, I'd really like to own an original piece of artwork by Peter Sis. I guess for now I'll have to settle for a subway poster reproduction, though.

Posted by callalillie at December 17, 2003 9:03 AM | Visual Musings

COMMENTS

Posted by: Ashley at December 17, 2003 12:21 PM