Books to Coo About: Coppernickel

these are not your grandma's children's books.  this series of coppernickel books by wouter van reek (enchanted lion books) are infused with so much outside-the-box creativity, you and your little one will want need to read them over and over again, each time discovering something new.  the drawings sweep you off into another world -- another dimension even!  children's books this unique don't come along very often.

coppernickel goes mondrian takes you through a graphic, square-based, primary colored universe of adventuring on foot and by subway train.  while the modern artist piet mondrian is the obvious inspiration here, the illustrations also incorporate traditional chinese landscape scroll imagery while weaving together an intriguing narrative with an odd character named coppernickel, and his dog, tungsten, who long to find the future.

coppernickel the invention creates a world of near limitless possibility as coppernickel and tungsten, set out to invent a machine to pick high-hanging elderberries.  the drawings that result from this massive brainstorm extend to the far reaches of the page and seem to almost jump out of the book.

both books encourage you to turn the book upside down, flip the pages around and inspect the
illustrations sideways and backwards forcing you to see far beyond what you ordinarily might.

coppernickel goes mondrian and coppernickel the invention are available at books to coo about on amazon.