"This is a book about transformations - from egg to chicken, seed to flower, and caterpillar to butterfly. But it's also a book about creativity as paint becomes pictures, word becomes story .... and commonplace becomes extraordinary."
This book is so significant it even has its own Wikipedia entry.
The book comprises a series of die-cut pages that convey various forms of transformation. Seeger uses word play and alters the composition of the illustrations between cut-outs to create unexpected relationships among basic concepts such as time, opposites, and colours. In 2009, the company Weston Woods Studios, Inc. made a video version of the book.
There is a surprise under the dust jacket:
I am not a fan of this video but it will allow you to see how the die cuts work.
The flower on the page "first the seed" is just such a beautiful image:
A paperback edition of this 2007 book was published in 2018 [9781596437227] but it is sadly out of print. The hardcover is still available but the price is way too high to consider here in Australia. I saw one retailer listed this book for over $47. My friend from Kinderbookswitheverything adores this book but sadly her library copy is in bad shape. I found a copy at Better World Books and I hope it is in slightly better shape so she can have a better copy in her wonderful school library.
Awards:
- 2008 Caldecott Honor Book
- 2008 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book
- New York Times Best Seller
- New York Times 10 Best Illustrated Books of 2007
- American Library Association Notable Children’s Book, 2008
- Horn Book Fanfare Best Books of 2007
- Oppenheim Platinum Award, 2008
- NAIBA Children’s Pick of the List, 2007
- Arizona Grand Canyon Young Readers Award, 2007
- Michigan Great Lakes Great Books Award, 2007
- South Dakota Prairie Bud Award, 2007
- Eric Carle Museum Picture Book of Distinction, 2007
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