Thursday, January 17, 2008

“Child! Do not throw this book about; refrain from the unholy pleasure of cutting all the pictures out.” Hilaire Belloc

A while back I traveled up to the Eric Carle museum to see an exhibit of art from children’s books and it was wonderful. Children’s art is one of those things that it always inspiring being sometimes realistic and surreal but mostly just awesome. Now Lookybook, a site devoted to showing off picture books will become a favorite of parents and librarians alike. First of all it is easy to use. You may need to download a plug-in but after that it is just a matter of finding the book you want to look through. Once a book is found just click on the pages and they turn back or forward. If you register you can save a lot of your searches by creating bookshelves. Also becoming a member allows you to comment on books and add your two cents. If you see a book you must have there is a buy button and it will refer you to an online store. They have the basic web 2.0 stuff like being able to show off your book picks but I like the if you like this then you will also like feature even better. I think they describe it best with a line from their site “Think of Lookybook as the test track for picture books.” Now this will not replace reading a book to a kid but it is nice to be able to preview the book first before buying it or just be able to look through some great illustrations. Give this a try.

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