Speaking of fantastic collage art, I have to show you a “new to me” poetry picture book collection today.

“Stardines” is written by the brilliant Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by the amazing collage art of Carin Berger.  I got to meet her last summer at the national SCBWI conference in LA and see how she made her art.  Her work is stunning in its intricacy and minute detail.  She uses all sorts of ephemera as material for her art and that is evident in this book as well.  Just check out this description of how the art for this book was done:

Intricate and detailed doesn’t even begin to describe her work.  But this collection is more than just the wonderful art work.  It’s also a really fun set of poems.  Prelutsky is at his finest here, creating a set of imaginary creatures that are fun word play AND … dare I say recognizable with human traits with some of them?

I had a hard time picking one, but I admit, I giggled far too long over the one I finally chose (that was the clincher for me).  I will show you a couple of close ups so you can see more detail in the art work.  It truly is fantastic!

Left page of the spread (the illustration):

Right page of the spread (the poem):