The Artful Dodger: Images and Reflections

Amazon.com

As 3 million readers can attest, Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine trilogy is the world's most original epistolary novel. It contains (physically contains) the correspondence of Londoner Griffin Moss and Sabine Strohem of the Sicmon Islands in the South Pacific--colorful postcards and letters in envelopes pasted into the book, which the reader must open and read. In his gloriously illustrated autobiography The Artful Dodger, Bantock explains the allure of opening letters: it's "a sort of cross between Christmas and sex." And when the letters illuminate somebody else's mysterious love affair, it's all the more delicious.

Griffin and Sabine really are mysterious, and it's tricky to piece together their story from the fanciful, surrealistic bits the text, maps, stamps, and pictures provide. That's why fans will be ravenous to read Bantock's charmingly straightforward memoir, which lets us in on all kinds of secrets about his symbols and visual sources. Winged figures always signify transition, he says, "whether on a monkey, an angel, or a devil." Sabine's Sicmon Islands home derives from the English expression "sick as a parrot," which connects with the parrot on the first book's cover and expresses Griffin's ailing English soul--what he needs is a sensual, elusive Sabine to get his blood up. Both characters are warring parts of Bantock's own psyche.

You don't need to know a thing about them to revel in this book. It's spellbinding in its own right, partly for the artless narrative, but mostly for the hundreds of pictures and the fascinating intricacy of Bantock's creative process. Sabine done in ghostly charcoal and gold dust is exquisite, no matter who she might be. It's a bit spooky to learn that a 1970s French stamp Bantock bought from his local shop to go with one of Sabine's postcards turns out to have been classified as "Type Sabine" by the French Philatelic Society. It was taken from a David painting of the Sabine women, and was meant to symbolize "union"--the central theme of Bantock's trilogy.

There is plenty besides his greatest hit to delight the eye here. The book cover illustrations are arresting, particularly for Peter Ackroyd's bio Chatterton (though his depiction of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land is drably silly). His pop-up books of Jabberwocky and The Egyptian Jukebox (a series of drawers full of museum-like objects that tell the tale of a mad millionaire's travels) are brilliant. Bantock's gift for collage does honor to his idol, Joseph Cornell, without being derivative. His wildly improbable life story proves that fate shares his enthusiasm for flights of fancy. --Tim Appelo

Book Description

With sales of his Griffin & Sabine Trilogy surpassing three million copies, it's been said that Nick Bantock has created an original literary genre. Now he brings new meaning to the art of autobiography with The Artful Dodger: Images and Reflections, in which he infuses the tale of his professional and artistic life with warmth and wit. The Artful Dodger surveys the vast and varied territory that Bantock's work encompasses: from his English art-school days to paperback covers, pure abstract experimentation to pop-up books, Griffin & Sabine to his most recent work. Bantock's own words lend a highly personal, often revealing, always entertaining angle to more than 350 resplendent images. As rich in life as it is in art, The Artful Dodger reveals the creative range of a modern graphic master.

Customer Reviews:

A pleasant collection.......2004-06-28

If you like Nick Bantock's work, you'll probably like this. It's not exhaustive, but a good collection of his work from 1970s art school through the publication date. That includes illustrations for book covers, some of which I almost remember from the original books. It includes illustrations from unpublished children's books, material not found elsewhere.

Of course, it includes extracts from Griffin and Sabine. Those may be my favorites - I think there is material here that extends the G&S story, but was never in the original books. It also covers The Venetian's Wife and Museum at Purgatory, both of which I enjoyed. There isn't enough from any of the books to spoil them for the first-time reader, though. This is a summary of Bantock's work, not a complete catalog.

There is some biographical information here, mostly covering his career from college through book publication. I was a little put off by parts of it, though. Bantock has certainly been successful as an illustrator, and rightly takes pride in that accomplishment. His pride tends towards smugness, though, not something the reader needs to see.

Still, it's a good coffee table book. It's easy to thumb through, and has material that was not already presented in his other books. It would have been even better with a bit more artwork, or at least a bit less self-congratulatory text.

Thoroughly enjoying to read and view!.......2003-06-25

After reading and loving Bantock's Griffin & Sabine trilogy I stumbled upon this book. I was thrilled to learn background information straight from the author. I loved the trilogy but was left curious about the author and the works of art themselves. I enjoyed seeing his work develop over time and found it interesting to read about how he got started in his professional art career. I also appreciate his candid comments about the publishing industry and that he shared some negative opinions of his work with us-it shows he is not arrogant or an egomaniac!

I loved that the images are laid out chronologically. This book contains a lot of previously published work but that is fine with me-how else would he discuss his works if we could not look at them while reading about them?!? I liked reading what led him to begin working on a certain project or what drew him to continue working with a medium (i.e. designing his own stamps). I liked hearing where he gathers pieces to use in his collages and how he puts his collages together. After reading this book I have an even deeper appreciation for his books and artwork.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this cover-to-cover and delighting in his gorgeous artwork. It is truly inspirational. As a person who is naturally better at writing than making art, I envy Bantock's ability to make such beautiful and thoughtful artwork!

Ok, I know that.......2001-09-28

everyone else LOVED this book. I liked it as well. But I do have his other adult books so many of the illustrations are redundant to me. Also, I find him a bit smug and self-important at times. Most of the illustrations are extremely beautiful, but I disliked the children's books artwork, it seemed to me as if a different, more immature (in the sense of mastery of the craft) artist did those. I would have liked to see more paintings that had not been already published, as this book seems a rehash of his same old stuff.

Fun and engaging work for fans.......2001-08-14

Autobiography written in a very relaxed, informal, and fun style. Excellent use of samples of his work from various times in his career as a great counterpoint to the text. Absolutely recommend this for people who are already fans of his work, and I also recommend it for people who like to learn about the creative process, how a particular artist develops their style and what their inspirations are.

A Marvel.......2001-07-27

I have always been a fan of Nick Bantock. BUt they true beauty of this book is the following: You get to view his art work and the transitions they go through from his college days on. Further he writes all about his art work at the certain time, and why he did what he did. etc... It is an upclose and personal view of this shiny artist. I was very inspired by this book as I ma an artist as well. A MUST GET

Making a Fast Buck and Other English Expressions
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Making a Fast Buck and Other English Expressions
Andrew Niccol
Manufacturer: Sphere Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Drawing | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0722163371

Making a Fast Buck and Other English Expressions
Average customer rating:
Making a Fast Buck and Other English Expressions
Andrew & Woodman, Stephen Niccol
Manufacturer: Sphere Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000R9379U

Amazon.com

A fifth-grade subject of School describes the photographs in the book: "The pictures give a pretty good idea of the class, and how we are, except there's one thing missing. The teacher. She's not in the pictures. And I think she should be.... Sometimes I think he [Nicholas Nixon] takes pictures of people's feelings. Like when they're bored, and talking, or just sitting around, waiting. Or they're excited."

In fact, Nixon's incisive black-and-white portraits of schoolchildren at three Boston-area schools--Cambridge Elementary School, Perkins School for the Blind, and Boston Latin School--are just one part of the collaboration between the photographer and Pulitzer Prize-winning child psychiatrist Robert Coles. A three-part essay by Coles on the state of American schools--exploring the challenges and triumphs of both the students who attend them and the educators who teach there--accompanies the photographs. Taken together, the words and images combine to present a penetrating document of what goes on behind the classroom door. The words of schoolchildren of various ages and from different backgrounds peppered throughout the book add an extra dimension to this unique portrait of the experience of school.

Picture This: Digital and Instant Photography Activities for Early Childhood Learning (1-Off)
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Best Of The New, Best of The Basic

Picture This: Digital and Instant Photography Activities for Early Childhood Learning (1-Off)
Susan Entz , and Sheri Lyn Galarza
Manufacturer: Corwin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Games | Sports & Activities | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Elementary School | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books | General | Reading
Preschool & Kindergarten | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0803968876

Book Description

Fail-proof technology you can bring to the classroom!

Digital images in the classroom create what young children need—instant feedback! Susan Entz and Sheri Lyn Galarza show you how to easily put children at the center of the learning process with a digital camera and simple computer equipment for childcare centers, schools, speech therapists, or early childhoon special education programs.

Picture This shows you how to:

Create personalized lesson plans with digital equipment—fast
Capture the dynamics of classroom growth
Assemble "picture perfect" portfolios for parents and colleagues

Students will thrill to the interactive activities in eight curriculum areas: language, math, science, social studies, drama, emerging literacy, physical development, and sensory exploration . . . capturing it all for added learning. Each area provides sample lesson plans and a checklist to track student progress. This exciting new classroom tool works well for both small and large group activities as well as one-on-one explorations.

It’s a great new gateway into classroom technology.

Customer Reviews:

Best Of The New, Best of The Basic.......2000-04-04

This idea book for early education teachers is rich in suggestions for designing effective and appealing teaching-and-learning activities. Focused on pre-kindergarten, the ideas and activities are easily adaptable to the primary grades, and indeed the book prepares the teacher-reader to extend the methods into a variety of local needs and opportunities. Because the authors involve parents in their teaching suggestions, Picture This will stimulate parents with engaging ideas that can be used at home. Entz and Galarza involve the newest technology, but based on the best basic principles -- teacher and students together in meaningful activities, developing language through dialogue, and developing complex thinking through joyful play and work. A wonderful book!

I Wanna Take Me a Picture: Teaching Photography and Writing to Children

Average customer rating:

Fabulous!
Reading Pictures
Great resource for teachers!

I Wanna Take Me a Picture: Teaching Photography and Writing to Children
Wendy Ewald
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Secret Games: Collaborative Works with Children 1969-1999
Born Into Brothels

Accessories:

philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer
Braun IRT 4020 ThermoScan Ear Thermometer

ASIN: 0807031402

Book Description

Acclaimed photographer Wendy Ewald has worked with children around the world, using photography to enable them to express what they think and feel. I Wanna Take Me a Picture is an accessible and practical guide to getting children involved in photography. It uses basic assignments—self-portraiture, family portraiture, community, and dreams—to teach everything from framing and point of view to how to set up a darkroom and develop film.

"Ms. Ewald was one of the first—and remains the most committed—artists to bring photography into the lives of children who have little else."
—Taylor Holliday, The Wall Street Journal

Customer Reviews:

Fabulous!.......2007-01-04

I absolutely love this book! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The story is captivating, and I find myself lost in the text.

But I did not purchase this book for leisure reading. I was searching for a book that is an instructional guide to photographic projects for children. This book is not written in the step-by-step format I was looking for. I wanted fully layed out lesson plans, etc. But I was not dissappointed. All of the information I needed on conducting photo projects with kids is in this book. It is just more of a story format. A VERY enjoyable story!

Reading Pictures .......2005-02-19

This book is an outstanding guide for the art teacher eager to teach not only creative photography, but how to connect, understand, and tell a story through a picture. This book teaches expression through exercises with video and poetry, how to read a photograph, to have children from different cultures learn from each other from self portrait exercises in the shoes of different ethnicities.
Although I found this to be extremely interesting, this book isn't what I had expected. I am not a teacher, but I have a child interested in photography and since I am not a photographer myself I was looking for a guide for us both to learn and enjoy together. This book, although enjoyable, shows examples for different assignments for more of a class room setting, not a parent and child learning together . Also this is a book with only a couple pages of actual images and more text. I do feel this book is a blessing for teachers who may be looking for a creative and meaningful experience for their students to express themselves through art.

Great resource for teachers!.......2002-09-04

This book guides you through teaching literacy through photography to children, for which Ms. Ewald is well known. It is a fantastic resource for someone who wants to really teach the heart and soul of photography, as well as visual literacy - a great introduction to photography but even a seasoned photographer can learn something new from this book. Ms. Ewald takes you through her curriculum step by step as she would teach her students and gives you the tools and tips to pass it on. This is not a technical "how to" photo book, there are plenty of those out there, this book is truly a gem. I have used Ms. Ewald's book as the basis for my own workshops with children and I now have adults asking me to take the course! I can't say enough great things about it...

Lights, Camera, Action: A Guide to Video Instruction and Production in the Classroom

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Lights, Camera, Action: A Guide to Video Instruction and Production in the Classroom
Bruce Limpus
Manufacturer: Prufrock Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Cinematography | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1882664086

Book Description

As teachers we are all looking for new teaching methods that will give the students a learning experience they will carry with them throughout their lives. Creating video productions is a good teaching method that works, and, in fact, will give the student a learning experience that he or she will never forget.

This comprehensive guide will make you and your students video masters! Imagine your students writing and producing documentaries about historical events, movies that portray short stories they are reading, or commercials that demonstrate persuasive techniques. Lights, Camera, Action! offers practical ideas for incorporating video production into the traditional content of any classroom. The author covers simple projects for first-timers, in-depth documentary projects, community service videos, and much more. Examples of video project ideas for several subject areas are provided.

Video projects give students hands-on learning experiences that can be shared with others. News programs can make your students "campus celebrities" while they learn to incorporate problem solving, research, and reasoning.

For addition information on video projects see Creating History Documentaries.

Book Description

Everything your school needs to become active in the emerging field of TV production can be found in this exciting package. It is loaded with practical information on subjects that range from equipment, copyright considerations, news show production, and videotaping school functions to using video to teach media skills and how to deal with vendors. It also contains 20 ready-to-use elementary school lessons on concepts and careers in television production. Reproducible student handouts and questions, notes to the teacher, and enrichment activities accompany the lessons. Media specialists can use this book as a manual for school television production activities, and classroom teachers will love the student activities and lessons. An entire unit on television can be presented, or the lessons can be used on a weekly basis throughout the school year. Whatever approach is taken, this is a useful addition to any elementary media center's professional collection. Grades K-8.

Corrective photography;: An elementary illustrated textbook on camera swings and how to use them

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Corrective photography;: An elementary illustrated textbook on camera swings and how to use them
Lewis L Kellsey
Manufacturer: L.F. Deardorff
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Art Is Elementary: Teaching Visual Thinking Through Art Concepts

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Valuable resource for art teachers.
I want to buy this book help me find it

Art Is Elementary: Teaching Visual Thinking Through Art Concepts
Ivan Cornia , Charles Stubbs , and Nathan Winter
Manufacturer: G.M. Smith
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Study & Teaching | Reference | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Teaching Art With Books Kids Love: Teaching Art Appreciation, Elements of Art, and Principles of Design With Award-Winning Children's Books
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ASIN: 0879051388

Customer Reviews:

Valuable resource for art teachers........2000-01-07

This book has 206 activities for levels K - 7. Each acitivity teaches visual thinking through an art concept. Each activity is divided into sections on teacher prepartions, suggestions, suggested art activities, alternative art activities, evaluation and other things to consider. I have tried to get extra copies but have so far been unsuccessful.

I want to buy this book help me find it.......1999-09-11

Please help me find this boo

Teaching your children photography: A step-by-step guide

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Teaching your children photography: A step-by-step guide
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Picture Science: Using Digital Photography to Teach Young Children

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Picture Science explores ways to use digital photography to teach science in early childhood settings. This book, illustrated throughout with color photographs by the author, includes sample lessons, games, and other affordable materials created using digital photography-all keyed to early learning science standards.

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501 Ways to Use the Overhead Projector:
Lee Green
Manufacturer: Libraries Unlimited
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This complete guide to producing transparencies for the overhead projector offers hundreds of instructional ideas. Separate chapters describe and illustrate techniques in projector use; transparency design; using realia; handmade, color life, thermographic, and diazo transparencies; mounting, masking, and overlays; storage of finished transparencies; and everything you need to get the most out of an overhead projector.

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When Keisuke wants to have sex with his girlfriend, he fantasizes so hard that a beautiful succubus appears in mid-air and forces Keisuke into sex. Things get even weirder when the succubus splits into two - one good, one evil - and gives Keisuke a hot sex "going over" the likes nobody has ever seen. Does Keisuke ever get to have sex with his girlfriend? And who is that bombshell sex-therapist? Wingding Orgy is a continuous sex-romp that never lets up. Creator Toshiiki Yui gives us a funny and wild ride through a young man's sexual education.

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