The Mine-O-Saur

(Note: I would really like to post pictures of the books, however, that would be a break in copyright permissions. The only way I can post those images is if they come directly from the book publisher.)

The Mine-O-Saur
By Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and illustrated by David Clark
Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons / Penguin Group 2007

Mine-O-Saur is written with beautiful rhythm and rhyme to tell a story of the Mine-O-Saur. He learns a very important lesson in sharing his toys with other kids at school and ultimately gets the thing he wants most of all.

I love to read this story to my daughter. There is enough dialog in the story that you can play with different voices and make the story come alive. The text is easy to read and flows well. The illustration is a loose, spontaneous watercolor technique with black ink to define edges and add more definition.

It’s fun to study the book layout. Some pages have full spreads and others have spot illustrations. I guess I should define spreads and spots. Spreads are illustrations / pages that cover both the left and the right pages when the book is lying open. Usually the illustration bleeds, or runs off the page. Spot illustrations are usually self contained on the page and do not run to the edge. I love when the title and copyright pages has illustration. I think this is a good place to “set the stage” for the story. Illustrate the surroundings of where the story takes place, or sometimes put a small spot illustration of one of the characters above or below the copyright / title page text.