Peter Spier

Peter Spier is a well-known Caldecott artist. There are three of his books that I use annually.

Noah’s Ark. New York: Dragonfly Books, 1977.

Noah’s Ark is the visual retelling of the Biblical story of Noah. The artwork won the Caldecott medal for Peter Spier. His artwork is very detailed and goes beyond the Biblical story. Noah’s Ark by Peter Spier is almost a wordless book – there are very few pages with words. There is so much to look at that a child could be entertained for a long time just looking at the pictures. I see something new every time I look at this picture book.

The Book of Jonah. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1985.

The Book of Jonah is the Biblical story of Jonah retold and illustrated by Peter Spier. It could be the printing process, but the illustrations in the copy I have are not as vibrant as the illustrations of Noah’s Ark. Most pages have just a line or two of text although some have more. The illustrations have a lot of detail, again giving a child much to look at in this picture book.

The Star-Spangled Banner. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1973.

Using the words of our National Anthem, Peter Spier created a picture book which visually shows children the meaning of the words. He illustrates all four verses of the song with detailed drawings of things from around our country and from our country’s history. The book closes with nonfiction notes about the creating of The Star-Spangled Banner, which was written by Francis Scott Key as well as the music and words for all four verses of the song. This is a great picture book to have in your library to celebrate the history of our country.

The Star-Spangled Banner (Reading Rainbow Books), The Book of Jonah, and The Book of Jonah are all available from Amazon.

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