The Little Factory of Illustration

The “Artful Sketcher,” a tiny figure in a pointy hat, leads readers on a tour of the Little Factory of Illustration, which (as an endnote explains) is “the cousin of the Workshop of Potential Literature, a group that included Marcel Duchamp and Italo Calvino.” In each area of the factory, the Artful Sketcher introduces employees that include Miss Line, who “covers sheets of paper with lines and strokes going in every direction,” and Doodler, whose head resembles a hand with fingers dipped in paint. Saint-Val invites readers to contribute their own artwork to the pages through various art projects: when visiting the “Collage Team,” children can collage magazine cutouts onto the coat of the Artful Sketcher’s “larger-than-life friend, Raga Man.” Though the pages may quickly fill up with drawings, the ideas introduced can easily lead to outside art-making. Ages 5–9. (Oct.)