Harvey Weiss (2)

Now why can't these kinds of books be made for modern children? The illustrations are ridiculous (yellow movement arrows on orange boards?) and the whole presentation is casual & dated. But there are some terrific ideas in here, especially for children who need something to do by themselves or with one friend (unlike many of these books which seem to think there's a whole schoolyard full of children ready to play together).

I also found a game we're going to play at gatherings - Weiss calls it Similarities." He plays it with pictures cut from magazines; we tested with the cards from the memory game Sherlock; it could be played with the noun cards from either of the games Apples to Apples or In a Pickle. The idea is simply to lay out all the nouns/images on the table in a big loose pile and make associations. First card drawn randomly is, say, a ship's anchor. First player chooses a life-buoy (both of ships). Second player chooses a yellow duck (water). Third, a teddy bear (toys). Next, a piece of chocolate (both brown). Etc. Not competitive, but rather an encouragement to creativity. When the used stack gets tall and the loose pile gets well-picked over, even more creativity is necessary, possibly even cooperation."… (mehr)

I picked up this book, interested in how to explain comics and cartoons to kids. However it is horribly outdated. Even for the time it was published, the cartoons and comic strips it references are very old. Children today won't have these classic comic strips to reference. It serves as a great archive of some of the old strips that often get overlooked in newspapers by younger readers, if they even read newspapers. I would recommend kids read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. While it is for an older audience, I think that younger readers will gain more from it. The dated references speak to the past of the author, Harvey Weiss, a classical artist and art professor. Comics and cartooning are very visible in our internet culture, with many artists making a living doing comics on the web. A more modern approach to the subject is needed to be relevant.… (mehr)