“Have you ever sped past in such a hurry that everything you passed was soft and blurry? And did you ever squeeze your eyes so tight that you saw lots of dots of colored light?”
A book about how children see things, their unique perspectives and their perceptions. Partly because all of it is new to them, they take things in differently than adults, seeing them close-up, noting details and nuances, realizing that things look tiny from above. Do you remember the first time you noticed that things looked backward in a mirror?
Your experience of seeing something for the first time leads to wondering, feeling, learning. The visual experiences you have as a child stay with you and their memories surface at random times during your life. They also become part of your concrete experiences and the prior knowledge that you build upon when learning new concepts in school. But they always become a part of who you are, and how you make sense of this big, wide world.
Joanna Walsh’s thoughtful questions and modern illustrations of simple pattern, texture and color speak to children’s sensibilities. She reminds us to stop, look up, look around, look down, and see the world, observe it, experience it, consider a new perspective of it and remember the wonder of it—whether you’re a child or a grown-up.
Did You Ever See? was written and illustrated by Joanna Walsh and published by Tate Publishing.