Guide Rating -

Eileen Christelow is the author and illustrator of many fun titles for kids. In this book, What Do Illustrators Do?, she takes kids step-by-step through the illustrating process. You can follow along as two artists illustrate the story Jack and The Beanstalk.

A cat named Leonard and dog named Scooter guide you from page to page as their owners, the artists, go through the process of illustrating a book. Leonard and Scooter carry on helpful, comic book style conversations throughout this book. They discuss and help demonstrate many of the techniques discussed.

Leonard and Scooter are worried at first when they find out their owners are both illustrating the same story. It doesn't take long before their minds are put to rest as they bounce back and forth and realize how the artist's style and the techniques used make each version very unique. Once the artists find out they are both illustrating Jack and The Beanstalk, they compare different styles and discuss which techniques they want to use.

This book does a good job explaining the steps the artists go through. There is enough detail for kids to understand the concepts, but not too much detail that kids would loose interest in the story. Eileen Christelow does a great job demonstrating the various steps using Leonard and Scooter.

This is a great educational book because kids will enjoy the story so much they will never suspect they are learning something! Kids should easily be able to follow along with this story, and it may very well inspire them to try illustrating their own book. If they are interesting in writing their own story, you might want to check out one of Eileen Christelow's other books, What Do Authors Do?