A Banned Book + Art for stArt

Banned Books Week is September 26 - October 3, and the purpose of this week is to bring attention to the importance of the freedom to read and the harm censorship causes to our society.

I chose a banned book for our stArt project this week. Draw Me a Star by Eric Carle is a fantastic book that celebrates imagination in true Eric Carle style. It is a story about an artist who discovers art and life through drawing.

Cravens Early Childhood Academy, a public school in Texas, banned this book after a teacher brought it to the attention of the administration that the book contains nudity.

In this book, the world is created through drawings. The artist in the book draws a star and the star then tells the artist to draw the sun. Every thing that is drawn then tells the artist to draw something else until another star is drawn and the star and artist travel together across the night sky.

The woman and man drawn by the artist are unclothed. There is nothing offensive about the illustrations, unless you find collage style nudity to be offensive. If you do, then you probably need to relax a bit. Just my opinion!

After reading this book together, we headed to our creation station for some art. I reread the book, one page at a time and C and R drew each object that was requested throughout the book. I drew C's star though. He was getting frustrated and I knew that if I didn't draw the star, he would get upset and refuse to continue the project. I was happy that he drew everything else. R drew everything.

This is R's final product:

This is C's final product:

I love that he drew a nude man. I also love the way his rainbow crosses the sky. Honestly, I love all of the detail in this drawing. He worked very hard to make it just right.

C and R both enjoyed this project. I thought it was a fun way to retell a story.

For more information about Banned Books Week, click here. To learn more about stArt and to see other stArt projects, visit A Mommy's Adventures.