A library patron told me they loved Oge Mora’s artwork in her picture book Thank You, Omu, so I found her some other picture books whose illustrators used collage: Daniel’s Good Day by Micha Archer; Little Penguins by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Christian Robinson; and The Noisy Puddle by Linda Booth Sweeney, illustrated by Miki Sato. Those are some of my favorites I could recommend off the top of my head. But I knew there had to be many more…

One of the things I love about LibraryThing, where I keep track of all my reading, is that the “Review” field is searchable, so any notes I make become part of my personal reading database. I searched for “collage” to remind myself of art I’d liked, and I did find several more!

• The Story of the Saxophone by Lesa Cline-Ransom, illustrated by James E. Ransome (collage is a particularly brilliant choice for this book because of the way Adolphe Sax pieced together the instrument he created)
• Bryan Collier uses college in many of his picture book illustrations (e.g. All Because You Matter by Tami Charles)
• Golden Threads by Suzanne Del Rizzo and Sunny Days by Deborah Kerbel, both illustrated by Miki Sato
• The Dictionary Story by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston
• Woodpecker Wham! by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Steve Jenkins
• Stalactite & Stalagmite by Drew Beckmeyer
• Everybelly by Thao Lam
• Beansprout by Sarah Lynn Reul
• Saving American Beach by Heidi Tyline King, illustrated by Ekua Holmes (Holmes has illustrated many others, including Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer and The Stuff of Stars)
• Farmhouse by Sophie Blackall

What are your favorite picture books with collage art?

Imagine how a favorite picture book might be completely different if illustrated in another medium. Let’s Be Bees wouldn’t be nearly as effective if Shawn Harris hadn’t used crayon, and Kaya Doi’s Chirri and Chirra books wouldn’t have their delicate charm without those colored pencil illustrations. Do you have another favorite medium – watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, crayon?