BookKids: Art of the Book with Jon Klassen

“There’s a lot of talk about how do you get kids to read, but I think you can get at them just by getting them interested in storytelling generally, in whatever format that takes, whether it’s film or art…” – Jon Klassen

Last fall, we had the pleasure of hosting Jon Klassen in partnership with the Blanton Museum as part of our Art of the Book series! Children’s Programming Director Meghan Goel has written about the series for Publisher’s Weekly, and we published a Q&A a while back with museum educators Sabrina Phillips and Monique O’Neal (part 1 and part 2).

This partnership offers fascinating opportunities to connect authors and illustrators with young students outside of the classroom. We bring them to the museum and explore the galleries together, asking questions and engaging with the art pieces and with the space itself. As part of this series, we’ve hosted Armand Baltazar, Javaka Steptoe, Eugene Yelchin and M.T. Anderson, and most recently, Jon Klassen, whose picture books have delighted readers of all ages and across all interests. We appreciate The Globe and Mail’s succinct review of his Hat series: “The most epic trilogy since Lord of the Rings.” We agree.

A huge thank you to the Blanton and to Klassen for spending the day with us. Enjoy the video below!