What Do You See? A Conversation in Pictures

Two friends mount an ongoing creativity challenge in this collaborative picture book. When “she” takes a photograph of something ordinary that seems ripe with imaginative possibilities, “he” adds economically applied—and often comically inspired—lines and color, turning the photo’s subject into something new, shown in pages that picture the photographs and drawings but never the friends. “She saw a friendly seagull carrying the world on its shoulders,” reads the text on one verso page, accompanied by a photo of a plump, stolid-looking bird. “He saw a friendly monster who had no worries at all” is the recto response, which accompanies an image of the gull’s body transformed into the head of a grinning creature with snaggly teeth. While the varied visuals offer craft-time fun, it’s the friends’ interplay—and how they concur and diverge in their ideas—that makes the concept feel fresh. Even when pals are miles apart in what they see, Saltzberg (We’re All in the Same Boat) and Curtis (Me, Myselfie & I) seem to say, they can appreciate, be tickled by, and connect via a new perspective: “He loved what she saw.... She loved what he would draw.” Back matter invites readers to engage in similar activities. Ages 5–10. (Mar.)