Imagine for a moment that you bring together twenty or so children's book illustrators and ask them to explain in words and pictures: "What gives flight to an artist's imagination?" This is exactly what Wings of an Artist does. The result is a rich mosaic of exquisite illustrations and writing that are both inspired and inspiring.

In the oversized pages, Leo and Diane Dillon discuss how they created a new version of Mother Goose. (They gave her a flying machine so she could "soar amongst the clouds with her beloved geese to faraway lands with new tales to tell.")

Maurice Sendak talks about doodling. It is, he writes, "an excellent exercise for stirring up the unconscious, just as you would stir up some mysterious soup all the while hoping it tastes good."

In prose and pictures, David Catrow relates to the reader his confrontation with his first editor—his first-grade art teacher. And Graeme Base "shows off" a shimmering illustration of Finny, Pearl, and Bert, three undersea characters from The Sign of the Seahorse.

The book concludes with "Invitations to Fly," eleven well-thought-out and enriching activities.

The classroom uses for this book are countless. In one third grade classroom we read aloud from the book then discussed how the various artists used line, shape, and even color to create certain feelings in the reader. In a second grade classroom we compared and contrasted two different artists. We then did an in-depth "author/illustrator study" of Maurice Sendak.