Recently published in board book format, Apple and How to Be A Cat are two beautiful books by Nikki McClure. With a lovely visual story of the life cycle of an apple, McClure draws the reader in by her signature high-contrast paper illustrations. From an apple falling from a tree, to being found, to being taken home, shared, and finally returned to the soil, the apple seed is then shown growing up out of the ground in springtime.

A perfect book for fall and a particularly great book for infants under six months old whose perception of color is still developing.

How To Be A Cat:

When I was in college I had an art class with a professor who told us that you always want to draw the viewer's eye in and out of the page with your artwork. I was reminded of that while looking at McClure's cleverly composed illustration of the two cats stretching as the mommy cat's tail draws us right into the page while the paws draw us out.

How To Be A Cat is such a fun book not only because the paper illustrations seem to perfectly mimic the behaviors of cats, but also because of the book's double page spreads and scale of the illustrations. (Bigger is better when it comes to board book illustrations, in my opinion.)

Two lovely books that I hope everyone will enjoy!