Lali's Feather and Hotel du Nord (Little Dürer)

Featured Book: Lali's Feather by Farhana Zia and illustrated by Stephanie Fizer Coleman
Featured Artwork: Hotel du Nord (Little Dürer) (c. 1950) by Joseph Cornell

In Lali's Feather written by Farhana Zia and illustrated by Stephanie Fizer Coleman, Lali finds a feather in the fields and looks for its owner. Her bird friends all reject it, claiming that their feathers are better. But when they see all the fun things Lali can do with it, they begin to see beyond their first impressions and recognize how special her feather really is.

Artist Joseph Cornell (American, 1903–1972) gathered inspiration from found materials in New York City thrift shops to create assemblage, artwork made by assembling found objects into a composition. At first glance, Hotel du Nord (Little Dürer) may appear to be a box of random objects, but if you look closely, Cornell created a special world of some of his favorite subjects. He loved art history and astronomy and included two reproductions of works by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, who collaborated to create the first printed star map in Europe.

Inspired by Lali's Feather and Cornell's Hotel du Nord (Little Dürer), find discarded materials around your home and explore the possibilities of transforming these objects into a work of art.

If you don’t have access to the featured book, select something similar from your child’s book shelf or your local library. Many of the books are also available as read-aloud videos online.