Martial art

Carol Nevius (author) 

Bill Thomson (illustrator)

Karate Hour

Marshall Cavendish, 2004

Carol Nevius' couplets take us through an hour-long karate class, beginning with the students' bow. They stretch, practice forms, focus their minds, take turns sparring, chant in unison, and with feelings of pride and accomplishment return to their parents. Bill Thomson's illustrations are superlative (is he, therefore, a martial artist?). Cropped views and extreme angles capture and focus our attention dramatically. To take just one example, the picture of stretching uses extreme fore-shortening to stretch our vision from an enormous foot looming before our mouse-eye view to the distant right foot that the young karate student grasps. The author's note includes more information about the history and practice of karate (not being an expert, I can't comment on accuracy here), but the book, with its photo-realism-style images of kids of different races, shapes, and genders, is clearly focused on American children's experience  of this imported discipline.