Unboxing Imagination: Books about Cardboard to Spark Creativity

Inspired by the At Home Art Studio’s exploration of cardboard boxes and found object art, I wanted to highlight a few favorite books in The Carle Bookshop that use cardboard boxes in clever and imaginative ways.

The Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell (Knopf, 2018) is a graphic novel perfect for elementary and middle school readers. Through a compilation of interweaving stories, each focusing on a different kid in the neighborhood, the characters transform ordinary cardboard boxes into imaginative costumes and a fantastical collaborative kingdom. Each story explores a diverse set of identity issues, such as gender roles, family issues, sibling rivalry, and bullying, as the kids learn to celebrate their true selves through imaginative play. One girl’s character, dubbed Big Banshee, questions her inner strength and loudness when her grandmother tells her girls shouldn’t be loud. The Gargoyle stays up late to watchfully protect his mom from his no-good dad. The Robot learns how to navigate difficult social situations like a party successfully. This book touches on important identity issues in a beautiful, embracing way, while being action-packed and 100% fuel for the reader’s imagination. 

Through poetic text by Sara O’Leary and stunning watercolor and gouache illustrations by Julie Morstad, anything is possible in This is Sadie (Tundra Books, 2015). Sadie is a child with an enormous imagination. She transforms a simple cardboard box into a giant ship to sail the wide sea and allows her mind to take her to magical and wild places. Sadie’s confidence is inspiring and contagious. “Sadie has wings, of course. They are just very, very hard to see. Still she knows they are there. Maybe you have them too. Have you checked?” While Sadie keeps herself independently busy with her stories and daydreams, she inspires us to welcome a bit more play into our everyday lives.

The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clark, illustrated by Van Thanh Rudd (Candlewick Press, 2016) introduces us to three siblings whose pride and joy is their homemade bike. They’ve created this bike from materials found around their village like “bashed tin can handles and wood-cut wheels.” The bike may be a bit wonky or shaky but they have the best time riding it all over their village and the nearby desert, much to their fed-up mom’s dismay. The exuberant illustrations are made from acrylic paint on recycled cardboard, showcasing packing tape, torn edges, and stamped imprints from the original boxes alongside the painted scenes, lending a unique texture and movement to the art. Just like the patchwork bike loved by these children, these illustrations highlight the beauty in creating art from found objects and the pride that comes from showing what you can make with limited resources.