AMHERST - On the spring day that my 3-year-old daughter and I made the drive across central Massachusetts to visit The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, I asked her why she likes books so much.
"Because," she said, "my favorite stories are in them."
She already knew the power of well-illustrated tales, as my wife and I are strong believers in a sentiment I heard many years ago from Ben Muse, proprietor of Parnassus Book Service on Cape Cod.
I was in Muse's shop buying a copy of Margaret Wise Brown's "Goodnight Moon," the first book I would read to Colette's older brother, and Muse told me, in words I can only paraphrase now: Hold him in your lap, hug him and read, and he will learn to love books.
How, though, to capture the magic and optimism of first words and pictures in a museum?
Arriving just before noon, Colette and I grabbed a quick nap in the museum parking lot. It was perfect preparation for entering what would prove to be a masterpiece. The museum's main hallway has high glass windows on one side, playful portraits of color on an opposite white wall. Angles of rooms are sharp and spare. All around us was quiet, and calm. There were no pandering distractions, luring kids with bright lights or flashy video. Only simple whimsies: In a small box for donations, a stuffed version of Carle's "very hungry caterpillar" snuggled beneath the deposited bills.
We headed into a theater for an introductory video. In it, Carle takes blank pieces of paper and slowly draws creatures in vivid color: a rooster, a sea horse, a grouchy ladybug, a caterpillar.
"Slowly," he says, "the page begins to fill up."
He welcomes visitors to the museum, and explains: "You like colors; I like colors. You have ideas, and I have ideas. . . . I want you to be inspired to make your own art."
And, perhaps to remind adults as much as children, Carle says, "The museum is for looking and dreaming."
From a table near the museum's three galleries, Colette picked up a clipboard and sketching paper, then wandered into an exhibit of the works of Arnold Lobel, creator of the Frog and Toad series, and more. (The Lobel exhibit closed June 15. Another, featuring Pat the Bunny, runs through the fall. Other ongoing exhibits feature works by Carle, and a fantastical collection of children's illustration.)
The Lobel exhibit, like his work, appealed to all ages, with studious examples of how he took his creations from early concept to completion. A quotation captured his philosophy: Picture books, Lobel said, are "capable of suggesting everything that is good about feeling well and having positive thoughts about being alive."