Jelly, Garbage+Toys

Muniz, V. (2017). Jelly, garbage+toys. 115 West 18th Street, New York, New York: ABRAMS the Art of Books. 63 pages, Picture/Nonfiction/Arts, ISBN 978-1-4197-2575-3

Jelly, Garbage+Toys! It is obvious in the title of the book that some of the arts are literally from garbage. Muniz was born in Brazil, and he mentioned at the last part of the book that he never thought he would be an artist because his family were a "working class" in his own words. The book exhibits peculiar artworks that were made out of things that people set off as garbage, or things that people don't use anymore. You will find several artworks that were made from basic trash to artworks that were made possible because of technology and science. It is impressive how he works with scientists to build artwork, and the hard work that they put on to showcase the result.


This art book conceptualized by Vik Muniz is fascinating. Although I am not sure if I would want to use this book for teaching Pre-K and Kindergarten however, it is a great art book for grade level 4-6 maybe. I say this just because the materials for Muniz's arts are not very common for young children. For example, the Mona Lisa artwork he did that was made from peanut butter and Jelly. I also like the fact that Muniz is not one of those academically smart guys in school, but he managed to become successful and achieved his great potential by maximizing the skill that he is good at. I think it is a good principle to teach kids that they should not get discouraged if they are not doing great on some certain things that their friends, or their family expects them to be instead they should keep doing what they feel they are good at and find ways to maximize that talent and skills that they are given.

Reviewed by: Farah E.