This cleverly designed book about Katsushika Hokusai's The Sazaidō of Gohyakurakanji and James McNeill Whistler's Variations in Flesh Colour and Green - The Balcony, also includes drawing, collage, coloring and press-out activities.

With a presentation that divides the book into two equal parts, A Tale of Two Balconies investigates the elements that make each of these artworks--both in the collection of the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution--unique. Exploring the depicted locations of each (in Edo Japan and Victorian England) enables deeper insight as the authors examine the idea of the balcony itself as a construct at once both private and public - creating a view and juxtaposing the different cultural domains both within and beyond the balcony railing.

This stunning book is double-fronted, so readers can begin reading from either side. A carefully-designed centre section includes immersive creative activities in which readers actively engage with the themes of perspective and recollection through their own art-making activities - collage, drawing, colouring, or building a pop-out Hokusai diorama and Victorian Whistler toy theatre.