At a glance
■ “Ohio: The Start of it All” continues through Oct. 14 at the Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery, 77 S. High St. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays (until 8 p.m. Thursdays), 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Call 614-644-9624, or visit www.riffegallery.org. for chewing gum filed by Mount Vernon dentist William Finley Semple.
One of the best connecting stories stems from Jez Tuya’s illustration “Silent Applause” from the book “The William Hoy Story” (2015). Hoy, from Houcktown, Ohio, was a baseball player who had suffered meningitis as a child, leaving him deaf and mute. He’s credited with coming up with baseball’s hand signals so he could understand the umpire’s calls and prepare for the next pitch. The illustration shows him smiling, with his hand raised, standing in front of a crowd of fans.
The three-dimensional prototype and the finished page from Matthew Reinhart’s “DC Super Heroes: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book” (2010), in clear cases, link the book to former Cleveland residents Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the teenage creators of Superman.
The exhibit is childfriendly, including offering an activity area where visitors can make their own illustrations with thumbprints.
But the quality of the illustrations and the often-quirky information provided in the panels offer appeal for all ages, especially adults who might be inclined to dismiss the notion of looking at art from children’s books.