What does "opens to" mean in this sentence?

Question

I've come across the expression "opens to" in an article from the New York Times:

In the transcendent wordless picture book “Lines,” Suzy Lee (“Wave,” “Shadow”) uses her pencil to draw the reader into layers of her imagination. The book opens to a drawing of a blank page, with only a pencil and eraser. From there, we follow a lone, red-capped ice skater who glides on an expanse of white ice, her skates creating a trailing line behind here.

And I found a similar expression here:

...there are some funny, insightful moments – it opens to her describing a dream, in which she gives birth to herself, to her friend...

Does "opens to" mean "opens with" or "begins with" in these two examples?

Answer 1

Disclaimer
This may sound very confusing, but I'm finding it hard to put it into words. You could argue that they could be used interchangeably, but I leave that to you.

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Roughly, yes.

When you use the usage 'opens to', in contexts involving books or movies (or even plays), you could literally take the phrase as you read it. A book opens, a play or a movie starts. As you mentioned, 'opens with' and 'opens to' implies the same thing - "to starts with" or "begins with".

However, there are subtle differences between 'opens to' and 'opens with'. Let me explain this with a few examples.

"The book opens to a scenic village in western Europe, the comforting warmth of a mid-summer breeze..."

Here, 'opens to', gives the reader a feeling that he/ she is transported from where he/ she was, to the places within in the story.

"The movie opens with the scream of a little girl, who is nowhere to be seen, but can distinctly be heard, echoing through the hollow corridors of the old school..."

Here, 'opens with' illustrates a situation, or an event.

Although very subtle, it may be used differently.