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I found this thick tome (175 pages!) a while ago at one of my favourite charity sales where they have a whole container (as in back of a truck) of books. You never know what you're going to get - and this is what I got.
Its full of lovely illustrations by Alan Howard who I had not heard of before. Not much out there on the internets about him unfortunately :( There are about 8 colour plates and almost every other song/rhyme has a gorgeous ink drawing to go with it. Looking through flickr I found this image which is also in this book.
One day when I have more time I'll photograph a few more illustrations from this lovely lucky find :)
I found this just last week - for 20p ... TWENTY PENCE! - at a local charity shop. Haven't had much luck with childrens' books at charity shops lately but this was quite the find. Had never heard of it or the illustrator- but oh my it is so delicious!
Based on a story written for children by famous German writer Goethe; told by Laurence Collinson and illustrated by Keiichi Tanaami. Beautifully painted in true late 60s style. I looked up Keiichi Tanaami, but the wikipedia entry doesn't list this book so I don't know if it was by the same man - and I can barely find any other mention of this book anywhere apart from some Australian library catalogues. Image searches also yield nothing ... a little treasure for myself me thinks :)
A quite recent find and in really good condition ... This is fairly simple (illustration that is) - and absolutely adorable in its simplicity. Although if you Google image search Jan Balet, you'll find a plethora of other work, including this lovely multicoloured version of this same book. The drawings (although I seem to have not included the best of them) are quite entertating too - you can see what I mean from the mother and crying child. The text is great as well - and its really nice to find an illustrator/writer combo in one person like that.
I first came across Celestino Piatti back in April whilst looking for Italian illustrators that I could look up on our trip to Milan for the design festival. Piatti is infact Swiss, but it didn't stop me squeeling with delight when I came across his work - wish I could draw like that... and squeeling even more when I finally got my hands on a copy of "The Happy Owls" ...
Its the story of two little owls who are asked by the local barnyard fowl why they never quarrel. And so they proceed to tell the barnyard birds all about the things that make them happy with the changing seasons ... oh my God SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Can I just say - that is pretty much Sunshine and I ... we ARE the happy owls. And you can often find me reading this to myself and hugging the book whenever I need a little cheering up.
Squeeeee :)
I've been collecting illustrated children's books for a while and thought it would be nice to catalog them here. This lovely charity shop find is by one of my favourite illustrators, Tomi Ungerer. He has such a soft loose style and a gorgeous sense of colour ... mmm... makes me smile lots :)
