All the World

One of my favorite picture books right now is All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon and illustrated by Marla Frazee. It has no shortage of fans, being a Caldecott Honor Book and a New York Times Best Illustrated choice of 2009. 

I could tell you all about the extensive praise that the lyrical text and captivating drawings have received, but instead I am posting a video of Ms. Frazee talking about the joys of illustrating for the child audience.

Any time I have an opportunity to hear an illustrator speak about their artistic inspiration and craftsmanship, I am in awe. These are the people who can bring stories to life.

All the World achieves that perfect union of word and picture, but I would say it takes it one step beyond and Frazee's illustrations tell many tales within the text. It is a beautiful, grand achievement.

Video courtesy of youtube

How to raise a useful baby...

 via McSweeney's

For all the love, affection, joy, blah, blah, blah that Sweet Pea is supposed to provide me - he's not actually going to be of any practical use to me for a while. Or is he? Maybe I'll get him a few of these "Baby, Be of Use" books by Lisa Brown so he can start earning his keep from the get-go (and I think I'll start with this one...).

August

"The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot."

- Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

Image courtesy of TheShutterbugEye

Atsuyo et Akiko + Winnie the Pooh

I know that Lorelei just posted about her love of the classic Winnie the Pooh and the new movie, but I could not resist sharing my own Pooh find. Over on the blog Dilly Dallas I discovered the adorable shop Atsuyo et Akiko and I love what they are doing with the classic honey-loving bear and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. Seriously, aren't those pillows just the cutest?

illustrated nursery

 from "The Laidlaw Reader Primer, First year--First Half"

 by Herman Dressel, M. Madilene Veverka, and May Robbins. 

Illustrated by Mabel B. Hill and Hazel Fraze

via katinthecupboard

I still have a lot to do in terms of putting together an actual nursery nook, but that is not stopping me from finding ideas everywhere. 

For example, I can not get enough of illustrated nurseries and picture book bedrooms. There are so many sweet touches to found (like the fabric chair in the image above or the striped curtains in "Goodnight Moon") that I find inspiring (though I have to be careful not to incorporate all of them and make the baby dizzy with color and pattern!) Here are some of my favorites:

In the bedroom below, I obviously love the view of sail boats outside the window (though I can't make that happen in my house...), but I also love the star ceiling, the little vases of flowers, and the animal shaped chair:

 from "Wonderful Story Book" by Margaret Wise Brown

illustrated by J. P. Miller via try-whistling-this

"Yes" and "please" to a patterned wallpaper, touches of the lightest, whitest blue, and a beautifully stenciled dresser:

via miriana (via This are a few of my favourite things...)

I think the  following picture confirms that I'm a sucker for sailboats and rocking horses and toy drums:

"The Indoor Noisy Book" by Margaret Wise Brown

illustrated by Leonard Weisgard via krakencrafts

Aside from the presence of the toys mentioned above, I love this image for the huge open window (and view!), the packed mini-bookcase, the kid-size table, and the yellow. I do have a soft spot for some well-used yellow:

"Words" by Selma Lola Chambers

illustrated by Gertrude Elliott via try-whistling-this

Pooh

Image courtesy logoi.com

This Friday, "Winnie the Pooh" is back on the big screen. There is something sweet and lovely always about that 'silly old bear'. I do appreciate Disney's adaptation of the Milne stories (especially the fact they are respectful of the pacing and tender whimsy of the literary version), but I am a fanatic admirer of the E.H. Shepard illustrations.

The Shepard line drawings capture childhood imaginings and all of their gentle silliness, kindness and wonder. They are truly classic and, in my opinion, among the very best in children's book art.

Image courtesy of fortunecity
 

Image courtesy of BibliOdyssey

Image courtesy of BibliOdyssey

Image courtesy of childillustration.blogspot.com

 The following illustration is my favorite:

" He nodded and went out ...and in a moment I heard Winnie-the-Pooh
– bump, bump, bump – going up the stairs behind him."

"This original illustration is reproduced on page 159 of Winnie-the-Pooh and comprises a full-page illustration in the published volume. It represents one of the iconic images of Winnie-the-Pooh and comes from the final chapter in which Christopher Robin gives a Pooh party, and we say good-bye. " 

Image courtesy of BibliOdyssey

So many Alices

Burton's Alice from tengossip.com

On March 5th, Tim Burton is set to release his vision of Alice in Wonderland here in the states. I feel as though the buzz surrounding this film is near deafening and I'm very curious about the finished project. When I saw the first still shots and press from the movie I remember thinking it was an interesting choice for Alice. Later, I realized that is because I have an image of "Alice" that has everything to do with long blond hair and a blue dress and for some reason anything that deviates from this seems odd. I'm a little ashamed to admit that is probably because I was first exposed to Disney's Alice and that is the image that stuck (despite reading numerous beautifully illustrated versions of the tale), but really there are so many Alices out there. Lewis Carroll's story, first widely published in 1865, has inspired illustrators, animators, photographers, and film makers for well over a century. Burton is certainly not the first to put forth his version of our gal and her Wonderland and, undoubtedly, he won't be the last....

John Tenniel's illustration from the 1st ed. Alice in Wonderland

Arthur Rackham's Alice and the Pack of Cards courtesy of art.com

Alice in Wonderland No 10 by Vladimir Clavijo-Telepnev

Mabel Lucie Attwell's "Oh Dear! Oh Dear! I shall be too late!" courtesy of childillustration.blogspot.com

Jessie Wilcox-Smith illustration courtesy of the-office.com

Disney's Alice in Wonderland courtesy of google.com

Lisbeth Zwerger's Alice in Wonderland courtesy of everypicture.com

Looking Glass 6 by Elena Kalis courtesy of google.com

Annie Leibovtz's Alice courtesy of fanpop.com

Image courtesy of thequeenbea.wordpress.com

Burton's Alice courtesy of fanpop.com

"Grown Up and Done For"

via la douleur exquise

Just in time for all of the graduates out there is this great commencement speech by Harvard scholar Maria Tatar who makes great use of children's literature (especially "Peter Pan") to talk about the experience of growing up and really entering the adult world (it's not very long so read it on The Harvard Crimson website).

Book-A-Day

Last month I stumbled upon perhaps the handiest blog ever for Children's Literature enthusiasts or really anybody looking for a great book recommendation for kids. Anita Silvey's Children's Book-A-Day Almanac is a spot for daily essays on classic and contemporary children's literature.

If you are unfamiliar with Silvey, you may not realize what a resource this is, but if you are acquainted with the work of the once VP at Houghton-Mifflin Publishing and Editor-in-Chief at The Horn Book Magazine, then you are jazzed :). Either way, the children's book almanac is a treasure trove of information on everything from picture books to young adult literature delivered one day at a time.

Silvey only launched the blog back in October, so she is just getting started. I started visiting the site daily last month and I am already coming away with loads of interesting information and titles to check out.

If you, or one of the smaller folks in your life, is looking for a summer reading resource...this is the spot!

E.L. Konigsburg

Image courtesy of tales of a bookworm.com

Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her back. She didn't like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere. To a large place, a comfortable place, and indoor place, and preferably a beautiful place. And that's why she decided upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.-From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg

In fifth grade we had to keep track of our "recreational reading" with an ongoing book list. Every month or so we talked about one of the books on this list to the class. Looking back, I think my fifth grade teacher was very smart to have this type of peer suggestion, because sometimes a classmate's recommendation carries more weight than those of a teacher or parent (particularly at that age).

Anyhow, I was nerdy competitive and read A LOT, not only because I enjoyed it, but because I wanted the longest list of course. Sometimes I would just zoom through a book without really taking much away, but other times it was as if I lived between the pages. When I read E.L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, it was definitely one of those living in the book times. I remember because I spent one whole recess going on and on about it to my teacher as she tried to monitor the playground and listen to me. I had to be gently reminded my time was up when I talked to the class about the book during my recreational reading recommendation presentation. This story about a sister and brother who run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and become entwined in a caper that revolves around the mystery of a statue and a peculiar old woman was probably the best book I had ever read- I am sure I touted it as such - and I think it held that title for me for a really long time.

When I graduated from college, I returned home for the summer to figure out what the heck I was going to do next. One day in May, I received a package in the mail from my fifth grade teacher with a graduation card and a copy of The View from Saturday, an E.L.Konigsburg book that had just been published. I read it immediately.

I then spent the better part of a morning telling my mother, a middle school English teacher, about it and how fantastic it was and how she should tell her class about it. I also realized that of all the classes I had taken, all the subjects I had touched upon in the last four years, there were few things as exciting and interesting to me as children's books- everything from picture books to the young adult novels. With degrees in English and Studio Art, I think I had been circling this field without even knowing it and that summer I looked into graduate programs in Children's Literature. I figure I have a couple of Konigsburg books and my fifth grade teacher to thank for the best career decision I ever made.

Ms. Konigsburg became fascinating to me because of the books that were products of her imagination. Even as I read about her online before writing this post I was impressed and once again enchanted by the excerpts I came across from her work. She has two Newbery Medals (one for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and the other for The View from Saturday) and a Newbery Honor (for Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth) under her belt. She is one of the few authors out there who can so deftly write of the humor, complexity, and curiosity of middle grade children as they struggle to define, and grow into, themselves. She is definitely someone whose work should be celebrated this Children's Book Week.

"The Nutshell Library" collection

One of my favorite children's book collections is the "Nutshell Library" originally published in the 1960s by Harper & Row. Each set includes 4 nutshell-sized (3.9 x 1.8 inch) picture books that were illustrated by one of 3 masters of children's picture book art: Sendak, Knight, and Kraus.

Maurice Sendak's "Nutshell Library" was published in 1962:

via biblio.com

Hilary Knight's "Christmas Nutshell Library" was published in 1963:

via Page Books

Robert Kraus's "The Bunny's Nutshell Library" came out in 1965:

via Rara* Avis Studios

Sadly, only Sendak's "library" is still in print, but if you see any of these sets or even any of the books individually - buy them up! (especially if you find Knight's collection WITH book jackets on the cheap. It is one of the things that, like Lorelei, I am always desperately seeking). These are all beautiful books and the mini-ness of the format just makes them that much more lovely to behold as well as hold.

from Sendak's "Pierre" (via Little Lamb Books)

from Knight's "A Christmas Stocking Story"

(via Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves)

from Kraus's "The Silver Dandelion" (via Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves)

there are no words

Image from The Snowman courtesy of childrensbookalmanac.com

The wordless picture book is really nothing short of a triumph in communication. It conveys a narrative through illustration, inviting readers (or lookers in this case) to visit the story again and again, to imagine and re-imagine the tale. A successful wordless picture book is an impressive piece of art and an inventive mode of storytelling.

Images of Wave courtesy of babyology.com.au and kimprint.wordpress.com

Images of Rain courtesy of loveforbooks.blogspot.com

There are wordless storybooks in most libraries, but if I had to choose ten favorites- this would be the list I would suggest every library have available (see Mae's post on Wave here). Check them out!

The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog by Mercer Mayer
Sunshine by Jean Ormerod
Rain by Peter Spier
Wave by Suzy Lee
The Red Book by Barbara Lehman
Flotsam by David Weisner
Time Flies by Eric Rohmann
The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher by Molly Bang
Chalk by Bill Thomson

 Images of Chalk courtesy of Tunix Events and hartford.edu

Images of Flotsam courtesy of amazon.com