Unicorns (are real)!

Ah, if only. Unicorns are definitely a source of magic, though, so it's no wonder picturebooks with unicorns tell tales of adventure. Unicorns lend themselves well to stories of overcoming obstacles and believing in oneself. And today's unicorn selections are no exception!

Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great by Bob Shea is a great place to start. Things are pretty different now that Unicorn has moved into town. No matter what Goat does, Unicorn does it better: Goat bikes to school but Unicorn flies, and Goat can pull a quarter out of your ear, but Unicorn can turn you into gold! No matter what, Goat is left feeling a step behind. So when Unicorn approaches Goat to hang out, Goat is about to decline, until he learns that unicorns aren't without their own set of issues. Bob Shea's whimsical illustrations are full of color and magic: the colors are bright against the predominantly bare backgrounds, and the text lend itself well to being read aloud. The book is inviting from the get-go: the glitter-splattered cover and title page perfectly introduce the foiled personalities of both characters, and not a single spread is under utilized.

Mel's MoMa Visit!

So the theme of this week's post is "books Mel bought at the MoMa when she visited NYC last week." Admittedly, it's not the tightest theme I've ever come up with, but hey, why wait?

First up is Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book) by Julie Falatko and Tim Miller. This book breaks the fourth wall so many times! I've long been in love with existentialism and meta-humor, and Snappsy totally delivers. Poor Snappsy the Alligator just wants to be left alone to shop for his party. But his pesky narrator won't...stop...talking. And following him. And generally being annoying. So Snappsy decides to take things into his own hands. Will Snappsy escape his narrator's all-seeing eye? The brush, ink, and digital illustrations are bordered by a black line to follow the storybook format, as though we're only getting a peek into Snappsy's world from the narrator's point of view. But here's the best part--that border goes away when the narrator shows up in Snappsy's world! Once she reveals herself to Snappsy, the illustrations stretch beyond the borders of the page, no longer contained by the rigid, storybook format. A fantastic touch by Miller. The ending is too abrupt, as though the final illustration should show us something we're not getting from the text (unless I'm missing something?), but the characters are engaging and the story is extra fun to read aloud with the different voices. And the book cover versus the book jacket?! Amazing.

Adventures Under the Water

Today we're talking about water adventures. Because of the nature of how these stories are constructed, they are often the most visually stimulating and have the widest range of imagination. There's infinite room for exploration and design as characters plunge into the depths on their respective bodies of water to explore what lies beneath the surface. I'm super excited to share three books with you today that do just that--create whole worlds under the water and help our heroes uncover new worlds.

We're going to start with the book that inspired this post, Beyond the Pond by Joseph Kuefler. Beyond the Pond tells the story of a boy and his dog who grow bored one day and discover that their local pond has no bottom, creating ample opportunity for the two of them to dive in and explore. Down below they discover all sorts of creatures and treasures, ultimately popping up on the other side to find an entirely new world where they can have fun. The other side is beautiful and filled with tons of adventure like dragons and impossibly tiny creatures, but it's also filled with oversized spiders and angry giants. Adventure waits behind every corner. However, Ernest knows that he can't stay here forever: will things just be the same when he gets home? Kuefler created his illustrations using a combination of digitally enhanced mixed media and photographed textures. The colors balance each other out well--although the nature of the story calls for mostly blues and greens, Kuefler carefully accents bits of each illustration so that every detail stands out in the end, and the lines are crisp and well-defined throughout.

Miniature Sets

This week we're talking about illustrations created from photographing miniature sets. An illustrator creates each piece of the illustration on a stage, from the characters to the landscapes, and then photographs it. And the end result is absolutely stunning.

Butterfly Park by Elly Mackay is a great place to start. Mackay has a great page on her process for creating her illustrations that's very interesting and fun to watch. In Butterfly Park, a girl reluctantly moves from the country to the city, lamenting that she has to leave behind the natural beauty of the country, specifically the butterflies. When the girl sees one in her neighbor's yard, they work together to try to catch it, slowly befriending neighborhood kids along the way. Ultimately the entire neighborhood comes together to build a butterfly paradise next door to the girl's house, making the girl feel welcome and at home. The story is fine, but it's really the illustrations that bring this story to life in a major way.

More Trees

About a year ago I talked about picturebooks centered on French trees. At the time I'd just come across a ton of them, and it seemed appropriate to write about them. I recently bought Britta Teckentrup's Tree, and thought I'd revisit the subject, though this time opening it up a bit.

Depictions of trees in picturebooks can have a range of dynamism—with the changing seasons we get different colors, styles, and interpretations. Today we’ll be talking about Marc Martin’s A Forest, Britta Teckentrup's Tree, Julia Rawlinson’s and Tiphanie Beeke’s Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, and Carin Berger’s The Little Yellow Leaf, all of which showcase a wide range of artistic styles and techniques that reflect the illustrators’ strengths and breadths of technique.

First on today's list is Marc Martin's debut picturebook A Forest. I found this book when I was in the UK for work and the second I saw it I knew I wanted it. You guys, this book is BEAUTIFUL. Although the illustrations are technically mixed media, Martin primarily uses watercolor. And he does it in the exact right way, intensifying destructive moments with dense, heavy brush strokes and then calming things down with sparse, light coloring. A Forest recounts the tale of a nameless forest that's torn down by greedy industrialists and replaced with a city. Nature wins out in the end, essentially drowning the city and washing it away, leaving one tree to eventually turn into a forest. The text is sparse and carefully framed by the illustrations, amplifying the message on each page.

Paris

I'm so, so excited for this week's theme: Paris. This post was inspired by my recent trip to the American Library Association's annual midwinter conference in Boston, during which I found, fell in love with, and acquired Thames & Hudson's upcoming picturebook Paris: Up, Up, and Away. Written and illustrated by Hélène Druvert, the book follows the Eiffel Tower, who becomes bored one day and decides to take an adventure through Paris to explore the many wonders of the city. The the black, white, and lavender-gray illustrations are beautifully simple in design and the text is perfectly sparse, but it's the paper cutouts that make this book unforgettable. There is a paper cutout between each spread of the book, often framing potions of text to emphasize the negative space. The cutouts themselves are unparalleled in beauty and intricacy: every window has a frame, cutouts of the river have waves, every dress and shoe has a distinct pattern. The book is highly interactive as well, inviting readers to locate the Eiffel tower in each spread, sometimes in the cutouts, sometimes in the illustrations. And as if intricate cutouts and beautiful illustrations weren't enough, the endpapers are perfect, inviting you in and then taking you back out (but making you want to come back for more).

Have a look:

Elephants!

And we're back! I know it's been a horrifically long time since I've made any updates here, but that's all about to change.

This week we're starting with elephants and opposites. Has anyone else noticed how many opposites books there are that feature elephants? I suppose it makes sense--elephants are big so there's one given opposite right there. But there's something about elephant opposite books that opens up the illustrations and concept of opposites to a much larger, more sarcastic interpretation.