Moons

So as these posts often start, this one began with me purchasing two books about moons in the same week, Emma Yarlett's Sidney, Stella and the Moon and Larry Phifer and Danny Popovici's World on a String. There are a few others out there I'll mention in this post, but not surprisingly the art of these books is very rounded rather than angular and each of the books heavily features circles and rounded objects. These curves, of course, are reminiscent of the moon itself and serve to draw attention to the titular character, the moon.

Yarlett's book features two siblings, Sidney and Stella, who do everything together except share. One day they're fighting over a ball, and they lose control as it bounces out the window...and smashes the moon! Together, they have to find a way to replace what they broke. Take a look:

Messy Picturebooks

So there are some picturebooks out there that almost look like journals or scrapbooks created by kids. They look less finished than most picturebooks, almost like someone cut and glued the images and then scanned them really quickly. I'm writing about these books because I've had been collecting them over time, and they're beautiful...but I had no idea what category to put them in until now. After scanning my collection I realized I'd collected enough of them to finally write a post about them, so here it is!

Let's begin with the first one I purchased, The Sun Is Yellow by Kveta Pacovská. An Alice in Wonderland-esque adventure, the book follows a frog and the eclectic friends he meets. I totally found this book by accident, and I have to say it's one of the best purchases I've made. Take a look!

Illustrator Spotlight: Albertine

Have you guys heard of Albertine? She's one of the most fantastic artists EVER (here's the link to her site). She and Germano Zullo (author) are an amazing team and they have come out with some of the most innovative and beautiful picturebooks I've ever seen, and I'm so happy to be talking about them today!

First, a little information on both. Albertine regularly illustrates many French newspapers in Switzerland and teaches at the School of Visual Arts in Geneva. Zullo is a writer and poet who lives in Geneva and writes for children and adults alike. Together, this duo has written several amazing picturebooks that really engage readers and push them to think beyond the limits of the picturebook's borders. Allow me to demonstrate.

Starting with my absolute favorite, Sky High is by far one of my top picturebooks. It details the story of two rivals who insist on building their houses higher than the other person's, causing all sorts of craziness. The two homeowners go to great lengths to outdo each other, bringing in the most expensive architects, furniture, Bengal tigers (oh yes), buttresses, and anything else you can think of. Here's the cover:

Tri-Color Goodness!

Hello party people! Today we discuss...primary colors! There are so many picturebooks that utilize the primary colors, and all of them seem to stand out in their own, unique ways. Using the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) so heavily is an excellent way to drive the eye all around the page, and an equally excellent way to draw attention to special areas whenever two of the colors are combined on the page (forming secondary colors purple, green, and orange). A-divin' in we go!

The first on the list is the amazing, incomparable A Ball For Daisy by Chris Raschka. This beautiful, wordless picturebook recently won a Caldecott Medal in 2012 and even from the cover heavily features primary colors. Take a look!

(note how much the couch stands out since it's a combination of two of the primary colors used, blue and yellow)

Frank Vivas' picturebooks so far almost always use the three primary colors, plus black and white. Along a Long Road, A Trip to the Bottom of the World, and his most recent book A Long Way Away are all perfect examples of just how much the primary colors stand out and draw readers in. You can take a look at all three covers here:

The insides of each book match the primary color look of the covers, and the strong aesthetic similarities between all three give the books a sense of connectedness.

Finally, we have Red Cat, Blue Cat by Jenni Desmond. I'm the first to admit that the story for this picturebook isn't my favorite, but the illustrations are very fun and, like the rest of this post, feature strong primary coloring.

Other lovely books that fall into this category and have been previously discussed are Press Here by Hervé Tullet (click here), The Conquerors by David McKee (here). Another is Little Bird by Germano Zullo and Albertine, but I don't want to say too much since an Albertine post is definitely forthcoming...yay for things to look forward to!

As a side note, with things picking up so much in other aspects of my life, I fear I must resort to posting every other week rather than every week. Hopefully this doesn't drastically alter your week.

See you in two weeks!!

Primarily yours,

Mel

This Week and Next Week

So this weekend I was in a wedding, and next weekend I'm going to Seattle, so there's really just no time for awesome picturebook posting. But I will see you all two weeks from today with a super awesome post just to make up for it.

Have a great two weeks!

Yours,
Mel

Say Cheese!

So I was actually going to post on something totally different this week, but I pushed the post back because I came across a few books this past weekend that must be discussed immediately.

I stopped by The Blue Bunny in Dedham, MA to grab a book for a girl turning 4, and naturally I came across some amazing books. As luck would have it, two of the books I bought were both of a similar aesthetic style, and thus comes this week's topic of photograph illustrations. The depth the illustrations create because of their style really makes you believe you're in the illustration with the characters, making the character's world and story that much more magical.

The first on the list (and possibly my new favorite book ever) is Rebecca Dudley's picturebook debut Hank Finds an Egg. This book took my breath away, and the moment I was done reading I flipped it to the front to read it again. This wordless picturebook follows Hank, a bear-like creature, who finds an egg on the ground. Despite multiple attempts to place the egg back in its nest, he is too short to reach and ends up caring for the egg until it can be returned to its mom. It's a lovely story with breathtaking illustrations that Dudley created by staging the entire story and photographing it. Check it out:

Catch-Up Time!

This week has totally flown by! Unfortunately, I'm totally behind in my posts, and I didn't manage to finish one in time for this week. But guess what that means...

It's catch-up time!

Take a look at some of the past posts and leave a comment below on what topics YOU'D like to hear about!

Enjoy the week!

Mel