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.

Best Picture Books of 2015

Mel-Mel Moves

Hi all!

I'm moving over the next couple of weeks, which means picturebooks are in boxes. But new posts to come soon, and remember to catch up on the posts you've missed!

Have a great fourth of July to those in the States!!

Mel

Illustrator Spotlight: Émilie Vast

I figure since I haven't done a lot of illustrator-specific posts lately so you get two in a row!

Émilie Vast is a French author/illustrator whose books I came across accidentally a few months ago (for the record, between getting the books in my hands and writing about them, almost everything takes at least 2-3 months. Insane, right??). Her work is clean, colorful, and very interactive, beckoning readers to really set aside time to read and play with his books. I currently own two, and French translation aside, I still read them half a dozen times to catch all the details. You can see her site here to check out her full list of picturebooks, but today we're chatting about Océan le noir et les couleurs (Ocean Black and Color) and Il était un arbre (There Was a Tree).

Illustrator Spotlight: William Bee

One of the illustrators I discovered on my little hiatus from a few months ago is William Bee. I read the book Whatever, and it was like a revelation. The perfect combination of wit and intelligence in both his text and illustrations, this book was definitely a game-changer for me. The book tells the story of a boy named Billy who is apathetic about everything his father tries to get him interested in. Until he's no longer in a position to be apathetic...

As someone who tends to struggle with digital illustration and its contribution to the world of children's illustration, I found the drawings to be engaging, colorful, and witty. Take a look at Whatever: