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

Illustrator Spotlight: Peter Brown

I can't imagine there's anyone out there who doesn't know about Peter Brown. He has quite the menagerie of amazing books out, and his most recent one Mr. Tiger Goes Wild is so fabulous that I'd definitely peg it as a future Caldecott winner. He has a unique geometric style to his illustrations that's incredibly engaging, and his compositions and use of color make his illustrations pop right off the page. Check out some spreads!

Tapping and Pressing

Good morning, my fellow picturebook lovers! This post is going to be a wee short, but that's because there's such a small selection of books that actually fit into today's topic of books that you "press" and "tap."

It started in 2011 with Press Here by Hervé Tullet, and just this past August Christine Matheson published Tap the Magic Tree. These two books ask readers to tap illustrations, shake the book, clap, and blow kisses at the book, among other gestures, in order for the story to move forward. It's a really unique idea that hasn't been experimented with too much yet, so it's very fresh and fun. Press Here begins with a simple yellow dot and a set of instructions to press the yellow dot and turn the page, turning the one dot into two. As the book goes on and the instructions continue, the dot multiplies, changes direction, grows, shrinks, and overlaps with other colored dots to create a beautiful menagerie of overlapping colors.

Anthologies

Welcome to September, web-o-sphere! Today's we are discussing picturebook anthologies.

One of the most notable anthologies is Shaun Tan's Tales From Outer Suburbia. It's a lovely compilation of tales written and illustrated by Tan that have an outlying theme of enigmatic suburbia--what goes on behind closed doors, how outsiders might view suburban culture--and an underlying feeling of nostalgia and sadness. Tan also has an anthology called The Lost Thing (with "The Red Tree," "The Lost Thing," and "The Rabbits"), and he recently came out with an illustrated anthology of his drawings called The Bird King. Both are equally beautiful and imaginative as Tales, and do an amazing job of capturing and portraying an outsider's view on foreign culture. Here are a couple spreads from each: