Come Join the Party!

Le Cheval Bleu, illustrated by Lucile Butel, 1963


Laura has just celebrated her first anniversary over at the animalarium.
I've found a few four-legged friends to join in the birthday fun.
Go say Hi from me, she has one of the most inspiring blogs I've ever come across, and she's also giving away this beautiful book by Sebastiano Ranchetti.

Moustache a disparu, S.Reit & E. Blegvad, 1966

La maison magique, Margaret Wise Brown & J.P. Miller, 1962

La famille éléphant, C. Nicolas, 1965

Un jour dans la forêt, Luce Andrée Lagarde, 1984

La tortue pattue, trapue, ventrue, barbue, Jacqueline Held & Philippe Joudiou, 1971

F is for Fox

Augustina Foxiewicz - Grand Ole Bestiary

If you love foxes as much as I do and think you have what it takes to design a creature like no other for the next issue of Uppercase magazine, run, run, run to their site NOW. Janine is accepting submissions for a Gallery of Foxes, but the closing date is this Friday, 19th February.

Fox trot

I do love this bright and cheerful fox by US designer and illustrator Ty Wilkins.
For more foxy goodness run quickly over here.

Morning Coffee and Ursonate

I came across this film animation over at Animalarium's yesterday morning and I can't seem to get it out of my mind. Ursonate, based on Kurt Schwitters' Dadaist sound poem of the same name, is the work of the very talented French/Italian filmmaker Lisa Paclet. This bird conversation was officially selected for the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2004. My kids love it!

A bit of this and that - part 1

Beautiful Portuguese children's book Quando eu nasci by Isabel Minhos Martins and Madelena Matoso from the lovely Planeta Tangerina via The Animalarium and The Apple and the Egg

I spent some time catching up with my favourite blogs this weekend. I've also discovered some new, inspiring sites, which I'll be adding to my blogroll. Lots of things caught my eye, too many too show at once, so here's my first selection, including some great book links for you to explore. Click-away and enjoy!

For French readers and Russophiles, French publishers L'Ouvroir Humoir have just published the first French edition of "The Luggage" (Bagadj - 1927) a creative collaboration between Soviet children's poet, author and translator Samuel Marshak (1887-1964) and Soviet illustrator, painter and graphic artist Vladimir Lebedev (1891-1967).



If you're interested in Russian children's literature and illustration and love this particular use of contrast, space, shapes and typography, marrying text and image so perfectly, French publishing house MeMo, published a wonderful collection of four stories by Marshak and Lebedev ( "The Circus", "Icecream", "How the Plane made the Plane" and "Yesterday and Today - 1925-1927) entitled "Quand la poésie jonglait avec l'image" in 2005. Both titles (in French) are available here.



I found these books via the ever-informative Ribambelles & Ribambins. See also Animalarium's excellent article on Lebedev and Marie Desplechin's readers' notes (in French) for "Quand la poésie jonglait avec l'image".

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I love this book cover designed by David Wardle, co-founder of Bold & Noble, who runs a company specialising in design, illustration and typography for publishing.



His Agathe Christie book covers are equally as striking and can be found on Bold & Noble's blog.

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I can't wait to buy a copy of this little gem, bound to please young and old alike. Alphabeasties and other amazing types illustrated and designed by Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss of Werner Design Works (Blue Apple Books) was published in July and is already out-of-stock (second printing in the works).

Blocky or small. Thick or tall.
Roundish, slope-y, fancy or dopey.
Letters look different in all different places.
That's because they have different typefaces.

Found via the Uppercase Gallery

You should also pay a visit to Nate Williams' new Letter Playground , a nice space to explore letter forms, and if you're feeling creative and ready for a graphic challenge, use Hazel Terry's find over at The Art Room Plant to shape faces and people from letters. I'm sure your kids will love it!