Two brothers, Morris and Boris, live together in an isolated valley with their chickens, cows and goats. At this point, the story could go in a number of directions, but The Tale of Two Brothers is a children’s book and not a headline in a newspaper. The story follows the usual fable-strewn path, with a fate-sealing quest, a charmed wood full of strange, watchful creatures, and of course, the moral, delivered upon the brothers in the form of fleshy retribution, or reward, depending on the situation. Each brother has a hump on his back, and are in all ways very similar, with one exception: Morris is kind and benevolent, and Boris is a bastard. I think you know where this is going…
Brothers in Humps
Picks & Tweets from the Illustrated Word
Subversive Bull
Slight name change as I cannot be relied upon to post these things every week. Also, my twitter account, the Illustrated Word, covers books, illustration, and other assorted visual ephemera, so this title is more apropos, if not a shameless plug for my Twitter site.
Now, onto the news…
Jon Klassen wins the Governor General’s Award for Illustration with Cats’ Night Out. Congrats! Hope to see you in my blog soon…
From Laura Coffey (via Richard Helm), the nine most subversive kids’ books, including Ferdinand, the ultimate pacifist. Really? Ferdinand? What about Gandhi’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Hunger Strike?
From the BibliOdyssey blog (via Round my Skull): “There can never be too many Cephalopods.” My thoughts exactly.
Also from Round My Skull (such a great resource): The 1920s Spanish ‘Pinocchio’ with illustrations by Salvador Bartolozzi. Kinda whacked…kinda love it.
From the Caustic Cover Critic blog (a big favourite), Ray Fenwick’s Artist books. Really lovely.
11 Of Tim Burton’s Weirdest Christmas Images from the new book The Art of Tim Burton. Weird images? What a surprise.
The Zoomorphic Artography of Fernando Vicente. Stunningly beautiful & exceptionally strange. From the Big Think blog.
From the Daily Heller, the most inventive (and witty) shopping bags in the world.
Next post: My humps, my humps, my lovely book of humps.
Marie-Louise Gay, Artist of Bright
The late autumn palette is a subdued mix of earth tones, cross-hatched by the black and grey spikes of defoliated branches. On a good day, it’s like a breathtaking Wyeth canvas stretched across the low horizon. On a bad day, it feels as if all the colour has drained from the world. Wandering around this blanched landscape the other day, thinking about my next post, one thing came to mind (OK, two things, but anti-depressants require a prescription): I needed to immerse myself in something juicy and colourful, like the newest book by Marie-Louise Gay, Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth, for instance. Imagine your computer screen in the dim setting, just before sleep mode. Now imagine tapping a key. Suddenly, the screen is infused with light and colour. To view the art of Marie-Louise Gay is like someone tapping us out of some dimmed state of consciousness into a bejeweled and bewitched landscape.
She is the cure for dull.
Picks & Tweets: the week in books
Woopsy Daisy
Well, that’s it. Halloween is over, a thousand fun-size Mars Bars have mysteriously disappeared, and in a few short weeks, this blog will deliver the first of many Christmas posts. However, before a major snowfall covers up the drab end of autumn and Seasonal Affective Disorder settles in for good, here are a few bright lights from the World of Illustration:
Just out, the New York Time’s Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2010~Congrats to 32 Pages favourites Peter Brown & Peter McCarty~ The 100 Scope Notes blog has a terrific review of Peter Brown’s Children Make Terrible Pets, which you can read here.
From Groundwood Books, Marie Louise Gay’s brand new website! This amazing Canadian illustrator has long been one of my visual heroes. Can’t wait to write something about her. Perhaps sooner than later…
Arnold Böcklinorama: The story behind “Isle of the Dead,” one of the most widely hung and reproduced pictures of the late 19th century. Love the original, but Michael Sowa’s homage is simply hilarious.
A 1945 Picture History of Britain, from The Age of Uncertainty blog. I’m a big fan of that retro stuff. For some similar retro visuals, have a look at my review of Charley Parker: An Illustrated Life.
From the Inspiration Blog, a really cool (and inspiring) German illustrator~Christian Lindemann.
Nice article about David Wiesner~Illustrator of many fabulous children’s picture books, some of which will be reviewed in this blog. On a Tuesday.
Next Post: Something bright, colourful, and Gay.
Bear Country
A black bear on a quest for food, in preparation for hibernation. I know the feeling. I realize we evolved from apes, but sometimes I think my genetic lineage has more in common with Ursa Major than Simianus Nofatus. I’ve never swung from trees, nor do I have any aspirations to do so, but I know all about the irresistable drive to fatten up for the winter, which invariably leads to very long naps in my cozy den. And, I like honey. Clearly it’s genetic memory, not lack of willpower.
Darwin was almost right.
Headless in New York
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
It is also universally acknowledged that a single man, in want of a wife, may run afoul of a headless horseman, if he’s not careful.
Such is the fate of Ichabod Crane, gangly bachelor and school teacher, lover of ripe repasts and an even riper Dutch damsel. A victim not only of his own appetites and superstitions, but quite possibly the terrifying prank of his rival.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is an old American ghost story, based on a German fairy tale. It is familiar to many, but unread by most, due in part to the proliferation of knockoffs, cartoons and most recently, a pale cinematic adaptation by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp. This is a shame. In re-reading Sleepy Hollow, I was mightily impressed by the languid elegance and humour of Irving’s writing. Yes, a headless horseman, in any context, will steal the show, but equally compelling are the lush descriptions of the Hudson River Valley in Autumn, and in particular the sequestered glen known as Sleepy Hollow:
“If ever I should wish for a retreat, whither I might steal from the world and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little valley.”
You see, not every ghost story is takes place in a haunted house.
It’s those pants again!
Sure, it’s cheating, but for the scroll-impaired, here is my February post for What Was I Scared of? by Dr Seuss. Not a Halloween book per se, but what it lacks in pumpkins, it more than makes up for in menacing forests, a wee frightened beastie, and of course, some terrifying trousers. Consider this book an ‘honourary’ Halloween selection. And beware those disembodied pants under your bed (draped over the chair, in the backseat of your car, stuffed in the corner of your closet…)
Next NEW Halloween post soon!
What Was I Scared of? by Dr Seuss Random House, 1961 (this edition-1989)
Picks & Tweets: the week in books
OK. My next Halloween post was going to be about the Hob stories by William Mayne. To be honest, I knew nothing about this author when I picked up the first novel, Hob and the Goblins, in 1993. The cover, by Norman Messenger, is a gorgeous painting of a rather eerie house in the snow. That was enough then, and it’s still enough today. I picked up the second book, Hob and the Peddler for the same reason~nice cover, again by Norman Messenger. The third collection, The Book of Hob Stories, employed a different but equally talented illustrator, and unlike the other two novels, Patrick Benson’s illustrations can be seen thoughout the book. A no brainer, it needed to come home with me. A year or two passed before I actually read the books, and I found them to be completely charming. However, I have since discovered some very unsavoury things about William Mayne (see the link), which precludes me from writing a more extensive review of his books in this blog. Suffice to say, the two cover illustrations by Norman Messenger, and the artwork by Patrick Benson are worthy of attention entirely on their own, and their work will be explored in greater detail in future posts.
And now for something completely different. Sort of…
From Curious Pages~A review of Georgie, a ‘vintage’ ghost story from 1944. http://bit.ly/awVfOm
From the Guardian, Why I love Peanuts by Joe Queenan. http://bit.ly/9A8L4P Not the nut, the strip.
How many is a pandemonium of pandas? A tangle of octopuses? Have a look at these very cool, very creative illustrations: http://bit.ly/d4Cg7L
JK Rowling wins the Hans Christian Andersen literature award. Worth about £60,000. Great! Now, she can buy that new blouse: http://bit.ly/bcEKsz And just to clarify, HC Andersen Award that JK Rowling just won is a new award for writers, and is NOT the major biennial medal.
Garth Williams’s cover art for Charlotte’s Web sells at auction for $155K; 42 illustrations sold in total, for $780K. Some pig indeed! http://wapo.st/9RVMxS
Amazing Book Cover Art http://t.co/ciB9s5G
Next post: final Halloween book review. And then…Christmas! Just kidding…
A Haunted Alphabet
The storyline is thus: A through Z inclusive, with poetry (of a most delightful sort), and some outstanding illustrations by the great Lane Smith. Done.
Well, not quite. Spooky ABC is, as one might conclude, an ABC book. And, as one might also conclude, it starts with A is for Apple. Except, this is a spooky apple, and it is the last thing you would want to find in your lunchbox:
Apple, sweet apple, what do you hide?
Wormy and squirmy, rotten inside.
Apple, sweet apple, so shiny and red, taste it, don’t waste it, come and be fed.
Delicious, malicious; one bite and you’re dead.
Think I’ll have banana.
An ABC book is the equivalent of Hamlet for illustrators. It’s a right of passage. A challenge to those possessed of a superior talent and the creative cajone’s capable not only of re-imagining the alphabet, but also surprising and entertaining an audience over 26 ‘acts.’ And to stretch this metaphor even further, Spooky ABC, like Hamlet, is a ghost story.
To B or not to B, that is the question.
Picks & Tweets: the week in books
Maggie the witch
The fate of children’s picture books was front and centre this week, starting with an article in the New York Times about picture books no longer being relevant for children. In fact, it’s the beleaguered publishers and frenzied parents who are questioning the validity of illustrated picture books. I’m no expert, having only been a child, never raised one, but I think I can say with some authority that kids, if given a choice, would rather read The Stinky Cheese Man than say, War and Peace. Yeah, I’m exaggerating, but is it possible that so-called ‘accelerated education’ only nourishes the parents ego, not the child’s intellect, imagination, and most importantly, a sustained interest in reading? It’s been a few years since I worked in a bookstore, but I can tell you that the picture book sales were steady. And even today, I was in the children’s section of a local independent, and there was one kid sprawled out on the floor, reading a picture book, and another in his mother’s lap, both of them engrossed in an Oliver Jeffers. It was all I could do not to step on children as I made my selections. Whatever opinion you hold, the article fueled some great discussions, and here are a few of the best:
Roger Sutton, editor of the Horn Book, had this to say about NYT article on picture books. http://bit.ly/c6YJdD
The best children’s picture books future generations may never read http://bit.ly/bsBCTB
Are picture books for kids fading or flourishing? Two opinions on this controversial subject: http://mbist.ro/cwchtb
Embracing the Picture Book –http://tinyurl.com/2dw9pd
And…the funniest, and most eloquent response belongs to the Boyz Read blog~FUNERAL FOR A PICTURE BOOK? http://bit.ly/cucHkX Awesome!
And now that the issue has been resolved…here are a few tasty items about picture books that don’t involve their imminent demise:
From the New Yorker: The Berenstain Bears get an app and find God. Heh. http://nyr.kr/9YP1DS
The story behind a lost, unpublished Dr. Seuss manuscript! http://bit.ly/dBDeH5
Three David Macaulay Books Relaunched~Castle, Cathedral and Mosque. What, no Yurt? http://bit.ly/cSxSnO
Robert Sabuda take note, you weren’t the first…by a longshot: A 1482 “pop up” book: http://cot.ag/bfrmNQ
The printed book is not dead yet | Joe Moran http://bit.ly/9tQPXb (Not about picture books, but still mighty interesting.)
Next Post: The A to Z of Halloween
