Archive for the ‘book pile’ Category
book shopping in tokyo: take that concept in. yes, it was very good and by day one of our trip i was well on my way to a potential excess baggage fee. the bookstore in the basement of the parco department store was heaven, and all of the books i want to show you today came from there. i could have come away with many, many more because the range, and the quality was amazing. but i’m not at all disappointed by what i brought home…
“cheerful in 3 1/2 months” is a really amusing book by Gerard Jansen full of great colorful illustrations by Sue Doeksen.
the book provides one tip per day for a 3 and a half month path to cheerfulness. and how could you not be cheerful at suggestions like inventing your own toilet choreography, jumping in a bouncy castle, and my #1 tip – “be your favorite piece of pie”.
was this for my son? no. no it wasn’t. i’ll just put it on the shelf next to my “worst mother ever” trophy.
…i mean, sure, he can look at it – while wearing cotton gloves. when he’s 19.
inside the back of the book is a collection of stickers to be used in the various activities through the book. and if you know of a kiddo who would definitely appreciate this book, then you should get it for them because its filled with fabulous alain grée illustrations. and probably a fun way to learn french!
“colorful room of the japan” is jam packed with some of the most “colorful room of the japan” you’ll ever see. but wait! there’s more..
not only rooms “of the japan” but also of the spain, and of the france! and there are some cute crafty decor projects too. i’d really love to tell you more but its all in “the japanese”.
so, i have NO idea what this is all about. but its PACKED with adorableness. anyone? leave a comment and enlighten me. it seems to be the inspiration files of a couple of designers – but i could be way off. its full of deers, and pandas so lets all look at some pandas!!
what do you think? should i go back and get some more books? go on. twist my arm!
i received some very happy surprise mail yesterday: the gorgeous alex fulton gifted me this spectacularly groovy board book & 45 record! ‘friday street fantasy’ was published by paul hamlyn,sydney, 1969. aside from the party-in-an-ornamental-photo-lettering-catalog cover up there, its full of fab illustrations. and mysterious music…
…unfortunately a small person i know jammed up our record player and so i haven’t heard the record yet. but for now, the illustrations:
this is the town of Friday Street (yes. a town called street. ask bruce woodley). it was full of sad children until one day…
…the friday man came to town with a rainbow in his hand!
and now everyone in town sings and plays and has fun! aaahh pink and orange town!! i want to live there!
the next song ‘little one’ is a lullaby (i assume from the lyrics …ahem, naughty record player breaking child). i like the dancing doll marionette!
and this is captain grumblepeg, and his lady mary morningstar.
this is little miss sorrow. her balloons are just beautiful, so i hope she’s not sad for long.
in the back cover we meet bruce, singer and songwriter and member of the seekers (a famous australia folk group from the 60s). apparently he was 26 when he made this album!
and the creators of the colorful illustrations are paul corley and jeannette spencer. wherever they are now, i hope they’re still making bright and fun artwork for children!
thank you again alex, i will treasure this book!
i think the illustrations in this book go so nicely with some of the mugs in yesterday’s post that it would only be right to make this classic picture book today’s bookpile feature. are you familiar with ‘rosie’s walk’? its a bit of a classic, library staple here in australia, along with all of pat hutchins books. because its still in print and very popular here i don’t want to give too much away, but rather show you some fab illustrations and urge you to go buy your own copy!
rosie’s walk
written by pat hutchins
originally published 1971
i think the illustrations are so charming. they remind me of the detailed fine line work of some scandinavian ceramic designers. above is a detail of a sweet snail and some of those fabulous leaves!
watch out rosie! i like her feathers and the papyrus-like flowers.
love the naughty sneaky fox’s detailed pelt. and if wagons were that groovy i’d be a farmer! would you read farm! pilgrim?
more wonderful flowers and insects
don’t you think you should buy your own copy?
you’ve seen wings on wednesday, you’ve seen the wizard of the umbrella people and you’ve seen please sit still (if you haven’t – quick, go look now). now its time to see the last of my sandra smith illustrated picture books. i really don’t know any more about her than i did when i first posted, but i have had lots of nice people comment or email telling me they remembered her illustrations and love them too. so if you know anything, please share, because there are lots of sandra smith admirers here! can you imagine if we tracked her down and scored an interview? dream!
firebrand push your hair out of your eyes
written by natalie scott
illustrated by sandra smith
published by ure smith, sydney 1968
once there was a small girl named firebrand who had beautiful thick, red hair and a voice that roared. she lived with her parents and an older sister named carrots (take that gwyneth paltrow – apparently parents were raiding the crisper for names long before little apple was born!) her aunts would visit and comment on her beautiful hair and her mother would say “push it out of your eyes, firebrand” to which firebrand would reply with a roar “NO!”
each morning her mother would comb and tie her hair back and firebrand would turn red and say “i look like a bonbon!”. nonsense! everyone told her. but as soon as she was on the bus she’s let her hair down and fluff it til it fell into her eyes.
at school she learned songs and arithmetic and the teacher would say “fingers, stop sucking your thumb! curlycue, sit up straight! gossip, stop talking so much! firebrand, push your hair out of your eyes!” firebrand would scowl and roar to herself – NO!
after a fight with her sister, firebrand finds a tree and looking up she see’s all the beautiful leaves and so she climbs to the top. at the very top the wind blows her hair from her eyes and she looks out at the wonderful view. on her way down, though she loses her footing and falls hard against the ground.
her father puts her to bed and the doctor comes but finds no broken bones. firebrand was very sore and sorry for herself but everyone makes a fuss over her and her aunts bring her flowers, and chocolates and a gramophone.
the next day firebrand quietly brings her brush and comb and ribbons to her mother. she asks in a small voice, nothing like her usual roar, for her mother to tie her hair back. she discovered that with her hair back she could see all kinds of things she’d never seen before.
for more pages from firebrand visit my flickr
another incredible book from the shelves of ms peta pledger.
the milk box mystery
written by: gina ingoglia
illustrated by: jerry smath
published: macmillan, 1975
the story follows alice and willi who go to stay with their aunt. they explore her small town and find an abandoned house containing a mysterious milk box…
i love the illustration in this book. its not often you see such vibrant, graphic work done with watercolour. it looks great, don’t you think?
the pattern and textures in the illustrations are really great too, i think. isn’t the woodgrain of the porch nicely done? and let’s not even get started on those fabulous flares!
ooh i love all the bubbly textures in this illustration. is it making you want to get the water colours out too?
inside of the mysterious milk box is a glass lion.. each day the children return to the house to find another glass animal is in the box.
the lace! ooh the lace.. here we see alice at the abandoned house, meeting a strange new boy.
such great composition on this page. everything is dynamic, isn’t it? i wish my grocer had a monkey. and some hand sanitizer too.
a quick google shows jerry smath to be a prolific illustrator, though i couldn’t see much in this similare style. are you familiar with his work? buy your own copy of the milk box mystery
the old woman who lived in a vinegar bottle
written by rumer godden
illustrated by mairi hedderwick
published by macmillan, london, 1972
this book has been with me since i was little, and its possibly responsible for my love of patchwork. isn’t that a gorgeous cover? i really enjoy the pen and ink illustrations by mairi hedderwick. they evoke the colors and textures of the rugged parts of the UK countryside so well.
aren’t the pebbles and hillside rendered nicely? so washy and soft looking, with that added complexity of the pen lines. but on to the story…
the old woman lives a modest life in her vinegar bottle, which the author explains is most likely a modified oast house which bears a resemblance to old style stoneware vinegar bottles. her cat malt is well fed while she ekes out her existence on bread, trimmings from the butcher and a drop of milk for her tea.
one day while cleaning she finds a sixpence just as the fishing boats are coming to shore. she buys what she can from the fishermen – a small fish but she can’t bring herself to take it home and so she throws it back into the lake. just as she is leaving the fish calls to her. he is a prince and he offers to grant her anything she likes in return for saving his life. the old lady is stunned and thanks the fish but says she doesn’t need anything.
she returns home in a daze before realizing she has nothing to eat. nervously she returns to the lake and asks the fish for “a good hot dinner”. the fish tells her that when she goes home she will find one. at home the table is covered with roast beef and all the trimmings, bread and dessert, with milk and catnip for malt the cat. full from dinner, the old lady falls asleep and awakes later to a clear table and a note reading “another one tomorrow”.
that night a storm batters the vinegar bottle, and the following morning the old lady visits the fish if it would be too much trouble to have a little cottage. the old lady turns to head home and is met with a pretty little cottage. she walks through it in awe, but realizes her old furniture looks shabby and sparse. she once again asks the fish who grants her request. at home, in the new bedroom mirror the old lady sees how plain she looks. she asks the fish for new clothes and she’s immediately in a fresh new dress. at home her wardrobe is stocked with everything she could need. as she eats her dinner that night she realizes she no longer has clothes to work in and she couldn’t possibly get her new clothes dirty. she hurries to the lake and without greeting him, demands a maid.
“‘go home and you will find one’ said the fish. his voice was quiet … and a shade tired.”
at home, the old lady is irritated by the maid’s presence and the lack of her rocking chair. she hears the church bells and decides to go to church to show off her new clothes. but her shoes pinch and so she marches down to the fish to demand transportation. when she finds a cart and pony she sniffs in disdain and stamps back to the lake to explain she wanted a car. a car appears, but the old lady wanted a different car with a chauffeur.
the little fish did not say, “go home and you will find one,” but stood up out of the water on his silver tail. “you used to curtsey to me,” said the little fish. “yesterday you came and said ‘thank you’ before you touched a morsel of the dinner i sent you. that was yesterday, but now! you are a greedy and ungrateful old woman,” said the fish. “go back to your vinegar bottle.
back at the vinegar bottle everything was back to how it had been. the miserable old lady goes back to the lake to apologize and beg the fish’s forgiveness. the fish offered to restore the dinners, and cottage, and clothes, and maid and chauffeur for the repentant old lady, but she insisted that her and malt were best in the vinegar bottle. all they needed was a nice hot sunday dinner.
have we all learned a valuable lesson from the fish? i think i’d be happy with someone magically providing dinner!
wedding by barbara norfleet, a fireside book published by simon and schuster, 1979
today’s bookpile choice is quite different from our usual cute kid’s book fare, but i just had to share it with you. this book comes from my mother’s collection and despite never being much of a wedding girl, i’ve always enjoyed looking through the photos and wondering about the women behind the veil. i hope you enjoy a peek at this book, and i hope the photographic subjects all live(d) long and happy lives together.
‘wedding’ by barbara norfleet is the expanded catalog of a photography exhibition, ‘the wedding’, that was held in 1976 at the carpenter center for visual arts at harvard university. the exhibition was such a success that the following year it moved to new york’s international center for photography and became one of the most popular shows in the history of the ICP.
click any image to view a larger version.
her veil is very beautiful and worth a close look
double wedding!
what a cute couple! i really love how happy everyone looks, the whole family is so joyful – and the old lady with the little girl has her hair in rollers. can you imagine seeing that in today’s magazine-esque staged wedding photos?! even then it’d no doubt be painfully ironic.
draw your own academic comparison between the last supper print on the wall behind the newly weds and their bounty of wedding swag. i like their satin bedspread.
i really like this photo, taken at a home rather than a studio. under the benevolent watch of the kennedys.
i find this image quite sad, poor lonely bride on a tarp sheet. her beautiful dress seems at odds with the mess hall she’s standing in, and that lone streamer in the top of the frame doesn’t do much to turn the mood around. do you think she stood there for the whole day while people queued around her for cake? maybe she’s a ghost and its not really her wedding.
this dress is my favorite. she looks young, elegant and modern (for the time). i like the composition, making her look toward the bright future, while those cherub sculptures gaze at her beauty. its a bit hokey, but i like it.
this feels like the collision of two stages of a girl’s life: the horsey ‘tween’ stage, and the bride stage. do they give ribbons for brides?
i love this photo! look, she’s flashing her garter belt! and so many flowers! and her eyes! oh its all so great and like some eastern european vision of americana.
damn hippies. (i kid, i kid, you guys know how much i love damn hippies. if you’d prefer to you could read it like “day-um!! hippies!”)
and lastly let me leave you with this happy, carefree photo of the tossed bouquet.
get your own copy from amazon
(FYI i’m an amazon affiliate, but also a person who thinks you should own interesting books)
