I have to agree with Bron here in that I really am not sure what my favorite picture books were as a child. I do have memories of a few but as much as I tried I could not figure out the names of them (one was about a witch and hat and a cake contest? and another was about gnomes) so I thought I would also share my current favorite books. Oddly, I was more into making picture books as a child then reading them anyway so I have many more favorites now then I did back then! So here I would say are my top 5 of the moment:
1. The Spider and the Fly - illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi. I just love every single thing about this book, it's just beautiful!
2. The Little Engine that Could - illustrated by Loren Long. I love the colors he uses here and I think he really jazzed up a simple story.
3.The Remarkable Farkle McBride - illustrated by C.F. Payne. I'm such a huge C.F. Payne fan and I don't care those snobby "we're too good for C.F. Payne" critics have to say about him. He's just amazing!
4. The Z was Zapped - illustrated by Chris van Allsburg. Everyone also goes right for the Polar Express but I love this book even more. I have a thing for black and white illustrations anyway and what he's able to do with simple values here just blows me away.
5. Russell the Sheep - illustrated by Rob Scotton. I just love how sweet and simple this book is! And that sheep is just so darn cute!
4 comments:
OOooooooo Russell and the Sheep. It's wonderful.
I have that one in my collection right now. I found it at the bookstore where I work each month. And I am certainly going to check out 'The Z was Zapped.'
Have you seen the work of Alexiev Gandman. There is a link to him on my blogspot site. His work is almost all in black and white, and it might interest you from a pure design standpoint.
Thanks for the interesting list, Gina!
I love The Z Was Zapped!!
Wow...I just Google Imaged Russell the Sheep. I don't recall seeing that book. I must take a closer look at it next time I'm at Border. It's so elegantly whimsical.
C.F. Payne has made such a big name for himself doing the Reader's Digest back covers. I liked his work before he started changing the proportions and giving them slightly bigger heads, etc. I'm not sure why he chose to do that. I like his realist proportions better. Regardless, his work is wonderful. I like the way that he makes such clever use of Prisma color pencils in his work for shading. I noticed in my National Cartoonist Society Newsletter that he was at the NCS Convention this summer. I wish I could've been there.
Tony DiTerlizzi is one of my favorite illustrators. I hadn't seen this book! I am gonna go check it out. Thanks!!
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