Andy Rash's Picture Book List

Andy Rash wrote and illustrated several picture books including Ten Little Zombies: A Love Story, Are You a Horse?, and Agent A to Agent Z. He has illustrated several more such as Superhero School, Fat Camp Commandos, and Sea Monster's First Day. His illustrations also appear in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Jennifer and son Joe. This is Andy's website.
And this is his picture book list:

DRUMMER HOFF by Barbara Emberly and Ed Emberly 

The gorgeous woodcuts in this book blow me away. The last image of the destroyed cannon is mysterious and poetic, and seemed that way to me even as a little kid.

OWL AT HOME by Arnold Lobel 

Don't get me wrong, I love Frog and Toad, but Owl is my favorite. He isn't very bright for an owl, but he's an extremely likable guy. Lobel was amazing.

 

BLUE MOOSE by Daniel Pinkwater 

This one isn't strictly a picture book. More of a chapter book but with enough illustrations that I thought I could get away with including it. It's because of this book that I got the crazy idea that you could center a children's book story around a human adult. Sooner or later I'll make that happen!
 

THE OBJECT-LESSON by Edward Gorey 

I must have watched the opening credits for the television show Mystery! hundreds of times yet never made it through the rest of the program. The reason was Edward Gorey's incredible animation. It wasn't until college that I found his books. I would like to quote the first line from this book: It was already Thursday, but his lordship's artificial limb could not be found; therefore, having directed the servants to fill the baths, he seized the tongs and set out at once for the edge of the lake, where the Throbblefoot Spectre still loitered in a distraught manner. 

Show me a better first sentence in all of literature! I dare you!
 

WHAT WAS I SCARED OF? by Dr. Seuss

The spookiest Seuss I can think of. Our pale yellow, lamblike protagonist is terrorized by an empty pair of green pants!
 

GO DOG GO  by P. D. Eastman 

"Simple" doesn't mean the same thing going and coming in art. Go Dog Go is so simple only a genius could have created it.

CARS AND TRUCKS AND THINGS THAT GO by Richard Scarry

Where's Goldbug? Somehow I never memorized everywhere that Goldbug was hiding. There's so much going on in this book, you barely even notice it's about a family of pigs.

THIS IS NEW YORK by Miroslav Sasek

I'll admit, I came to this one really late. Illustrator David Small told me he assumed I was a big fan of Sasek before I had even heard of him. I guess what actually happened was that I was a fan of everyone Sasek was a fan of and everyone who was a fan of Sasek. All of his This Is books are incredible, but I like New York the best because I like New York the best.
 

WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS by Shel Silverstein

Not a picture book? There's pictures on every spread! I can't in good conscience make a list of favorites without including Shel Silverstein. My concept of what sort of content is acceptable to be included in children's books came from him.
 

THE STINKY CHEESE MAN AND OTHER FAIRLY STUPID TALES by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

In 1992, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, or rather how to do what I wanted to do with my life and whether I could. This book and a few others that came out around the same time (Tuesday by David Wiesner, for instance) showed me the path.