Im Himmel und auf der Erde

The Bad Speller

L'alfabestiavideobeto

Written by Giovanni Gandini and illustrated by the wonderful artist Margherita Saccaro, here's a unique Italian ABC book from 1976.

Father Christmas

Fables You Shouldn't Pay Any Attention To

Fables You Shouldn't Pay Any Attention To

Florence Parry Heide and Sylvia Worth Van Clief

Pictures by Victoria Chess

  

Otto: The Story of a Mirror

About ten years ago, while I was doing books with Frances Foster at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, she gave me a copy of a picture book just published by that house: Otto: The Story of a Mirror. I loved that book, and I had since been very curious about the author and illustrator, Ali Bahrampour. Last year I had the fortune of meeting and getting to know him, a fellow Sendak Fellow. He has many other great ideas for picture books, and I think one of these days we'll be lucky enough to see them in print.

You can read more about Ali and Otto here (you'll have to scroll down).

La piccola fuggitiva (The Little Fugitive)

I would like to share images from a picture book that is particularly dear to me. The author and illustrator is Franco Matticchio, who also happens to be a friend of mine (unfortunately I don't see him nearly as often as I would like to). I think he is one of the very few truly extraordinary book artists working in Italy today. The book - the story of a little girl who runs away who knows where - was published in Milan in 2009 by the meritorious Nuages gallery.

The Tiny Visitor

A few days ago I joined an interesting discussion about strangeness in picture books on Roger Sutton's blog. I have to confess that I hadn't heard of Oscar de Mejo before, so I looked around and bought this nice copy of what is apparently his first children's book: a 64-page picture book, published by Pantheon in 1982.

Oscar de Mejo with his first wife, actress Alida Valli.

The Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book by R. Caldecott