My dear friend Nicci, who has impeccable taste in kids’ books, recommended Follow the Line by Laura Ljungkvist in a comment on this blog.

The latest book in the same series, Follow the Line Around the World was released in the US in May and is due out in Australia next month.

The concept at the heart of these books is one of those deceptively simple ideas that is very, very clever. The illustrations are based around a single continuous line that winds its way through the entire book to form a multitude of objects: buildings, faces, vehicles and animals. As a wise commissioning editor once taught me, sometimes the simplest forms of expression are the subject of a great deal of effort and thought. I’m sure that principle is true for the artwork in these books.

As a reader, you can’t help but obey the book’s title, and follow the line with your finger across each double-spread as it forms skyscrapers, sailing boats, fish, trees and more. Behind the main line sit flat shapes in bold retro colours, filling in selected detail. A typewriter font and lovely matt paper add to the retro impression. Sometimes I hold a book in my hands and am just so happy to count it as my own, and Follow the Line is one of these! As Nicci commented, this is a book that bears repeat reading, and will be especially appreciated by design-conscious mums and dads.

The author’s website illustrates the line in motion and is good fun.

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