As Nicci recently rightly pointed out, we have a soft spot for things Japanese, and we do LOVE this book by Yoshitomo Nara.
The Lonesome Puppy has become one of 2008′s hottest books… Since the English translation was published by Chronicle earlier this year, many a style shot of a children’s bedroom in all the coolest design mags and blogs has included a copy of The Lonesome Puppy on the bookshelves.
Nara is an artist who has a massive cult following in Japan and around the world. He became well-known in the 1990s for his distinctive style of pop art, which typically pictures naive child-like figures. The style is spare and deceptively simple, and it is hard to resist the mesmerising wide-eyed faces he depicts.
The Lonesome Puppy is Nara’s first picture book, and I think it’s such an interesting move for an artist of his standing. I love the idea of Nara fans revisiting the genre of the picture book, and being able to share it with little people. And at the same time, children are able to discover an artist’s work, through a genre they are comfortable with.
The story is very simple: a tale of a dog who is so big that nobody notices him, until one day he is discovered by a girl, and they become friends. The narrative has an unusual style, and many of the pages are wordless. It is a lovely book to share as a read-aloud, turning the pages to discover unexpected perspectives of the very large puppy and his little friend.
||The Lonesome Puppy available in the We Heart Books store||
||Previous We Heart Books post on a Nara souvenir brought back by me from Japan||
The dog in these illustrations reminds me of the one in Clifford the Big Red Dog. I think this series was 1st published in the early 1970s and I’m not sure how many titles there were. I felt it was apity that the paper in the prints we had was so poor as it devalued a lovely little book. Its size and profile also meant that it tended to get lost in he bookshelf. I wonder if it has been reprinted? I think it was a Scholastic publication.
I am procrastinating about all the things I haven’t done about Christmas! And of course I should have googled before making the comment above because … Clifford is mentioned in Wikipedia and is available on Amazon – and yes it has been reprinted -in the Amazon version the cover is very colourful, not just the red, white & black I remember from our version! Apparently Clifford The Big Red Dog is an enduring American children’s book series first published in 1973 and also collectible. (Is there anything that isn’t?) It was written by Norman Bridwell and was the series that helped establish Scholastic Books as a publishing company.
And the story line – well, Clifford was the runt of the litter, and was chosen by a city child named Emily Elizabeth Howard as her birthday present. No one expected Clifford to grow, but Emily Elizabeth’s love for her tiny red puppy changed Clifford dramatically. Before long, he was over 25 feet (7.6 m) tall, forcing the Howard family to leave the city and move to the open spaces of Birdwell Island.