The animation adaptation of The Lost Thing is being produced by Passion Pictures Australia, and is due for release in late 2009. I am continually amazed by the beauty and emotion in all of Shaun Tan’s work.
Check out an interview with Shaun and preview of The Lost Thing on InFrame.tv
Have you seen the latest edition of the fantasticly funky online mag lmnop? It features a little review we wrote about beautiful picture book Library Lion! We are so excited!
There is also an awesome feature on colouring books…
And an article by Jennifer Ward, designer and author of one of my favorite blogs Minor Details…
As well as lots more gorgeousness, including living in NYC with kids – the bunk beads are unreal, a feature on the first Threadless retail store and the most adorable little bunny booties I have ever seen.
Check out the lmnop blog as well, for even more lovely kiddy stuff.
Where The Wild Things Are, the movie, has a release date of October 16 in the US. I’m wondering how different the film will be to the original that Spike Jonze wanted released.
I like the photo above that was released last month but it does look quite dark and scary still!
Spike Jonze owns a skateboard company that are releasing skateboards decorated with charcters from the film.
In a Tweet today by Media Macaroni I learn’t of the movie version of Ramona and Beezus the hilarious early reader novels by Beverly Cleary. Selena Gomez, the next big thing from Disney, will play Beezus.
For my birthday one year, I’m not sure which birthday, I was given a beautiful card that entranced me and I have kept it ever since. The card was from my grandma’s best friend, a woman who always had exceptional taste and always gave my family the most beautiful cards for special occasions. I still have many of the beautiful cards she gave me but this one is particularly special because it actually has a whole short story printed in the middle.
The story is called The Birthday Band, pictures and story by Molly Brett. Brett illustrated for Medici an English greeting card company who’s aim was to ‘bring artists’ work to the appreciation of a wider public’. On their website they describe Molly Brett as one of England’s best loved children’s illustrators.
The daughter of an artist, Molly grew up around animals and nature which obviously influenced greatly her own art. She illustrated thirteen books for Enid Blyton as well as writing and illustrating her own stories. There are some still listed for sale on Amazon and many on Ebay. You can see some lovely images of her art on the cutely named Pixiepit website.
The thing I particularly loved about this illustration is that it is exactly how I picture fairies to look and act. Her fairies are classically drawn and look like the ones that you might expect to meet at the bottom of the garden. The fairies are drawn in ballet positions, graceful and elegant and the little English animals are given so much gentle character. When I lived in Leeds for a little while many years ago I often used to take a walk in the wood and watch squirrels play and listen to the robins, imagining this Molly Brett scene.
The story centres around a grand birthday ball that the queen of the fairies is planning for her favourite dancer Rosetta but they have no music because Madame Nightingale is ill. Meanwhile the queen rescues a mouse from the claws of Mr. Owl by casting a spell that leaves him bald. In return the mouse comes to the rescue of the fairy ball by telling them that he is actually part of a band lead by Senor Stagbeetle and they would love to play the royal ball.
‘And Rosetta pirouetted in delight as the band started to play’.
As a prelude to our normal Sunday posting pop over to Design Sponge and have a look at their fantastic feature about some very clever and creative bloggers and their favorite books from childhood.
You can leave a comment listing your faves too.
How beautiful is this hat? Hand crocheted and available from Pink Alligator Design’s Etsy store. All of her designs are simply gorgeous, I’m rather partial to the owl of course!
Found via Droolicious
If you have visited our little store you will have seen the deliciously cute Shinzi Katoh stationery range we stock. Well we love it so much that we have decided to open a separate store dedicated to Shinzi – we heart shinzi.
Shinzi Katoh is a famous Japanese artist based in Aichi where he has his own gallery, shop and museum. His creations are defined as ‘zakka’, being both cute and practical: zakka includes everything and anything that improves your home, life and outlook.
Shinzi has also illustrated thirteen children’s picture books, we love his sweet and quirky drawings. One of his books was chosen for a prestigious Japanese children’s book award. (Unfortunately we have been unsuccessful in sourcing his books in English.) In the 70s, Katoh began creating many designs and plans, working with a variety of mediums.
As well as stationery in the store we have also included bento boxes and drink bottles, all designed with the gorgeous childlike drawings by Shinzi Katoh.
The motto of the Shinzi Katoh range is “It’s the things that make people happy and exist like a comfortable air. That is why we always keep in our heart when we create new design.” And we believe it, his products make us smile every time we use them.
Shinzi makes others smile too, check out Design Mom, Ohdeedoh, Simplesong, and One Red Robin.
||www.weheartshinzi.bigcartel.com||
On the front cover of The Age newspaper today there is a stunning illustration and poem, ‘From the Shadows’, written in response to the Victorian bushfires by the amazing Graeme Base, author and illustrator of incredible picture books such as Animalia and Enigma.
Prints of the illustration can purchased through The Age’s photo sales department with all profits of the sales going to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal 2009.
The Story About Ping, first published in 1933, is a classic and if you were to make a list of the children’s picture books that one must own then Ping would have to be on that list. I can remember it being read to us often at school and as an adult I certainly knew that this was one book I needed to have on the shelf.
However as an adult reading this book actually makes me a little sad and I wonder if that feeling is what makes me remember Ping from childhood?
‘Once upon a time there was a beautiful young duck named Ping.
Ping lived with his mother and his father and two sisters and three brothers and eleven aunts and seven uncles and forty two cousins. Their home was a boat with two wise eyes on the Yangtze river. ’
The theme of the story is a common one amongst children’s literature; Ping is exploring his environment as all children do and, not concentrating, he misses his call to return to the boat. Knowing that the last duck across the bridge onto the boat will get a spank with a big stick, Ping hides in the grasses on the bank of the river and watches as the boat sails away.
Kurt Wiese’s illustrations are gorgeous and portray the environment perfectly as Ping paddles down the crowded, yellow waters of the Yangtze. Wiese gives the little yellow duck so much emotion and personality in his face and body movements.
While travelling down the river Ping also see fishing birds – cormorants – which have metal rings tight around their necks so that they could never swallow the fish that they catch. Hence leaving the fish for the fisherman.
Ping almost becomes dinner for a family on the river who capture him and leave him under a basket until the little boy of the family quietly slips him back into the river. Ping successfully finds his boat but is again late and gets whacked with the stick as he crosses the bridge. Happy ending – Ping is back with his relatives in the relative ’safety’ of his home.
There are many, many reviews of this book on Amazon that are very interesting, ranging from customers loving the book, to mixed feelings and those who think it is racist and cruel. It is interesting to see what the adults who are reviewing the book take from the story, some believing that it has a great moral about facing up to consequences and taking a punishment for what you have done wrong or one reviewer who mentions that you could use the story to argue in support of Fascism, Communism, Capitalism, or Social Darwinism!
Even after writing this I am still not sure why I remember this book from my childhood. As an adult though and after rereading the story today I still love the illustrations and the tale of sailing down the Yangtze however the fear that Ping has of being hit because he is last over the bridge as well as the yoked birds does irk me. I do appreciate that the story was written in a very different time and found the review on Vintage Kids’ Books My Kid Loves very interesting inrelation to children learning about the world of their grandparents.
It would be interesting to hear from others who remember Ping and also from people who have read it to their children. What do children in 2009 think of The Story About Ping?
Note: I thought it was funny that some of the reviews for Ping on Amazon are actually for computer programming books. I had to have a look on Wikipedia to find out what it is.
Since it was first released late last year, we’ve seen Dallas Clayton’s creation, An Awesome Book, featured on numerous fabulous blogs. Check out Design Mom, D Sharp, Oh Happy Day, frolic!, and Meet Me At Mikes for just a few.
So we’re very excited to now have copies in our hot little hands – and in our store!
It’s hard to find a good word to describe a book that already calls itself awesome, but this book lives up to expectations. Imaginative, thought-provoking, inspiring, it’s reminiscent of the best classic children’s books, yet it is different to anything I’ve come across before.
Best just to take a look for yourself, and you can flick through the entire book here.
We felt very honoured to have a chance to interview Dallas, the writer, illustrator and publisher of An Awesome Book.
Can you tell us how your book came about? Where did the inspiration come from?
I wrote it for my son, to have something nice to read to him, and also to share with the world. I was inspired by everything that came before it in some way or another. But mostly by people who set out to achieve things that seemed impossible and then achieved them.
Tell us about the feeling when you opened the first box of ‘An Awesome Book’.
I was actually waiting an extra week due to postal delays and was really surprised by the size of the order. Books take up a lot of space. It’s kinda crazy. I was also quite concerned that they might come printed upside down or in the wrong colors or in another language. Honestly the emotions were relief followed shortly thereafter by joy and magic.
There is some amazing imagery created through both the illustrations and the text in ‘An Awesome Book’ – which comes first, the illustrations or the words?
Oh the words for sure. I don’t even know if I can consider myself an illustrator just yet, I’ve kinda been thrust into it and am in a sink or swim place right now. Ha!
What did you dream of when you were a child?
I wish I could remember most of them, but they vanish so quickly. Kinda the object of the book I suppose, to try and hold onto them. I know there were a lot having to do with color, and shape, and sometimes random celebrity cameos. Just the other day I had my first dream about flying. Imagine, that? Why did that take so long?
What were your favourite books when you were little?
All of the obvious ones ( Seuss, Sendak, etc.) out of the way I really loved Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett. The illustrations in that are so unreal.
We understand you have a five-year-old son. What role, if any, did he play in the process of writing your book?
Total inspiration and reason for being. Also he’s my agent.
Tell us about the work space where you wrote and illustrated ‘An Awesome Book’.
Ha! Workspace? More like – Living room, beach side, basement, diner, strange apartment, yard, park, bed…
The popularity of ‘An Awesome Book’ obviously surpassed your expectations given that it sold out in two weeks. What role do you think the internet had in this success? Was the book also promoted in the traditional media?
The internet is a crazy place I am still trying to understand. I haven’t done any traditional press for the book yet, sold it in any stores other than Family Books where I had my release party or made it available anywhere but on my site. Not that I’m trying to hide it from people, but I honestly haven’t even had a chance. My second pressing basically sold out between when I ordered it and when it arrived. I’m on my third pressing in three months and the only place it’s been talked about has been on people’s blogs. People are awesome. Blogs are awesome. The internet is awesome.
Where to next? What can be more awesome than ‘An Awesome Book’?
Honestly I’m just focusing on keeping up with sales right now. Making sure everyone that wants one can get one, reading to schools, hospitals, that sort of thing. I might go on tour this summer. I have two more books in the works this month which will be out as soon as I can get them, after that just keep creating, keep sharing, making people happy and dreaming big.
Thanks for allowing us to interview you, Dallas.
Totally. Thanks a million for the interview. Your store is looking so great!
