Sometimes you come across illustration so beautiful it makes you want to cry!

Thanks to Storybird for a Tweet today that alerted us to the wonders of Rie Nakajima.

One of our readers, Kayte, from Dallas, Texas, left a beautiful comment on a post we did earlier this month on Albert by Donna Jo Napoli and illustrated by Jim LaMarche. She wrote:

I love your blog and have been following for a long time. As I do often with recommended titles, I checked Albert out from the library. My daughter (3.5 years old) ADORES this story and asks for me to read it over and over (and over). We finally returned it to the library and I was overjoyed to find it used at a local shop. My daughter has been walking around with a straw nest filled with wooden eggs and a felt cardinal for three days. Thank you so much for giving us Albert!

We always love hearing from our readers and especially when they get some joy from books we mention! I wrote to Kayte and asked if she would be willing to share a photo of the straw nest, wooden eggs and felt cardinal… And here is what she sent us -

Isn’t it beautiful? What an incredible interpretation of a book – and so lovely to think of it being carried into real life in this way.

Kayte also told me that the eggs in this photo had originally been handpainted by her and her daughter after they read An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston and Sylvia Long.

This is another beautiful book, one that celebrates eggs in all their shapes and sizes, and perfect for littlies interested in nature. I’m so impressed by Kayte’s efforts to creatively apply elements of these books!

Do other people create craft or activities based on picture books they read? We’d love to hear about them!

I ♥ this print by my favorite Australian author/illustrator Alison Lester from her book Purrr. You can order this print and those of other wonderful illustrators on the Books Illustrated website.

Alison has an amazing new book, called Running With the Horses, due for release in November this year.

This book promises to be spectacular and I will review it very soon.

||Our good friend Sarah writes about her favorite author/illustrator Alison Lester here|| 

I have been lucky to see a copy of this book before it is released in Australia in September. It is an amazing book in both its content and illustration. First published in France, the story by by Andre Leblanc and illustrated by Barroux is inspired by the true story of Zhu Xiao-Mei who is now an internationally acclaimed concert pianist. The picture book follows a young girl during the time of China’s Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976). She is taken from her family and sent to a far-off labour camp. Forbidden to play the piano, which she loves, she bravely finds a way of smuggling hand-written music into the camp and sneaks away at night to practice a piano in a secret location.

I really love books with strong female characters and believe that it is so important that children are exposed to these sorts of stories about people, especially children, who follow their dreams and stand up for what they believe.

The Red Piano is published in Australia by Wilkins Farago, an incredible publishing house who take a lot of care to find important books and produce them beautifully for the Australian market. The Red Piano is part of their list that is in conjunction with Amnesty International Australia - you may know the other book they did with Amnesty called The Enemy which we have in our store.

A guest post by Nicci D, mum to Nuwan aged 2.

Whenever I asked my dad to read me a bedtime story, he often chose Badjelly the Witch by Spike Milligan. I remember feeling delighted and anxious, both at once, at his choice: delighted because I knew Daddy would soon be chuckling once again at Milligan’s dark humour, and anxious because I found the story quite frightening – enough to give me nightmares.

Badjelly is a fairy story about Tim and Rose, who lived with their Mummy and Daddy in a big log cabin made from wood trees. When Lucy their cow went missing, Tim and Rose went looking for her, even though this meant heading into the dark forest, braving the trouser robbers and, ultimately, being captured by Badjelly the baddest witch in the world. In the end, they all lived happily ever after (except Badjelly, of course), but I was always relieved to hear this, no matter how many times I heard the story.

Milligan includes all the details that were important to the six-year-old me: what colour Rose’s hair was; how thick the trees were in the forest (as thick as Tim and Rose’s teacher’s legs at school); and what sort of wallpaper was in the bedrooms of Binkle-bonk the goblin’s house. At the same time, his pen-and-ink illustrations leave enough space for a child’s imagination to run wild – which mine did for several days and nights after each reading.

Milligan wrote Badjelly in 1973 (my lovely hardback copy still carries its price-tag of $3.20!) for his own children. Although quite long for a picture book, it is handwritten by the author, and I was as fascinated by the quirky lettering as by the illustrations. When the tin lion says ‘Roar! Roar!’ (then ‘Squeak!’ because he’s rusty from sleeping in the rain), Milligan’s lettering really seems to Rooarr. And when Dingle the mouse warns Tim and Rose to run away if they see Badjelly, even the word ‘her’, underlined and annotated, still sends chills down my spine.

Badjelly’s significance in my world seemed to be heightened by the fact that it mentioned God (‘just then God came along’). This occurred in such a different context to most ‘God’ references that I wasn’t sure what to think, but it provided the opportunity for some wide-ranging discussions with my dad! (When an audio version of Badjelly was made in 1975, the BBC removed God from the story because God appeared to have been placed on the same level as goblins.)

My childhood wouldn’t have been quite the same without Badjelly, and I’m planning on introducing it to my son once he’s at school. Perhaps we’ll read it first in the afternoon, before it gets ‘very dark-and-night-time’.

(By the way, for dedicated Playschool watchers like me, Spike Milligan also wrote the poem ‘On the Ning Nang Nong’…)

||Badjelly is still available from Amazon||

Thanks to a great friend, Melinda and her Tweet this afternoon pointing us in the direction of a new trailer that has been released for Where The Wild Things Are.This is even more of an emotional rollercoaster than the first trailer for those of us of an entire generation who grew up with this incredible book that has entrenched itself into our lives and into our children’s lives.

It is fantastic to hear the views of Sendak himself on the work that Spike Jonze has created honouring his iconic picture book.

The Walk by Carson Ellis. Illustrator of, among others, The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket - which we will post on very soon.

This image has just made me so happy on this Friday night and I wanted to share it.

Bring on Book Week! Thanks for the Wow factor of a Youtube clip CBCA.

We haven’t often reviewed books for the over-8s at We Heart Books, but over the next few months we will be including a few more, and adding some new books for over-8s in our store too. This time we are very lucky to have had Georgia (aged 11) write this review for us of Sara Pennypacker’s Clementine. Georgia was given a copy of by her aunt Lisa who also contributes to this guest post …

Georgia writes:

I had a great time reading this book. As soon as I got home I started reading it, and finished it really quickly. The trouble Clementine got into reminded me of Judy Moody. It says something about her on the back of Clementine. My favourite chapters were 4, 5 and 9, besides the first chapter. My favourite part I can’t say because it will spoil the story for you but some really funny ones I can tell you, like Clementine has a war with a flock of pigeons and she thinks she’s growing a beard like her Dad. When her Mum scrubs her head Clementine says to herself, “No more cartwheels, just in case my brains fall out ‘cause of the big hole she made.”
I really want to read the second book Talented Clementine, it sounds good too.

Aunt Lisa (also mum to Finn and Daisy) writes:

I loved reading this series, and had to send them to my niece Georgia to read.
They’re beautifully realised, humorous tales, in the best tradition of feisty, funny and unique characters like Pippi Longstocking and Judy Moody. There are some important and wonderful messages about being your unique self, but it’s not heavy handed. Clementine’s parents sometimes despair of the results, but always encourage Clementine’s problem solving and creative thinking skills. Marla Frazee’s fabulous illustrations add weight to the reader’s impression of Clementine’s restless energy and quirkiness.

Sara Pennypacker has beautifully captured the voice and motivations of an unusual pre-teen in all three of the Clementine books. I laughed out loud more than once, especially at Clementine’s well-intentioned hairdressing escapades, her vocal duels with a harassed school principal and her creative refusals to use her baby brother’s real name. When was the last time an adult book made you laugh out loud on the tram ‘til people looked at you?

Boys will love how she gets into trouble, girls will admire her ability to get out it! Highly recommended for readers from Year 3 to Year 5.

Interview with Sara Pennypacker

||Also in the series Clementine’s Letter and The Talented Clementine||

Ned loves the moon. When we go out at night he is always looking for the moon and stars and his dad has even taught him to give a little wolf howl when he sees it.

On Friday I saw the beautiful picture book called The Sea of Tranquility and I just had to buy it. Written by The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time author Mark Haddon, it is based on his personal love as a child for space and his memories of the moon landing by Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.

It is a lovely coincidence that today marks the 40th anniversary of that moon landing and the Apollo 11 mission.

The book is not new, it was actually released in 1996 but it has been re jacketed beautifully and has been made much larger than the original A4 size paperback it was then.

Mark’s language in this picture book is beautiful and you can sense it is very personal. He tells of being a little boy fascinated by space and what I really love is when he describes his excitement at staying up all night till dawn watching the grainy pictures on TV of Neil and Buzz landing on the moon. That must have been such an amazing moment as a child in 1969 to witness history in the making.

‘…And there they were,
on the flickery screen,
bouncing slowly through the dust
in the Sea of Tranquility,
like giants in slow motion.’

Illustrations by the Christian Birmingham, who is a big favorite of mine, make this story really special. His reproductions in paint of some of the original photos from the moon landing are absolutely incredible. They really conjur up the feelings of the young boy who is in absolute awe of outer space and the achievement of these men walking on the moon.

Both the story and the illustrations just evoke the time so well and make this a really peaceful and enchanting bedtime story that Ned – and I – will continue to enjoy for years to come. We also showed the book to Ned’s grandpa, or ‘bump-pa’, the other night who could relate to the story and has recently re read newspapers he has kept for 40 years since the landing.

‘And then I think of those two astronauts,
and how the prints they made with their big boots
will still be there tonight,
tomorrow night and every night
for millions of years to come.’