Watch this incredible clip of Shaun Tan talking about his collaboration with Andrew Ruhemann on the film of his beautiful book The Lost Thing which recently won the Grand Prix for Best Short Film at the Melbourne Film Festival (among many other worldwide awards)…

And here is the trailer for the film, which unfortunately I missed at the Festival and will be eagerly awaiting Madman releasing on DVD…

Beautiful new mixed media prints by Lisa Golightly using vintage children’s book pages available in her etsy store kiki and polly.

We have been in love with Tao Nyeu’s illustration style since we first stocked the incredible, wordless, Wonder Bear.

We have just received her latest most gorgeous offering, a picture book, with words, called Bunny Days.

She has again used the most amazing colour combinations to create a spectacular picture book of not one but three stories. The bear from Wonder Bear features in all three very quirky and funny stories about his Bunny Days. Firstly as you see in the trailer Bear sends the muddy bunnies for a spin in the washing machine and  then hangs them out to dry. Secondly Bear fixes Mrs. Goat’s bunny-clogged vacuum cleaner; and finally Bear uses a sewing machine to reattach the bunnies’ tails after an unfortunate garden-pruning accident.

The humour in this book is deliciously bizarre which is what many children will adore about it. The text is simple, with lots of great sound effects which makes it a really fun read aloud, perhaps not right for bedtime but more for those rollicking times on the couch or at a story time when you can whip them into a giggling frenzy. At the end of each chapter we are reminded that in this lovely world Nyeu has created “Everyone is happy”.

||Bunny Days and Wonder Bear are available from the We Heart Books store||

Brooke who writes the gorgeous blog Pure and Noble has let me feature her creative  way of using the Charley Harper Memory Game as art. It looks so effective idisplayed n a simple white frame, don’t you think? 

You can also see more about Brooke on Bloesem Kids where she reveals that the favourite books in her house are written by Mo Willems.

One of the most beautiful self published books I have seen has arrived in our store. I Hear Two Birds is a counting book and a work of art written and illustrated by Brisbane local Kathy Panton.

Kathy has a Bachelor of Visual Art, and has recently given up her job as a special education teacher to be a fulltime artist. She told us … ‘I really believe in following your passion and that is why I am an artist.’

‘I can’t say I have any specific influences, but I have long studied the work of other artists who illustrate children’s books. A lot of people say my work is like Eric Carle’s, and that is a great compliment, as I think he was a real innovator in children’s book illustration.’

Kathy actually paints first and then cuts up her work which she uses in a collage technique to make her exquisit pictures. We are so lucky to have these photos of Kathy’s studio to share…

You can see here where she keeps her cut up paintings for use in her pictures…

I believe that Kathy has really captured the essence of what all the great, classic children’s books have. I Hear Two Birds works on so many different levels, it has beautiful flowing, rhythmic text, counting, recognition of colour, shape and everyday objects including animals and nature. It truly is a stunning book and we are very proud to have it.

Kathy also sells her beautiful prints, which are perfect art for a child’s room, from her Etsy store here.

I have always said that the gorgeous Charley Harper flash cards would be perfect for wall art and neglected the Charley Harper Memory Game. Then I came across this spectacular photo and post on the awesome blog Made By White

These memory cards are so beautifully made, on strong, durable card and the reproduction of Harper’s art is so vibrant that they just beg to be used like this.

Thank you to Kelly from Made By White for the permission to use her photo.

 Our great friend Nicci directed us towards this hilarious clip on Youtube… 

The Terrible Plop is definitely one of my favourite picture books this year.