'The Listening Walk' written by Paul Showers Illustrated by Aliki Brandenberg and published in1961. Such a simple idea for a children's book but so gentle and lovely and I love the relationship between the father and son enjoying the sounds of a walk.
'Everything Has a Shape and Everything Has a Size', written by Bernice Kohn, illustrated by Aliki published 1964.
'Nessie the Monster', by Ted Hughes, published in America by The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1974. This was an odd find, as I have Nessie the Mannerless Monster by Ted Hughes illustrated by Gerald Rose, but I was unaware of this other version illustrated by the Swiss illustrator Jan Pyk. Jan Pyk was born in Stockholm, Sweden where he studied graphics. He then worked in advertising for ten years in Stockholm, London, and New York where he settled with his wife in 1967, and devoted himself to illustrating children's books for Swedish and American publishers.
'The Flower Mother' by Mary Calhoun, illustrated with beautiful fluid line work and bold flat colour by Janet McCaffery, published in 1972. Janet McCaffery trained in Philadelphia and had a career creating children's books.
This book is. an ongoing battle between the hot dry wind and the flower mother. After weeks of horrific fires and destruction in so many countries caused by global warming and capitalism and fossil fuels it seems a pertinent story, are we allowed to flourish or die? It seems the government and corporations want the latter, they still believe us to be on a world of endless resilience and resources.
How Animals Move' written by James Gray and illustrated by Edward Bawden, published in 1953. I love Edward Bawden's work but I didn't expect that to extend to technical drawings of animal movement but I thought these charming and fascinating, so as a wee extra today enjoy, mudskippers, snakes and flying squirrels . . . all beautifully rendered in ink, often with stunning water.
