Janosch V

I love this style of Janosch, it's wonderful energy and colour. These illustrations are from 'Lazy Blackbird and Other Verses', by Jack Prelutsky.

Janosch IV

Janosch's 1972 book 'The Crocodile Who Would Not Be King'. A story of a small gentle crocodile the son of the King crocodile who ate everything. The small crocodile did not want to be a king like his father and went to live in a zoo so that he didn't have to hurt anyone.

Janosch III

I am constantly drawn by the delicate painterly beauty of Janosch's early works. these illustrations are from Joshua and the Magic Fiddle published in the 1960s. It tells the tale of the son of a charcoal burner who is too small and weak to follow his father's profession. A bird gives him a magic fiddle and teaches him a special song that can make things bigger and stronger.

Janosch II

The sad story of Valek by Janosch published in 1960. It is the tale of a horse who travels through the country with his violinist master Jarosch. When Jarosch plays the violin Valek has to cry to show how beautiful the violin sounds. However Jarosch does not respect the friendship of his faithful horse, he gets him to perform endlessly and work hard and then in the ultimate betrayal Jarosch paints the horse in black and sells it to a soldier.

Janosch I

Janosch's style is reminiscent of some of the work of John Burningham (1936), Max Velthuijs (1923–2005) David McKee (1935). A style of the late sixties and early seventies, with bold pattern and often garish, strong colour juxtaposition. Bollerbam was published in 1968.

Janosch (Horst Eckert) was born in Hindenburg in 1931. He worked initially in a textile factory before attending art college in Munich and then becoming a freelance artist. He has created over a hundred books for children many in an almost comic strip style, but I love these richer, bolder illustrations from his earlier books.