What designers read to their children
~ 21 March 2006 ~
Of the dozens and dozens of children’s books we’ve bought over the years, none have been purchased solely with a selfish desire to call one my own. Until today, that is.
Everest and I went to the semi-annual book fair at his school this morning. He picked out his two books, same as last time. And then I nearly tripped over the table when I saw this hardcover beauty:
Gorgeously illustrated and cheekily written by Lane Smith, John, Paul, George & Ben is a rare specimen of fine detail among children’s books. Don’t get me wrong — we’ve got plenty of books that are visually inviting. But this one takes the cake.
A few of the spreads:
A closer look at the superb illustration work leaves little to be desired:
To see someone care this much about a children’s book, both illustration and word, makes me giddy. One heck of an investment for only $11 (at Amazon).
Best of all, you’ll have a blast reading this to the little lads:
One day his teacher, Mr. Douglas, asked the class to make birdhouses by gluing macaroni to ye olde balsa wood. Tom happily ignored him and used traditional building materials in a neoclassical design.
Smack me silly. Who’d ever thought they’d read the words “neoclassical design” to a five-year-old?
Guess where this one sits? Proudly on my bookshelf, not the boys’. There’s gotta be other books out there like this. Got any at home?
57 Comments
Veer: Visual Elements for Creatives.Stock photography, type, and killer tees. Genuinely recommended by Authentic Boredom.
Gaaahhhh…. Stefan, you beat me! I love that book. Also illustrated by Lane Smith, I think.
I have to say that Stinky Cheese Man is one of my favorites too.
We read The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieszka Illustrated by Steve Johnson.
It’s a wonderfully illustrated and quirky read.
The Not Like Any Other Children’s Book Book by Glen and Louisa Smith. Out of print for twenty years, alas, but brilliantly weird. The design is not as gorgeous as this one, but it’s definitely consistent with the zany content.
Excellent book! I’ve never heard of it before but I really like how it looks. I’ll be sure to check it out.
My favorite children’s author growing up and now with my kids is Virginia Lee Burton
It’ll be nice to see what everyone else posts. I’m open for more good ideas!
I’ll second the Stinky Cheese Man plug. My kids and I have enjoyed it for several years.
“Run, run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me. I’m the Stinky Cheese Man!”
Now, I’ve gotta go to the bookstore… ;)
Napoleon Bonaparte (in french) is the story of Napoleon… except all the characters are mushrooms! Very nice illustrations.
Heh, I would have thought the Scieszka and Smith duo was known to the whole design community! I’m very sorry you only heard of them until now.
Absolutely wonderful stuff. They were, incidentally, one of my first inspirations in design.
I agree with all the aforementioned recommendations.
This is definitely worth a read, too:
Yeah The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs really got me amped about being an illustrator in college. I love Lane Smith’s sense of color. Hadn’t seen this one yet. GREAT FIND!
My boys giggled the whole way through No David!. Give it a look-see at your local Barnes & Noble. Takes about 30 seconds to read alone, but longer as you and your child discuss each page.
Not exactly a children’s book, but something that I’ve found enjoyable for design and layout work is McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern Issue 13 - entirely filled with comics. Never previously a fan of comics, I found it to be a great inspiration, and very visually stimulating as they communicate so much in such a little amount of space.
Probably not the best design, but certainly some of the best stories:
Incredible illustration & typography. Not to mention a fairly entertaining story:
Math Curse
That looks really cool. I love the textures and colors, very nice. I’m a graphic designer and my wife is an art teacher; we read this Monster-Haiku book to our son:
Caught Creatures.
“John, Paul, George, & Ben” – much to the giddy excitement of Scieszka and Lane fans everywhere – just recently hit the bookshelves this past month… that’s probably why it’s so new to folks.
I need to run out and get it myself still, especially after this starring review! All of their stuff is wonderful, and truly, truly deserves to be on any designer’s shelf.
I bought this book for my son, and loved the layout and font.
Also by Lane Smith and Jon Scieszka is Squids will be Squids. I like them in the same way as I like Dr. Suess, old Sesame Street and old Beatles tunes. It is entertaining for both the child and adult.
Looks great! I’m a sucker for crackle-y textures.
Another must have: The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. Superb.
Red Ranger Came Calling by Berkeley Breathed is really great Christmas story with exceptional artwork.
That’s a really nicely illustrated children’s book. There’s another artist who illustrates the “Griffin & Sabine” series. Have you heard of it before? Reminds me of that book that I read as a little girl, something about the postman. Each page has it’s own letter or postcard. I like the idea.
You can’t go past these two:
- Where The Wild Things Are
- Possum Magic (nice intro to Australian cuisine at the same time as being beautifully illustrated!)
Terrific book. :)
Just don’t forget that “ye” is pronounced “the”. You don’t want to mess up your children linguistically for life!
King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub is an old favorite.
Oh one of my favorite topics!
The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me
By Roald Dahl illustrated by Blake Quentin
Burt Dow
by Robert McClosky
“Leonardo” is brilliant! Anything from Mo Willems (of Sesame Street fame) especially,
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus;
also checkout (as in go the LIBRARY; don’t you designers own library cards!?)
The Three Golden Keys by Peter Sis;
Mr Monkey’s Classroom by Jiwon Oh;
anything written by Vivian Walsh; illustrated by J. Otto Seibold (gotta love husband and wife duos)
You had to ask a children’s library web developer…
“Just don’t forget that ‘ye’ is pronounced ‘the’. You don’t want to mess up your children linguistically for life!”
I think telling a kid that “ye” is pronounced “the” is the quickest way to mess them up linguistically. None of us learned it till we were in college, why should they be any different? But, I’m not a parent, so who knows.
For illustrators, it doesn’t get better than Mary Grandpre for me, most known for the Harry Potter book covers.
Zen Shorts by Jon Muth—It has beautiful watercolor illustrations.
That looks like a really nice book. I had a very similar experience when I urged (ehh.. forced) my four year old to choose this absolutely wonderful book “The Princess and the Pea”. The pictures are photographs of miniature models that the creators made, begged or borrowed. The typography is fantastic and compliments the tone of the story. It is simply too nice for children. ;)
The Widows Broom is a gorgeous book.
I’ve been really inspired by books written/illustrated by Shaun Tan.
I have yet to read the Red Tree. But I love the Lost Thing and The Rabbits. In his books every page is a work of art to the covers and inside covers. All the publishing details, isbn:s and things are really cleverly hidden in the cover design as well. And the stories work for adults as well.
As I have Dutch roots I cant help recommending the Dutch writer Anie M.G. Smith. Very famous in Holland. Pink Lemonade and The island of nose are classics. Too bad not all of her books are translated into english.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dbooks%26field-author-exact%3DAnnie%20M.%20G.%20Schmidt%26rank%3D-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank/102-5769843-9776168
Uh-oh… sorry for the link in previous post.
I’ll second the Saun Tan vote - his books are works of art, we’ve got these upstairs on the shelf so the littley doesn’t damage them. Also the Moomin books are very lovely.
It’s quite best to have kids informed at that young age, I remember my kid sister asking me what “quantum physics” were when we were watching Men In Black a couple years back, and mind you she was only 5.
Hey really nice pictures. I love it.
truly adorable!!!!
Great; this is exactly what I’m looking for (the comments too!). Expecting to become a dad in the next week or so and I need some good childrens books for my own collection :)
cristinamarie is talking about Nick Bantock, but his books aren’t for children.
As a new father I can really appreciate this kind of effort.
I read your post and immediately jumped over here to post Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Stupid Tales. But Stefan beat me to the punch. He’s correct. Stinky Cheese Man… is absolutely marvelous.
Also, there is the series of books from Jan Brett. Her stories are outstanding and well written. And the illustrations are equally amazing. What’s more, she writes and illustrates everything herself.
Nice post, Cameron.
My son loves Frog and Toad! We laugh and laugh every time we read them. It’s so cool to see your kids enjoy the same books you did as a kid as well.
I’m surprised no one mentioned Old Turtle. There isn’t much in the way of typography, but the watercolor illustrations are incredible.
My children and I really enjoy J. Otto’s Mr. Lunch books (as well as “Olive the Other Reindeer”)
I always quite enjoyed Santa’s Twin myself… we still read it on Christmas eve every year.
Our all-time favorite, although for a younger audience, is Papa, Please Get The Moon For Me by Eric Carle. If my youngest gets to choose, she rarely picks something else.
Hey! Thanks for the nice words about my new book. My wife, Molly Leach, (the book’s designer) and I were very fortunate to work with a publisher that actually encouraged us to use nice paper-stock, embossing, etc. Very rare these days!
Even though my kids are older, they still love to be read to. Here are some classics in our house:
The Paper Dragon by Marguerite Davol with illustrations by Robuert Sabuda. Gorgeous paper collages.
Sweet Dream Pie by Audrey Wood with illustrations by Mark Teague
And our all-time favorite:
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. Ron Barrett, Illustrator. Not exactly a paragon of good design, but the illustrations are rich with delightful detail. I use to stare at that book for HOURS when I was a kid, and I’m so glad I can share that experience with my kids.
I love the Lauren Child books with their odd cartoon+collage illustrations; my favorite is I am Too Absolutely Small for School, in which an invisible friend appears only as a varnish layer.
I also can’t get enough of the facial expressions in Duck on a Bike by David Shannon.
Someone up there mentioned Peter Sis - almost any of his books is worth getting and opening to any page. Just the textures he uses should ring your bells - the distressed backgrounds and etched-looking pages.
Really dense, elegant work.
My wife and I love “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein.
A bit minimalistic perhaps with the design and layout, but beautiful just the same. Very wonderful moral and a quick read!
A fave of mine and any kid I have ever read it to (and I can’t wait until my 1 year-old gets old enough for his turn) is The Shopping Basket. A true anti-hero and superb illustrations. John Burningham’s other book of equal status with the nippers is The Avocado Baby.
Oops - one more if I may The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Ross MacDonald’s children’s books are full of fun retro illustration and typography.
Hey i liked the book. Good designs and colorful pages. Lke to buy more like this one.Throughly enjoyable experience.
I’m a big fan of “Roberto The Insect Architect”. Very cool collage style layout of bug buildings and trash cities, with a bunch of architecture jokes.
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1 Stefan Hayden ~ 21 March 2006 at 11:37 AM
The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales is also an amazing book with great typography and illustrations.