Sunday, December 19, 2010

Beautiful books! At Christmas and always






















A thing of beauty ... a joy forever! Sometimes I remember to look for joy everywhere. Blue, green, purple mountains, pink pouis in bloom ...

Children should be exposed to things of beauty, to joy as often as possible. This concept of beauty and joy will remain with them forever to enrich their lives.

There are books which are things of beauty. Of course, stories can be beautiful, words can be dancing-along joyous, but illustrations are perhaps the easiest way in which we can transmit this concept of beauty and joy. So I want to share some of the picture story books in my collection which have delightful, wondrous illustrations.



Is it True Grandfather? by Wendy Lohse, illustrated by Jenny Sands, Macmillan Caribbean. Gorgeous, dreamy images of our lives! My favourite!




















Anancy and Mr. Dry-Bone, illustrated by Fiona French ( I presume written also), Frances Lincoln, UK. Illustrations which utilise black lines and patterns, as delicate as fretwork or as strong as the tiger which boys will like.





















The Nutmeg Princess, by Richardo Keens-Douglas, illustrated by Annouchka Galouchko, Annick Press Ltd., USA/Canada. Bold, bright, 'full of everything' pictures which are reminiscent of artwork created by children, so they'll love them.



I don't know if these books are in print or not, but you can give other books with equally enchanting illustrations. You may have to point out the beauty and joy in the books you give, because our children live in a world where too often beauty and joy can be crowded out by violent images in the media and games, and where loud, angry sounds can pose as music. So we'll give a gift of a beautiful joyous book this Christmas.

2 comments:

  1. I like this. Pity it isn't easy to get some of these children's books. Without a credit card it's
    impossible to order online.

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  2. Anancy and Mr Dry Bone was my favorite book as a child..I had forgotten the name and came across your blog googling it. Thank you so much for posting!

    ReplyDelete