Little women grow up

This large format illustrated version of Andersen's Thumbelina was published in 1978.

It was created by Nicole Claveloux, a French artist that I am planning to feature again soon

on Animalarium. I love this book for its unusual structure, which alternates pages of text

with spreads packed with sequences of small illustrations that can be visually read in  

a variety of ways.

The illustrations are beautiful and funny, and the abundance of details on each spread

is very appealing to children and visually oriented adults like me.

But I love this version also for its feminist ending, in which Thumbelina refuses to marry the King of Flowers

choosing instead a life of freedom and travels in the company of her swallow friend.

Click on the photos to view them at full size!

Streamlined Zoo

Henri Creuzevault, The Jungle Book binding, 1925

I am working on a lesson about the graphic design of the 1920s and 30s,

hence the inspiration for this elegant Art Deco menagerie.

For more designs from the era, you may take a tour here and there.

 Edward McKnight Kauffer, poster for the London Underground, 1923, 

thanks to Cabinet Magazine

Rembrandt Bugatti, Nubian Lion, ca.1910 

Jean Carlu, Aquarium de Monaco, 1926, thanks to Pignouf

Japanese sculpture, 1928, thanks to Paris Originals

 Edmund Bartlomiejczyk, 1929

Art Deco Llama made from Glass and silver, thanks to Lost Found

Dinner menu from the Orient Line Orion, 1937, thanks to Bonito Club

Fábrica de Loiça de Sacavém

 Japanese New Year's Card, 1932, thanks to Aqua-Velvet

Edouard-Marcel Sandoz

Ceramiche Rometti, Rondini, 1936

An Angel Fish from Penrose magazine, 1930,

thanks again to The Visual Telling of Stories

Simona & Simone

I've been wanting to take some photos of these beautiful volumes since I bought them 

at the Bologna Book Fair, but only now I've found the time to actually do it.

Last year I had already posted about Topipittori, one of my favorite Italian publishers

of illustrated children's books, and this time at the fair I had a chat with its founders,

Giovanna Zoboli and Paolo Canton. Turns out that Paolo and I knew each other

when we were teenagers! Anyway, I really love what they do, and was very happy

to get a copy of the wonderful Vorrei avere signed by the artist SImona Mulazzani...

GIovanna Zoboli's Vorrei avere (I wish I had) is an ode to the beauty and wonder of animals

sung through the poetic words of a child enamored with nature. Mulazzani's enchanting

 illustrations interpret every verse with great sensitivity and a richness of visual inventions.

Love the endpapers with the illustration sketches!

I have also previously featured the works of SImone Rea, one of Italy's brightest young illustrators. 

His elegant paintings illustrate this new translation of Aesop's Fables with warmth 

and a wonderful sense of color and composition. 

Coincidentally, I have already posted the equally sophisticated Aesop interpretation 

by Jean-François Martin which won the Bologna Ragazzi Award this year.

To each his own, I love them both!