Monday, July 9, 2012

by Emily Temple. Posted on 12:00 pm Monday Jul 9, 2012
26

Ever since Chris Van Allsburg’s birthday last month, we’ve been feeling a surge of appreciation for the plethora of beautiful picture books in our lives. In fact, we think some of the loveliest illustrations we’ve ever seen have been in books (or maybe that’s just the association with a great story talking), so we decided to round up a few of the most beautiful children’s books — at least according to us. Keep in mind: we’re going for beauty, not iconic status — so Tenniel’s Alice drawings and a few other iconic, innovative illustrations, while dear to us, don’t make the cut. Leaf through our picks for the most mindblowingly beautiful picture books after the jump, and since we can only draw from our own personal knowledge and tastes, and we know there are scores upon scores of gorgeous children’s books out there (thank goodness), be sure to add any other favorites of yours to our list in the comments!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Illustrators' Envelopes

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 01:00PM

It's a bit of a tradition in the children's book industry that illustrators often send in post to their publishers with a little something drawn on the front of the envelopes they use. I first became aware of this tradition when I worked at Scholastic and Alison Green, who's published Axel Scheffler's and Julia Donnaldson's picture books over the years, showed me her extensive Axel Scheffler envelope collection. I was indeed wide-eyed with envy. Here are a few envelopes from other illustrators.

Axel Scheffler