Illustrating My Childhood

Over Thanksgiving my sister and I traded children's books.  She hadn't seen Contrary Jenkins by Rebecca Caudill and GI Ayars in a while and I was interested in seeing her Mercer Mayer illustrated books.  We grew up reading some great books with some excellent illustrations.  Our imaginations were groomed on these gems.

Check out Me And My Flying Machine by Marianna and Mercer Mayer.  Fanciful, detailed images that send your imagination flying.  While The Horses Galloped to London is just amazing.  The detail is stunning.  You could take any page, frame it and hang it on the wall.  There's An Alligator Under My Bed is another.  Although his illustrations are not as detailed as his older work. 

Another great artist to look out for is Hilary Knight of Eloise fame.  I didn't really discover Eloise until later in life.  The book that I grew up loving is The Animal Garden.  I still have it. It is tattered and falling apart but still has all the pages and has that great "old book" smell.  Written by Ogden Nash and includes a great character that has haunted me since childhood, Abidan, who resembles a dandylion.

I couldn't leave this without mentioning Richard Scarry.  At my sister's house I sat there and just starred at a couple of his books.  I love the full-page illustrations of a street scene with oodles of things happening all at once.  Just want to jump in there and join them.  Cats in suits, Lowly Worm!  Love it!