Wild About Shapes
Jérémie Fischer
Flying Eye Books
Clever design is at the heart of this intriguing book by an illustrator who is also a screen-printer and as such, is used to layering colour; and layering colour is the essence herein.
A running narrative leads and sometimes urges, readers through the playful book as they turn the alternating acetate and card pages to discover the nature of the animals whose shapes are artfully hidden thereon. ‘Quick! Look over there … ‘we are told and having turned the page, see a large butterfly resting on a flower.
On occasions it’s the animal on the receiving end of the exhortation as in …

and …

Sometimes we are given information snippets – ‘Some animals are afraid of nothing, ‘ or ‘Certain animals carry their homes on their backs’ for instance.
For sure, the final clever statement,

holds true and even more so after reading and re-reading this one. It’s as well the book is sturdily constructed as I envisage it will get a great deal of handling and is likely to prompt children into experimenting with shapes and acetate overlays.

Shape is an important consideration in this book by The Very Hungry Caterpillar creator and other artists:

What’s Your Favourite Animal?
Eric Carle and Friends
Walker Books pbk
We are introduced to a veritable menagerie in response to the title question of this anthology. Carle and thirteen other renowned picture book artists have contributed a double page spread rendition of his or her chosen member of the animal kingdom. Each person has added a short piece of prose or a poem about said animal and the variety of pictures and words adds up to a fascinating book and an excellent introduction perhaps, to the work of some of these illustrators of children’s books.
Each spread, in its unique way is both visually striking and verbally entertaining. I particularly like Chris Raschka’s snail, just because;

Mo Willems’ droll humour shines through loud and clear in …

Peter Sis’ Blue Carp for the dreamlike quality of his depiction and his seasonal piece about hope,

and Nick Bruel really made the most of the space with his very amusing celebration of the Octopus.

(What IS Bad Kitty doing intruding there and causing a fuss?)
The last few pages are devoted to thumbnail sketches of the contributors (those not previously mentioned are Tom Lichenheld, Peter McCarty, Rosemary Wells, Lane Smith, Jon Klassen, Susan Jeffers, Steven Kellog, Erin Stead and Lucy Cousins – only four women among them I notice, a spread about The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (the worthy recipient of the royalties from this book) and a final invitation to readers to respond to that title question: what are you waiting for?
Here are some children’s favourites …

 

 

 

and

 

Me, I’m going to find out about the one or two illustrators whose work I am not familiar with.

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