There are thousands of really cool and creative pieces of art found in children's books. It helps when the illustrations are paired with a good story, but it's always the artwork that draws me in. I think it is sometimes overlooked that children's books are marketed towards adults just as much as kids. Adults have the money and purchase books and adults are the ones who have to read them (over and over and over and ...you get the point.) The best authors and illustrators will throw their adult audience an occasional bone. Well-developed characters, humor, adventure, interesting artwork, colorful prose, and practical life-lessons are appreciated by both kids and adults. This is a subject that I'll visit again.
Here are some of our favorites:
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from Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard
A bird in a bad mood has an attitude adjustment as he encounters his animal friends. Wonderful digital collage style artwork and reading in a grumpy voice is so much fun!
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from I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry
A bragging squid gets what's coming to him when he is swallowed by (spoiler) a whale. He takes it all in stride, though. It is a big, fun ,and colorful book.
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from "Stand Back" Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze" by Patricia Thomas and Wallace Tripp
A funny rhyming story with great illustrations by Wallace Tripp. This was one of my favorites as a kid.
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from Dodosaurs by Rick Meyerowitz and Henry Beard
Great illustrations and very sophisticated humor. The subtitle of the book is The Dinosaurs That Didn't Make It. The above illustration, for example, shows the Paranoiasaurus and two Hypnosaurs (the one on the left hypnotized itself to death). Good stuff.
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