Kiko

As a kid I was a well-known guest at our local library. At my high time I read about 10 books a week and I didn't need to show my library card, since they knew my name anyway. One of the authors I read was Klaus Kordon, so I was stunned when Beltz asked me to illustrate a book by him. Me? Just moments ago I've been 9 and now I switched sides. Strange in a good way! So, why do I tell you this? Well, the book came out this week and I'm curios to see how this white, little monkey will do out there. Here is a small glimpse:

And here you can find a small description of Kiko's story.

Juli

How did this happen??? Half of the year is gone! 6 months!! Old people always complain about time being so fast and the older I get, the more I know what they mean. But, hey, it's still summer!! A happy, warm hello to July! Just so you know, dear July: We are having great expectations!

Oh my…

I respect my mother – Found this in the paper trash today. Wonder what's the story behind it and why the child had to write it. It seems a bit harsh and old-fashioned to let a child write a sentence over and over (and let him/her use »mother« instead of »mum«). So, I guess, someone was veeery angry.

Trade

Papa is a tree

Today's International Children's Day and tomorrow we celebrate Father's Day. How fitting! So, hooray to all the dads and kids (and mums, of course) and to all the ones, that don't fit in any of these categories! Tomorrow is Ascension Day as well, which means a looong free weekend for the most of us. So, another big hooray, hooray, hooray! And an even bigger sorry for sun's unregular visits here on the blog. My analogue life keeps me busy and away from blogging. Hope, this gets better soon.

Eurovision

Sun's Eurovision Party last night ended in tears. Everyone wanted them to win.

Drahtesel…ähm, pferd

It's time to feel wild and free on the bike again! This week's topic at Illustration Friday seemed just fitting.

Eggciting

Happy Easter!

Easter eggs

Easter preparations! Sun painted some eggs today. I have some Easter links for you to get in the mood too: Origami Bunny Box Easter Bunny Macarons Cute little Easter Card by Marie Geissler. I will probably lack the time, but maybe you would like to make a little Pompom Bunny? They are cute! There are a PDF. and a video on the site to watch how it's done. I couldn't eat them! A recipe for Osterbrötchen by BastisRIKE.

Sun roof

Wonderful sunday. No fever, a nice brunch with Sun on a roof top and afterwards some lovely finds on the fleamarket. What about you? Having fun too?

Outside

Resurfacing. Not only all the colours and smells and bird's songs arise again, but also me. I brought a mean virus flu back from Bologna, so I missed the first days of bloom and stayed in bed with a fever (that's why Sun was missing on Sunday). Even more so was I astounded yesterday how progressed everything is. Oh happy spring time! Some goodies I found: I wanna make myself these wings! I love Giula Sagramola's Family Album. He is soooooo cuuuuute!!!! *Gnaaaaaaaaaaa* Although it seems the blog stopped last autumn, I still have fun looking through this street style blog ;) The Catorialist! I can totally feel with this little ballerina. I wanna be their groupie! Have a wonderful weekend. Und alles, alles Gute Mama!!! :)

Bologna treasures

As I promised here are my personal gems that I found at the bookfair in Bologna. Be prepared for a rather long post! First is an awesome pop-up-book by the publisher Helium Editions, that became instantly one of my favourite publishing companies when I drooled over nearly every book at their fairstand. »Dans la forêt du paresseux« is published by Helium Editions and illustrated by Anouck Boisrobert. She also illustrated Popville, where a town grows throughout the book. In »Dans la forêt du paresseux« a rainforest is cleared, but a gardener's seeds bring it back. Beautiful, isn't it? And here is a video, so you can better see how awesome it's constructed. With every turn of a page your mouth drops even more. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . And here comes the next book by Helium, the forest plays a role in it too. »Adieu Chaussette« by Benjamin Chaud (if you find a page of him, please tell me!). As much as I understand the French text, the story seems to be about a boy and his rabbit (with oh so cute ears!), whom he abandones in the woods, because a rabbit is just too boring as a pet, but soon he regrets it. I like how Benjamin Chaud draws the forest and his characters are just too cute, especially this chubby rabbit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Helium book No.3 (as I said, I became a fan ;) »Á quoi penses-tu?« by Laurent Moreau. I like her style and I was thrilled by the use of paper flaps in the book. By turning them you can see what every person is thinking. One person thought of nothing, so there was just the blank space when you turned the flap. Great idea! See: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *cough* Helium again, and another book by Laurent Moreau: »Les Beaux instants«. A gorgeous colouring book with a beautiful use of blue and black. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Collections of things popped up in the blogosphere a while ago, but more and more it seems to become a topic in children's book too. I found many books that were about certain collections and then had beautiful double spreads showing all the things side by side. One of them is »Sånt som er« by Svein Nyhus and published by Gyldendal. Eli is collecting things and then puts them into categories, that are shown on the right side (like wet, old, hard etc.) Here is an interesting blogpost (in Norwegian, I translated it with Google) by Svein Nyhus about developing the book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Another book, that I liked (and bought right away), has been »Miasteczko Mamoko« which has been made by the Czech designer duo Aleksandra and Daniel Mizielińscy. They founded a studio called »Hipopotamstudio« and already did some great books. It has this quirky line style, that so reminds me of my Eastern European children's books that I had as a child. And since I like busy picture books anyway, it got high on my list. You can follow the characters throughout the pages and one can search for all the apples, that the turtle has lost because of a hole in her bag which she discovers at the first page. By the way, is there an English word for the German »Wimmelbuch«? Does anyone know? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . And last but not least there is »Crazy Pic-Nic«, published by »Les apprentis rêveurs« and illustrated by Chamo. The crazy picnic consists of a leporello that shows a picnic. The guests (e.g. a camel drinking lemonade through a straw and other cool characters) are stickers that the kid can apply to the scene. »Les apprentis rêveurs« has some cool colouring posters too (e.g. by Magali Le Huche) which you can find here. Have a nice weekend!