Sunday Safari - Cat & Mouse

Ulisse Aldovrandi, c. 1580, thanks to Arthur Van Kruining

Carlos Marchiori, illustration from Sally Go Round the Sun, 
thanks to Michael DeForge

Tomek Bogacki

Romain Simon, illustration from Le Cheval à Bascule, 1949

Bruno Munari

Illustration from Fledgling magazine, thanks to 50 Watts

Daty Healy, Cat Tales from Many Lands, 1932, and
Adrienne Adams, Mary's Marvelous Mouse, 1962, thanks to Curio Books

Felttess, Philosopher Cat

Garth Williams, illustrations from The Cricket in Times Square and 
The Kitten Who Thought He Was A Mouse, thanks to my friend Carlotta

Iliane Roels, illustration from The Mouse, 1969, thanks to art.crazed

Janusz Grabianski

Iwona Chmielewska

Ruth Hurlimann, illustration from The Cat and Mouse Who Shared a House 
thanks to The Art of Children's Picture Books

swig - filz felt feutre, Chat et Rat 

Bologna finds - Iwona Chmielewska

For a lucky coincidence, as I was about to leave the Korean publishers booth 

at the Bologna Book Fair my friend Giovanni from libriliberi (the best children's

 bookstore in Firenze, not to miss when you're in town) pointed out to me Thinking ABC.

 Having immediately fallen in love with it, I was delighted to find out that I could

 actually buy it, since most books at the fair are not for sale, and I have found myself

 before begging in vain to obtain a copy of a precious new discovery.

Iwona Chmielewska created this unique alphabet book in which every word is illustrated 

in the shape of its initial letter. And for every letter of the alphabet there are ten

 different full page illustrations! As usual, I picked the ones representing animals, but

 scanned the whole double spread for you to enjoy. The artworks are charming, delicate,

 whimsical and witty, and the author's imagination seemingly boundless. Thinking ABC

 won a Golden Apple award at BIB, the Bratislava Biennal of Illustration, in 2007. 

Iwona is a writer, designer and illustrator from Poland, but apparently she is best known and

 loved in Korea, where Nonjang has published five of her very smart, illustration-packed volumes

 (one more, An Accident, is coming out next month). As I researched the web for more information,

 I could only find that another of her books, The blue stick, was recently published in Spanish

 by Grupo Océano. Will any other international publisher please take notice?