Exquisite Monsters

Illustration from L'abécèdaire de la colère

As soon as I first saw the artworks of Swiss illustrator Emmanuele Houdart I was captivated

by their beauty and originality. Houdart was born in Geneve, where she studied art, and later moved to Paris

to pursue her career as an illustrator. SInce then she has illustrated over twenty children's books, 

some written by her and others by authors like Laëtitia Bourget. 

Houdarts' surreal worlds are populated with a strange variety of monsters and hybrid creatures,

fantastical representations of her inner dreams, thoughts and emotions.

Illustration from Les choses que je sais, 2003

Some of her books have won important prizes, including the 2005 Bologna Ragazzi Award for Monstres Malades. 

Illustration from L'apprentissage amoreux, 2005

Les voyages merveilleux de Lilou la Fée, 2006

Houdart creates her illustrations with felt-tip pens, a technique which leaves very little space

 for mistakes. Often she utilizes a very restrained color palette, which I find both elegant

 and powerful. I love her illustrations colored in shades of red and green.

Dedans, 2006

L'abécèdaire de la colère, 2008

Tout va bien Merlin!, 2009

Illustration from Saltimbanques, 2011

By the way, it's going to be a very French February here at Animalarium...

Alphabet Soup

Feodor Rojankovsky from Animal tales, 1944, thanks to art.crazed

Having fun with some favorite artists and books and a few new ones...

Alphabeasties

Bruno Munari's ABC

Jessica Hische at the Daily Drop Cap

Paul Thurlby

Virginia Tiffany, ABC, 1967 thanks to Try-whistling-this

Sebastiano Ranchetti

Patrick Hruby, ABC is for Circus,  thanks to Delicious industries

  1970s matchbox cover, thanks to Grain Edit

Lucho Rodgriguez

C. B. Falls, The Book of ABCs, 1923

thanks to Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves

 Lotta Bruhn

Flora Chang at Happy Doodle Land

Art Seiden, The Nonsense Alhabet, 1959

thanks to try-whistling-this

Grace Gabler, A Child's Alphabet, c.1945, thanks to Chris Mullen

Lisa Dejohn

Art Seiden, My ABC Book, 1953

Vladimir Radunsky, An Edward Lear Alphabet

Cornelius DeWitt, The Little Golden ABC, 1951

Patric Hudson, Circus Alphabet, 1954

thanks to Julia Bailey

Tana Hoban, 26 Letters and 99 Cents

 Iwona Chmielewska

Staffan Wiren, thanks to P–E Fronning

Ema Pinner, Animals from A to Z, thanks again to Chris Mullen

William Wegman, ABC

The ABC's of Origami: Paper Folding for Children 

by Claude Sarasas, 1964, thanks to Kindra is here

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?