Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Favourite Childhood Books

Listening to: M's cat purring on my lap

What were yours?

From the 'Favourite Childhood Books' thread on MGF.

I have a small collection of beautifully illustrated children's books, all bought as an adult from op shops :D I don't own any of my childhood books except two. The rest were op shopped away.

I think I was in grade 5 or so when Animalia came out. 'Our principal, Mr Tidy, is Graeme's uncle', we were were told as the librarian settled us down to read it to us. I was blown away by how intricate the illustrations were. I didn't own any of his books as a child but bought some as an adult. I love Graeme Base's illustrations. It's interesting to see how his style and technique has evolved since Animalia.

Green Eggs and Ham - my hard back copy was held together with tape as I recall, it was such a favourite.
The Wizard of Oz - Golden Book version.
The Hungry Caterpillar - beautiful colours and those holes through the pages were such fun!
Books by Jeannie Baker - tactile collages, photographed for illustrations. I'm still in awe of her work.
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Magic Faraway Tree - I had a collection of hardback Enid Blyton on my bed head shelf.
The Silver Crown by Robert O' Brien.
Snuggle Pot and Cuddlepie by May Gibbs.
World Tales - This is an enthralling collection of stories from around the world, a brief description of their history, interspersed with illustrations by a wide variety of artists, including Brian Froud (Labyrinth, Dark Crystal ). My parents gave this to their 'little book worm' :} back in 1984 or maybe 1981 I think, and I still have it. It's a book I'll always treasure.

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