01/02/07
17The Incredible Book Eating Boy
Every now and again, you come across an artist so fresh and exciting, you can’t help but evangelise others about them. One such discovery is Oliver Jeffers, a surpremely talented illustrator who uses realia as the basis for much of his work. Leigh had picked up his book The Incredible Book Eating Boy, and we looked on in awe.
Take a look at these spreads, where you can see how the pages started off as books folded out flat, and then painted on top of:
As a nice touch the back half of the book has the bottom left corner pre-bitten:
Be sure to have butchers at his portfolio and sketchbooks, and the book his highly recommended, whether you have children or not!
Tags: art, books, illustrators
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Joshua Marshall said 616 days ago:
That’s absolutely gorgeous!
I bought How To Catch A Star for my friends 8 month old son (he’ll grow into it!) and I’ll definitely have to pick up this one for him too.
Lovely stuff.
Kate Bolin said 616 days ago:
Oh, that’s awesome.
For Christmas, I got The Octonauts and the Lonely Monster
I was so overwhelmed by the cuteness, I had to go lie down in a totally un-cute room, for fear of overexcitement.
Jon Hicks said 616 days ago:
Thanks Kate – that looks excellent!
Christian said 616 days ago:
Thinking back to the books I read as a child, I loved even back then beautiful and complex illustration. Obvious Theodore Geisel is a giant in this area, but I also enjoyed the work of the early Warner Bros. and Disney animation studios as well as the books of Bill Peet and a relatively unknown author/illustrator named Bruce Angrave. I’m glad to see that the tradition of visually rich illustration in children’s books is still alive and well, and being carried forward.
Keith said 616 days ago:
Very nice stuff. Thanks for the recommendation! I love this kind of stuff…
Scott said 616 days ago:
Kate’s right on the money. I just got that for Gillian a few weeks ago – sure, she’s still a bit young for it, but it’s a great book. Definitely going to have to grab this one though.
Mmm…books!
Daniel said 616 days ago:
I picked up the same book for a friends son, at Christmas, for exactly the same reason. The illustrations in there are amazing and very inspiring. My niece also got a copy of the same book. Looks as if it is a true world wide seller.
Kev mears said 616 days ago:
Cheers Jon, though I will have to go an through my pencils in the bin for a while.
Alan O' Rourke said 616 days ago:
I got this very book for my 6 month old son for christmas. Of course i am never letting him touch such a thing of beauty but he can look at me reading it :)
Anthony Baker said 616 days ago:
Brilliant! The missus and I are going to have to get this one right quick. Looks wonderful.
Logan, our boy (almost 3) has a huge thing for flash cards and when he was younger had chewed the edges of some of them. When we show him those cards today and ask him who ate the card, he bursts out “Logan did!”
He’s going to love seeing the chewed edges of this book.
kevadamson said 615 days ago:
Wah wah woo wah!
Inspired!
Gonna buy a new sketch book and get scibblin’ ...
Dennis said 614 days ago:
Wow really good!
irisz said 614 days ago:
The most beautifully done picture book ever!!! I love O. J. ’s works, and i think this is the best one. I’ve just bought this book last week and I found a signed print in the book!!!
Automotive said 613 days ago:
Nice design and book. It reminds me Van Gog. His surrealistic drawings…
Mitch Robertson said 612 days ago:
Wow, looks likde Little Prince, but eating books
Dan Matthew said 611 days ago:
Little bit concerned that I bought this for my partner, yet everybody else who has commented has at least had children for an excuse! Ah well! Very pretty book to leaf through, and imaginative too!
(PS, when I tabbed from the Name field to e-mail, I was sent all the way back to the navigation header… Firefox 2.01 on XP)
Cheers, Dan
lib said 603 days ago:
I think this person may have read “The Book Thief”. That’s exactly what the guy in the cellar did.