Amazing Animal Facts / Roland
Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to ...
Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.
50 COLLECTIBLE POSTCARDS PERFECT FOR ANIMAL AND ART LOVERS TO SHARE MAJA SÄFSTRÖM’S CHARMING ILLUSTRATIONS
Amazing Animal Facts Postcards: 50 Colorable Postcards
by Maja Säfström
Clarkson Potter; Box Pos edition
2016, 50 cards, 6.4 x 2 x 4.4 inches
Instead of recipes for ambrosia, chow mein, or Green Bean Bunwiches, this card file box holds charming drawings of zebras, sloths, cockroaches, and flamingos (some are more charming than others), all taken from Maja Säfström’s book The Illustrated Compendium of Amazing Animal Facts.
The box contains fifty postcards: two copies of five each from the sea, forest, field, jungle, and sky (which includes chickens, somehow).
The black and white line art can be left as is, or would be excellent for coloring before mailing — maybe your correspondent would like a neon green sea otter, or a beaver colored flying through outer space.
– Sara Lorimer
FRENCH GRAPHIC DESIGNER BRINGS ALIVE A STORY ABOUT A LITTLE BOY WITH A HUGE IMAGINATION
Roland
by Nelly Stephane, André François (Illustrator)
Enchanted Lion Books
2016, 36 pages, 8.3 x 0.5 x 11.8 inches, Hardcover
Originally published in 1958, Roland, a magical, witty story about a day in the life and imagination of a little boy, was reissued by Enchanted Lion Press in November. It all starts when Roland shows up late to school and is sent to stand in a corner where he draws a tiger on the wall. With a simple word, Crack!, the tiger comes to life. There is no explanation of the boy’s life-giving power and little in the way of shock by the other minor characters who encounter his creatures. It isn’t needed. Because author Nelly Stephané and illustrator André François simply know and trust the imagination to be true, the reader, too, is convinced and is immediately along for the ride.
Through François’s illustrations, both simple and incredibly detailed, we join Roland as he tromps, chases, and dives in and out of school, town, and home, conjuring up a menagerie of playmates. A zebra sketch bounds off the page, a fur coat becomes a bevy of “fur animals,” a fish is found, pocketed, and shined back to life with a smile. There is something about that Crack! with which Roland turns boredom into mischief. As if he is not creating something out of nothing, not summoning an imaginary friend, but actually waking us up into a different, better reality in which worries or dread get snapped into shape, into the things our brains actually deserve: friends, adventure, and a belief in magic.
– Mk Smith Despres
01/7/25
