Illustrations, part 1

I have become obsessed with childrens' book illustrations. It started when I visited a used book store in Saratoga last winter, while visiting the in-laws. I saw this book, Rootabaga Stories, by Carl Sandburg, that had the best illustrations. I didn't buy the book then, but when we returned last weekend I went back to the store, hoping that the book was still there. It was. I bought it this time, thinking I was crazy to buy a book only for the illustrations. Here are some of the illustrations from the book that I scanned. I was thinking of scanning them in and then either printing them out and framing some, or using them as embroidery templates. We'll see if that ever happens.

Isn't this little traffic-directing monkey cute?
I just love the clouds in this one.
Ok, this one is a little crooked, but how can you not like hens in bonnets?

Even the little illustrations within the stories are cute. Look, buttons with faces!
And this one is nicely done, with the large white space at the bottom, and all the action smushed into the top third of the image.


I bought another book while there, since I looked in ALL the childrens' books for good illustrations. You would be surprised at how many old books for kids have no illustrations at all. What is the point?

I showed one to my husband, and he immediately recognized it as a book he used to have, because the pictures were immediately recognizable, even if the text or title does not trigger any memory.