Dr. Seuss is forever entrenched in the upper pantheon of children's books writers. Many of the 46 children's books he wrote still have a place on our kids bookshelves. From Cat In The Hat to Hop on Pop to Green Eggs and Ham his stories are part of the fabric of many a childhood. His books have sold over 600 million copies, and appear in more than 20 languages. In 2000, Publishers Weekly compiled a list of the best-selling children's books of all time; of the top 100 hardcover books, 16 were written by Dr. Seuss! World Telegram & Sun photo by Al Ravenna. For...
Urban Planning through Kids Books
Kauser Razvi, an urban planner and part of the team at Strategic Urban Solutions, would like to transform a few vacant lots in Cleveland into mini-wonderlands for kids.The project is called Literary Lots and thankfully it has already met its initial funding goal.Here's what Ravi has in mind:Literary Lots is a program that ‘brings books to life’ in vacant lots in Cleveland. Working with the Cleveland Public Libraries and LAND Studio, Literary Lots will transform 2 to 4 vacant lots adjacent to libraries into six-week summer program spots for children in inner-city Cleveland. Between June and August 2013, local artists...
Pride and Predjudice: An infant primer
It took 200 years to get it to 12 words.Welcome to Cozy Classics a new series from Simply Read Books that they hope "will invigorate the genre of the infant primer".The concept:Transform the classics into word primers. Every book contains 12 child-friendly words, each accompanied by a needle-felted illustration. Each word is carefully selected to relate to a child’s world and works even without any reference to the original. "If you, as a parent, can fill in some of the original tale as part of the reading experience, so much the better!...The Cozy Classics website also offers parents story synopses, quotes, and other...
The Sketchbook of Oliver Jeffers and Friends
In 2004, NY artist Oliver Jeffers, would exchange a sketchbook with 3 other artists and follow one another's lead with a weekly illustration. Over the course of 36 weeks, each would respond to the previous artwork which proceeded them and then forward it onto the next in line. Once completed, the sketchbook had travelled over 60,000 miles, and crossed the Atlantic on numerous occasions. So I wonder who was the lucky person who got to keep this wonderful sketchbook in the end?The finished sketchbook with decorative duct tape binding. Jeffers is also the writer and illustrator of one of my favorite contemporary...
The Golden Rules of Typography
The Golden Alphabet; or Parent's Guide and Child's Instructor, published by Robert Taylor. This extremely rare miniature alphabet book from 1846 contains some beautiful decorated initials, followed by several pages of rhymes and moral platitudes for parenting and instruction of children. Based on these three images, I can only presume that Taylor was a far better evangelist than he was a printer or typesetter. Damn the wordspacing and to hell with letterspacing! The word kern must have been just a four-letter word to Taylor. If only he would have listened to his printer's devil and followed some of the golden rules of typography—but then this...