"Little Blue" by Gaye Chapman
Published in 2009 by
Little Hare Books36 pages, Ages 4-8
This book was borrowed from the library for the purpose of reading/reviewing.
My granddaughter and I both loved this book.
The words of the story are encased on each page, leaving the largest part of the pages for the illustrations.
The illustrations are breathtakingly beautiful, the dreamy colors of watercolor blues and greens are used throughout the story. Great attention to the details of rain drops, bubbles, hidden pictures in the trees, cupid bow lips on the children and their sweet facial expressions.
The story is of a little lost girl that meets a little boy, each share of where they live. It is a simple story, the ending is a delightful twist.
This book was first published in 2008 in Australia, but according to Amazon it was published in 2009 (I am thinking this was the date for America.)
Blissful Reading!Annette
Continuing our series of illustrator posts, today we feature Australian Gaye Chapman.
Gaye is a well-respected painter with an international reputation, but beyond her painterly skills, she’s also had what she feels is the ideal life for a children’s book illustrator. Her bush childhood remains an inspiration. Childhood dreams of a life full of travel, art and adventure have been fulfilled. “I have sailed in an Indonesian fishing boat around the Arafura Sea, jumped out of airplanes, designed posters for the National Theatre in London, hitch-hiked through the Sumatra, motor-biked across Java, lived with a hill-tribe in Morocco and been artist-in-residence in a rainforest,” she reports.
“I use any materials at all to make a picture, including real objects like mud, feathers and grass,” Gaye says. “I then cut out my finished paintings and paste them down again in new ways.” Her work has an Asian feel. She collaborates with serious writers getting across important ideas. In her first children’s book, Heart of the Tiger (2004) with Glenda Millard, a tiger sacrifices himself to bring green back to the earth. Breakfast with Buddha (2005), with Vashti Farrer, recounts the saga of a proudly independent cat who learns humility from monks in a temple. Kaito’s Cloth (2007), again with Glenda Millard, is a delicately rendered study of loss.
