An Illustrator's Favorite Picture Books

I am always trying to find new books to read and visiting the library is one of my favorite adventures. But I thought it would be fun for my first blog post to share three of my favorite picture books that I come back to for inspiration all the time. I have a couple of display shelves above my desk where I keep some of my favorite picture books. I change books out all the time, but these three books are almost always displayed prominently.

Once Upon A Cloud by Claire Keane

Once Upon A Cloud was published in 2015 by Dial Books for Young Readers (an imprint of Penguin Group). I must have bought it around that time because I have been enjoying it for a long time. I purchased it because I loved the illustrations, but I ended up reading it to my daughter over and over again because the story is so sweet and magical. I love how Claire Keane captures emotion and with her gestures and expressions. It is also interesting how she manages to keep the overall illustration loose and fresh while tightening up around her characters faces. I believe she did these illustrations traditionally with pastels. You can find this book on Amazon.

Pearl by Molly Idle

Pearl was published in 2018 by Little, Brown and Company. I actually purchased this book on my way to a regional SCBWI Conference in Utah several years ago. Molly Idle was presenting at that conference and I thought it would be fun to get a book signed. I ended up winning another one of her books in a drawing and she was so nice and offered to sign them both for me. She has won a Caldecott Honor for her book, Flora and the Flamingo, which is a beautiful book as well. She was an excellent speaker and very inspiring. I can't remember everything that she said I wish I would have blogged about it at the time, but I left feeling very inspired and excited about the Children's Book Industry. She works traditionally in colored pencil. I love how she manages to be so smooth in her rendering and so elegant in her shape design. You can find this book on Amazon.

Vamperina Ballerina by Anne Marie Pace, illustrated by LeUyen Pham

Vamperina Ballerina was published in 2012 by Disney, Hyperion Books. I believe this book was created before the Disney Jr. cartoon, but because it is published by Disney I am very curious about how it all came about. I included an image of the cartoon, so you can see how the character changed when it went to animation. I love LeUyen Pham's illustrations. They always make me smile. She is so skilled at capturing story and expressions and body language. I love this picture book. It so fun to see how she illustrated the spread of the cut-away house and filled every room with Vamperina practicing her ballet with different family members. It is the kind of book where kids don't want you to turn the page because they are still enjoying the visual story for so much longer than just reading the words. She captures entertaining expressions for every character in her illustrations. I keep coming back to this book because I learn so much from her characters. I believe she works traditionally with mixed media, but I think she also works digitally. I can't say for sure how these illustrations were created, but I believe that they are probably created in traditional media and then tweaked digitally. You can find this book on Amazon.