I think I’ve done very well letting three weeks go by before succumbing to the temptation to recommend the new Emily Gravett. You probably know her already from books like Orange Pear Apple Bear and Wolves, and all the things that made those books great are in evidence in her latest, Dogs. The simplicity, the economy, the humour, but above all those beautiful, warm and wittily expressive animal watercolours; each dog in this collection (slow dogs and fast dogs, big dogs and small dogs...) is drawn in lovely lines and given wonderfully characterful facial expressions – they’re as like real dogs as a picture can get, and will remind you of dogs you know, and indeed people you know too. It’s towards the younger end of Emily’s work, on a par with, say, Monkey and Me rather than Wolves or Meerkat Mail, with a very basic read-aloud text with a good gag at the end – but whatever your child may think of it, it’s really the pictures that you’ll love looking at yourself. Emily Gravett is an incredibly talented picture-book artist, and this is her at her best.
Recommended by Daniel Hahn
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1 comment:
I love it, I am such a fan of Emily Gravett's. What I find amazing about her work is that she has two disctincitve styles: the style found in Wolves, Spells, and Book of fears and the more gentle style of Meerkat Mail, Monkey and Me, Orange Pear .. and this one. Her next one, "The Rabbit Problem" sounds great too. It takes a great talent to be able to do this.
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