New Kids' Book by Bob Staake--And a Trailer Sneak Peek

The preview for Bob Staake's new book, Bluebird, has just premiered. The beautiful, wordless book tells the story of a boy, a bird, and some bullies. It is aimed at the 4 to 8 crowd.  The book was launched this past week by Random House’s Schwartz & Wade imprint. 

Please view the trailer at the bottom of this post!

 Bluebird is a complete departure for Staake who has written or illustrated more than 55 children’s books, is a New Yorker cover artist, and has done illustrations for a variety of publications, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and the Wall Street  Journal. 

 When asked in an interview by Sally Lodge, he said the following: 

 

In  2002, I was walking around Central Park on a quintessentially gorgeous spring day. The trees were flowering and the light was perfect. And there was a bird that seemed to be following my path. And I thought, “I’ve got do something here. There must be a way to capture this moment in a book.” And as I walked along, I thought about how to take this simple, lyrical moment and tell it in a story – with no words.

Kirkus Reviews assessment: "Like nothing you have seen before." Is it Bob's magnum opus? I'd say "yes.. so far." Who knows what he'll do next?

 He does all of his illustration work using a pre-OS X version of the Macintosh operating system and Photoshop 3. He doesn't use a stylus, and instead does everything with a mouse.  His new trailer, seen at the bottom of the post, was premiered by Boing Boing.  

 Kirkus Reviews says of the book:  "Like nothing you have seen before."  Take a look, and see what you think of Bok Staake's new offering.