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.

LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

As Abraham Lincoln's birthday was on February 12, let's look at a new book celebrating his most famous speech, The Gettysburg Address.

President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address 150 years ago, in late 1863; the text of that speech formed the basis for this picture book from James Daugherty, a Newbery-winning illustrator, which was first published in 1947.

The book opens with Daugherty’s original foreword, as well as the address in its entirety, before moving on to 15 paintings that depict

 muscled pioneers settling the American West, the bloody toll of the Civil War, and events well beyond Lincoln’s time, up through WWII.

The images have the heroic feel of WPA posters, as people from all backgrounds and ethnicities join together to embrace the hope and promise embodied in Lincoln’s speech. An afterword by Civil War scholar Gabor Boritt is new to this edition, as are brief guides to each painting.

KIRKUS REVIEW

Only a few presidential quotes or speeches have outlasted the test of time, and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is probably the most famous and most significant.

Originally published in 1947, this pictorial version has been updated with a new afterword by Gabor Boritt, a Civil War scholar, in time for the 150th anniversary of the speech. The original illustrations by Daugherty are brightly hued and hewn and dramatize the 15 sentences of Lincoln’s speech with great vigor in a style evocative of Depression-era WPA murals.

 In another picture-book depiction, Michael McCurdy’s black-and-white engravings (1995) contrast sharply and are forcefully composed, alternating between the action of battle and the quiet artifacts left behind. 

Daugherty’s heroic tableaux attack the emotions with highly symbolic imagery. “A new nation conceived in liberty” depicts two men, black and white, raising a flag while another white man unshackles a beaten, scarred slave; on the right, a woman, her children and her frontiersman husband look on; above all, a bald eagle flies into the sun. 

It is my hope some of you will take a look at this worthy book for children.  President Lincoln has long been a role model for people of all ages and of many nationalities as well.