Taro Yashima

I missed a bunch of great holidays this month that I really wanted to celebrate so I'm going to cheat and go out of order. Sue me.

I recently (as in it was due at midnight last night and I started writing it at 7pm) had to write an essay on a children's book illustrator from a list that our teacher gave us. On it of course was Dr. Seuss and a couple other ones you may know but there were a couple who I had never heard of.

I wrote my paper on Taro Yashima, who wrote three Caldecott Honors books like Seashore Story(my fave of the ones I read), Umbrella and Crow Boy.

From Umbrella, found on Flickr

Taro doesn't draw the typical cartoony children's illustrations and I'm not gonna lie, at first I found his stuff a little creepy. (Most people have no faces except a couple of coal black eyes...) but then I read more and read about his life and started to appreciate it. I really recommend you check out Seashore Story, it's a Japanese folk tale and the ocean scenes are gorgeous.

I'll post about some more as the course goes on, but here is a blog that highlights some beautiful illustrations- The Art of Children's Picture Books.


so... HAPPY BELATED CHILDREN'S AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS WEEK!