The 35-year-old comedian-actress is funny, sexy, fiercely feminist, and just goofy enough that you feel like she could be someone you know. There are so many reasons to love Jenny Slate. This entry was posted in Early Readers, Picture Books and tagged Jean Jullien, wordless books on by Mrs. PS This short video about Jullien is totally worth watching. This is a board book that a two-year-old can enjoy, an eight-year-old will giggle over and a fully-grown lover of modern design will marvel at. Each glossy page exhibits a beautiful economy of words and lines, everything meaningful, nothing superfluous. There’s often a missing piece to his scenarios- a beat of the story that’s implied but not spelled out. It’s not all as straightforward as simple cause and effect. Jullien plays with the predictability of the pairings, delivering narratives that are by turns funny, surprising and even thought provoking. After: the cat is clean.īut naturally, the artist doesn’t leave it at that. The concept is simple - showing toddlers the meaning of “before” and “after.” Before: a dirty cat is licking its paw. Now, Phaidon has published his second book, Before & After, and it’s (dare I say it?) even better. With each spread, Jullien transformed the book into a series of whimsical objects: a laptop, a monster’s mouth, a tightrope, a naked rear end. Last year, Jullien published his first children’s book, the brilliant This is Not a Book, which played with the simple physicality of a rectangular board book. And Jullien found himself the unexpected object of media attention after he Instagrammed his simple, powerful image of the Eiffel Tower crossed with the peace symbol right after the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks. There was this powerful illustration following the violence in Ferguson, MO. Sometimes his images are unapologetically political. He’s a creative prankster who transforms familiar scenarios into a witty commentary on contemporary life. Sometimes his observations are gentle and funny, like this one: His lines are loose, his colors are bold and his people have U-shaped noses. Everything he draws has the effortless appeal of a perfect chocolate chip cookie.īut Jullien, who lives in London and contributes to The New Yorker and The New York Times, really trades in ideas. Even if the publisher missed out on titling the book “You’re No Second Banana.” Ha ha.įrench illustrator Jean Jullien’s drawings are simple, friendly and naive in style. It’s one of those sweet, sing-songy, soothing books that don’t need a plot. I love that it exists. It reminds the kid that they were the first to crawl, the first to sing, the “first to lift your head, to look at the trees and flowers and sky.” Underlying message: “Be nice to the new baby! She’s got nothin on you!” The book, with lovely illustrations by Stephanie Graegin, is a prose poem that parents of any color can read aloud to help prepare their toddler for a baby on the way. Of course, You Were the First isn’t explicitly about being a multiracial child of Asian or Pacific Islander descent (feel free to use the term hapa). Which seems nuts when you think about it because there are so damn many of us these days, and, well, we love books. It’s just that you don’t often come across a book for kids featuring a mixed-race white and Asian family. I was VERY excited to come across this book, and not just because it’s by Patricia MacLachlan (of Sarah, Plain and Tall fame).
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