Best illustrated books all over the world
The Egg Tree is a quiet, classic picture book built around a family memory. Katy and Carl arrive at their grandmother’s Pennsylvania farm for Easter, and during the egg hunt Katy ends up in the attic. The six painted eggs she discovers there become the center of the story. They […]
Katherine Milhous (1894–1977) was an American artist, writer, and illustrator known for her bold graphic style and deep connection to Pennsylvania Dutch culture. She was born in Philadelphia and grew up in a Quaker family surrounded by craft traditions and printmaking, which shaped her visual language early on. Milhous studied […]
In 2007, the well-known actor and popular author Steve Martin together with Roz Chast, a witty cartoonist who had long and fruitfully collaborated with The New Yorker, decided to combine their efforts and creative abilities and came up with a humorous illustrated tour of the English alphabet. The Alphabet from […]
Rosalind “Roz” Chast (1954) is an American cartoonist best known for her long, ongoing collaboration with The New Yorker. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in a family of teachers. Drawing was part of her life from early childhood. Chast studied painting at the Rhode Island […]
In A Halloween Happening, a community of witches invites children to a Halloween party full of magical mischief. The witches build a giant tower of jack-o’-lanterns, complete with a batwing glider platform at the top, while preparing toad tarts, worm waffles, and candy bats. Adams’ dark, muted palette and detailed […]
Published in 2003, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers tells the story of Philippe Petit, a French street performer who walked a high wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Gerstein captures both the daring of the feat and the poetry of the moment […]
Mordicai Gerstein (1935-2019) was born in Los Angeles into a creative family and grew up drawing from an early age. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute, where he received traditional artistic training that later shaped his work both in books and in animation. In the beginning of his career, […]
A Tree Is Nice is a small book about something we usually walk past without thinking. Janice May Udry simply lists what a tree gives us — shade, fruit, a place to sit, branches to climb, leaves to play with. There’s no moral spelled out, no dramatic message. Just everyday […]
Marc Simont (1915-2013) was a Paris-born American artist, political cartoonist, and prolific illustrator of children’s books. Inspired by his father, Spanish painter Joseph Simont, Marc began drawing early. In 1935 he moved to New York, studied at the National Academy of Design, and served three years in the military. His […]
For decades, jazz has been inspiring musicians, artists, and writers in their work. Its special energy is unique and unmistakable, yet some gifted authors and illustrators have still managed to capture it in their books. These six works range from playful riffs to visual rhythms. Through words and art, the […]
Charles Perrault’s Puss in Boots has attracted generations of illustrators since its first publication in 1697 — and yet Fred Marcellino’s version still feels completely new. His cover alone breaks every convention: a witty feline face dressed in Renaissance finery stares straight at the viewer, without a single word of […]
At Grandma’s house in the countryside, it feels like stepping into another dimension, where there are fewer worries and cares, the food is the most delicious in the world, there are endless new things to do, and everything around is green and smells nice. The mountains look like whale bellies, […]
Alison Lester began illustrating books in 1986, and just four years later her Imagine broke all sales records in Australia, becoming the number-one children’s bestseller. And I can completely understand why. To my taste, this is exactly how an educational, illustrated children’s book should be. Lester seamlessly combines several techniques […]
Alison Lester (1952) is an Australian author and illustrator of children’s books. She grew up on a farm by the sea in Victoria, and later trained as a secondary arts teacher at Melbourne Teachers’ College. She started illustrating in 1979, initially working on other authors’ texts, and a few years […]
Miroslav Šašek (1916–1980) was a Czech writer and illustrator best known for his iconic “This Is…” series. Šašek was born in Prague and, after finishing secondary school, enrolled at the School of Architecture, Graphics, and Painting at the Czech Technical University. Trained as an architect, he worked for a Prague […]
Starry, Starry Night is a picture book about friendship and the beauty of the world, published in 2009. Taiwanese illustrator Jimmy Liao breaks from the usual picture book format: instead of the standard 32 or 48 pages, this book spans 136 pages, filled with full-spread and panoramic illustrations. The idea […]
Jimmy Liao (born 15 November 1958) is a Taiwanese illustrator and author of books for children and adults. He graduated from the Chinese Culture University with a degree in design and spent twelve years working in advertising, including as art director at Ogilvy & Mather, before turning to freelance illustration […]
The Museum of Me by British artist Emma Lewis — winner of the 2017 Bologna Ragazzi Opera Prima Award — offers an unusually sincere, child-eye view of what a museum is and why it exists in the first place. A little girl wanders through all kinds of galleries (there’s even […]
Sylvester loves collecting pebbles — small treasures that usually don’t change anything. But one day he finds a red one, and the world shifts just a little: suddenly any wish can take shape. In a moment of fear things go wrong, and Sylvester ends up quite literally out of reach. […]
William Steig (1907–2003) — an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, and illustrator of children’s books. Among his most famous works are Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Abel’s Island, and Doctor De Soto. He is also the author of the picture book about Shrek, which later became the basis for the popular […]