Best illustrated books all over the world
The main character of the picture book “Angus Lost” is a little Scottish Terrier. Artist and writer Marjorie Flack began creating picture books about Angus in 1930 — not by chance, but because she was simply drawing her own dog, her neighbors’ animals, and real events from their lives. That’s […]
French-born illustrator Edmund Dulac brought a sense of enchantment and quiet mystery to everything he touched, and this book is no exception. The collection includes some of Andersen’s most beloved fairy tales — among them The Snow Queen, The Nightingale, and The Emperor’s New Clothes — all reimagined through Dulac’s […]
Original title: Приключения барона Мюнхаузена Almost every book illustrated by Mikhail Maiofis becomes a notable event in the world of book graphics, reflecting the artist’s imagination, inventiveness, and genuine talent. His style is immediately recognizable, with a distinctive visual signature that allows readers to say at once, “This is Maiofis!” […]
“The Tale of Petya, the Fat Child, and Sima, the Thin One” was published by Moskovsky Rabochy in 1925 and became Vladimir Mayakovsky’s first children’s book. The poem tells the story of Petya, the repulsive son of a bourgeois, and Sima, the virtuous child of a proletarian blacksmith. It spans […]
The Nine Lives of Aristotle by Dick King-Smith, illustrated by Bob Graham, tells the story of a small, fearless kitten living with a kind witch named Bella Donna. Aristotle rushes headfirst into every possible danger — tumbling down chimneys, spilling milk jugs, falling into rivers, and escaping dogs and trains. […]
A rhythmic, explosive picture book where pattern, sound, and color march together. Drummer Hoff retells an old folk rhyme about soldiers who build a grand cannon — the Sultan — and the drummer who fires it. Ed Emberley’s woodcut illustrations pulse with energy: bright blocks of red, blue, and yellow […]
Leo Lionni’s The Alphabet Tree (1968) is a visual and conceptual experiment in storytelling through letters. The book presents tiny letters clinging to a tree, threatened by a fierce wind, and shows them gaining strength by forming words—and eventually sentences—with a message of peace. The illustrations use wide white spaces […]
The letter, almost like a living character, rushes across the pages: picked up by postmen, flying in airplanes, sailing on ships, riding on horseback, even sliding on sleds. Each time it finds a new messenger hurrying to deliver it to the right place. And though the letter is always a […]
Montresor’s illustrations in Mommies at Work are immediately striking. The original 1961 edition uses deep purples with bright yellow accents, giving each page a sketchy, almost theatrical feel. At first, the images seem to show the familiar — moms cooking, washing dishes, zipping coats — but as the book unfolds, […]
Beni Montresor’s illustrations for The Birthday of the Infanta and Other Tales feel like fragments of a stage performance. Every detail — from fabrics to gestures — follows the logic of theater. The figures don’t just pose; they act. Space, movement, and silence all play their part, as if the […]
In this wild, rhythmic picture book, Beatrice Schenk de Regniers spins a mischievous, folk-like tale full of repetition, humor, and absurdity. Beni Montresor’s vivid, expressionistic illustrations heighten the sense of heat, rhythm, and madness. His bold colors and surreal compositions match the feverish energy of the text, turning this simple […]
In this striking reinterpretation of the classic tale, Beni Montresor returns to Charles Perrault’s original, preserving its dark ending and omitting the moral. Inspired by Gustave Doré’s engravings, his theatrical illustrations transform the story into a symbolic meditation on innocence, danger, and transformation. Through layers of shadow and light, Montresor […]
War takes away words — they are simply not enough to express all the pain, grief, darkness, fear, and anger that come with it. The silence in Oleksandr Shatokhin’s wordless picture book “Yellow Butterfly” resounds louder than any scream. A little girl wanders through a black, threatening world, caught in […]
Jazz ABZ: An A to Z Collection of Jazz Portraits (Candlewick, 2005) is exactly what the title promises: 26 jazz greats, one for each letter of the alphabet. The words come from Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter, bandleader, and walking encyclopedia of jazz. Instead of writing mini-biographies, he plays with form. Each […]
Our belongings often carry more meaning than they first appear to. Over the years, many objects pile up in our homes, but some of them cannot be treated as mere things. Whatever form they take, we cannot bring ourselves to throw them away or replace them. They hold our memories, […]
Original title: Аня в стране чудес In Nabokov’s free translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the familiar story turns into something sharper and more enigmatic. Gennadiev’s illustrations follow this shift completely. His Wonderland is not whimsical but introspective — a place where dreams blur into unease. The figures seem caught […]
Robert Ingpen’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz feels like a rediscovery of a story we all think we know. His illustrations pull the reader back into the raw, original fairy tale — stranger, darker, and far more human than the film made it seem. The familiar yellow brick road turns […]
The nineteenth book in the Robert Ingpen Illustrated Classics series is Alice Through the Looking-Glass, with illustrations that the artist created on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Robert Ingpen is the only Australian illustrator to receive the highest award in […]
Robert Ingpen’s Alice feels like a dream you once had and half-remember still. His illustrations soften the strangeness, turning Carroll’s mad world into something quietly magical. Each picture seems to pause the story for a breath — just enough to let you look closer and find the wonder in the […]
The Hello, Goodbye Window was written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Chris Raschka. The story is told by a little girl who describes the special kitchen window at her grandparents’ house. It’s the place where she waves hello, says goodbye, and sometimes imagines whole adventures while looking through it. […]