Best illustrated books all over the world
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. […]
A timeless picture book about Max, a boy who sails to the land of the Wild Things and becomes their king. Maurice Sendak’s iconic story, blending sparse text with powerful illustrations, captures childhood imagination, mischief, and the comfort of home. Winner of the 1964 Caldecott Medal, it remains one of […]
Kintsugi is a Japanese art form of repairing broken pottery by covering the chipped area with urushi lacquer, with gold, silver, or platinum added. This tradition carries a special philosophy: the breakage is part of the life and history of the object, and should not be hidden. Issa Watanabe’s Kintsugi, […]
The forest is a vast world where all living and nonliving entities are interconnected, governed by their own laws and traditions. A secret underground network of fungi transmits signals, and animals maintain balance, keeping life in constant motion. Trees connect through their roots, forming a gigantic system that supports the […]
Not long ago, I wrote about how objects often carry more than just their material function — they hold memories, emotions, and the stories they witness. In “Per mille camicette al giorno”, Serena Ballista allowed such an object to tell its own story — the narrative is told from the […]
Original title: Мастер и Маргарита Kalinovsky’s Master and Margarita feels like a visual echo of Bulgakov’s novel — complex, polyphonic, and impossible to pin down. He didn’t try to create one “key” for the whole book; instead, he approached each layer — Jerusalem, Moscow, the love story, the demonic carnival […]
Little Alma stands in front of a mirror holding a cat — but in the reflection, she sees only the cat, hanging in midair. In her world, reality and imagination constantly intertwine. Spending the summer with her grandmother, near a cemetery, Alma increasingly reflects on life and death, loss and […]
Original title: Путешествия Гулливера This edition of Gulliver’s Travels features illustrations by Gennady Kalinovsky, who brings Swift’s story to life with careful attention to both thought and feeling. The Lilliputians are small but full of character—each one active, clever, and distinct. Gulliver’s presence makes their tiny world feel both real […]
Some books don’t give answers – instead, they offer endless questions, like a corridor of doors leading to the unknown. The Book of Questions, the last great work of Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, was written just a few months before his death in 1973. It is full […]
Original title: Ведьмы и все прочие Fairy tales by Annie Schmidt, the most famous children’s writer of the Netherlands, winner of the Andersen Gold Medal and many other literary awards. In the book “Witches and All the Others” she reworks famous fairy tale plots in an original way.
Original title: Мэри Поппинс In 1968 the Soviet Union published Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers with illustrations by Gennady V. Kalinovsky. His black-and-white drawings immediately stood out and later editions also included a selection of color plates. The book quickly became one of the most beloved editions of Travers’s […]