Best illustrated books all over the world
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. […]
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 […]