Best illustrated books all over the world
Mysterious Thelonious is Raschka’s tribute to jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. The book uses just twelve colors, lined up like the twelve notes of the scale. The short, repeating text and loose, abstract images follow the shape of Monk’s music — playful, surprising, and a little strange at first, but full […]
Chris Raschka’s The Blushful Hippopotamus (1996) is about a little hippo named Roosevelt. He blushes easily, especially when things go wrong or he feels clumsy. At first, his older sister teases him, and she looks so big on the page that Roosevelt seems tiny and unsure. He has a friend, […]
This book feels more like music than a story. Chris Raschka takes a few simple words — “Charlie Parker played be bop” — and mixes them with playful sounds and rhythms that bounce across the page like a saxophone solo. The text begs to be read out loud, chanted, or […]
Chris Raschka’s Elizabeth Imagined an Iceberg (1994) is an unusual picture book. A girl named Elizabeth rides her bike and encounters a strange woman called Madam Uff Da, who behaves in a pushy, unsettling way. Elizabeth feels uncomfortable and threatened. To cope with her fear, she imagines an iceberg—huge, cold, […]
Arlene Sardine follows a small fish with a peculiar goal: she wants to become a sardine in a can. The story traces each step of her path — she is caught, sorted, salted, smoked, and packed in oil, until her plan is realized. The handwritten text moves with her thoughts, […]
Can’t Sleep, written by Chris Raschka, is a quiet story about a little bear who just can’t fall asleep. His friend, an older bear, stays with him — talking softly, offering comfort, and reminding him that it’s okay to rest when he’s ready. The book is very gentle, almost like […]