THE FIRST BOOK OF CONGRESS

If vintage children's books were a drug, Mallory would be my dealer. Her etsy shop, Elwood & Eloise, is a frequent internet stop of mine and I always find something good. One of my more recent purchases was this book. Written by Harold Coy and illustrated by Helen Borten, it was published in 1956. I love the simple colour palette of the illustrations as well as reading through and finding all of the anachronistic sentences....because I'm a nerd ("The Senate, or upper house, consists of 96 Senators, two from each state.") It's kind of the same joy I get from listening to people speculating in old podcasts and thinking, "You have no idea! That's a real thing now!"

Mallory also shares illustrations from her vintage book collection (including the ones for sale in her shop) on her aptly named blog My Vintage Book Collection (in Blog Form).

WHAT MAKES AN ORCHESTRA

This book was an amazing find that I picked up at Bay View Books & Music a couple of weeks ago. Published in 1951, it was written and illustrated by Jan Balet. It walks through all of the instruments in an orchestra with fantastic sonic descriptions of the different tones elicited from each. I love the mix of line vs. shape in these illustrations as well as the patternwork in the various musicians suits. The expressions in each of the characters' body language and faces is also great (with the tambourine player being my personal favourite. He means business). Also has great endpapers to boot.

THE LATEST ADDITION TO MY BOOKSHELF

I've got quite the collection of illustrated children's books (when I signed up for a Barnes & Noble Kids Club card a little while ago, the woman at the desk seemed a little puzzled when I said I didn't actually have any kids) and I thought it might be fun to share my new additions every now and then. The Beetle Book by Steve Jenkins is my latest find. I have been enamoured with bug-forms ever since I made that beetle illustration for Oh Comely last year. Jenkins' beetle illustrations are stupendous. Both artful and scientific, they appear to be collaged of many different kinds of paper. My illustrations are usually built out of a bunch of digitally collaged segments of whatever I am depicting so I love looking at all of the pieces used to compose these beetles. Here are a few interior shots for you to oggle and the back cover (which is possibly my favourite part).