Synopsis This book contains 26 images, chosen by Quentin Blake while he was Children’s Laureate, and tasked to do ‘whatever he felt appropriate’. It’s paperback, full colour, and each image is a starting point for a whole world of stories.

Review: This book is fantastic! It is organised only by the alphabetical order of the artist’s name, so that one minute we are looking at Avercamp – a sixteenth century skating scene, and the next moment we’re seeing Burningham’s illustration of a boy watching a train at night. The pictures have been chosen simply because Quentin Blake likes them; and he likes them because they seem to tell stories. There is a minimum of information at the back, but the commentary is deliberately left separate, so that it doesn’t interfere with the viewer making up their own mind about the image.

I would suggest that this book is essential for every primary teacher; you could build an English and Art lesson around each painting. Even KS3 would find this book valuable. It’s ideal for the non-specialist because it’s about the stories in the images, not the art itself. However, even the specialist art teacher will be inspired as the images chosen are not the common ones. Blake has mixed in illustrators with the more conventional artists, and it’s a delightful mix of the mysterious, the intriguing and the fascinating.

2008-05-25