I introduce to you my 'Book of the Week' slot, wherein I present a book to you on a weekly basis a children's book with which I am enthralled. I'm not going to promise a particular day of the week... my available time slots are too erratic for that.
This week I bring to you 'Last Night' by Hyewon Yum, a picture book for ages 3-6 without words. I love books without words, see 'Wonder Bear' and 'The Zoo' in my kids booklist for other great books without words.
In 'Last Night', a little girl scowls at the vegetables on her plate, and is sent to her room by her mum. There she takes consolation from her teddy bear and cuddles up to sleep with him, whereupon, he comes to life and takes the little girl out on an adventure into the woods, where she meets his friends (wolves, lions...) and spends the night dancing and having fun. She falls asleep beside the bear, and wakes up back in her bed, her teddy bear once again just that. She rushes downstairs to hug her mother.
I have come across other quite similar storylines to this in our regular library visits, but the images in this book are so full of spirit and playfulness that they mark out this book as unique in my mind. The illustrations are rendered in lino printing, which is one of my favourite mediums, but I am totally in awe of Hyewon Yum's techique. I have only done quite simple lino prints, but these ones use many colours so I am assuming that she uses either a reduction technique, or multiple plates, or both. I would love her to give me a lesson! I also love the texture created on the images. I am imagining that this is created by using a baren, which is a tool you can use for printing by hand. This is inspiring as I just recently bought one, and it means you can print without a press, to which I don't currently have access.
This book is so inspiring. I'm just off to dust off my lino tools and pull open that baren (well actually I'm not sure Boo will tolerate that right now, but I promise I will... soon!)
Hi Cath, this makes me think of another lovely book with a 'little girl discovering the world at night with a new friend' type theme, Eliza and the Moonchild, do you know it? Really lovely, all about painting and colours and friendship. I keep buying it as a gift for little people!
ReplyDeleteHi Sue, I don't know that book but will definitely be checking it out, thanks for the recommendation! Cathx
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