Gyo Fujikawa Board Books

Hellooooo!  I have really neglected my poor blog terribly lately.  I have 3 adorable board books illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa today - Can You Count? , Sleepy Time, and Let's Play.  It's hard to decide what's cuter - Gyo's illustrations of animals, or children.  Things here are busy as usual with my own children - my oldest daughter recently turned 8 and my youngest is about to turn 1 so I've been drowning in party planning.  My middle daughter started pre-school this fall and has really been enjoying it.  And my oldest started taking violin lessons - she wants to learn fiddle style and to play like Natalie McMaster. :) We had a fun Halloween - Keira dressed up as Venus, the goddess of love and happiness, Tegan was Lightning McQueen (from the movie Cars) and Brielle was SuperGirl.  

Gyo Fujikawa's Mother Goose

I thought it was time that I do another post about my favourite children's illustrator, Gyo Fujikawa.  Here is her adorable collection of Mother Goose.  Just wanted to say thank you to those of you who sometimes comment on my posts.  Sorry to my bloggy friends that I haven't been commenting as much lately - harder to find time since the baby was born.  And thank you as well to those of you who are reading although not commenting - I appreciate you stopping by!

Childcraft - Poems and Rhymes

This  is amazing!  Childcraft is an anthology that was originally created in the 1930's by the publishers of the World Book Encyclopedia.  Some of the other volumes of Childcraft include Stories and Fables, Children Everywhere, World and Space, About Animals, How Things Work, What People Do, Holidays and Customs, Make and Do, etc.  My volume of Poems and Rhymes is a 1975 edition.  It is fantastic to have these beautiful poems, photos, and illustrations all in one place.  Gyo Fujikawa illustrated the 'Trees' poem, Ezra Jack Keats did the gorgeous second-last picture here, and Alice and Martin Provensen did the last one for 'The Owl and the Pussycat'.  So fun!

Linking to The Children's Bookshelf

More Gyo - A Child's Book of Poems

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 More of Gyo Fujikawa- my fave!!  She was an American, born to Japanese parents, who lived from 1908-1998. Isn't that illustration for Wynken, Blynken, and Nod adorable?  I always found that poem very soothing.  And that picture of the sleeping child with the fairies... so delightfully magical! Some of these would be so great to frame for my baby daughter Tegan's room. 

Oh What a Busy Day - by Gyo Fujikawa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This book is my favourite of all my vintage children's books.  I came across some images of it one day as I was looking through some pictures on Flickr.  I saw the picture of the kids in the treehouse and had a weird sense of deja vu - I knew that I had loved that picture and that book as a child.  Isn't it interesting how some images or objects from childhood just sink themselves into our memories?  I was so excited to find this book again that I ordered it for myself from Ebay. This book is sooo sweet - I just love its gorgeous illustrations and cute little stories and poems.  Don't you just want to live inside this book? It was published in 1976.  Gyo Fujikawa was well-known for being one of the first to depict children of many races all playing together - isn't that one of all the kids and animals amazing?  She wrote and illustrated many books - some of which I already own and will blog about in the future, and the rest I hope to collect over the years.  I love that my 5-year-old can now read this book to herself too.

Linking to Cozy Book Hop