Ian Beck's Picture Book
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Cover Story
The cover of this issue is a design incorporating illustrations from four books illustrated by the subject of our Authorgraph, Ian Beck. The top left illustration is from Five Little Ducks (Orchard), the top right from Poppy and Pip's Picnic (to be published Autumn '97 by HarperCollins), the bottom left from The Owl and the Pussy-cat (Transworld) and the bottom right from Home Before Dark (to be published September '97 by Scholastic). Ian Beck's Picture Book (Hippo) is reviewed in this issue.
Beck talks to BfK's interviewer, Julia Eccleshare, also in this issue. His distinctive decorative style with its sensitive pen line and cross hatching has a nostalgic but sometimes also a surreal quality - he describes it as 'a look that is floating, strong and wistful all at the same time'.
Thanks to Orchard, HarperCollins, Transworld and Scholastic for their help in producing this composite cover.
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Ian Beck's Picture Book
As the strap line on the cover informs us, this is 'a first book of pictures for very young children'. In single page or double page spread one is treated to a delightful succession of familiar objects, actions and animals painted in delicate yet striking watercolour with subtle hatching and crosshatching for textural appearance. Each of the simply labelled pictures is effective on an individual basis but, by cleverly linking them through the use of central characters (a little girl with wispy hair and her traditional jointed teddy), the book takes on an extra dimension. It is easy to feel the girl's exhilaration as she flies an aeroplane, jumps over the moon on a cow or gazes out across the open sea. The closeness and love shared with her teddy is one that very young children will identify with. This is a book they will demand to share with an adult over and over again.
