book pile: how we go

how we go: lesley anne ivory

today's vintage children's book is another early reader. i love how charming the illustrations are. look closely and you'll notice a subtle texture to the illustrations that reminds me a bit of a subtle version of eric carle's pictures.

they're very sweet aren't they? i love the astronaut! and the picture of the children pretending to fly made me giggle, looks like they're doing jazz-hands rather than actually trying to fly. and the cowboy appears to be getting about on tippy toes!

book pile: 123

this vintage children's book comes from my lovely friend peta pledger who was kind enough to share her amazing stash of vintage treasures with me. over the next few months i'll be showing you some of the gems from her collections, and of course continuing sharing my own favorites.

having a little kid of my own has honed my appreciation for counting and alphabet books. previously i thought they were a bit meh, but now i adore the simplicity of a good ABC or 123 book. i'm a connoisseur of pre-school readers!

what immediately attracted me to this very simple book is the great type and colors. its all so bold and bright, and the icing on the cake is the fact that every page is slightly off-register, meaning the pages moved about during printing so the cyan, magenta, yellow and black don't line up and you get that trippy kind of 3D effect.

dig the groovy chairs and bells. yeah, so there is no story, and obviously i have a lot less to tell you about this book, so feel free to skim my inane chattering!

how many dollies can you see? and how many dollies come alive at night and eat your precious eye jellies? that's right! five!

i want all of those mugs. all of them. come into my kitchen, mugs, and i will look after you.

these houses are so cute! if only my neighborhood was filled with houses this colorful. we rent, but i don't think our owner would mind if we decided to paint the exterior vivid lilac, hot pink and lime green, do you think?

i just love these big chunky numbers! there was a house in our street that had a big number seven in this 'playbill' kind of style, and i kept forgetting to take a photo of it until last month... but they've replaced the fence and the number is gone!! so let that be a lesson to ye. fascinating story, non?

book pile: the grateful crane

today's book pile book is slightly out of style with my regular crazy psychedelic features, but i wanted to share this with you because its fascinating and beautiful in such a different way. this book belonged to my grandmother, who recently gave it to me to share with my son seeing as i enjoyed it so much, growing up.

the grateful crane

direction by kozo shimizu

text by ann herring

published by gakken, 1972

the story is the traditional japanese tale of the grateful crane, or the crane wife as its sometimes known. the illustrations are created with specifically constructed dolls in collage that give the story literal depth as well as creating an aesthetic link to the heritage of the tale. the textures of the rice paper, wood and woven fabric all evoke a very beautiful, very japanese story.

an old man finds a crane caught in a trap. he frees the crane and it flies off joyously beating its wings. later that night the old man and his wife take in a beautiful young lady who claims to have lost her way in the snow. the beautiful girl stays with them and becomes their adopted daughter, whom they call o-tsuru "miss crane" as she's tall and graceful.

she offers to weave the old couple some fabric, however she insists she must be left alone in the weaving loft. for three days she works tirelessly, and the couple begin to worry for her health. at last she emerges with a bolt of finished brocade. couple are astonished at the fine quality of fabric she's created. she tells the old couple to sell the cloth.

a merchant comes to see the cloth and tells the couple its the finest cloth he's ever seen. he pays them in gold, and they are amazed at all the riches they've earned.

the village children love o-tsuru, and her kind and cheerful nature have warmed the once lonely house. again she asks to use the loom to weave another bolt of cloth. she reminds the couple not to look, but the old lady's curiosity gets the better of her, she can't understand how such beautiful fabric can come from the old loom. she looks in on o-tsuru and finds a crane plucking its feathers and weaving them into the cloth.

suddenly the crane disappears and o-tsuru tells the old couple that she is the crane the old man saved. she thanks them for their care and tells them she must go. she changes back into a crane and flies off into the mountains.

book pile: alligator pie by dennis lee and frank newfeld

alligator pie,

poems by dennis lee

pictures by frank newfeld

macmillan, 1974

isn't it fantastic when you find a friend who just gets your taste? it makes this cold and lonely world just that little bit smaller when you find a kindred spirit like that, and i'm lucky to have a few friends who get me. thats how i came to own a copy of 'alligator pie'. the most definitely awesome peta pledger came to visit bearing thrifted gifts of amazing vintage children's books and i knew i just had to share them with you.

detail from the title page

i had never heard of 'alligator pie', but its apparently big in japan canada and for all i know it could be the national anthem (hello canadian readers, i like your turtle chocolates. feel free to send me many and in exchange i'll learn your national anthem and more about your culture - but mostly about other chocolates i can get there).

illustration accompanying 'bouncing song'

most of all i was taken by the fantastic illustrations by frank newfeld. as you'll see from the pictures, his style is just so much fun and paired with the nonsense poems it all makes perfect (non)sense!

illustration accompanying 'in kamloops'

a poem thats mostly just threats at cannibalism. but y'know, rhyming. hence all the body parts in that very attractive neoclassical cabinet.

illustration accompanying 'billy batter'

pictured we see the authors father being taken away by a dragon. unfortunately in the second verse his mother is taken away by a monster as well, so really no happy endings here.

illustration accompanying 'like a giant in a towel'

an ode to that delicious bed warmth...

and when the giants realize

that no one's scared of their disguise,

they go to bed and close their eyes-

they're glad their beds are warm;

they're glad their beds are warm.

illustration accompanying 'i found a silver dollar'

isn't the lettering for 'zoo' just fantastic? it may not surprise you that frank newfeld is the co founder and president of the society of graphic designers of canada. yesiree, it takes a society founder to wield a type that fancy!

i hope you've enjoyed the peek into this amusing book. if you're interested in getting a copy for yourself click this link. i would have adored this book as a kid. so much color and type, and the poems are so fun, but its pretty enjoyable as an adult too and that has to be the secret to an enduring kid's book!

book pile: rock dreams

its been a while since i featured a book on draw! pilgrim, but today i wanted to share one of my long time favorite art books. my mum bought it, and i loved looking through it when i was little. its falling apart now, but i think that might just add to its charm...

rock dreams: under the boardwalk,

written by nick cohn, and illustrated by guy peelaert

pan books 1973

a collection of stunning illustrations of music's most famous faces paired with lyrics, or short biographies. what sets this book apart for me is the varying approaches it takes to the artists portrayed: reverence, irreverence, satire, nostalgia, commentary and good old fashioned gaudiness. the combination of words and pictures present both magic realism and the mundane: some pages poignantly express the isolation and heartbreak fame can bring. other pages turn popular culture icons into religious ones. and more yet show snippets of that 'american dream' that that era of music sang about. oh and let's not forget the Rolling Stones in PVC bondage gear... the over-the-topness of the pictures matched the over-the-topness of the spirit of rock, maaaan!

the following are some excerpts of illustrations & text from the book:

the promised land: california was teen heaven, perfection, where the sun was always shining, where the cosmis surfer's wave unfurled toward infinity, where everyone was golden, young and beautiful forever. for every girl, there were two boys, and so they lounged by the poolside, drinking cool beers and counting the passing bikinis, or they played touch football, in eternal summer, or they drag raced, made love at the drive-ins, watched technicolor sunsets, led plans, wrote songs...

jerry lee lewis: "either be hot or be cold. if you're lukewarm, the Lord will spew you forth from his mouth". thus spoke jerry lee and he rampaged through the land, with his piano, his bible and his thirteen year old wife. night after night, leaping high upon the piano, he preached with fiery tounges, in sermons of arrogance and lust. then his audience would surge forward and storm the stage, like converts, to shake his hand and be blessed.

phil spector: strange resurrection of baby phil, the highschool dropout: arriving in new york, he slept in offices, on floors and benches and desk tops, until finally he was set loose to produce a record. then, at a single shot, he paid back twenty years' accumulation of rage. out poured the wildest torrents of pent-up energy, invention, insanity, malice, fantasy, grotesquerie and when the smoke cleared, he stood revealed in hollywood technorama: a colossus: true inheritor of cecil b de mille: ultimate rock'n'roll showman, teendreamer, and bullshitter, genius and freak.

... now when i come home, late at night, my slippers are waiting in front of the fire, my pipe is on the mantleshelf, and priscilla is sitting in bed with curlers in her hair. then i kiss her on either cheek , and on her lips like cherries, and i hold her close to my heart. "welcome home", she says, and at last i am at peace.

donovan: the fool on the hill

then there were two, because the first had flown off through the window and disappeared into the skies, and they sat among the debris, sated, slightly ageing but not too jaded to pull the same rude faces, or to stick out their tongues once more, as they'd done in the days of their first youth.

buddy holly: hey what happened? one moment i was in lubbock, texas and i had bad teeth, bad eyes and sang with my nostrils and adenoids, hiccoughing and whining. everyone said i was crazy, so i left and came to new york, an i met a man who straightened my teeth, gave me new glasses, dressed me up real italian sharp.

next he called me buddy holly, and what kind of name is that? then he sent me out on tour, and put me on tv, and now i'm a rock'n'roll star.

i like it. everywhere i go, girls scream at me, boys ask for my autograph and i ride around in a cadillac. but sometimes i can't believe it - i remember lubbock, texas, and everybody laughing at me and i ask myself, can it last?

let paul anka tell how you too can be a man...

california girls: "we've been having fun all summer long..."

if this glimpse of a fascinating book has whet your appetite, i really recommend picking up a copy of your own. thankfully taschen are publishing it now, so follow the link below and make your own small rock dream come true!

vintage children's book: shaun & the cart-horse

this week's vintage children's book is 'shaun & the cart-horse' written and illustrated by charles keeping, published in 1966 by oxford university press.

growing up reading this book i always loved the intense color, and controlled messiness of the illustrations. in the art classes i attended after school we did a lot of wax resist and water color washes so being familiar with the process gave me an added appreciation for charles keeping's illustrations and i was fascinated by the london street scenes.

the story follows shaun, who lived in london with his grandpa. next door there lived a cart pony called queen who was shaun's best friend. uncle charley peel owned queen and often let shaun ride to market with them.

one day shaun sees a stranger leading queen out of the stable yard. shaun rushed inside to ask grandpa what was happening and grandpa told shaun that uncle charley peel was selling queen because he'd been unwell and had no money as he was unable to go to market.

shaun is unhappy about queen being sold, until he comes up with an idea. he waited until grandpa fell asleep and then snuck out to the market. shaun knew the costers loved queen and would be sad she was being sold, too.

he tells peter the ice cream man, the old clothes lady, mrs corby.

then he tells the fish monger, mr codling, and old bean, the coffee seller.

they're all upset, and decide to give one day's earnings to buy queen back for uncle charley peel. shaun is certain he can find queen and runs off to find her. he sees many horses, but none are queen and just as he begins to head home, he sees his friend, scrappy tailor, the rag and bone man. scrappy hasn't seen queen but he tells shaun to go to nicky knacker's yard, as thats where all the old horses go.

shaun finds the man who led queen away, and shaun tells him the costers all want to buy queen back. the man tells shaun to go away, they wouldn't want that old horse back and he can make a much better profit from her! but grandpa and scrappy arrive and the horse dealer agrees to sell her back to them.

the next day they all have a procession back to a very happy uncle charley peel.