Picture Books: R is for Rocky Road to Rey

The obvious illustrator for "R" is Arthur Rackham but I determined to save him for my fantasy list. 

So I decided to try Norman Rockwell.

Now, I am quite fond of Norman Rockwell. I enjoy his magazine illustrations very much. I find many of them quite evocative; in fact, I refer to the famous Thanksgiving painting in Apron, my third Donna Howard book. 

However, oddly enough, Rockwell's picture book (Willie Was Different) and the picture book made with Rockwell images (The Norman Rockwell Storybook) were rather uninspiring. The point: simply because an artist excels in one medium doesn't mean that artist will excel in a different medium--or can be used to excel in a different medium. (Unless that artist is Michelangelo and decides to master a new art form simply to annoy people and then embarrasses them by surpassing them.) 

The differences between illustration and picture books will come up again later. 

For the A-Z list, I tried out a few other "Rs," including Last Stop on Market Street, words by Matt De La Pena, illustrated by Christian Robinson. It's a vibrant book but afterwards, I felt like I needed to read something by Lemony Snicket. Well-written sermons for children are still sermons. 

There is the rather random (not a sermon), hilarious Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. 

But then I remembered Curious George by H.A. Rey (both H.A. and his wife Margret created the books).

How could I forget?! 

Curious George was a staple of my childhood and one of the strongest images burnt into my brain is the image of the room filled with soap suds.

I was a rather hyperactive kid in elementary school and got called a "monkey" more than once. At the back of my brain was always this image. Although I was the type of kid who was born into the world feeling guilty, Curious George  was one place where I never questioned the magnificence of George's supposedly bad behavior. 

Bubbles are always better than, well, anything, really. 

And he got to go into space. 

Not only do I recommend Curious George, I recommend the fascinating and interestingly illustrated The Journey that Saved Curious George : the True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey by Louise Borden, illustrated by Allan Drummond. They escaped Germany for South America and then America. It's Casablanca with children's writers!