Monday, March 7, 2011

Tapestry of Enchantment

The book Sinbad, lovingly retold and illustrated by Ludmila Zeman, is a tapestry of enchantment.

Above, "It was Shahrazad's knowledge and wit that softened King Shahriyar's cruelty and eventually defeated him."

Above, magical landscapes and dogs that have no respect for the displaced. On the other hand, what has he been eating, anyway?

Below, as I first skimmed through the book, this illustration forced me to stop and read the text to see why blood erupted from 'wooden fruit'. Ah, an illustration doing its job!

Text and artwork ©1999 Ludmila Zeman
Tundra Books

2 comments:

Annie said...

Hi Thom,
I have a wide range of knowledge in children's literature, and children's book illustration, but there is always so much more to learn, and you keep finding wonderful artists I've never seen before. As you point out in your post, successful and award winning children's book illustration "marries" the art and the text, so they work together to tell the story. We have this book, and the follow up sequel, Sindbad's Secret (2003), in my library. I will be very busy tomorrow, looking for the books you've featured this week. Thank you!

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Oh good, I was hoping to not always feature just the obvious talent. And actually, next post I'll be showing a few illustrations from Sinbad's Secret. Ludmila Zeman also wrote and illustrated The Last Quest of Gilgamesh, an award winning book of a trilogy.