Monday, April 13, 2015

Picture books for children – reviews

The importance of freedom, accepting imperfection and why buses are great: illustrated books with a message

Sally Morgan Dreams of Freedom
Australian artist Sally Morgan's illustration for the Dalai Lama's quote in Dreams of Freedom in Words and Pictures. Illustration: Frances Lincoln publishers
This spring, the picture books are springing and they are aiming high. Dreams of Freedom in Words and Pictures (Frances Lincoln in association with Amnesty International £12.99) is high-risk because worthiness is not the same as worth. But this is a tremendous and moving book in which a dozen illustrators, including Chris Riddell, Ros Asquith, Roger Mello from Brazil, Jackie Morris and Australian Sally Morgan, accompany marvellously diverse and thought-provoking quotations about freedom.

It is a most inspiring read and what impresses one is the sense the book gives of there being many different versions of freedom – it is not, ever, just another word for nothing left to lose. Jackie Morris has drawn a songbird in a gilded cage with a tigerish cat breathing through its golden bars to illustrate Nadia Anjuman’s cry: “Oh, I will love the day when I break out of this cage, Escape this solitary exile and sing wildly.” (Suitable for all ages and every household.)
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