Fourth Year Latin

My oldest daughter, Madeleine (the Russian and Latin scholar), has just taken a job as a Latin teacher.  When she was a student of Latin in middle school and high school I started to pick up vintage Latin books that I would find at the thrift store and used bookshops.  You'd be surprised how useful they ended up being!  Now Madeleine is in her own apartment with her own bookshelves (full of course!) and I was helping her unpack when she pulled this one out.  I don't remember where I got it but I immediately recognized Gordon Laite's engaging artwork.   This is why book collecting is such a treasure hunt!

Fourth Year Latin

illustrated by Gordon Laite

My Little Golden Book of Fairy Tales

 Three fairy tales are retold with Gordon Laite's detailed angular drawings.  I love collecting children's books for the artwork!

My Little Golden Book of Fairy Tales

illustrated by Gordon Laite 1959

Look at this angry sun!

 

Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox

 Doing some purging of our bookshelves.  This was a fun chickenpox story involving nursery rhyme characters.  What drew me to it were the blue and red retro-inspired illustrations.  I mean, just look at the Bear's kitchen and all the atomic furniture!  We've enjoyed it and now it's time to pass it on.  Listing on ebay or at my yardsale.

Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox

Erin Dealey

illustrated by Hanako Wakiyama 2005

Here Comes the Cat!

 My oldest daughter was a Russian language major in college.  So Russian books always catch my eye!  This one is particularly clever as illustrator Vladimir Vagin says on the front flap, "It is the first book in the world designed by an American and painted by a Russian."  Working together even though they didn't even speak each other's languages, Frank Asch and Vagin became not just collaborators, but friends.  Pretty powerful especially considering this book was created during the Cold War.  

Here Comes the Cat!

Vladimir Vagin

Frank Asch 1989

We loved how the words are all written/repeated in Russian.  And how the exclamation "Here comes the cat!" leads to an unexpected conclusion!

 

Suffragette The Battle for Equality

Suffragette 

The Battle for Equality

David Roberts 2019

We first discovered this book at the library and I was smitten!  The artwork is fantastic!  I actually don't know much about the Suffragette movement, except for the incident with Emily Wilding Davison who ran out onto the racetrack during the Epson Derby and was trampled to death by a horse (this is included and illustrated in the book).  David Roberts does a thorough job in the best sense of the word to describe the beginnings and necessity of the Suffragette movement.  He biographies key characters and explores the movement historically, its ties to labor unrest, violent clashes, the cultural differences between the movement in America and England, and the effect of WWI.  It's all fascinating stuff and the illustrations make it a feast!

 

The Blueset of Blues

 I really was meant to be a 19th century naturalist!  Our house is filled with collected natural treasures- shells, rocks, bits of seaweed, insects, nests, etc...  I am happiest outside, always observing the big and the small.  I think of Thoreau, "We can never have enough of nature".  

What makes the 18th and 19th century study of Nature so alluring is how it was all interconnected with other sciences, art and literature.  At that time so many naturalists had to be artists and draw their observations.  This biography of Anna Atkins enters just at the time when photography (a burgeoning science of its own!) was being utilized..

The Bluest of Blues

Fiona Robinson 2019

This wonderful book tells the story of Anna's work as a botanist and her use of cyanotypes to publish the first photography book of her collection of seaweed.  The illustrations are in shades of blue with only a pop of momentous red, and best of all many of Anna's cyanotypes are duplicated.  

These "sun prints" are quite easy to make and I love how well they suit botanical treasures.  Fiona Robinson took some liberties with the early unknown years of Anna's life, but she perfectly captured a father sharing his love of discovery and curiosity with his daughter, and the spirit of the times.

"Anna is a treasure hunter.  Anna is an artist.  Anna is a scientist!"

"Her work is both scientific and beautiful."