Ed Emberley

I got to go to The Tattered Cover in Denver the other day. I love bookstores and this big marvelous bookstore is my favorite! We were at the one on 16th Street which is in an old building that has incredibly high ceilings, worn wooden floors, old furniture, and just feels like a perfect bookstore.

I spent time in the children's section of course. But I also looked very closely at the art books. I never get to browse art books anymore! I had four books picked out but I knew I could only buy one. The one I settled on surprised me. It's a very big book about the artwork of Ed Emberley by Todd Oldham and Caleb Neelon.

My brother and I grew up learning to draw from his Drawing Book of Animals. We drew on big stacks of old-school computer paper. My mom was studying Computer Science in college when the paper for printouts had holes running along the sides to feed it, and each sheet was connected to the next with perforated lines so you could have one long continuous printout. We drew his animals on that computer paper over and over again. We LOVED this book.

I knew that Mr Emberley was also a children's illustrator beyond the drawing books, but I didn't realize just how many books he's created until recently. He's made about 80 books!

The reason I kept coming back to this book while trying to pick one to take home was because of the many different styles, the fun exuberance of his artwork, the skill, and the variety of subjects. It's pretty amazing! I want to share some of the pages that I like best.

And here's a quote that made me really happy:

"I didn't consider myself an illustrator. I considered myself a book maker."