Over the Moon

At her best, and she is almost always at her best, Charlotte Voake is the most gifted British illustrator since Edward Ardizzone. In this divine nursery rhyme collection, she makes worlds out of the simple, suggestive words, and creates some of the most endearing illustrations of the last 50 years. While thoroughly contemporary in spirit and execution, the pictures at the same time recall the modern golden age of children's books which ran roughly from the late 1930's to the late 1950's. Candlewick Press needs a good swift kick for letting this charmer lapse from print. If a book this good isn't selling, it's the publisher's singular lack of imagination that's failed, not the artist.

There is nothing new about a book of nursery rhymes, but I especially love this book for its playful illustrations. They are whimsical, light and attractive. I had a child in my library today entranced by it and had to take a look at this book that I had never noticed before.