When We Were Young: Two Centuries of Children's Book Illustration

Illustrating children's books is a difficult task and this book demonstrates many of the classic pictures that have appeared in children's books. There is the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel, an illustration with the classic "Patty-cake, patty-cake" rhyme a Babar cartoon, a Peter Rabbit, Brer Bear, a Puss in Boots and a couple from Alice in Wonderland. They illustrate the art of illustrating children's books and how it has changed over the years. The first illustration is a William Blake from 1794 and the last is s Maurice Sendak from 1971. While a few are in color, the majority is in black and white. The collection is an interesting lesson in art history and something that illustrators can use to get additional ideas if they want to explore using an older style.