37/365 Just Being Audrey by Margaret Cardillo

Okay!  Ha! I've wanted to gush about this book for a long time, and now I'm finally going to do so! Yes!

I'll just cut to the point here.  THIS BOOK IS PERFECT.  I am a minor Audrey Hepburn nut.  I've read every biography about her in the San Diego County library system.  I've seen all but three of her movies (Monte Carlo Baby - she had, like, a teensy role - Always and Robin and Marion), and I could just scream I admire her so much.  Heck, for a while I had a whole blog devoted to her.
And this book made me shriek when I looked through it for the first time.  I almost danced.  Julia Denos did the illustrations, and every detail is SPOT ON.

The expressions in the lineup above.  As a girl, her dutch haircut and wide smile.  The clothes she wore through the years.  Heck!  Even the sort of bump at the end of her jaw that you could see when she was older!  I mean!? (I wonder if I'm being fanciful about this, but if you watch youtube videos of her en pointe and compare it with the feet in the book, they look identical. Not a lot of arch, if you know what I mean. It seems like almost too much, that.  I have a hard time believing that anyone but a rabid fan like me would give so much attention to the details.  This is why it is a marvelous book.)  She got every detail right.  Famous even makes an appearance.

I'm SO glad I was introduced to Julia Denos through this book - she's super cool.  I want to be like her when I grow up - even if I don't become an illustrator!  And if I do become an illustrator, I hope my studio is half as chic as hers is.  She put pictures of it on her marvelous blog, and it makes me want to weep.  Oh! Sudden fear: over the summer, did my desire for such a gorgeous workspace unconsciously plant the seed that became me declaring myself as an art major?  Heavens.

Also - this is just going to be a Julia Denos worship fest post, isn't it? - she is doing illustrations for the Hilary McKay Casson books!  GAAAA! Which are, like, some of the best books ever, no exceptions!  Hilary McKay is a genius and I will someday read one of her books for this project thingy, and then I will get to do some more squealing.  Yay. I can't even begin to babble about how EXCITED I am over the new packaging Denos is doing.  You should see her "Crime Pays" sketch.  This woman does her details right.  I'm probably just a fanatic about it, but nothing annoyed me more as a kid - what I am I saying? Annoys me more than illustrations that don't match the story.  Rant on the forthcoming.

SO.  Buy this book.  It is beautiful.

CONCLUSION:  I hope I get to be an illustrator.  I know that, if I did, my style would have to be different from Julia Denos' - as much as I love it - because I know I'd always be trying to ape her and failing.  I'll have to do my own thing.  Just like Audrey.

16.2/365 Max Deluxe - Maira Kalman

Among many other things, I bought Max Deluxe (all the three Max books in one volume) at the library book sale, and read it in the car in the afternoon.  Which shows how much I enjoyed it, because reading in the car makes me sick.  I never throw up, but I turn greenish and moan, "ughh, is the air conditioner on?  I need to roll the window down..."

I've been a Maira Kalman fan for a while now, thanks to a chance encounter with The Elements of Style at B&N.  I bought The Principles of Uncertainty a few months ago, and I haven't felt even a tinge of regret - which is what usually happens when I buy books new. (I bought it - also at B&N - during a tornado warning, incidentally.  All the lights went out and the sirens were blaring and we all were herded into the back of the store where, supposedly, it was safer.  People sat underneath the CD racks.   It was hugely entertaining. Frankly, I thought flying CD cases would be much more dangerous than flying paperbacks.  When you look at it from an everything-around-you-is-going-to-be-a-projectile perspective, magazines and romance novels would probably be the safest bet.  Though I would not want to die beneath a pile of romance novels.  I called my mum to tell her what was going on and she said, "Well, at least you'll die surrounded by things you love.")

But! Back to Max!

The books aren't my usual thing, but I liked 'em.  They're worth buying just for the details.  It's the only book I've ever seen where even the publication information was messed with.

And I loved the pictures, which sort of goes without saying. 

The stories are sort of topsy-turvy and are certainly not Dick and Jane-ish, or like, "Bobby went to the grocery store with his Mother."  You know what I mean?  They're just all over the place.  When I read them aloud, I enjoyed them more.  It's sort of duh, Kelsey of me, but while I was reading it I forgot that a major element in a picture book is the way the words actually sound aloud.  Like poetry, you know?  Goodnight Moon is just a regular old book when you read it without at least saying the words in your head.  But aloud it's magical. 

CONCLUSION: I am so glad that I'm planning to become an illustrator if only because I now have a fantastic, unbreakable excuse for buying kid's books.  It's research. Choosing to study illustration was, like, the smartest thing I've ever done.  Oh frabjous day!