Find of the week: Kveta Pacovska

The desire to absorb as wide a range of interesting art and illustration, mixed with the recent addition of a nephew to my family has caused the seeds of a passing interest in children's books and illustration to be sewn. Due mostly in part to the fantastic recourse that is A Journey Round My Skull, I have been looking for the odd yet beautiful children's books old and new to buy for my nephew even though he isn't yet at reading age. So along with your Dr Seus's, your Maurice Sendack pop up books, and your more modern interactive books by Richard McGuire, I have come across the illustrations of Kveta Pacovska who adapts a lot of famous fairy tales as well as writing her own children's books. Her style reminds me of a slightly more surreal version of the Elmer the Patchwork Elephant book you might remember from your childhood. There is obviously an artistic edge to Pacovska which makes her books enjoyable for both children and adults. She seems to take the best of modern artists like Paul Klee, Kandinsky, and Miro and apply it playfully with dashes of folk art and pop cartooning in the vein of animations like Mr Ben and Yellow Submarine. She has adapted Hansel and Gretal, Cinderella, and lesser known Hans Christian Anderson fairytale The Little Match Girl, some of which are available to buy off Amazon for varying prices. Her most well known book is The Little Flower King. I plan to review more interesting children's books if and when I buy them.