I love Harriet Russell’s children’s books for many reasons. The first of those reasons (following her fantastic quirky illustrations of course) is that I think Harriet really appreciates that kids are smart, clever and that they love to be silly. And adults, like me, can really enjoy her humor too. Her books are often funny takes on traditional books like this one I’m sharing today, A is for Rhinoceros. In the past I’ve posted about her Colouring Book for the Lazy which features drawings of things that are supposed to only be black and white leaving you nothing really to color in. Today’s book, A is for Rhinoceros, is an alphabet book of sorts. Each letter of the alphabet is handdrawn on a page and the negative space surrounding or inside of the letter, is die-cut out of the page. Those same shapes appear in color on the next page as part of something else. For example, the two holes in a capital letter B become the two humps of a camel walking vertically down the page. The rectangular parts that are on the negative space of a capital H become the stripes of a lighthouse on the next page, and also the glass panes in a window. So instead of “H is for…” house, or hat or horse, in Harriet’s alphabet world, H is for lighthouse. This book is in both Italian and English and you can enjoy Harriet’s charming imagination too by getting one here. Learn more about Harriet here.

© Julia Rothman 2007