I got a very exciting package in the mail the other day. Five books to review from artist Etsuko Hatta all the way from London (4 handmade, one published). I couldn’t decide which books I liked best so I decided to do one long post showing you pictures from each book.

Both Sweet Home Christmas and Our Lives read like regular books but then can be folded open to create an entire house layout. Sweet Home Christmas is the story of a bear family and the things they do at their grandparent’s house for Christmas- eat dinner, play cards, build a snowman. Then when you are finished reading it you can flip open the book and see much more- the bears decorating the tree, reading to eachother, preparing food in the kitchen. Each page is folded in half so when you pull it out the opposite way it opens into a rectangle and becomes walls. When all four sides are pulled out it’s like the entire floor of a house. Door and windows are also die-cut out so you can look through them from the outside. It’s a pretty genius design- such a simple idea that really makes a story come to life.(Etsuko, I hope you have patented this book design so no big kid’s book publisher steals your idea)

Our Lives is also constructed the same way. It’s the story of a couple moving into a new apartment. They are getting everything set up, repainting and hanging pictures and preparing for their first meal in their new home. When the book is all opened up, you see all the different rooms and the couples engaged in various activities around the house and then sharing a glass of wine in celebration. So sweet! These books remind me of Alice Melvin’s book I posted about here and also a book I made that I posted about here. It’s really interesting how we all used the book format to somehow represent a home but in such different ways.

Her Life is a story about just that. It tells the tale of a woman falling in love, getting married, having a son, and everyone growing older. Eventually her husband dies and she wishes to be with him and dies too. It’s a very sort of traditional story but the exciting part of the book is all the die-cuts. The woman often has a hole cut out somehwere on her to show what’s happening to her. When she is yearning to fall in love, there is a flame. When you turn the page she has met her mate and behind the hole is a heart. When she is pregnant you see a flower behind the hole, and then an egg. The hole keeps getting bigger and you see her baby. The hole gets small again when the woman gets older. She dies with her husbands face in the hole.

The other two books Etsuko sent are more simple children’s books. Party Animals is about some wacky animals who have a party. They get dressed up, eat, play twister (!) and musical chairs and just have a grand ol’ time. The style is really cute. It reminds me a lot of Calef Brown’s picture books- which I should post about one of these days. There’s lots of bright color and texture throughout and each animal’s outfit is unique and stylish. I would like to go to this party. There is even a part two to this book.

The last book she sent is actually in Japanese but Etsuko wrote me a note explaining the story. The title is Milk and it’s about a stray cat who’s up to no good. He goes inside a building and gets into different people’s apartments and messes things up. In the end though, these messes turn out well for the different people. For example, my favorite, is when the cat goes into the sculptor’s studio and scratches down the face of a sculpture. The artist realizes he likes this new addition to his work. Another time, the cat gets into this womans tangled yarn, but when the cat jumps out of the yarn, he has actually untangled it. Later when the residents catch the cat, they decide he actually helped them and they let him live in the building and name him Milk. Milk actually is the only book of Etsuko’s that is published and available (in Japanese).

I just want to thank Etsuko for sharing these great books and sending them so far! You can learn more about her work here where she has more photos of these books and some of her other books. Also check out the etc. page on her site. I am in love with those London bus maps she did and her London A-Z. And, Etsuko, please keep us updated on what you are up to next.

© Julia Rothman 2007