A few years before Wolfie was born, I started collecting vintage kid’s books at the thrift stores. I had been thrifting for ages, but it had never really occured to me to look at the kid’s books—but once I discovered them I was hooked! The stories are clever and charming and most of the illustrations are just brilliant! I have a pretty big collection of cool books and I thought it would be a fun, new weekly feature to share them with you guys. Most of my books are from the 60s and 70s.
This week’s book is by French author and illustrator, Alain Grée. His images are so fantastic—bold punchy colors and really great characters. I especially love all the little mod clothing on all the people. He wrote lots of little storybooks and a whole collection of wonderful quasi-encyclopedia books on various topics. This one is called La Mer—The Sea!
I love when illustrators mix photography with their art work….so cool.
Even the coral looks charming….just look at those little sweet daisies shapes!
Ship ahoy! That’s it for this edition of my vintage bookshelf…I hope you like this new feature! I’ll have boat loads (heh) of lovely illustrations for you in the coming weeks. Oh and I’ll be back this afternoon with a little Real Life post about our trip to Michigan!
Love, love, love the nautical themes in that book! I steer clear of doing “naval” things in our house but those are SO cute I want them all framed on my wall!
Aren’t they awesome?? So glad you like!
i have a special affection for vintage illustrations!!!
Yup. I’m obsessed!
I love these books you find and they are such an easy collectible for people to start out with.
I’m right there with you, Heather about the nautical books. There is this one called The Beach Before Breakfast that is just stunning and was on the bookshelf of our home for ages. It’s amazing how I just took advantage of the pretty pictures when I was a child, but now, I’m just agog at the beauty of these photos.
Lady I have a whole book shelf full…..I’m excited to scan away!
i love collecting children’s books too…and it feels like such a justifiable purchase at the thrift store and library, especially when they are a quarter each!! i love that this book is bilingual too!!
oops, i realized this book is not bilingual, so i meant i appreciated that it was in a different language!! (and wish there were more bilingual books!!)
I love this new vintage book feature. Keep the fabulous eye candy coming!
Love Alain Gree. It’s not something I like to do but I undid the stitching of one of his books and used it as artwork for my baby’s room. I couldn’t resist! Love the new feature!
Hi, there.
Wow… this book is written in Catalan!! 🙂 In those years 60’s or 70’s really few books were published in that language.
I love your blog. Hugs from Barcelona