Panorama: A Woodcut Fold-Out Travelogue Promoting Biodiversity

We have a soft spot for creative, playful takes on the book medium. So we’re head-over-heels with Panorama — an astounding fold-out children’s travelogue by author Fani Marceau and illustrator Joelle Joviet, originally published in France in 2007.

A journey from Bangladesh to Scotland to Antarctica unfolds, literally, in stunning black-and-white woodcut illustrations across 15 magnificent spreads, each a whimsical portrait of a different exotic locale. Underlying the narrative is a subtle yet thoughtful message about sustainability and biodiversity, adding a richer context to the pure aesthetic joy of the experience.

Panorama is as much an engrossing educational experience for young readers as it is an absolute masterpiece of design for aesthetic poeticism aficionados of all ages.

Thanks, Kirstin

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Stephen Biesty’s Engineering Illustrations: Art Meets Science

British illustrator Stephen Biesty is a master of “engineering art” — remarkably intricate and detailed yet imaginative drawings of building, vessel and vehicle cross-sections, historical panoramas, castle cutaways, inside-out views and other fascinating intersections of architecture, art and egineering. A prolific author, his books are a treasure trove of curiosity and delight. Our favorites: Incredible Cross-Sections, a magnificent tome of spreads with cutaway illustrations of the hidden architecture of 18 iconic structures, from a Gothic cathedral to a coal mine to the space shuttle, and Incredible Body, a stunning children’s collection of anatomical cross-sections, in which tiny tunnelers embark upon a fascinating journey of the systems and organs of the human body.

Biesty’s work has also been adapted across a variety of media, including pop-up books (you know we love those), educational games and animation.

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Return of the Dapper Men: Tim Gunn Meets Alice in Wonderland

What would you get if you crossed Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, and Tim Gunn? Return of the Dapper Men, that’s what — a lyrical and impressionistic new tale by Jim McCann with charming illustration by Janet Lee and a foreword by, yes, quintessential modern dapper man Tim Gunn.

It’s the story of a human boy named Ayden, a robot girl named Zoe, and 34 Dapper Men who restart the world they live in — a world without time or progress, which only robots and children who never grow up inhabit. It’s part remarkably crafted graphic novel, part beautifully told morality tale, part something else entirely.

Return of the Dapper Men is as much a wonderful and whimsical piece of children’s literature as it is a timeless and profound meditation on individualism, community, change and permanence — which makes it a fine addition to both our favorite children’s literature of 2010 and our top five children’s books with philosophy for grown-ups.

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