France Month: Boucle d'or et les trois ours by Gerda Muller

 

Boucles d'Or et les trois ours illustrated by Gerda Muller is actually available in many languages including English, French and German (Im Bärenhaus) but the illustrations I have to share are with French text, so I am counting this one as a French Month entry. But I can offer descriptions in English, so everyone wins, right? The English and French editions are still in print, the English being the most recent while the German is out of print.

Book description:

When Goldilocks goes to collect flowers in the wood she gets lost and stumbles upon a pretty house in a clearing. She looks inside and sees a table with three chairs: a big chair, a medium chair and a little chair, and in front of each chair is a steaming bowl of porridge. The porridge smells so good, and Goldilocks is so hungry, that she opens the door and walks inside. But this house belongs to three bears: a big daddy bear, a medium mummy bear and a little baby bear -- and they'll be back soon. This is a beautiful interpretation of a classic story. Gerda Muller's timeless, intricate illustrations offer wonderful extra detail for children to enjoy. From the very first page, she includes big, medium and little versions of birds, squirrels, mice, plates, umbrellas, slippers, and more. Children and parents will notice new things each time.

About the Author

Gerda Muller was born in 1926 in Naarden, Holland. She attended the Fine Arts School of Amsterdam and later on, Ecole Estienne of Paris. She illustrated over 120 books for children and worked with many publishers. Her books have been translated in many languages. She is the illustrator of four board books for younger children, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, and Where Do They Go When It Rains? (all Floris Books).

I do love the detailing in these.

Bargain and Free eBooks for Today

Dangerous Angels with Bonus Materials by Francesca Lia Block is temporarily free.

Book description:

For a limited time, the collection of Francesca Lia Block’s Weetzie Bat books, Dangerous Angels, is available with a special sneak peek of Pink Smog, a new prequel to Weetzie Bat, and excerpts to the lush paranormal romances Pretty Dead and The Frenzy.

Evernight with Bonus Materials by Claudia Gray is free in this edition which doesn't have a cover image at the moment. That's the paperback image and link above.

Book description:

For a limited time, Claudia Gray’s star-crossed paranormal romance Evernight is available with a special sneak peek of Balthazar, the upcoming Evernight companion novel, and excerpts of the rest of the Evernight series, including Stargazer, Hourglass, and Afterlife.

Cloaked with Bonus Materials by Alex Flinn is 99 cents. (I've featured this one previously, but there was no cover image before.)

Entwined by Heather Dixon is still 99 cents, too, but I expect its price will raise soon so if you haven't jumped on it, do so soon.

Fairy Tale Imagery at Pottery Barn Kids

Pottery Barn Kids has a new bedding theme which includes fairy tale imagery, primarily Frog Prince, called simply Grace which isn't very helpful in showing that it is fairy tale related I captured some images to share here. I always enjoy non-character licensed fairy tale stuff for kids, so this is fun. I may have to get a pillowcase or two at some point. 

Description for the sheets:

Capturing the enchantment fairy tales are made of, our cotton percale sheeting features pretty princesses, royal castles and magical frogs rendered in soft watercolor style over a pink ground.

And for the duvet cover:

From pretty princesses to royal castles, our embroidered cotton duvet cover evokes the characters and stories kids love to dream about. The fun fairy-tale scene is rendered with running stitches and fill stitches, then trimmed in pink cotton cording.

Ritemail Picdump

Ritemail Picdump —  more images after the break...

Cool Graphics on Envelopes — Mark Powell

London-based artist Mark Powell has chosen the backs of old envelopes as a canvas for these delicately rendered portraits of the elderly, using nothing more than a standard Bic Biro pen to create the delicate folds and wrinkles of their skin. 16 more images after the break...

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Old Pics of Bangkok — 1950s

Probably many will be interested to see what looked like Bangkok in 1950.

Postwar Thailand, remaining deeply feudal country, got into a zone of U.S. influence and actively develop the business. Earning all they could. First, a series of images taken by photographer Dmitri Kessel U.S. in 1951.

These cute trams are now replaced by high-speed monorails. 15 more after the break...

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10 Most Famous Falling Towers

01. Church Suurhusen, Germany

 Suurhusen late medieval building in the region of East Friesland in the north-west of Germany. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it was the most inclined tower in the world, although in 2010 new Capital Gate tower in Abu Dhabi broke this record. Suurhusen spire remains the most leaning tower in the world, the slope of which was ahead of world-famous Leaning Tower of Pisa by 1.22 degrees. 09 more after the break ...