Friday 15 February 2013

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore


I really must live with my head buried in the sand. The whole Morris Lessmore thing seems to have passed me by. I didn't discover that the first incarnation of this story was an Oscar winning animated short film until I read the information at the back of the book.



It also exists as an app. I haven't used that yet, and given how often I get access to the ipad it might be some time before I do. I was very happy to read the book though. I'd read a couple of glowing reviews of the book- Good Reading magazine gave it 5 stars, and then I saw it somewhere else with similar levels of gushing so I knew I needed to search it out. I'm certainly glad I did.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore is a book for readers. It shows us the restorative power of story. The value of reading and writing.




And it's a gorgeous book to look at. Nice format. Beautifully illustrated. 

There is great use of black and white and colour


Intriguingly Morris's  books are in French
Interestingly there are two illustrators- William Joyce and Joe Bluhm. I would love to know how that collaboration worked on a practical level, but can't find anything online. 

7 comments:

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  2. What a gorgeous looking book. I did love the short film!

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  3. Absolutely wonderful! Thanks for the introduction. The main character reminds me of...the silent film comedien whose name escapes me, but I'll come back when I've got it.
    Carolg

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  4. It was so lovely wasn't it? Glad you found it. See you tomorrow for Saturday Snapshot ... although right now I'm not sure what I'll be posting.

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  5. I heard William Joyce speak about the process at the Texas Book Festival. Very cool. Joyce is a writer/illustrator that my sons loved when they were young. He wrote/illustrated such fabulous books as Dinosaur Bob and George Shrinks. But then he disappeared from the book world, so I assumed (wrongly, it turns out) that he was dead.

    No, instead of being dead, he had simply turned to work in video. He created some of the characters in Toy Story and other videos and now he's working on a series of books called The Guardians of Childhood, about such mythological creatures as The Man in the Moon.

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