Category Archives: 21st century

Colin Thompson’s Imaginary Book Case for Puzzling through the Pandemic (and National Library Week)

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Here is a detail of an imaginary library by English-Australian author-illustrator Colin Thompson.  But it’s not from a book illustration.It is several shelves from a design for a Ravensburger jigsaw puzzle.  After writing and illustrating twenty-four pictures books, writing another nineteen picture books illustrated by other artists, three volumes of poetry, six young adult novels, and the Flood Series in fifteen volumes, Thompson has changed his focus.  Since 2016, he has concentrated on producing illustrations for a smashing series of jigsaw puzzles.

The pieces spread out on a table make an intriguing and colorful display.   Some puzzlers consider a five-hundred piece jigsaw hardly worth bothering with.  Kind of like the Monday New York Times crossword.   If you are the only person in the house putting it together, it’s large enough to take a while, but not so long that despair sets in on those days when nothing wants to fit together.

One of the pleasures of a Colin Thompson puzzle is its whackiness.  This one features fractured book titles. Some of the edge pieces go together relatively fast becauseof the added clue of completing the titles.  And it’s more fun that frustrating to see where some of the some of the surprising details like a flower pot or a honking goose are going to land.

Last week the New York Times ran an article about Ravensburger in Germany.   Demand for their jigsaw puzzles has increased so much since the beginning of the pandemic, that the firm can’t produce them fast enough.  And the process can’t be sped up because of the emphasis on quality.  So have fun scrolling through the list of Colin Thompson puzzles and dream for the days when stores will be able to keep them in stock again.

Exhibition “Going Your Own Way: Alternative Children’s Book Publishing” Now on View

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The research collection of the Cotsen Children’s Library contains a wealth of illustrated political propaganda from around the world, but materials have not been exhibited since the 2003 show “Brave New World: 20th-Century Children’s Children’s Books” in the main and old Milberg galleries in Firestone.

With a presidential election upon us in fall, it seemed like a good time to display some recent acquisitions of self-published children’s books.   Their author/publishers were Democrats, Republicans, community boosters, preppers (i.e. survivalists), supporters of the Second Amendment, anarchists, activist artists, the politically correct, incorrect, and self-serving.  Their picture books were not reviewed in Horn Book, they didn’t hit the New York Times Best Sellers List, they were not nominated for the Caldecott Award.  A handful have won notoriety on late night comedy shows or praise from bloggers.  They won’t be found in the local Barnes & Noble or independent bookstore.  Usually the only way to get copies it to track down the author’s website or his or her bookstore at Amazon.com.

Some lean to the left, some to the right, others are in the center, but as a group, they reflect a great deal about the fragmentation and radicalization of American cultural values since 9/11, as well as the changes in children’s book publishing since the 1970s, as the trifecta of gatekeepers–librarians, teachers, and publishers–began breaking down.

Many thanks to Jess Landis for her help researching the elusive authors, illustrators, and publishers of the books on display. 

And to give equal time to the other side, there’s a second poster…

Since publishing this post on March 9, the University has closed the gallery of the Cotsen Children’s Library until further notice.   Visitors to the Firestone Library stays will be able to see the case of materials in the lobby, but not the books displayed in the two cases in the gallery entrance.