Another retro children's book from Antwerpen. De Automonteur, published by Dupuis.

I've had requests to name the bookshop in Brussels. I had their card on my fridge at home so when I remember I will check the name and post it for you on here.

During my recent trip to Belgium I came across a little comic shop almost at the end of my day in Antwerpen. The shop sold mostly comics but some children's books and I noticed a very interesting shelf in the corner that had some old children's books from the 60's.

Herfst is a book about the autumn and for some reason I couldn't put it down. I like the browns in all their retro glory and the compositions are lovely. At €1.50 I kinda wish I'd bought them all...

There's an amazing children's book shop in the centre of Brussels just minutes away from the main square in the 19th century arcade. I went there 18 months ago and have been wanting to return to Brussels and the shop ever since. I've only just found the time to go back so it was a real treat to spend a good hour or more in there looking through the most amazingly illustrated and designed French and Flemish books. 

My first find in the shop was this fantastically graphic book called OOOO! which is created by Gay Wegerif. Published by Editions MeMo, I was surprised on further digging that Wegerif studied at Falmouth and is based in the UK. 

So, the filming of the apple and the egg app is continuing and a number of illustrators are already 'in the can'. The whole project is taking much longer than expected, in between my own books though so you should be expecting to see the finished product in the itunes store in the spring. 

Filming the app has enabled my passion for children's books to be re-ignited as seeing how everyone works in a completely different way is so interesting. I recently filmed Neal Layton. An illustrator with a fantastically spontaneous and charming style with just the right amount of quirkiness. Here's his recent pop-up book The Story of Everything.

One of the first children's books I discovered as an adult which made me realise what an interesting and creative field this is to work in was The Stinky Cheese Man. Illustrated by Lane Smith and designed by Molly Leach, the book was a watershed in visual communication for children.

I've been very veeeeeery busy the past six months. I left Random House in order to persue my freelance career as an author and illustrator and have produced in the past six months: 6 books (working on the 7th now), various book trailers and I'm also just about to start work on a series of apps. here's the most recent book trailer I completed for Random House:

You can see more trailers I've produced here.

I've also been busy planning and apple and the egg iphone app which I'll be filming over the summer and am hoping to have ready for release in the fall. I'll be posting snippets of info about the app here as it comes together.