Someone on Twitter from Britain was gleeful about finding a used pop-up book called The Creation by Brian Wildsmith in a thrift shop. The cover was intriguing so I started snooping around. It turns out that Wildsmith was a celebrated illustrator and painter, and there is a museum of his art in Japan with more than 800 works. He was born in 1930 and died in 2016, which is a full life. His children's books look enchanting, with plenty on subjects related to the natural world. He also did a number of kid's books on Judeo/Christian themes, including Moses and Jesus and Francis of Assisi. https://www.brianwildsmith.com/
A Nursery of Raccoons from Wildsmith's Animal Gallery
The Creation book has five pop-up pages which I'm sure are all wonderful. It was published in 1995 and is sadly out of print. I'm intrigued about the motivation for Wildsmith's faith-themed books but I can't find any information.
The person who found this treasure has good cause to be pleased. Um, God the Creator...my turn!
Pop-up page from The Creation
Some of Brian Wildsmith's Judeo/Christian themed books
- A Christmas story (Oxford, 1989)
- The Easter story (Oxford, 1993)
- Saint Francis (Oxford, 1997)
- Exodus (Oxford, 1998)
- Jesus (Oxford, 2000)
- Mary (Oxford, 2007)
- Moses (Oxford, 2007)
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