It’s hard not to like what looks like a cross between the X-men and The Backyardigans and is quite clearly made by someone who loves children and the things they love. But loving them? I haven’t even read the books.
I first ran across the Octonauts site on web design galleries, glanced at it, thought it was some kind of ironic joke, admired the illustration and left. I’m a huge fan of cutesy vector illustration like Octonaut illustrator Meomi’s work but glancing at stuff and leaving is really all I have time to do these days. But a second visit to the site last week and a deeper look made me a fan.
Besides Meomi’s obvious talents with colour, composition and character, they’re great children’s writers with a readable style. Friendly but terse. Simple but not dull. Plus, I love it when kids books make a big deal about being good friends and being just plain decent. Must have been all the Vonnegut I read. Anyway, it was the actual samples from the book that sold me. Here’s some direct links to them:
Plus, Meomi has a blog with some pics of their other work.
In conclusion I leave you with these three words: Tunip the Vegimal. I don’t think I need to say any more except that I think I’ll be buying the Octonauts.
5 Comments
Gorgeous cover.
After reading your brief review this one is on my shopping list for my friend’s daughter.
That reminds me, I must have some children, then I can justify buying more of these.
Children are great, John. I also recommend wives to start with. But try and have only one of those.
Ah, yes, I was getting ahead of myself there. I’ll see if I can speed things a long. Anyone free this weekend?
Not that I wish to turn this site (or these comments, at least) into a wife-finding forum.
On a more serious note: do you ever look at or review non-English titles for children?
Coming Soon: Upper Fort Stewart for Singles
My reading fare is entirely mono-lingual, John—although I do pretend to read French. But if anyone ever wanted to send me some links of cool Japanese titles with interesting illustrations I would definitely be interested.
Now that would pull in the traffic!
I’ve seen some wonderful Japanese titles. When I get a spare minute, I’ll send you some info. Interestingly, some of those books are in English as they’re intended as primers for kids learning the language.