Masha du Toit

Here are some pictures from a book I’ve known since childhood – “Bij de dieren thuis: De Muizen”  which translates to roughly to “At home with the animals: The Mice”.  It’s a small book with a simple theme – some mice travel the world to find out how other mice live.

It starts off with our hero, a mouse called Lodewijk, who lives with his family in the ideal mouse home, inside a rocking horse in an attic.  Of course, Lodewijk is not satisfied with his happy life and goes off on an adventure.  First, he rescues Lili, a white mouse from a laboratory:

Liane Roel’s illustrations are enchanting: every detail is considered, every shape exact.
Lodewijk and Lili travel the world and find out how other mice live.  They find that the country mice have a beautiful home, but some frightening enemies:

More

It’s been a while since I’ve posted – (and no, I’m only halfway with colouring in the “Unexpected Tea Party drawing that I posted about last time!)

In any case, I wanted to share an illustrated children’s book I found in a second hand bookshop yesterday.  It is called “Switch on the Night”, is written by Ray Bradbury, and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon who I also wrote about in this post.

The story is about  a boy who is afraid of the dark.  He does his best to light up every room he is in:

Notice the Escher-like distortions of perspective.  Here is another image, showing his parents walking through the house, switching off the lights:

More