Being a children’s librarian, I have favourite picture book illustrators. There are some artists who never fail to capture the sense of the book and usually, these are the books that I love to read to children again and again. Recently, Daisuke Tsutsumi, the art director at Pixar, came up with the idea for a picture book to raise funds for the literacy project called Room to Read. His idea was to create a picture book that traveled to artists and illustrators around the globe and the project spanned over 6 years and 56, 000 miles of travel.
Sketchtravel was born. Each artist would illustrate one blank page and then hand deliver the book to the next artist on the list. At the end, the original book was auctioned off and funds were donated to Room to Read, but not before several editions were created for the general public to purchase (a $40 version and a $250 collector’s edition). You can see more about this wonderful project right here.
What a fantastic idea and every page is something new and amazing! This could be done so many times, with new themes or ideas for a story that illustrators could contribute to. Take a few minutes to look at the artwork. It’s pretty amazing!
Will you be ordering one for the library?
I’ll have to see if we can find one on our lists!