"Once there was a Fox who
lived in a deep, dense forest."
- Coralie Bickford-Smith, The Fox and the Star
lived in a deep, dense forest."
- Coralie Bickford-Smith, The Fox and the Star
The incredible artwork of this children's book struck me from a shelf at Sundance Bookstore in Reno, NV. Its intricate patterns of a dark, unexplored forest and a fiery patch of fur lost in it, makes The Fox and the Star one of the most beautifully illustrated books I've come come across.
Only after enjoying the story and pictures a dozen or so times, did I realize that I actually had already met the author and illustrator Coralie Bickford-Smith by way of Penguin's clothbound classics. She designed their richly colored, pattern-based covers that reference a Victorian-era sense of design and quality construction (My favorite is Les Miserables with its red cardinals and dark gray cloth binding).
Moreover, Fox is printed on a hardy paper stock (which smells amazing), and bears a font created by Coralie herself. All these design and construction features add up to an heirloom quality book whose craftsmanship is a work of art in and of itself—let alone the positive, Aesop-esque story. [JG]
Only after enjoying the story and pictures a dozen or so times, did I realize that I actually had already met the author and illustrator Coralie Bickford-Smith by way of Penguin's clothbound classics. She designed their richly colored, pattern-based covers that reference a Victorian-era sense of design and quality construction (My favorite is Les Miserables with its red cardinals and dark gray cloth binding).
Moreover, Fox is printed on a hardy paper stock (which smells amazing), and bears a font created by Coralie herself. All these design and construction features add up to an heirloom quality book whose craftsmanship is a work of art in and of itself—let alone the positive, Aesop-esque story. [JG]
| "Fox called out to the forest, to the trees and the leaves, to the beetles and the rabbits, to the tangle of thorns and the life he had left behind: "Where did star go?" |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
| Coralie Bickford-Smith is a "designer of fine things. Mostly books." She currently is working in-house at Penguin Publishing. I first came across her work via Penguin's clothbound classics a few years back, whose covers she with their richly colored, pattern-based covers that reference a Victorian-era sense of design and quality construction. My favorite of the series is actually Les Miserables with its red cardinals and dark gray cloth binding. Coralie's second children's book is titled The Worm and the Bird, published by Penguin in 2017. You can see more of Coralie's work at her website and Instagram. |
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