Discover a lepe of leopards, a company of parrots, and a stream of minnows in this glorious visual introduction to the animal kingdom sumptuously illustrated by internationally acclaimed picture-book artist, Brian Wildsmith. This beautiful book will delight young animal lovers. Through evocative paintings, children are brought face to face with wildlife from around the world. Brian Wildsmith has captured the essence of each animal - from the playfulness of otters to a noisy gathering of parrots. His panoramic pictures also give a real sense of the animals' habitats - from a sun-soaked plain where elephants roam to icy Antarctica where penguins huddle together. Collective nouns - some familiar, others wonderfully surprising - are used to describe each group of animals. This is a book that will inspire a love of nature and a respect for animals from the earliest age.
Author
Brian Wildsmith (1930-2016) was raised in a small mining village in Yorkshire, England, where, he says, "Everything was grey. There wasn't any colour. It was all up to my imagination. I had to draw in my head..." He won a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art where he studied for three years. For a while he taught music at the Royal Military School of Music, but then gave it up so that he could paint full time. He has deservedly earned a reputation as one of the greatest living children's illustrators. In 1962, he published his first children's book, ABC, for which he was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal, Britain's equivalent to the Caldecott Medal. He was also a runner up for this medal for The Owl and the Woodpecker. Wildsmith has said: "I believe that beautiful picture books are vitally important in subconsciously forming a child's visual appreciation, which will bear fruit in later life." In 1994, the Brian Wildsmith Art Museum was established in Izukogen, a town south of Tokyo, Japan. Almost one and a half million people visited a traveling exhibition of his work in 2005. Eight hundred of his paintings are on loan to the museum. Brian is married, has four children, and currently lives in the south of France. — Source
