One fine morning a miller decides to take his donkey to market. It is not a long journey but it turns out to be more tortuous than the miller or his boy could ever have imagined. Perhaps it is because the people that they meet along the way are more of a hindrance than a help? The simple message of this La Fontaine fable - that it is best to make your own decisions and not be swayed by conflicting advice - is gloriously told in this lovely picture book from Brian Wildsmith, an internationally acclaimed writer and artist for children. His simple words and sumptuous illustrations bring a freshness to this timeless fable and the stunning new cover design and imaginative interior typography will delight a whole new generation of young Wildsmith fans.
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
