This Is Texas 
M. Sasek ~ Macmillian, 1967 ~ reprint by Universe, 2006
Much like Erdoes, people who appreciate design and illustration love this guy's books as evidenced around the blogosphere here, here and here.
I love this one in particular because it is all about Texas, of course... but even if you aren't a fan of the Lone Star State, it is just one in a series that includes amazing locations like London, Paris, Australia, Munich and more. Some have been reissued (like This Is Texas) but with the others, you'll have to track down a highly collectible vintage copy. Check out the illustrator's site for a complete list of all 18 books in the This Is series. 
That said, my son loves this too tall tome because it is funny, the drawings are awesome, and it includes lots of cool tidbits on San Antonio and the rest of this amazing state.
Texans wear the word's most uncomfortable boots and are known to be the world's worst walkers. But who cares? In Wichita Falls everybody drives a Cadillac.Funny stuff, right?
Texas has the roomiest mobile houses -- the hairiest goats -- the best-shaved hogs -- the juiciest steaks -- the humpiest bulls -- the most statuesque cows -- the wildest wild turkeys.
Make no mistake though, the series acts as a realio, trulio set of travelogues and guidebooks for tots ~ each book covering the major attractions and cultural history of the title city, country or state. A great gift for a kid about to go on a big adventure, or in our case, to help my son appreciate the magic in his own backyard.
Also by:This is New York
—————
Read along on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, tumblr, Twitter and Etsy.
5 comments:
We're big fans of these too. We live in San Francisco and have paged through our city's many times. We're also about to move to France and my daughter was just given the Paris one. She's pretty obsessed with the Golden Gate Bridge, so we'll see what sticks from the Paris book.
I love the illustrations, but it's also been really interesting for me to see what information is out of date, what ends up with an footnote in the reissued version and what "facts" they let slide.
Thanks.
I love M. Sasek-- his books were how I originally got into collecting "Vintage Kids' Books"--I can't wait til my little squirt is old enough to actually enjoy them! (He's only 12 months now and has the attention span of a fly).
I am always having to fill in out of date facts in vintage books. That's part of the fun!
I adore M. Sasek - my mother sent me München Munich, a terrific (and bilingual!) lesser known book of his, several months ago.
Your son seems to have quite a nice library of books. I'm currently amassing a decent collection from around the world for the children I don't even have as of yet.
Thanks for more inspiration!
just received This Is Edinburgh. love it. worthreading for any visitor as quite factual ("1 o'clock gun" etc... you have to read it...)
Post a Comment