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Books published by publisher Phaidon Press Ltd

  • Emile: The Helpful Octopus - from Tomi Ungerer, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration

    Tomi Ungerer

    Hardcover (Phaidon Press, Feb. 11, 2019)
    Emile is a charming tale about an eight-legged hero that will delight two-legged readers of all ages. From Tomi Ungerer, one of the world's most famous and best-loved children's authors. Emile is an eight-legged hero who has twice as much courage and four times as many legs as most people – except, of course, other octopuses. When deep-sea diver Captain Samovar is attacked by a ferocious shark, Emile comes to his aid. Grateful to his rescuer, the Captain invites him to stay at his home, where Emile sleeps in a bathtub full of salt water. Emile turns out to be a fantastic octopus: he is a gifted musician (able to play three instruments simultaneously) and a great lifeguard, teaching children to swim and saving people from drowning. One day, Emile and the Captain, who works on a police launch, encounter a suspicious-looking boat in the ocean, with a dangerous group of smugglers on board... A picture book for ages 5-8.
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  • Wrinkles

    JR

    Hardcover (Phaidon Press, Sept. 12, 2019)
    A lyrical, poignant ode to wrinkles and the stories they tell, by the world renowned photographer and public artist JRThis first-ever picture book by internationally acclaimed artist-photographer JR allows young readers to consider the lives and stories of the older people around them. Memories, experiences, and emotions are touched on in a welcoming way, creating the perfect conversation-starter between children and their elders. Evocative black-and-white photographs of faces and simple, poignant read-aloud text consider the literal and lyrical meaning of wrinkles, leaving readers of all ages with a well-justified appreciation of aging and natural beauty. Published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, opening in October 2019.
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  • 500 Self-Portraits

    Liz Rideal

    Hardcover (Phaidon Press, March 16, 2018)
    A compelling collection of self-portraits from throughout recorded history, revised to include captivating contemporary worksThe challenge of interpreting and recreating their own likenesses has proven irresistible to artists throughout the ages. Originally published more than 80 years ago and last revised in 2000, this wholly new edition for 2018 presents a selection of powerfully evocative works by many of the world's greatest artists - from Dürer and Rembrandt to Marina Abramović, David Hockney, and Cindy Sherman - working in painting, photography, sculpture, and performance. Flowing in a chronological sequence, with interspersed artist quotes, it features essays by Julian Bell and Liz Rideal. This is both a useful resource and a thoughtful celebration of a much-loved art form.
  • A Pile of Leaves: Published in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art

    Jason Fulford, Tamara Shopsin

    Board book (Phaidon Press, Sept. 17, 2018)
    Dig through the leaf pile in this collage-inspired book with see-through pagesReaders explore the concept of layering and collage with this interactive exercise in composition. Each clear acetate page features a single element in the leaf pile, though some are not leaves at all! As readers turn the pages, the leaf pile is deconstructed piece by piece on the right side, and reconstructed on the left. Younger readers will enjoy the seek-and-find aspect of the hidden objects, while older readers might experiment by adding their own images between the pages. A key at the back provides the names of each kind of leaf shown. Inspired by the Whitney Museum's approach to looking at art, these books provide a new way to look at the world.Colors are brighter than they appear - printed in pure Pantones.Ages 2-4
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  • Can I Eat That?

    Joshua David Stein

    Hardcover (Phaidon Press, March 28, 2016)
    A whimsical–yet factual–series of questions and answers about the things we eat... and don't eat!Blue Hen (MD) Young Reader Award HonorFood critic Joshua David Stein whets the appetite of young readers with a wondrous and informative approach to talking about food. This humorous, stylized and entirely unexpected set of food facts will engage both good eaters and resisters alike. With questions both practical ("Can you eat a sea urchin?") and playful ("Do eggs grow on eggplants?"), this read-aloud text offers young children facts to share and the subtle encouragement to taste something new! Food and textile illustrator Julia Rothman brings an authenticity to the text that Stein has written from the heart, for his own three year-old and for pre-schoolers everywhere.Created for ages 3-5 years
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  • Circle Rolls - Winner of the Teach Early Years Awards 2018, Picture Books

    Barbara Kanninen, Serge Bloch

    Hardcover (Phaidon Press, May 4, 2018)
    A clever and spirited rhyming story of friends who literally come in all shapes and sizesWhen Circle rolls into one of Triangle's points and pops, chaos momentarily ensues until Octagon's "Stop!" brings everyone to their senses. An effortlessly rhyming text introduces us to a collection of shapes and subtly weaves their physical characteristics into traits that both lead to and solve a would-be catastrophe. Master illustrator Serge Bloch's shapes are accompanied by a chorus of miniature people who play along, creating the perfect complement to Barbara Kanninen's economy of words. Worthy of comparison to Shel Silverstein's The Missing Piece, this raucous chain of events is satisfyingly cyclical, ending just exactly where it began.
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  • Francesca Woodman

    Chris Townsend

    Hardcover (Phaidon Press, June 1, 2006)
    Francesca Woodman has become one of the most talked about, studied and influential of late twentieth-century photographers. She started taking photographs when she was barely thirteen, and in less than a decade created a body of work that has now secured her reputation as one of the most original American artists of the 1970s. Woodman brought an understanding of Baroque painting, modernist art and contemporary post-Minimalist practice to her haunting, sensual, images. Both in her work with models and in her sometimes disturbing self-portraits, she made a thoroughgoing challenge to the certainties of photography.Interested in how people relate to space, and how the three-dimensional world can be reconciled with the two dimensions of the photographic image, Woodman played complex games of hide-and-seek with her camera. One of the enduring appeals of her work is the way in which she constructs enigmas that trap our gaze. She depicts herself seemingly fading into a flat plane, merging with a wall under the wallpaper, dissolving into the floor, or flattening herself behind glass. She constantly compares the fragility of her own body with the physical environment around her. Fascinated by transformation and the permeability of seemingly fixed boundaries, Woodman conjures in her work the precarious moment between adolescence and adulthood, between presence and absence.This comprehensive monograph includes over 200 of Woodman's works - some of which have never been exhibited or published before - as well as previously unseen extracts from her journals, selected and introduced by her father, George Woodman. There are examples of her large-scale 'blue-prints', and reproductions of her artist's books, including Some Disordered Interior Geometries, which was published in 1981, the year she took her own life. An extensive text by Chris Townsend examines the influences of Gothic literature, Surrealism, feminism and post-Minimalist art on Woodman's photographs, as well as placing her in relation to her contemporaries, such as Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince. This book confirms Woodman's position as one of America's most talented and important artists since 1970, with a legacy lasting well beyond her own time.
  • Bugs in the Garden

    Beatrice Alemagna

    Hardcover (Phaidon Press, Aug. 8, 2011)
    Beatrice Alemanga returns with a follow up to the charming Bugs in a Blanket. What happens when the bugs venture out into the big, wide garden to find some new friends? This sturdy board book introduces children to lovable bugs who learn how to accept creatures they are initially afraid of. Author Beatrice Alemagna invented a whole new technique of illustration for this book using a felted wool technique and an amalgam of applique, fabrics and stitching.
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  • The Game of Mirrors

    Hervé Tullet

    Hardcover (Phaidon Press, Feb. 3, 2014)
    A mirrored and illustrated board book that shows young readers their reflection.
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  • Animals Hide and Sneak

    Bastien Contraire

    Board book (Phaidon Press, May 22, 2017)
    One of these things is almost like the others...Inspired by the picture book Undercover, a sixty-four-page masterpiece of spot-the-odd-one-out published in 2016, comes a series of odd-one-out board books for the youngest readers. Bastien Contraire creates spreads with four to eight images each - all of which belong together, except one that may resemble the others but has no business joining the lot. A teapot amongst sitting cats, a belt amongst snakes, and a feathered hat amongst birds are all hiding in plain site for the delighted toddler to discover giddily! Young readers will exercise skills of categorization and visual acuity in finding the 'poser', and bask in the preposterous silliness.
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  • The Beast of Monsieur Racine

    Tomi Ungerer

    Hardcover (Phaidon Press, Sept. 28, 2014)
    Monsieur Racine wakes up one day to find his precious pear tree looted of all the award‐winning fruit. When he discovers that the culprit is a funny‐looking beast, his anger gives way to curiosity and two become friends. But the beast is not quite what it seems, eventually it comes apart–literally to show itself to be no beast at all, but the two playful children from next door, covered with skins and rags.
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  • The Game of Red, Yellow and Blue

    Hervé Tullet

    Board book (Phaidon Press, Oct. 1, 2012)
    Geometrical shapes in purple, green, and orange who want to find their parents teach the primary and secondary colors.
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