Synopses & Reviews
Illustrated in full color. Only John Burningham--four-time winner of a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year award and twice the recipient of Britain's prestigious Kate Greenaway Award--could have created this subtle and magical fantasy about the dreams of childhood. While hiking in the mountains with his parents, Albert tumbles off a cliff--but is saved by the cloud children who utter magic words that make him very light and keep him from falling. Albert has a wonderful time jumping, swimming, painting, and racing in the sky with the cloud children (he even walks along the jet stream of an airplane!)...until he remembers his mother and father and his own little bed at home. It takes the cloud queen, the man in the moon, and a few more magic words to return Albert to earth. Glorious mixed-media illustrations leap from the oversize pages of this delightful new book by "one of the finest and most original writers at work today" (The New Yorker). A Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection.
Synopsis
"A child finds himself in a new world where each day offers yet another fantastic experience. Eventually, however, the child yearns for the familiarity of home. In the hands of the incomparable Burningham, this familiar story takes on new depth and poignancy while never losing the giddy appeal of adventure."--"Publishers Weekly, " starred review. Full color.
About the Author
x Works in the basement of his house in London on an old boardroom table, which came from The Monkey Club, a school for debutantes in Kensington, and is littered with pens, pencils, paints, papers and rough drawings.
x When he's not working on a book, he loves collecting -- furniture, statues, staircases, and old curtains. He travels around England and France looking for unusual things to put in his house or to sell to someone else.
x Marks the day with things to look forward to -- a large mug of good strong coffee to start the day, lunch, when his wife, children's book writer and illustrator Helen Oxenbury and John can discuss their work or just have a general chat; and at around six o'clock, a drink of delicious red wine, preferably French (wine is another one of his interests).
x Has always been interested in the third dimension, and many of his books have to be constructed layer by layer because he enjoys painting on different materials -- paper, cardboard, wood -- so that a variety of textures comes through on the printed page.