Czeching Out Illustrated Travel Guidebooks for Children

I bought this the other day. I had wanted it for Christmas, but I treated myself to it after Christmas. Sasek's books were a firm favourite of mine when I was growing up. Regular visits to the library were a part of my growing up. Invariably, I would look for one of the books in the This is... series to take home and have read to me, then later I would be reading them myself. A firm favourite was This is San Francisco. A few years back working in Tokyo I came across some Sasek illustrations in an article about his This is... series in the design magazine Casa Brutus. I am not surprised that sasek's illustrations caught the eye of a design magazine. Apparently young Miroslav was trained as an architect, but he wanted to be an artist. The training comes through in his illustrations. Incredible attention to detail in his illustrations of buildings and a unique approach to cityscapes and colouring. The series of books was devoted mainly to cities around the world, but some volumes were about countries, as well. It was a particular thrill to see his volume on my country, Australia, published. On a recent visit to Tokyo, I saw quite a few of his books in Japanese. They had recently been translated and published. In September, passing through Hong Kong en route to Italy, Dymocks had an artistic display of his This is Hong Kong. His books have stood the test of time, as his earliest books were produced in the late 1950s.

Picture books are not only for children.