Children's Author of the Week: Gyo Fujikawa

Gyo Fujikawa, born and raised in Berkeley, California to Japanese parents, passed away in 1998 at the age of 90.  She created and illustrated more than 50 books for children.  We first discovered her when my mom bought Ben a copy of her A to Z Picture Book.  The illustrations are just adorable and each page is filled with pictures and words to help build vocabulary.  Ben loved the "B is for busy babies" page the best and would spend upwards of 15-20 minutes at a year-and-a-half just looking from baby to baby and talking about what each one was doing.  We also enjoyed the "C" page which pictures a baby named Clara who is "crawling."  Another favorite book is Good Morning.  Alice, in particular, loves the pages with kids doing two of her favorite things:  eating a huge breakfast and playing in the mud.

The books are written in simple language or rhymes and are perfect for children who are at the age where they are fascinated by babies (for my kids around 14-22 months) as many of the illustrations feature babies or young children.  The books are colorful and busy with so much to talk about and imitate.  And everything, from my perspective, is just so much fun to look at.  While my kids are getting a bit older, I can still see myself wanting to decorate their rooms with some of the prints.  Or maybe I'll just seek out a few for my own room!