Wednesday, September 9, 2015

PHFR: An Illustration of Nostalgia

It all started when I was waiting for Youngest Child to finish his math.  I began looking at the books on my bookcases.  This is an experience somewhat like my Mom used to tell me about and which I witnessed with my own eyes.  She could not look up just one thing in the Encyclopedia....she would help us look up a topic and we would skip happily away to something else.  One hour later we would return and she would still be looking at the Encyclopedia,  totally engrossed by all the amazing information inside.  I, her daughter,  do the same thing.  Only it is with illustrations from old books.  I took a few of my old favorites down and I was a goner!  
The Lost Boys and Wendy and Peter

Youngest child was able to finish math, get a snack, and check the baseball scores before I resurfaced again!  Illustrations bring back such memories from our early days of home schooling.  Each book makes me think of different children and their different loves over the years:  




The Illiad and all the Greeks with spears and weapons and armour,
and the wrath of Achilles.



















Noble Hector and the heat of battle.




Beatrix Potter's happy land and inventing all the voices for all her characters (especially Samuel Whiskers and Anna Maria),




 bees, spiders, crawling things, 








the mystery and magic of ballet.  






Here are a few gems I unearthed from the stack.  All of them beautiful and all of them just a bit different.  I have always thought artists and illustrators should have a special place in heaven for bringing us to the loveliest nooks and crannies of life and especially places that are humble and holy.

St Jerome and his Lion
Strong, kind, simple Christopher crossing the rushing stream































    

4 comments:

  1. I can relate--that's why I don't spend a lot of time 'researching' on the internet because I find so many other things that I just have to check out!! Books are a great thing to have, especially on a rainy day.

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  2. Lovely post! If I had an addiction it would be an addiction to wonderfully illustrated or written books. Such beautiful treasures you have.

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  3. What a beautiful stack of books. I have saved some for the illustrations as well.

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  4. Beautiful books and illustrations! I would get lost in those too!!

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