Sunday, November 14, 2010

16th November Miroslav Sasek (1916 - 1980) Colin Thiele (1920 - 2006)





Miroslav Sasek is the Czech author illustrator who produced the This is ...series of books. He trained as an architect in Prague but really preferred painting. In 1958 he published the first of his travelogues, This is Paris. This was followed by other great cities such as London, New York, Rome and Venice. Each of the books paints an evocative picture of that city and details all the sites to visit in that city interspersed with facts. As well as these books there are some on countries. See This is Greece; This is Australia and This is Ireland. Each of these books has been reissued in the last decade. We displayed them today to celebrate Sasek's birthday and six were borrowed!

Colin Thiele is a highly esteemed Australian author who taught both school and university students but he will be remembered mainly for his wonderful children's books which feature rural Australia, South Australia and the Coorong. The landscape is always prominent in his books - almost acting as a character on occasion. Thiele has a strong affinity for the environment and the natural world. Altogether he wrote over 100 books but he is best known for Storm Boy, the story where everyone falls in love with a pelican named Mr Percival. This book was made into a film, as were others of his books. Thiele won numerous awards including the Hans Christian Anderson Award in 1968 and the Dromkeen Medal in 1997. I have read many of Thiele's books to children. I particularly like reading Pinquo and The March of Mother Duck.

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