5th August Christina Balit (1961)

I know it isn't the 5th August, but as a result of Momo's comment on my last entry I tried to come up with my list of top ten illustrators and came up with top 9 fairly quickly and then couldn't decide about who to put as number 10. I had about 10 on my list to choose from for that spot and British illustrator, Christina Balit was one of those ten. When I started reading up on her I learned that her birthday was 5th August and that I had not already included her on my calendar. Thus, this entry. Our library has many of Christina's books...  Atlantis, Hercules and Odysseus  are well used by Year 2 when they do their unit on Greek Mythology. The ones about the solar system are used by Year 1 when they do a unit on Space. Many of these are written by astronomer, Jacqueline Mitton. The Studies of Religion teacher often borrows bible stories, many written by Mary Hoffman, Lois Rock and Mary Joslin. I have a lovely ceramic plate based on one of her illustrations in My Sister Shahrazad that a parent at school did for me because she loved that book. Whatever Christina chooses to illustrate, her style is distinctive, colourful, detailed and memorable. Escape From Pompeii and Atlantis: the Legend of a Lost City, two of my favourites, both written and illustrated by Christina are a good place to start if you don't know her work.