Travels with my Sketchbook

April 15, 2018
Illustrator Riddell was the ninth children's laureate of the UK, and while serving his two years (2015-17), he kept a daily sketchbook of his travels, adventures, experiences, and thoughts. Though primarily known as a children's illustrator, Riddell is also a political cartoonist for the Observer, and his time as laureate overlapped a time of great turmoil in Britain, Europe, and the U.S. From daily life working at home to the oddities of traveling and self-promotion to the upheavals of Brexit, Donald Trump, and mass migrations across Europe, Riddell's thin-lined sketches and beautifully colored paintings are by turns funny, moving, somber, and thought-provoking. American readers will most appreciate his illustrations of poems that speak to him, his enjoyment of family, and his passionate promotion of reading, schools, and libraries, but the deeper details of British politics may be confounding for some. A beautiful work that will be most appreciated by those with a powerful love of British children's literature and those dreaming of a career in illustration.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)