Bookshelf: This week it's famed children's book illustrator Chris Haughton

What a treat we have in store for you this week in the form of Chris Haughton’s weighty bookshelf. Chris is a designer and children’s book illustrator who has been creating friendly, funny publications for little nippers for the last 12 years. Looking for a book that’ll make your child fall asleep (in a good way) at night? Then look no further than his books A Bit Lost and Oh No George! which are as beautifully illustrated as they are written. He’s kindly told us a little about which of the children’s books that dominate his shelves today please and inspire him on the regular. Take it away, Chris!

Benjamin Chaud: Coquillages et Petit Ours

One of my favourite illustrators, The Bear’s Song has just been published in English by Chronicle. This is a very simple but entertaining story and is stunningly illustrated.

Isabel Minhós Martins and Madalena Matoso: Where do we go when we disappear?

This book was produced by perhaps my favourite publisher in the world – a small collective of illustrators and writers called Planeta Tangerina in Portugal. They make very thoughtful, poetic books for children with beautiful graphics. I bought this in Portuguese, but it has since come out in English when it was published by Tate.

Guillaume Duprat: Le Livres des Terres Imaginées

This has won many awards around the world, but it isn’t available in English yet. It illustrates what different people around the world thought the world was before we discovered that it was a globe suspended in space. It travels through the ages from the Greeks to the Chinese, to the Aztecs and other tribes each with their own conception of the world. I love the concept, it’s such a perfect subject for illustration. I would love to make a non-fiction illustrated book in a similar vein to this some day.

Beatrice Alemagna: A Lion in Paris

A story about a lion who come to Paris by train without any luggage. It is the fictional story of why the huge lion statue in the Place Renfert-Rochereau looks so happy where he is.

Guy Deutscher: Through the Language Glass

I thought I’d better include an adult book-book. I love non-fiction and one of the best reads I’ve had in a while was The Unfolding of Language about how language evolves. Like all good books I lent it to a friend so I don’t actually have it to photograph! But Through the Language Glass is by the same author and is pretty good too, it’s about how our mother tongue affects our thoughts.