Mohieddin Ellabbad, translated by Sarah Quinn,
The Illustrator’s Notebook
Groundwood Books, House of Anansi Press, 2006 (originally published in Arabic in Egypt; published in French in 1999).

Ages 8+

Author-illustrator MohieddinEllabbad has had a distinguished career as an illustrator in his native Egypt, and The Illustrator’s Notebook has garnered many awards since its 2006 publication, including the 2007 ASA Africana Children’s Book Award. Ellabbad’s original Arabic book for children explains how he became an illustrator and how he works; the English version reproduces each original page in Arabic, with translation provided in the outside margins. Like Arabic books, this version opens from right to left. From the outset, the young western reader is in a different culture, a different world.

Ellabbad’s collage style incorporates not only his drawing and calligraphy but also postcards, stamps, and reproductions of other artists’ work, such as a page full of cats, many comic-book familiar, which he uses to discuss how different artists portray the same image. He shows a drawing done when he was sad and compares it with a version done later when he’d cheered up. The contrast between the charming, naïve style of his graphic images and his elegant Arabic calligraphy offers children superb yet approachable models of layout and design.

Perhaps most appealing, however, are the conceptual challenges Ellabbad offers young readers. Discussing landscapes, he asks, “Have you ever looked at the beautiful landscape that is drawn right in the palm of your hand?” About a group of postcards, he writes that each suggests a special smell—of rose water, of licorice, of “fresh almonds perfumed with old damp wood,” and even of floor cleaner! Using as examples and inspiration everything from the henna-tattooed hands and feet of a friend’s younger sister to the exotic signatures of sultans of old, Ellabbad educates young people in how to look and think creatively about the visual world.

This is the kind of book that can turn a daydreaming doodler of a kid into an inspired, aspiring young artist.

Awards: Middle East Outreach Council (MEOC) Youth Non-Fiction Award in 2006, the IRA Children's Book Award Notables in 2007, the New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age in 2007, the Children's Literature Assembly Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts (NCTE) for 2007, and the Children's Africana Book Award - Best Book for Older Readers in 2007.

Charlotte Richardson
June 2009