Windy - Hardcover

Robin Mitchell Cranfield; Judith Steedman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 096887682X ISBN 13: 9780968876824

Publisher: Simply Read Books, 2002

Synopsis

Simply Read Books

About this title

About the Author

Robin Mitchell is a recent graduate from the graphic design program at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Some of her recent clients have included Rodney Graham and the DIA Gallery in New York and Quattro Records in Tokyo. Michell is also a founding member of the design group "picnic," focusing on book design, interactive media, soft industrial design, and, most recently, mittens.

Judith Steedman is the principal of Steedman Design, a graphic design studio in Vancouver. Specializing in book design, Steedman has designed books for artists anad writers such as Francis Alys, Stan Douglas, Ken Lum, and Walter Marchetti. Steedman is co-editor and designer of Inside Magazines, co-published by BIS Publishers, Thames and Hudson, and Gingko Press. She holds degrees in English literature and graphic design from the University of British Columbia and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, respectively.

Reviews

Graphic designers Mitchell and Steedman have fashioned a tale starring a winsome wire and cloth doll with black dots for eyes her only facial feature and yellow yarn for hair. True to her name, Windy is happily awakened by the "Whshshshshsh!" made by "the papery rustle of the leaves in the trees," a description that's also a sly reference to the book's organizing aesthetic. For Windy lives in a world constructed entirely from paper (collage, origami and simple cut-out shapes), fashioned into three-dimensional environments and photographed from varying perspectives. The story follows Windy in her pursuit of a runaway blue kite (kite-making instructions appear on the inside of the dust jacket). Her eventually successful quest gives Mitchell and Steedman ample opportunity to introduce other kite-flying characters in playfully ingenious scenes including origami Meadow Bunnies and a trio of red cut-out fish who inhabit a pond suggested by concentric circles of turquoise paper. While the narrative is slight, Windy's homespun-doll charms are considerable, and the photography (by Mia Cunningham) makes the most of the book's small, square format. The volume's compact size lends the action intimacy, drama and a magical sense of verite. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simply Read Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 096887682X
• ISBN 13: 9780968876824
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Robin Mitchell Cranfield, Judith Steedman
• Number of pages: 48