books for kids...and adults

I wanted to buy some new books for my daughter. It's hard to do this kind of shopping. There aren't a lot of 'book reviews' for this kind of work. And then it struck me. While wandering through an airport a few months ago I remember seeing a book on display that was undoubtedly my favorite book growing up.

It's called This is Paris. My mother bought it for me when I was living in Paris. I think I was 2 years old. I mainly remember reading it while I was in England. It is a simply stunning book. The artwork is a combination of collage and drawings. The writing was simple and focused on daily life in the city. Garconnes, gendarmes, old ladies buying baguettes. It was a magical book that I treasured. Somewhere in our many moves I lost it. The artwork is just priceless. It's all characature but it invokes the sense of Paris very well.

Imagine my thrill when I go to Amazon and realize he has many other books of places I've lived. San Francisco, London, New York. The author & illustrator is a Miroslav Sasek. It seems there is very little on the web about this person. This seems to be the only significant website about him. Born in Prague and died in 1980. Made a series of "This is..." books with 4 converted into film. I hope my daughter enjoys them as much as I did.