I'm always losing my mind a little bit over a lot of things. Right this minute, it goes something like: thoughts of my next picture book, balloons, Manet's portraits, Babar, muffins, girls in blouses, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, sewing dresses, the Bears film etc. etc.
There's also this Soviet era children's book art. All but one of these (the pink elephant) are from this beautiful archive/online exhibition from the Rare Books/Special Collections dept. of the McGill Library.
The lively, simplified shapes & beautiful, wise use of color and grey-blacks make them so arresting & eternally modern. I think the barracuda/cat/mouse spread is one of my favorite things I've seen.
Now I'm wondering about Beautiful Books, Terrible Times...it looks like a good one.