#89 of 1001 · October 28, 2020

As Halloween draws nearer, the whistle of the wind and the glint of the Hunter’s Moon often send me scurrying to curl up under a warm blanket and shiver with delight at a good ghost story. And what a ghost story I have here: The Monster and the Tailor by Paul Galdone. Based on The Sprightly Tailor, a Scottish folktale collected by Joseph Jacobs, this book is a visual master class in suspense. A tailor accepts an idiosyncratic commission from the Grand Duke to sew a pair of trousers after sundown in a haunted churchyard. As he works, an enormous ghoul begins to pull itself out of the ground, impishly presenting one giant body part at a time; the tailor must stitch with all his speed and skill in order to finish the garment and flee before the monster emerges. The ebullient energy of Galdone’s loose line is tempered by the dark, moody gray-blue of his color palette. #paulgaldone #monster #tailor #halloween #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks