#466 of 1001 · November 9, 2021

In @movingbookpress’s Palazzo Inverso you’ll find engaging tribute to the work of famed Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher. Mauk, apprentice to a master builder, hastens to work. Everything seems to be going wrong on the construction of the grand palazzo—workers falling, water spilling upward, towers built upside-down..or is it downside-up? Only when Mauk (who is not allowed to draw, only to sharpen pencils) reveals that he turned the palazzo’s architectural plans around while his master was napping are the mysteries revealed. The boy then scampers cheekily away away, using his knowledge of the building’s odd geometry to evade capture. Johnson’s playful text and grayscale mixed-media illustrations draw inspiration from the content of Escher’s celebrated lithographs, woodcuts, and mezzotints. The book’s clever design (the last page instructs the reader to rotate the book and follow upside-down text back toward the beginning) allows the images to be recontextualized in new dimensions, much like the gripping mathematical strangeness of Escher’s art. Even the protagonist serves as a symbol: his peaked cap and spritely gait echo the figure from Escher’s 1938 print “Cycle”, and his name is taken from Escher’s nickname in life: Mauk. #palazzo #upsidedown #impossible #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #classicchildrensbooks #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks