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Saturday 18 July 2015

Happy Birthday Madame Chapeau by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts

Throughout this book, you'll see some well-known hats. Look closely above and there's the one Beatrice wore to the royal wedding. And I've been googling that white beauty on the left, I know I've seen it before, I just can't find where. Anyways, the inspiration for this book was Isabella Blow, famous supporter of milliners and hat lover extraordinaire. And its a great tribute, this book contains fabulous style - she would have approved.

However, this not a book just for hat lovers, it is one for two to five year olds who love a really beautifully illustrated rhyming story.





P.s. As you can see, the author Andrea Beaty left a message below (Andrea Beaty looked at my blog!). She mentions her website and how we can see an illustration from Happy Birthday Madame Chapeau in progress here. The site is FULL of interesting stuff and the illustration in progress is great - and I'd say, particularly great to show to little artists, so they can see the fantastic results of perseverance. (It took three weeks!)

She also says that each and every hat in this book is based on an actual hat - each and every one. Like all my favourite books, this means that the illustrations reward really close inspection. And - the author and illustrator are there too - having their favourite cakes and coffee!

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing Happy Birthday, Madame Chapeau with your family and readers! David Roberts' illustrations were inspired by Isabella Blow (as you pointed out), but I wanted to tell you, also, that ALL of the hats in the book were based upon actual hats. Many were designed by Philip Treacy, Stephen Jones, Esla Schiaparelli and David Roberts (who studied fashion design and later became a milliner in Hong Kong). I wrote the book for David when I learned he had studied fashion illustration. You can learn more about the hats in this book on my website: www.AndreaBeaty.com Enjoy!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your comment! I didn't know that each and every hat was based on a real one - that's amazing, and makes the book even more impressive. I'm off to look at your website and show my kids that timelapse thingy. Thanks again for your interest - I'm chuffed!

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  2. Ooh! Also, you can watch a brief timelaps of the beautiful city illustration as it unfolds.

    Thanks!
    Andrea Beaty
    author of

    Happy Birthday, Madame Chapeau
    Rosie Revere, Engineer
    Iggy Peck, Architect
    Doctor Ted . . .

    and novels:

    Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies & Fluffy Bunnies 2: Schnoz of Doom
    Dorko the Magnificent
    Secrets of the Cicada Summer

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  3. Thank you - I think I will have to check out Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies too. It sounds like it will appeal to my boys. Great title!

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