I had the delight of illustrating an entertaining children’s board book, Animals: Counting, Colors & Sounds, which was published at the end of 2015. Order it here!

I was initially approached by the publisher with the concept of a board book that could be read to young children featuring and teaching the names of animals as well as the sounds they make, numbers, and colors.

The publisher had found my website through an internet search for illustrators of children’s books. As they looked through my gallery and images of my work, they were impressed with what they saw and thought I would be the person to create the look they wanted for their book.

After some initial conversations, I was given the ability to collaborate significantly with the publisher on the book and granted creative license in producing the fun artwork.

On each spread of the book, a group of animals is displayed and every animal has the word next to it that represents the sound it makes. The book begins with the number “one,” and the first illustration features one red rooster who makes the sound, “Cock-A-Doodle-Do!”

From there, the story proceeds with two orange cats, each one with a cheerful “Meow!” Then, three yellow lions each “Roar!”. This is followed by 4 green frogs, 5 blue birds, 6 pink pigs, 7 brown dogs, 8 gray owls, 9 black bears, and 10 white lambs, each with their respective sounds.

Ideally, the reader of the book would point to and count the number of each animal, along with the child they are reading the book to. As another activity, the reader could point to the animals again and imitate the sound, giving the child the experience of counting the animals and hearing the sound they make, one time for each animal represented. The child can then interact by mimicking the sound themselves.

Something I love about the book is the happy expressions I was able to achieve on the faces of the animals. I used a simple, rounded style for the art that is very fun, colorful, and appealing to young children.

I can imagine the pleasure of a child who is looking at these pictures and hearing someone playfully making the sounds. The child’s experience of identifying the animals, counting, recognizing colors and hearing the variety of sounds and learning to mimic them would be very enjoyable, as well as educational.

In fact, while visiting family over the holidays, I was able to present the book to my 19-month-old niece, who thoroughly enjoyed it and did quite well at imitating the animal sounds.

This sturdy little book is large enough to accommodate the illustrations, but small enough to fit comfortably in a young child’s hands.

As always, I loved doing the research for the artwork. It was a fun challenge to create a collection of animals that have individual characteristics, but all seem to “go together”.

I established the concept for each of the animals and illustrations by first sketching them out in pencil. When I was satisfied with the image, I scanned them into the computer and created the final artwork using Adobe Illustrator.

Some of the reactions I’ve received to this book are:

“Cute!”

“Cute critters!”

“Fantastic!!”

“Awesome. I…need to buy one for my classroom!” —Preschool teacher

“What a great cover Joe. I love your artwork.” —Donna Nelson Gauntlett, author, illustrator & artist

If you’re interested in purchasing this book, you can go to my website, www.JoeEckstein.com, and fill out the contact form.

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