The Ideal Bookshelf

Once we have a house of our own and can give Sophie her own room, the first thing we're going to do-- after we paint the walls a pale robin egg blue with white trimmings-- is to set up her bookshelf. Right now, we have virtually no shelf space left even for our own books and Sophie's books are sadly either strewn over her play area or stacked up in a storage box. When that happens, Sophie's bookshelf will look quite close to Jane Mount's children’s books spine portraits. It features the artist’s own personal favorite children’s titles, and ones that we have in Sophie's library as well. The Velveteen Rabbit, Olivia, Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and of course Goodnight Moon, are among those that are included. Perfect for framing, these prints are sweet, sentimental, and a perfect way to honour storytime of today or yesterday.

It's remarkable how much Mount has captured just by painting the spines of books, and how distinctive they are. Some of my favorites literally jumped out at me when I first saw the picture, which makes you realize that spines are exactly what you use to identify books, whether at the library, bookstore, or on your own bookshelf.

You can pick the prints up here, they are all limited editions, for $20 for a 8” x 10”, $50 for a 11” x 14”, and $200 for the 16” x 20” editions.