Since I started a day late, here’s a second book. This one will be a shorter post since this book is one of my favorites almost entirely for the art.

The Butterfly’s Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast is filled with pages and pages of intricate, lushly colored paintings of various critters dressing in their finery to attend a party. Every illustration has dozens of little details to absorb. One of them even has a visual puzzle! But at the same time, there’s something a bit off, a bit weird and maybe slightly creepy about the conjunction of alien insect and whimsical fancy dress. I remember being fascinated by images like Old Blind Mole. It seemed like you ought to be able to feel the velvet of his rich blue coat (edged with lace, of course), and to smell the juicy red strawberries on the bush behind him. But then there were the half-dozen equally-lifelike earthworms squirming out of his pocket, and his long finger and toenails sharp enough to claw their way out of the page. It still makes me shiver, but in that way you love to shiver as a kid.

Here is a gallery of some of the illustrations. The one of the snail and the butterfly at the masque has always been one of my particular favorites.

There is also a sequel called The Peacock Party that I spent many hours staring at. Sadly I no longer have my copy (hopefully it is in my parents’ house somewhere) so I don’t have it in front of me to reference.