Frane Lessac – illustratör

On a coral reef in the big blue sea, count the ocean creatures 1, 2, 3.Count from one giant whale shark all the way to twelve tired seahorses, meeting and learning about plenty of playful Australian sea creatures along the way. With vibrant artwork, simple facts about each creature and a gentle conservation message, Frané Lessac’s Under the Sea 1 2 3 is a celebration of twelve fish and friends living in our seas.

The incredible artwork of an Italian immigrant who followed his dream of monumental proportions in the impoverished Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles is revealed in this fascinating and engaging true story. A Reading Rainbow selection! Simon (Sam) Rodia had no formal engineering or architectural training.  Yet, over the course of three decades, he constructed an artistic masterpiece in his own backyard – the Watts Towers. Using all kinds of things other people had thrown away, such as broken bottles and tiles, pieces of mirror and glass, seashells, and bits of pottery, he adorned the collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers. His imaginative salvaging and perseverance can be seen today, as people from all over the world still come to marvel at Sam’s dream.

The first man and woman are lonely. What to do? They decide to fashion children out of clay. As they are baking the little figures in their fire, they're constantly interrupted by visits from the sky-god, Nyame. As a result, some of the children are pale and underdone, some are left in so long that they come out very dark, and the rest are every shade between. Frané Lessac's gorgeous gouache paintings, inspired by West African masks and pottery, and Eric Maddern's vivid text make this one of the most compelling of creation myths for young readers.