The Amazing World of Graeme Base

I love illustrated books, I really love illustrated children's books, I really really love any book by Graeme Base.  He writes and illustrates the most amazing books, many of which have a mystery/hidden picture element to them.  The writing is beautiful and each page is like a work of art! 

The first book of his I ever owned is called The Sign of the Sea Horse: A Tale of Greed and High Adventure in Two Acts A long name to be sure, but the amazingly stunningly breathtaking (I'm liking my adjectives today) artwork really brings to life this under the sea tale.  I still pull it out every time I need a breather from life.

The next book I got is call Animalia, which is probably his most popular book. It is an alphabet book that is absolutely chock full of rich scenes which all relate to the letter it is illustrating.  My siblings and I used to make a game out of how many things we could find that start with each particular letter. (My favorite was the letter P because of the pretty peacock)

The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery I got for my birthday one year.  It is a full blown mystery with secret codes hidden through out the amazing pictures, by the end you should have enough clues to figure out the culprit AND then you can go back through and find the culprits in each scene.  Still havn't figured out all the codes yet :-)

The Worst Band in the Universe: A Totally Cosmic Musical Adventure was set on another planet and was different from some of his other work, and yet still had that same style and prose that I love in his other books, and it came with a very interesting CD

I also have Enigma: a Magical Mystery, which is great for a little younger crowd and has a simpler mystery to solve .

 Discovery of Dragons: New Research Revealed is a hilarious "guidebook" to dragons from around the world.

Graeme Base has other books that I have not yet acquired, but I will have them all someday!!!  They are great family books, or curl up with hot chocolate by yourself books.  Let me know if you have read any of them and what is your favorite.
Heehee I spelled illustrated like 15 different ways before spell check, guess I'm not gonna win any spelling bees :-)