While writ­ing this, I am sit­ting near the water in Bal­ti­more. Sail­ing on a Very Fine Day seems like an appro­pri­ate thing to share, no? (Also, I love ban­jos, wish I could play one). The book is illus­trated by Ber­nice and Lou Myers.

Sail­ing on a Very Fine Dayis a Golden Book, orig­i­nally pub­lished in 1954. It was writ­ten by Burl Ives and is a story about a boy goes sail­ing on a very nice day. Dur­ing his jour­ney on the seas, he makes some friends a long the way, includ­ing a chick, a horse, and a hermit.

Always a fan of chil­drens’ book illus­tra­tions, I love the style in which the husband-wife illus­tra­tion duo has cre­ated a flat, sim­ple yet tex­tural images. There is a lot of nice dry-brushing in each image, and a lot of con­trol — they almost look like they could be collages.

All images via Golden Gems.