Thirteen

A book of creative metamorphosis and stunning visuals that will bend children’s imaginations and appeal to all ages. ＂One of my own personal childhood favorites...＂ --Brian Selznick

Thirteen is no ordinary picture book. It is book of visual and conceptual revolutions, metamorphoses, and narratives that swallow their own tails. In thirteen illustrated stories, plus ＂a preview of coming attractions,＂ nothing less than the birth of the world, its duration, death, and rebirth occurs, in thirteen arresting and evolving tableaus, involving a sinking ship, a play, a leaf and caterpillar, a card trick, swans, a worm, Cinderella, the alphabet, paper magic, pyramids, a getting-thin-and-getting-fat-again dance, the fall and rise of civilization, and a countdown. This is not a book you read from beginning to end, so much as one you enter into, are absorbed by and transformed, like the thirteen tableaus themselves.

Remy Charlip (1929-2012) was an artist, writer, choreographer, theater director, teacher, and author of 29 children’s books. He attended Cooper Union, created a style of choreography called ＂air mail dances,＂ and was a founding member of the Merce Cunninham Dance Company. He was the recipient of three New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year citations, and was awarded a six-month residency in Kyoto, Japan from the Japan/U.S. Commission on the Arts.

Jerry Joyner was an author and illustrator of children’s books including Bialosky’s Special Picnic, My First Cookbook: A Bialosky & Friends Book, All About Mud, and Thirteen. He lives in the Greater Nashville Area of Tennessee.