Mystery Musicians by Rodney Martin illustrated by Svjetlan Junaković

 

This is a lift the flap guessing game book. It is just so clever. On the first page there are two drums with drum sticks. Lift the flap to answer the riddle:

"I live in the desert and I clump through the sand. I have two humps I can thump in the band. I am a ..."

Yes you are right - a camel.

Here is another:

"I live among rocks and I like the high land, I have two horns I can blow in the band. I am a ..."

Mountain Goat

A flute turns into an octopus; a grand piano is a huge bear; the clarinet is an elephant and the French horn is a chameleon lizard.

This is another wonderful but sadly long out of print book. Perhaps I should start a new blog where I just focus on out of print books. I do worry that I keep sharing books here on my blog that you may not be able to find.

The format of this book is the first thing I noticed. It is long and tall. Mystery Musicians was first published in Zurich in 1999. My copy comes from Era in South Australia and was published in 2001. 

Svjetlan Junaković comes from Croatia. For his lasting contribution as a children's illustrator, Junaković was a finalist for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in both 2008 and 2010. You can see more of his work here. 

Here is another book from the same series:

I am going to keep my eye out for another series illustrated by Svjetlan called Animagicals published in 2001.