The Slant Book
The Slant Book
Written by Peter Newell
New York, Harper & Brothers, 1910
8.2" x 10.25"
Kerlan Collection, Children's Literature Research Collections
University of Minnesota Libraries
Turn-of-the-century illustrator Peter Newell had no use for the bohemian life. A proud family man, he once noted, "Some of my best work has been done while I had a baby on my lap." An amateur magician who enjoyed surprising his young audiences, Newell invented some of the most offbeat picture-book formats as well. Holes punched through the pages of his first books traced the paths of a stray bullet and of a rocket prankishly launched in a basement. He chose The Slant Book's trapezoidal trim to mirror the angle of a runaway baby carriage's madcap downhill descent.