Far Far Away

John Segal is a member here, but that has nothing to do with our selling this book. We have at least a dozen member-authors. John was profiled in one of the first three or four Readers, as an illustrator with a unique style that, at this point, is all his own. Anybody is free to copy it, but after five of his own books and a number of other book illustrations, the word in the book-world is that this is John Segal's style, so it would be awkward for anybody else to barge in.

His original specialty was tiny pictures, about the size of a huge postage stamp, but with non-photographic detail. Everything is watercolor, and it's such a strong, sweet, distinct and refreshing style that it's just fun to look at closely and for a long time. I like it as much now as I did the first time I saw it, maybe 15 years ago.

The book here, Far Far Away, is a children's hardback about a pig on a bike. It's a short read if you blast through it (two minutes or less), but read to a child, you can stretch it out to ten easily, and that's the best way to read it. It's not like he's a rider and he set off to write a pro-bike children's book, to get them started early or anything. The bike is center-stage, but incidental to the story. The pig doesn't ride it to be green or anything.

No sense in telling plot. A pig on a bike is all you need to know. But let me say this. My children are 14 and 20 now, and I wish we'd had this book when they were growing up. They've both read it now, and love it. My wife and I love it. We'd love it no less if John Segal were Englebert Humperdinck. It's the perfect book to read to children, to make them feel loved and cared for.

Not wanting to be too heavy-handed, I'll stop here.

If you would like a signed, personalized bookplate to paste in the 
front of the book, just send John an email at bookplates@me.com
and he'll gladly send you one.