My family was first introduced to Shirley Hughes when we visited a 50-year-old private library in Bangkok, where there are many of Hughes's books. Hughes's children's books immediately stand out from the rest. Every single page presents a work of impressive artistic quality. In an age when many children's books rely on cheap computer graphics(绘图)，it's refreshing to discover an illustrator who obviously labored, with deep attention to detail, over every page.
It's not just the illustrative talent and distinctive style, using pen and ink and watercolor to "fill ordinary domestic scenes with a mixture of magic", that sets Hughes's works apart. She was also an expert storyteller. That's not because her stories are particularly imaginative. Rather, perhaps, it's the simplicity and normality of the stories that make them so pleasing to kids and parents alike.
Take Dogger, one of Hughes's earlier books, published in 1977, which sold millions of copies and won Britain's Kate Greenaway Medal. Dogger is the story of Dave, a young boy who loses his beloved stuffed dog named Dogger. Much of what makes Dogger and the rest of Hughes's books so engaging is that the stories are told from the perspective of the child encountering everyday events. Hughes has a special skill for drawing wonder out of what we often assume to be boring and uninteresting.
Though I have a graduate degree in education, I never would have expected my children to love these stories. My best guess is that it is because Hughes's books talk to them about the kinds of things they witness and experience daily. By extension, these books tell them in reassuring tones that, yes, their little world with all of its people and curiosities is quite interesting indeed.
Perhaps much of the reason I've so taken to reading Shirley Hughes to my own children is that it reminds me of what the world looked like when I too was a little boy.
