At A Journey Round My Skull, Will has an incredible collection of scans from French children's books of the 1930s and '40s.
There are some great-looking titles like Je Fais mes Jouets avec des Plantes [I Make My Toys out of Plants]. Some great design, like Apoutsiak, a 1948 tale of a young Eskimo by the arctic explorer Paul-Emile Victor, and Ko et Ko les deux Esquimaux , 1933 [above]--what is it with the Eskimos and beautiful illustrations?--the story of a surrealist road trip by the painter Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and poet Pierre Gueguen. And hello surrealism, a children's book by Jean Cocteau? Then there's the immortal classic [i.e., the one I've heard about], Perlette, Beatrice Appia's happy/sad story of the life and death [by evaporation] of a lovable French waterdrop.
Anyway, stop dawdling and start surfing.
Eskimo Grasshoppers - French Children's Books of the 30s and 40s
[a journey round my skull]