• The Big Wet Balloon
• written and illustrated by Liniers (Ricardo Liniers Siri)
• published by TOON Books

It seems appropriate to feature this book today, as it was just recognized in a BIG way with an Eisner Award nomination for Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 7). The publisher, Toon Books, must be conflicted since three of the five nominees in this category are their books! (The other two are Benjamin Bear in Bright Ideas by Philippe Coudray and Otto’s Backwards Day by Frank Cammuso. We have the latter and can attest to its awesomeness.)

Though we’ve been very much aware of Toon Books for a long time and the incredible titles they put out (including books by Jeff Smith and Art Spiegelman), we only discovered Liniers at last year’s Small Press Expo (SPX). He was signing at the Toon Books booth, and his art literally made me stop in my tracks. It’s not an understatement to say this book is just stunning.

I bought the book without a second thought. It was only then that I found out he was doing watercolor sketches inside the book if you bought one. Icing on the cake.

The Big Wet Balloon is Liniers’ first book in the Unites States (and I believe in English). And what a debut! It’s an adorable story of two young sisters making the most of a rainy Saturday together. It’s a simple, sweet story about family and fun, but its beauty is heartbreaking.

Both of my kids adore the book, and we continually find ourselves reading through it slowly, savoring each page. More companies should follow Toon Books’ lead, and more artists should follow Liniers’ lead. There’s no reason why picture books can’t be art.

Signed to Sam, the littlest Roarbot

Liniers has apparently been drawing a daily strip in Argentina called Macanudo for about a decade. I was about to write that I’d LOVE to see an English version of that published here, but it appears as if volume 1 is coming out this summer!

Verdict? Beautiful. It has some stiff competition at this year’s Eisners, but this should be the shoo-in.