The Apartment Book

This is one of my favorite children's books. 

I checked it out a million times from the library when I was little.

And finally I got it as a gift a couple of years ago.

I was reading it to Ella today 

(if I make really enthusiastic noises and crazy voices she will listen to me read stories)

and I remembered how amazing this book is.

Leo Hartas is the illustrator and he is fantastic.

I can't imagine how long it must have taken him to illustrate this book.

So, this book takes an apartment building and removes a wall so that the reader can view inside of it and see what happens in the lives of the tenants in a single day.

Every page is a new hour of the day.

Here is what a page looks like

(yes, those are my black-painted toes holding the pages down)

Do you see that amazing detail? 

All the tiny people?

And on the sides are comments that the people are making.

Okay, let's look at some of my favorite details in this book

(you might have to click on the pictures to enlarge them to really see what's going on)

When I was little, my favorite character in the book was the actress who lived on the 4th floor 

(see the water building up in the ceiling? It will come crashing down later on in the book)

 

But now it's the insane-o family that live two floors below the actress that ride motorcycles out the window (there's also a normal family that lives on the 3rd floor. They're the only normal ones in the whole book):

My brothers and I thought this picture of the grandpa sitting on the toilet with his pants down was the funniest one when we were little (and you can see what he is saying to the left):

Motorcycles aren't the only thing that go through that window. The kids lower their sleeping grandma through it as well (at the same time that a giant sculpture goes crashing through the floor on the main level):

There's an artist and a scientist that live above the actress:

 The water finally comes crashing down on the actress 

(and starts building up in the floorboards below her):

 And a hot air balloon crashes into the apartment at 7pm

(the grandfather, having been kicked out of the bathroom finds a ledge on the 4th floor where he can smoke and the scientist's experiment in the left hand corner takes a turn for the worst):

 The book also shows you what goes on in the basement of the house. A homeless man lives there with some rats and some cats and a dinosaur skull:

And don't forget the happenings in the elevator where some thieves try to escape after stealing some art from the wealthy and art-crazy family on the first floor:

In the evening, there's a party raging on the first floor:

And the scientist is about to launch a rocket while the artist paints a picture of the firemen who helped save the people that crashed their hot air balloon into the building:

Isn't that the coolest book?

Good job, Leo. 

Way to make a really fantastic children's book.