لسانك حصانك tongue twister book

لسانك حصانك tongue twister book, brings a new twist to tongue twisters.
The book is the winner of the Bologna Ragazzi Award 2016, New Horizon, one of the most prestigious prizes in the world of children’s publishing.

As the jury of Bologna Children’s Book Fair said: “The inventive modular composition of this vibrant book combines a repeated series of simple geometrical shapes in primary colours. No exercise in abstract painting, it is an original attempt to give visual form to tongue twisters and the difficulty of pronouncing certain words very fast. Cleverly crafted juxtaposition of the images hides the words, which if pronounced wrongly, lead to an amusing jumble of the patterns.”

The illustrations of the book represent visually the confusion that happens when tongue twisters are read out loud. Made from a burst of simple shaped and modular Arabic letters, these hand-made illustrations play on the meaning of each tongue twister and take readers into a visual world that’s as confusing and fun as the verbal one. The illustrations hide the words of each tongue twister in a witty puzzle for readers to decipher.

Written by Fatima Sharafeddine
Published by Kalimat Publishing
Illustrated by me
With the help of Adrea Choukeir in the hand coloring

Don’t miss out on seeing the illustrations on a big scale…

Click on the illustrations below to enjoy a bigger view

To further reinforce the repeating aspect of tongue twisters…

…when multiple books are displayed side by side, cover illustrations continue seamlessly across books.

The vision

When I first read the text of Lisanak Hisanak, I immediately got the vision for the illustrations. I knew I wanted the illustrations to be as puzzling and fun as the tongue twisters themselves. I wanted the illustrations to be a visual representation of the confusion that happens verbally when reading the tongue twisters. I imagined the letters tangled together, but I also didn’t want the illustration to be just an abstract composition.

So I used the Arabic letters of each tongue twister is a modular way. I made each illustration hint to the meaning of each tongue twister without it being too literal or obvious. It’s a puzzle, and needs to require some effort to figure out. For example, if a tongue twister is about carrots, you’d see a rabbit instead.