Little Eli: Egg, Cards, Pencil

Little Eli, a dragonfly, lives in a place where the paint is peeling off the walls, and where some small items have been left for him to play with: a couple of boxes of eggs, a pack of playing cards and a box of pencils. Eli likes making towers, but the tower of eggs comes to a sticky end and the tower of pencils needs to go back to the drawing board. With help from some friendly spiders, will Eli’s tower of playing cards succeed – or, even, turn into something even more beautiful?

This unusual and beautiful set of three tall, thin hardbacks in their slipcase chronicle Eli’s simple story of perseverance without any words. Yet it’s Bellini’s stunning pencil drawing, sense of the dreamlike and surreal illustration that will make children and adults gaze at the books time and time again. Though they’re wordless, the style of the books are best suited to older readers that can appreciate the artwork.