Stumbled across a John Lennon book that we were not aware of until today. It’s called Real Love: The Drawings for Sean.

As the cover suggests, this is a children’s book based on drawings that Lennon made for his young son Sean. The cover blurb sums up this book best:

“John Lennon was many things to many people: singer, songwriter, poet, political activist, and, not the least, the most outspoken member of the greatest rock-and-roll band of all time. But to Sean Lennon, he was Daddy.”

“Fatherhood was a role he took on with as much humor, intensity, and enthusiasm as any he had tackled. John made the drawings in this book with and for Sean. Drawing pictures and making up funny captions was one of the ways they played together. It was how John taught Sean about the simple joys of creativity, and it was one of the many ways John was able to express his affection for his son.”

“Real Love: The Drawings for Sean collects some of the funniest, cleverest, and most heartwarming images from those collaborations and provides a glimpse into the real love they shared.”

Real Love: The Drawings for Sean was initially published in 1999. This edition is a reprint from 2011 under the Insight Editions imprint. It is a large format hard-back, in full colour, and very nicely produced. You can see more examples from the book at The Artwork of John Lennon – a special site (we also just discovered today) dedicated not only to Lennon’s children’s drawings, but to his entire catalogue of art.