Seattle's Sasquatch Books has been producing cute, smart children's books for quite some time. This spring, the publisher gives its youth appeal a brand of its own: a kids' imprint, Little Bigfoot, backed by a solid line-up of Northwest writers and artists and a some design- and illustration-rich debut titles.

In the first book from Hannah Vianno, S is for Salmon, started as a grant project for the Seattle Arts and Cultural Affairs depicting Northwest flora, fauna and the elements with paper–cut illustrations, hand–silkscreened onto display cards. The project spawned into a gorgeously crafted, hardcover alphabet book that showcases natural elements like humpback whales, and bald eagles with her vibrant, handcrafted illustrations.

Another early Little Bigfoot title, Portland ABC by John Skewes, will certainly bid for heavy rotation in Rose City Montessori classrooms and progressive playdates. The Seattle-based Skewes has sold over 140,000 copies of his "Larry Gets Lost" series, in which a winsome pup and his boy go off on walk-about in various cities and even, thanks to Larry Gets Lost in Prehistoric Times, geologic ephochs.

The artist/writer's bold alphabetic take on Portland makes use of local icons like Voodoo Donuts and the Hawthorne Bridge. But for our money, the most apt pairing of letter and locality pays tribute to Portland's greatest contribution to children's lit—the writer who paved the way for all the Little Bigfoots to follow: