Like a message in a bottle, a "missed connection" classified (usually posted on a website) is an attempt however far-fetched, by one stranger to reach another on the strength of a remembered glance, smile, or blue hat. The anonymous messages are hopeful and hopeless, funny and sad. Ms. Blackall, award-winning illustrator of "Ruby's Wish" and "Big Red Lollipop", has turned some of the most evocative (or hilarious) of them into exquisite paintings. "Missed Connections" is a collection of illustrated love stories. There's "We Shared a Bear Suit." "If Not for Your Noisy Tambourine." "Hairy Bearded Swimmer." Each is told in the shorthand of a "missed connection," and then illustrated in Chinese ink and watercolour. The paintings are extraordinary: delicate yet full of feeling, each springing from one little detail of the post into a fully imagined world. Each brings the voyeuristic pleasure of watching love at first sight, and the pleasure of watching an artist discover a fresh new way to tell a story. And not all the connections are missed. Hidden in the book are three pieces that conjure up the magic of love found.

Sophie Blackall is a Brooklyn based Australian artist. She has illustrated over twenty books for children, including Ruby's Wish (Chronicle Books, 2003) which won the Ezra Jack Keats Award, Meet Wild Boars (Henry Holt, 2005) which won a BCCB Blue Ribbon Picture Book Award and the Founders Award from the Society of Illustrators, Big Red Lollipop (Viking, 2010) which was a New York Times Top Ten Picture Book for 2010, and the ongoing Ivy and Bean series (Chronicle Books), which has over a million copies in print.

Blackall has collaborated with many notable authors, including Aldous Huxley, Judith Viorst, Jane Yolen and Meg Rosoff.

Her editorial illustrations have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Time, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Town & Country and many others.

Her latest project, http://www.missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com Missed Connections, which began as a blog in early 2009, is an ongoing series of paintings based on real, anonymous messages posted online by lovelorn strangers.