Georgie 14 Oct 2010 7:40 AM (14 years ago)

By Robert Bright, 1944

Guest Reviewer: LISA BROWN

For Halloween, another one of my earliest favorites.

“Up in the attic of this little house there lived a little ghost. His name was Georgie.”

I believe this started my as-yet-unrealized childhood wish to sleep in an attic. Note the jaunty buttons on Georgie’s ghostly shroud.

“Every night at the same time he gave the loose board on the stairs a little creak”

This house is Victoriana at its best. It’s the home of Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker, and Georgie’s gentle nightly hauntings helped to lull them to sleep. However, when Mr. Whittaker fixed the creaks and squeaks in the house, Georgie began to feel unwanted and had to leave.

But he was unable to find a new home that suited.

This drawing always scared me, for some reason.

“…each house already had a ghost.”

Finally, Georgie ended up in a barn until the passage of time and extreme weather re-creaked the Whittakers’ house. Only then could he move back in and resume his spectral duties.

“And Mr and Mrs. Whittaker knew when it was time to go to sleep again.”

There is something chilling about a drawing of a little ghost standing over the unsuspecting, sleeping Whittakers. It definitely makes me think about ghosts, and what they are actually supposed to be: um, dead people. So is Georgie a little dead boy? So how did he die? Why is he haunting that house? And what’s with the buttons?

CURIOUS COMMENT: For more Halloween fun, see Lisa's new book, VAMPIRE BOY'S GOOD NIGHT

Dillweed's Revenge 6 Oct 2010 6:17 AM (14 years ago)

By Florence Parry Heide and Carson Ellis, 2010

Here is Dillweed with his friend Skorped.

Dillweed never went anywhere.

He never had adventures.

He never had a good time.

WHY WE RECOMMEND THIS BOOK: debauchery, black magic, murder and inspired shenanigans throughout.

Expert artwork by Carson Ellis and classic storytelling by Ms. Heide.

And those names! Skorped! Umblud! Perfidia! Dillweed!

Read more about it from CARSON and FLORENCE.

LANE SMITH on It's a Book 14 Jul 2010 11:06 AM (14 years ago)

Time for another installment of

WHAT IN THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING?

Is it shameless to write about my own book?

Yes.

Lane, a book about a book, a pirate-loving monkey, a jackass of a jackass. . . just what in the heck were you thinking?

LANE RESPONDS: Books surround me in every room of my house.

Many of my favorites can be found on this very site. These are books which I revisit again and again. I like the way books look, feel and smell. I like the various editions and the various cover designs and redesigns.

I like arranging and rearranging books on my bookshelves.

In other words, I am a nerd.

Not to say that I'm not excited by the new technologies and reading devices introduced (it seems) nearly every month, I am. But I'm sure on some level I'll always be a traditional book guy. Then again I'm the kind of guy who still watches silent movies and listens to vinyl.

Unlike Grandpa (me), today's kids are whip smart and tech savvy. I know eventually everything will be digital and kids won't even know from a regular old book book and that's fine. Truthfully? The reason I made the book? Certainly not to "throw down the gauntlet" as one critic has stated. Naw, I just thought digital vs. traditional made for a funny premise. No heavy message, I'm only in it for the laffs.

My first version featured a kid. I dummied up some ruffs showing a dummy of a kid who doesn't know what this thing called 'a book' is. "What's this?" he said. The narrator answers, "It's a book," etc.

This dummy was closer in tone to something like The Stinky Cheese Man with the narrator undermining the kid with turn-the-page gags.

It seemed like a funny idea but in order for the premise to work the kid had to look goofy and I didn't want folks to think I was making fun of a child, even a goofy child. So like most of my book dummies I showed it to a few friends, friends whose opinions I have come to trust over the years. Among them my wife Molly who designed It's a Book and all of my books dating back to The Big Pets, and Bob, co-blogmaster of this site. As usual, Molly came up with a bunch of great ideas about type treatments and it was Bob's suggestion to make the characters animals.

I instantly thought of the Bros Grimm and their three character stories like The Straw, The Coal and the Bean or The Mouse The Bird and the Sausage (which I had illustrated for Marlo Thomas' Thanks and Giving treasury a few years ago). I thought, How about the Mouse, the Monkey and the Jackass?

The Mouse, The Bird and The Sausage from Thanks and Giving: All Year Long, 2004

The jackass is completely modern: He texts. He blogs. He tweets. He annoys. The monkey is traditional. He reads. He wants to be left alone. The jackass is relentless. “How do you scroll down?” he asks. “I don’t,” answers the monkey trying to read his pirate book. “I turn the page.”

“Does it need a password?” asks the annoying jackass.

“No, it’s a book.” Says the monkey.

I did the illustrations in brush and ink. I first tested the brush a few times on the edge of the page until the ink became desaturated enough for the dry brush effect I wanted.

I then created textures using oil paints on hot press illustration board. I sprayed them with an acrylic spray (water based) while the paints (oil based) were still wet. This caused a chemical reaction to the paint giving them a mottled look. I then scanned all into the computer and assembled the final illustrations in Photoshop for greater control. (Back in the day, precomputer, I would paint several pieces simultaneously. Some would get too texture-y and I'd chuck them, some would eventually turn out. Assembling them on the computer eliminates this tedium.)

Molly suggested making the monkey's forehead bigger. She says it brings out the maternal instinct in the reader (or something along those lines). I liked the look, I kept it.

I liked staging everything on the same, flat plane. Like a one act play. I believe it makes the humor more deadpan like in some of my favorite books.

Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must be More to Life by Maurice Sendak, 1967

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson, 1945

You know, the way Buster did it . . .

Keaton said the comedy works better when the audience can see the full body.

And what about that porkpie hat? The monkey in It's a Book wears one just like Buster.

So do the characters in some of my other books . . .

Madam President, 2008

Detail

Pinocchio the Boy or Incognito in Collodi, 2002

Squids will be Squids, 1998

The Stinky Cheese Man, 1992

THE JACKASS IN KID LIT

This is Curious Pages. I'd be remiss if I didn't briefly touch upon the jackass in children's literature.

I admit it, I am wholly unoriginal. A few forefathers . . .

Shrek by William Steig, 1990

Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. This page is from Walt Disney's Pinocchio: A Read-Aloud Film Classic, 1982

Not a Jackass, a Monkey and a Mouse but An Ass, An Ape and a Mole by Aesop illustrated by Thomas Bewick, 1871.

And HERE - over twenty additional jackass tales from Aesop.

It's a Book . . .

it's one more to squeeze onto my shelves.

Big Rabbit's Bad Mood 10 May 2010 7:22 AM (14 years ago)

by Ramona Badescu and Delphine Durand, 2007

This is a very big rabbit with a very bad mood.

There it is on the sofa. The jerk.

The rabbit tries to get rid of the bad mood, but nothing works.
The bad mood keeps touching his stuff.

Rabbits friends drop by and they are all nicely designed.

Then they stuff themselves into his little house. It looks like a lot of fun.
I wish I lived there. Or had a summer house. Or a week long rental. In the off season because it's less expensive. It's still pretty I bet.

WHY KIDS WILL LIKE IT: The bad mood is a jerk, nice colors.
WHY GROWN UPS WON'T: Maybe they're in a bad mood themselves. Who knows with grown ups, they're always bent out of shape about something.

Making Picture Books is Fun 4 May 2010 8:32 AM (14 years ago)

By H.A. Rey, Young Wings (Junior Literary Guild), 1947

Making picture books is fun. Try it some day.

Elizabite 25 Apr 2010 12:12 PM (14 years ago)

By H.A. Rey. 1942

Written by H.A. Rey of Curious George fame, Elizabite tells the tale of a very hungry Venus Flytrap years before Little Shop of Horrors.

This book features lots of biting.

The memorable finale involves the near decapitation of a burgler.

A delightful read aloud for Earth Day.

RECOMMENDED.

Let's Take a Walk 23 Apr 2010 7:19 AM (14 years ago)

By Aaron Heller and Robert Deschamps, 1963

The subtitle of this book is A Story Told in Pictures but for the life of us we can't figure out what that story is. We sure do like Mr. Deschamps' pictures though.

Kashtanka 18 Apr 2010 9:00 AM (15 years ago)

By Anton Chekhov and Gennady Spirin, 1994

Guest Reviewer: GEORGE SAUNDERS

The story is simple: a dog gets lost, adjusts to her new home, is found by her old owners, goes happily back home. Like so much of Chekhov’s best work, it has the pace and emotional range of real life: no great villains, no great heroes, everybody trying to do his or her best. Neither master is an abusive brute. The dog is a small but pleasant part of both their lives. The first master is a woodcarver. The second trains domestic animals for a small-time circus act. The woodcarver is a bit cheap with the food, and stamps his feet now and then, but, in his favor, he has a son, and his house smells like woodshavings and glue. The animal trainer is a happy Falstaffian guy with a genuine affection for animals, who chomps a cigar, probably drinks a bit too much, has the occasional fling, when he can manage it, with the less-pretty of the three acrobats.

There is essentially no real drama. The dog will be fine either way, we sense. She is not traumatized by being lost – the way a dog would be in a lesser story, in which the writer would feel more compelled to anthropomorphize her – but adjusts quickly to the world in which she finds herself. Mostly, she smells things. There aren’t any bad smells, just less-interesting ones. Likewise, when her old owners come to the circus and reclaim her, she goes along happily, and by the time they reach home, she has all but forgotten her time with the circus, which “seemed no more than a long and confusing dream.”

Kashtanka is, it seems to me, the most accurately drawn dog in literature.

The emotional highpoint of the story – its great tragedy – is the quiet death of a goose. (This results in a haunting image of said goose, stretched out on a dimly lit wooden floor, eyes closed, the shadow of a window frame cutting across its long neck.) As the goose dies, the household cat comes to sit with the dog, “for the first time since they’d known each other.” The dog licks the cat’s paw and “without even asking why” the cat had come over, “began to whimper.” In the background of the illustration of the dying goose, we can see this pair. Are they bereft? No, this is Chekhov: they have nodded off to sleep.

Spirin is the perfect illustrator for Chekhov. His work is realistic and rich in detail (the book opens with three gorgeous though understated Moscow street scenes) but also allows for a bit of Dickensian exaggeration (in Kashtanka’s madly proud dog-grin, in the way the imagined detritus of the wood-carving life almost crowds the animal-trainer out of the frame as Kashtanka longs for these familiar smells of his old home). Spirin is particularly wonderful with faces: the woodcarver looks a bit like Tolstoy, if Tolstoy were poor and had a touch of poverty-induced meanness about him. The circus-master is overweight, jolly, has no anger in him, drinks too much, has (we posit) a ratty collection of sleeping gowns, of which he is inordinately proud. In the circus crowd that hands Kashtanka back to his real owners, we see: a burly Russian soldier, a rat-faced middle-class fellow (who I somehow know is both near-sighted and judgmental; a fan of whatever political theory is newest) and a pretty young woman, in a veil, rapt with emotion: she takes this incident as proof of certain romantic beliefs, i.e., in her world, lost dogs are always found.

Whenever I read Chekhov now, I picture the characters as Spirin might have drawn them: full of life, their spiritual attributes abundantly present in their faces.

These days, in my own work, I’m trying to strike a balance between the delights of realism (a bigger and more physical world, sensuality, verisimilitude) and those of a more exaggerative approach, an approach that comes more naturally to me and enables (in my work anyway) what feels like more ferocity and abandon, and a higher, darker type of truth. Reexamining this book has been interesting: Spirin seems able to have it both ways. He shows the (very real) scuffed boots of a musician in a Moscow regimental band, as well as a delighted-looking cat riding on the back of a nervous-looking goose riding on the back of a pig clearly beaming with pride.

Let's Tell a Fairy Tale 17 Apr 2010 6:33 AM (15 years ago)

By Frantisek Hrubin and Jiri Trnka, 1954

Genius animator Jiri Trnka was also an illustrator of children's books.

Let's tell a fairy tale of naughty kids . . .

and gluttons with blood on their cheeks . . .

and talking donuts in a time before Arnie.

Jiri was not only a master director and illustrator, he was also a master of the madcap mane . . .

The Light Socket™

The Mop-Top™

The Dirty Mutton™

More and More Ant and Bee 10 Apr 2010 12:20 PM (15 years ago)

By Angela Banner and Bryan Ward, 1961

There are MANY Ant and Bee books. Our FAVORITE is . . .

More and More Ant and Bee.

It is our favorite because our copy was so OLD that the pages fell OUT.

When we put them back we had a DIFFERENT story.

Cleanliness 5 Apr 2010 9:39 AM (15 years ago)

By Virginia Parkinson and the Sass-Dorne Studio, 1943

Starring Johnny Toothbrush.

And really, what is more fun than "cleanliness" . . . except maybe "obedience."

And don't forget that mani-pedi.

"I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart," said Johnny Toothbrush as he gave the kiss of death.

This Thumbprint 2 Apr 2010 7:28 AM (15 years ago)

by Ruth Krauss, 1967

Ruth Krauss, the gift that keeps giving. We just love her here at Curious Pages.

This could have been called How To Torture This Thumbprint.

This Thumbprint fell in the lake . . . where a catfish drew graffiti on its torso.

. . . when someone came along and threw a pie in his face. Yes, a big fat spider pie.

This Thumbprint found a poo.

WHAT DOES THIS BOOK TEACH? One needn't go to art school if one has a thumb and some ink.

ALSO SEE: Munro Leaf and Ed Emberley.

The Little Red Engine 28 Mar 2010 8:45 AM (15 years ago)

By Diana Ross and Lewitt-Him, 1942

The Little Red Engine was known only as number 394. Unlike the big black engine, "Pride o' the North" and the big green engine "Beauty of the South," 394 never went anywhere. Worse still, he had to listen to the constant boasting from the bigger engines.

Detail.

But one day there was an awful storm and a tree blew down and "Beauty" went crashing into it then "Pride" somehow derailed or something then suddenly there was this king and he needed to get back home immediately for important matters of state and there was only one little train who could get the job done and . . . oh, who cares about plot . . . can we just admire the gorgeous gouaches from the team of Lewitt and Him?

Throughout, the Little Red Engine repeats affirmations: "I can do it! I really can." And, "I'm sure I can!" These sound a lot less wishy-washy than that "I think I can!" business spouted by Watty Piper's Little Engine a few years earlier. ("I'm sure I can avoid litigation this way," thought Diana Ross.)

The Little Red Engine saves the day and is given the name, Royal Red. Now when the two bigger engines boast and brag, the little engine, by royal decree, can tell them, "Up yours."

But he doesn't. This is a kid's book.

WHAT DID WE LEARN? In picture books, the train with the cutest face always wins.

A Drop of Blood 25 Mar 2010 7:25 AM (15 years ago)

By Paul Showers and Don Madden, 1967

Lisa Brown is back with another curious recommendation:

Guest Reviewer: LISA BROWN

I have no idea where this book came from, but I am in love.

Don Madden illustrated about a gazillion other books, including tons about mathematics and my new favorite, Gravity is a Mystery. Paul Showers, who has a fantastic name, wrote 20 more books for the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out series.

A Drop of Blood was re-published like this, presumably to catch a ride on the vampire popularity wave.

In the first scene, our hero cuts his finger, apparently whittling. His dog is intrigued. Who gives a kid a knife?

"When you cut yourself, you make a hole in your skin.

Blood leaks out through the hole.

If the cut is small, it soon stops bleeding."

Which begs the question: How large does the cut have to be to bleed without end?

The dog seems delighted that the boy got bonked in the nose. And now, we inexplicably turn to verse:

"Oh there's blood in your arms and your legs,

There's blood in your fingers and toes,

And once in awhile

When a game gets too rough,

You'll find that there's blood in your nose."

Here is a design for my new favorite wallpaper pattern. The composition is gorgeous.

Here we get a bloody knee and a lesson about scabs. Yum! Don't pick your scabs, kids!

And we're back to rhyme:

"Sometimes I cut my finger,

Sometimes I scrape me knee.

Sometimes a drop or two of blood

Comes dripping out of me."

"'Pure poetry,' says the vampire, licking his lips." I made that part up.

Jon-Jon and Annette 22 Mar 2010 7:05 AM (15 years ago)

by Elzbieta, 1993

A book about war. And bunnies!

Adorable.

Total buzzkill, Dad!

Jon-Jon said, "I'm going to the brook to play with Annette." . . . But where the brook once was, there was now a thornbush.

Well, somebody got a lucky rabbit's foot.

All of a sudden, [Jon-Jon] heard Annette calling him . . .

[Annette] had made a little hole in the thorns and crossed over to the other side of the brook.

And was immediately shot.

(Just kidding. They probably lived happily ever after.)

David's Little Indian 17 Mar 2010 6:57 AM (15 years ago)

by Margaret Wise Brown and Remy Charlip, 1956

This tiny book fits in your hand like the little Indian on the cover.

Our favorite Margaret Wise Brown story and another top-notch illustration treatment by Charlip.

And to make certain he was real, the little boy pushed him...

"What day is it?" asked the boy.

...the little Indian answered, "...Day of the first nut that fell... Day of the little blue dish... Day of the cold nose..."

FAVORITE LINE: "Day of the dreary grown-ups."

Blood mingling. Probably not a good idea.

In our inscribed copy, Mr. Charlip gives us the original title.

Brave Potatoes 14 Mar 2010 10:15 AM (15 years ago)

by Toby Speed and Barry Root, 2000

Guest Reviewer: PHILIP NEL

A book starring potatoes illustrated by Barry Root. Yep, that's really his name.

Potatoes never sleep. Potatoes have no eyelids.

Cruelty to vegetables!

Chef Hackemup is one crazed vegetable-killer. Will nothing stop him?

Potatoes, nature's daredevils.

FAVORITE LINE IN THE BOOK: But potatoes never listen. / Potatoes have no ears.

See, ma, it's just like I told you: These vegetables are revolting.

Gives a whole new meaning to, "I'll have the chef's special."

Vegetables of the world, unite!

Vive la revolution!

No chefs were killed in the making of this book. See? He's just a little wet. The soup was merely damp, and not boiling hot. You didn't really see clouds of steam a few pages back. That was just your imagination. Honest.

WHY CHILDREN WILL LIKE IT: Confirms their suspicions about vegetables.

The Monkey in the Rocket 12 Mar 2010 8:42 AM (15 years ago)

by Jean Bethell and Sergio Leone, 1962

We thought in 1961 Sergio Leone was consumed with finishing touches on his directorial debut, The Colossus of Rhodes, but apparently he also found time to clock in some hours at Wonder Books illustrating classics like The Monkey in the Rocket.

Sam and Bam are very special monkeys. Let's see which one we can make sick first.

Congratulations Bam, you win. You get to stay home. Sam, you'll be harnessed into an untried hunk of metal and shot into space. Good luck.

Up goes Sam.

Down comes Sam.

Hooray.

"Hooray for Sam!" say the men. "Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!"

Or as J.Otto Seibold reimagines the scene . . .

WHO WILL ENJOY THIS BOOK? Any child who is excited about the current U.S. vs. Soviet space race.

ALSO RECOMMENDED: Monkey Business by J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh (1995) and Space Monkey by Olive Burt (1960).

After the flight a famous lady poses for the newspapers. And Space Monkey too.

Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book 28 Feb 2010 10:03 AM (15 years ago)

by Shel Silverstein, 1961

Practical advice for toddlers and young children in the form of an alphabet book.

WHAT DOES THIS BOOK TEACH? The alphabet, spelling, counting, potty training, ink drinking, scotch tasting, spitting, yelling, egg throwing, fire starting.

Uncle Shelby on the Johnny Cash Show. . .

FLORENCE PARRY HEIDE on the Treehorn trilogy 25 Feb 2010 6:35 AM (15 years ago)

Today we introduce a new segment to Curious Pages. We call it:

WHAT IN THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING?

First up, the legendary Florence Parry Heide. Ms. Heide is the author of over one hundred books for children. Some of her titles include: Fables You Shouldn't Pay Any Attention To, Grim and Ghastly Goings-On, Tales For the Perfect Child, Princess Hyacinth: the Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated and the forthcoming Dillweed's Revenge (A Deadly Dose of Magic) illustrated by Carson Ellis.

Arguably, her most famous books are those from her Treehorn trilogy illustrated by Edward Gorey. Unlike many picture books from this era, these books were odd, deadpan, surreal and sophisticated. So we ask: Florence, just what in the heck were you thinking?

MS. HEIDE RESPONDS: I remember the way it was, way-back-when. And when exactly was way back when? 1970. (This is about THAT time and then I expect I'll just keep typing away as I think other things...) Wasn't it just yesterday? I'd had many rejections, but look! I'd sold a few books, too. My first book, MAXIMILIAN, for example, after sixteen rejections. Sixteen!

So the fact that THE SHRINKING OF TREEHORN had been turned down a few times was not

dismaying to me. But wait a minute! Look what's happening! It's been accepted, by Holiday House! That by itself was enough to make my head spin, but now look: Edward Gorey was to be the illustrator! Edward Gorey, whose work I had so admired, was to illustrate one of my books!

And now: I was to meet him. I, Ms Plain Vanilla, was to meet the famous and fabulous Edward Gorey: John Briggs of Holiday House had so arranged. We were to sign copies of the newly published THE SHRINKING OF TREEHORN.

And there he was: be still my heart. He asked me to call him Ted. Edward Gorey asked me to call him Ted! He gave me a beanbag frog he'd made on which he'd stitched: I have turned green.

We were instant friends, lifelong friends. Each time I came to New York, and in those days I was a frequent visitor, we would see each other, have lunch, talk. And talk.

Would I write a Treehorn sequel? Oh, good, of course: TREEHORN'S TREASURE. He loved it. John Briggs loved it. And each time Ted (!) and I saw each other, he assured me that he'd start working on it very soon.

Very soon turned out to be nearly ten years.

But the moment it was published, he asked me to write a third Treehorn. What? and wait ten years? No, no. He promised that if I would write it, he would start and finish it immediately. So: I did and he did. And now we had TREEHORN'S WISH.

He had felt that with three Treehorns an animated feature would soon follow. Sorry about that, Ted, but: never say never.

See? once I start thinking of him I can't stop. Those were wonderful times. I used to stay at the old Royalton, which was not at all like the new Royalton. It's across from the Algonquin. He still lived on 38th Street. He'd come over and we'd walk to lunch. He walked everywhere. And we'd talk. And talk. We'd planned to write a murder mystery play with my brother, David, an Agatha Christie kind of play- and --

You've seen pictures of him . . . very tall, a white beard, wonderfully blue, blue eyes that really DID twinkle - blue jeans, sneakers, and although he used to wear fur coats he stopped doing that out of reverence for animals. He told me, though, that he'd saved them all, had put them in storage, he had loved those fur coats.

Oh, I was to tell you how I thought of the story of Treehorn? . . . this is how it was---

I was ready to write another story and was sitting at my typewriter ---but look at the time! it's nearly noon, and my five children would be rushing in for lunch any minute now--in those days, kids came home from school for lunch. So I was rushing to fix something for lunch when: in they came.

"Can Mike come for dinner tonight, could you call his Mom right now?"

"Look, I skinned my knee, I need a bandaid!"

"I have to have a quarter for class dues!"

And more. And all at once. And I realized that I was saying "That's nice, dear," to each one. And then I thought that I'd probably been saying that every day for ever and ever. And because I had been looking for an idea for a new book, I thought what about a mother who keeps saying That's nice, dear, no matter what's happening. So: something really surprising happens to a boy and his mother just keeps saying things like, That's nice, dear. What might that surprising thing be?

That afternoon a neighborhood boy came to the door. I hadn't seen him all winter, and I found myself saying, "My, how you've grown, Richard!" and then I thought: Oh, for heavens sake, of COURSE he's grown, don't sound so surprised. Surprised would be if he'd grown smaller.

So I wrote THE SHRINKING OF HAROLD.

I'd just finished it when my mother came over for coffee. She was always interested in what I was writing, so I handed it to her to read. She liked it, but said, "But why do you call him Harold, dear? That's a nice name but the other names you've used have been more. . . dashing."

I thought of that as we visited: she'd had lunch with Mrs Hale and Mrs Afton and Mrs Treehart and-- Treehart, Treehart. What about: Treehorn? So Treehorn he became.

I was telling that story to a third grade class one day and a boy asked, "So then why didn't you dedicate the book to that Mrs. Treehart?" . . .

Why indeed.

Cinderella 24 Feb 2010 8:43 AM (15 years ago)

by Dick Bruna, 1966

Here's a title from "Miffy" creator Dick Bruna.

Mr. Bruna was influenced by the De Stijil design movement. De Stijil is a Dutch word meaning “home at a reasonable time.”

It's hard to see in this photo, but just to the left of the girls is a scary lion or an explosion. It's a wild ride, this one.

The addition of a magic pigeon keeps him from getting sued by Cinderella's original writer, Walt Disney. Don't worry, I don't think he's very litigious.
You might be hearing from Mo Willems though.

This is where the story really cooks. They're gonna be sore tomorrow from all that dancing.

Watch out! This charming story is turning into a white knuckle, full-throttle thrill ride thanks to some well timed pointing.

HA! Screw you!

Isn't that the sweetest thing you have ever seen? Really.

WHY KIDS WILL LIKE IT: Adrenaline rush, charming

How to Make an Earthquake 22 Feb 2010 12:47 PM (15 years ago)

by Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson, 1954

Was Ruth Krauss balmy? YES.

Read on:

How did she do it?

Read on:

Classic Provensen 19 Feb 2010 10:26 AM (15 years ago)

We think Alice and Martin Provensen were the greatest husband/wife illustration tag-team ever. They could do it all from animal stories to folk tales to biographies. What made them unique was that each of their books had its own distinct style appropriate to the tale they were telling, yet no matter how different the style it was always, unmistakeably, a Provensen.

Some of our favorites are the classics.

The Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends, 1959

Endpapers.

Shakespeare:Ten Great Plays, 1962

Endpapers.

The Iliad and the Odyssey, 1956

Endpapers.

Title page.

In future posts we will showcase a portfolio of the Provensens stylized, humorous illustrations from The Animal Fair, A Child's Garden of Verses, etc and folk tales such as A Visit to William Blake's Inn and Little Golden Book titles like the classic, The Little Fat Policeman.

The Bomb and the General, The Three Astronauts 16 Feb 2010 10:32 AM (15 years ago)

by Umberto Eco and Eugenio Carmi, 1989

Both released in the U.S. in 1989, translated by William Weaver.

The Bomb and the General

WHY WE RECOMMEND THIS BOOK: What child doesn't enjoy a good anti-war parable?

The text reads, When atoms are in harmony everything works fine. Life is based on this harmony. But when an atom is smashed its parts strike other atoms which then strike still more atoms, and so on. . . A terrifying explosion takes place! This is atomic death.

OUR FAVORITE BIT comes after the atoms have foiled the general's nefarious scheme: And what about the general? Now that there were no more wars, he was fired. And to make use of his uniform with all the braid, he became a hotel doorman.

The Three Astronauts

WHY WE RECOMMEND THIS BOOK: What child doesn't enjoy a good anti-prejudice, intergalactic parable?

Three astronauts, an American, a Russian and a Chinese take off from Earth.

After overcoming initial prejudices against each other, the astronauts then have to overcome an all-consuming Martian prejudice.

OUR FAVORITE BIT: . . . the Earthlings thought that anybody who was ugly was also bad. So they decided to kill him with their atomic disintegrators.

SECOND FAVORITE BIT: The Earthlings had learned their lesson by now: Just because two creatures are different they don't have to be enemies. So each went over to the Martian with his hand extended. And since the Martian had six, he could shake hands with all three men at once and, at the same time, he could wave joyfully with his other hands.

WHY CHILDREN WILL LIKE IT: Eugenio Carmi's inventive collages. Who else would think of portraying an American astronaut with a Chiclets wrapper?

The Fabulous Firework Family 12 Feb 2010 8:12 AM (15 years ago)

by James Flora, 1955

The wonderful story of Pepito and his family, the fabulous Firework Family, who have been asked by the mayor to construct "the very tallest, the very widest, and the very finest firework castle ever built by mortal man" for a village festival.

But that's not the only story. This book also works as a "Where's Waldo?" type game.

Ascher Silberstein Elementary liked this book. A lot. At least until they discarded it. See if you can find their name stamped on every single page. It's fun!