With the summer almost here and the end of homework just around the corner, I'll be able to get to the blog more often. That said, I've been very generous with Goodwill this year, casting off all the outcasts that in previous years I would have sold. There is just no time to post and wrap, but I do want to get better.
I did steal away a few moments this afternoon to get a few things up in my Etsy shop if anyone is interested...
Rosalie the Bird Market Turtle: Reviewed here. Sold here.
Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum: Reviewed here. Sold here.
Dooly and the Snortsnoot by Jack Kent: Reviewed here. Sold here.
The Giant Jam Sandwich: Reviewed here. Sold here.
The Hat by Tomi Ungerer: Reviewed here. Sold here.
The Secret Three by Arnold Lobel: Reviewed here. Sold here.
Hope you see something you like!
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Sunday, May 19, 2013
Gorilla
Anthony Browne ~ Alfred A. Knopf, 1983
As some of you know, last year I began working for a university press housed in a university library, and one of my favorite things to do on my lunch break is peruse the children's books section. And because it is a university library, most of the books are pretty old. It almost seems that they don't buy children's books anymore and haven't since the 1980s. Anywho, school just let out for the summer, and the library has become suddenly empty, which makes for peaceful browsing whenever I get the chance. It was on one such recent perusal that I stumbled across this book.
Previously, I'd been anti anything 80s, preferring to stick to titles from that time period that I knew and loved as a child. It's only recently that I've begun to appreciate the style of children's literature in that era and see the beauty in the books, not just for their nostalgia factor. I love the drab cynicism of the one grownup shown here (so 80s) and how he's the exact opposite of the main character.
Hannah loved gorillas. She read books about gorillas, she watched gorillas on television, and she drew pictures of gorillas. But she had never seen a real gorilla. Her father didn't have time to take her to see one at the zoo. He didn't have time for anything. He went to work every day before Hannah went to school, and in the evening he worked at home. When Hannah asked him a question, he would say, "Not now, I'm busy. Maybe tomorrow."
In magical splendor, when the girl is gifted a toy gorilla, the beast grows in the night, and takes her to the zoo (where she laments the caged primates), takes her to the movies (to see Super Gorilla, of course), takes her for a wonderful meal (bananas), and for a dance on the lawn. It's a fabulous night, and Hannah is sad but thankful when she wakes to find the gorilla just a toy again.
The end is a weeper, so I won't give the surprise sweetness away. The illustrations are precise and fun to look at, and the story a total fairy tale. Just marvelous!
Sorry, I missed loving this book way back when.
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Sunday, May 12, 2013
Birthday Books
Someone in my house recently turned eight, and as you all know, almost the only time I buy previously unused books are for the holidays and birthdays. Those occasions are when I buy brand spanking new reads so my son's shelves aren't filled with tomes inscribed "I hope you love this book as much as I did when I was little. Love Uncle Rufus, Christmas 1968."
What filled his birthday coffers aside from Minecraft Legos and The Game of Life you might ask? Well, one of the big non-book presents was still sorta book related. The fabulous Ben Hatke did this super-awesome Doctor Who commission for a totally psyched birthday boy. Doctor Who is my son's favorite thing of the moment, so getting Ben to bring his own imagination to the world of the Doctor was a special treat. My son flipped when he saw it! If you haven't gotten your kids' Ben's Zita the Space Girl graphic novels (Zita the Spacegirl and Legends of Zita), don't waste another minute. Totally rad...
Jon Klassen is my personal, current favorite everything when it comes to kids' books, but a book that includes his awesomeness and Lemony Snicket? Forget about it! The Dark was the first book I bought for the birthday list. It reminds me a bit of my all time favorite vintage kids' book, Switch on the Night, which just makes me love it even more.
Also included in the birthday haul was a book I've been wanting to get for a while, and it finally floated to the top of the heap, the Newberry Award-winning The One and Only Ivan, inspired life of the famous mall gorilla. I can't wait for him to read it!
Of course, there were more volumes of Captain Underpants in Spanish, more of the boy's current preferred read alone books Big Nate, the DK Doctor Who: Character Encyclopedia,and lots of vintage goodness likely to be covered here at a later date.
Sadly for my ego, the big book winner this birthday didn't come from me. Thingummery's daughters gifted him El Asunto Tornasol, and three reads later, I'm now on the lookout for more Tintin in Spanish.
It never ends does it?
So, another year of reading is complete... each year moving us further and further away from the joys of childhood page-turning and into the amazing future of all the books in the world. Bittersweet life. I recently had the displeasure of packing up a heartbreaking number of my son's books into the attic, so when I saw this blog post from on the Motherlode recently, I could absolutely relate.
If they could just stay little.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
Guest Post: The Man in the Manhole and the Fix-it Men
A guest post today brought to you by VKBMKLs fan, Ben English. One of Margaret Wise Brown's earliest books (written under her pen name Juniper Sage) and illustrated by artist and former Clown College dean William Ballantine, I've never been lucky enough to score one for myself, so I'm happy to let Ben take the lead. Thanks, Ben, for taking the time to share this wonderful find with us. Welcome him!
Regardless, I've had this book for as long as I can remember and have always loved the pictures and simple text. Picture books about occupations have their own special place in the history of children’s literature, and this one, while not especially informative, is easily one of my favorites.
That’s the first paragraph and it pretty much sums up the whole story. In wonderful mid-century style, the illustrations depict a variety of ‘fix-it’ men, including a telephone repair man, a wrecking truck man, a steam roller man, a carpenter man, and, of course, a Boss Man.
There’s something I've always been drawn to about the way
that picture books depict the big city and the various workers that make it
run. Boiling down the complexity of a real city into a simple form and
portraying everyone as pretty much content to do their job seems like a perfect
sentiment to be found in a 1940s picture book. I can get behind that
simplification and the optimism it presents, naive as it may be.
As I said, I have always loved this book, but my appreciation for the simplicity of the designs and the charming approach to the subject matter has increased in recent years. (I wasn't even aware that $65 is about the cheapest price around for a used one these days). I’ll be hanging on to my heavily worn copy to share with my son in a year or two. Track it down through your local library’s Interlibrary Loan program, if you can!
Also by:
Juniper Sage ~ Bill Ballantine ~ William R. Scott, Inc. and E.M. Hale and
Company, 1946
The stamp on the inside of this book says ‘Glenside School
Library, Muskegon Michigan’, so I guess my grandfather must have swiped it
while he was either the band director or administrator there back in the day. Or, more likely, it was a discard and was picked up in a book sale. The first possibility sounds better.
Regardless, I've had this book for as long as I can remember and have always loved the pictures and simple text. Picture books about occupations have their own special place in the history of children’s literature, and this one, while not especially informative, is easily one of my favorites.
Fix it, fix it, where
are the Fix-it Men?
Down in the ground in
a dark manhole,
Or up in the air on a
telephone pole.
Fix it, fix it, here
come the Fix-it Men.
That’s the first paragraph and it pretty much sums up the whole story. In wonderful mid-century style, the illustrations depict a variety of ‘fix-it’ men, including a telephone repair man, a wrecking truck man, a steam roller man, a carpenter man, and, of course, a Boss Man.
There’s something I've always been drawn to about the way
that picture books depict the big city and the various workers that make it
run. Boiling down the complexity of a real city into a simple form and
portraying everyone as pretty much content to do their job seems like a perfect
sentiment to be found in a 1940s picture book. I can get behind that
simplification and the optimism it presents, naive as it may be.As I said, I have always loved this book, but my appreciation for the simplicity of the designs and the charming approach to the subject matter has increased in recent years. (I wasn't even aware that $65 is about the cheapest price around for a used one these days). I’ll be hanging on to my heavily worn copy to share with my son in a year or two. Track it down through your local library’s Interlibrary Loan program, if you can!
Also by:
Monday, April 15, 2013
The Cat Who Wore a Pot on Her Head
Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler ~ Richard E. Martin ~ Follett, 1967
One of my son's all time favorite children's books is the unforgettable The Hungry Thing. If you're familiar with that book and its sequel The Hungry Thing Returns, then you won't think my family crazy when we excuse ourselves to go to the "mathboom". The combo of Slepian, Seidler and Martin produced a handful of books during the 60s and 70s, including this one, but sifting through entries online, I only found one historical reference to Jan and Ann, but nothing on Richard. (I wonder if he and Charles E. Martin were related?) Anyone who knows anything, feel free to chime in.
Published first in hardcover under the main character's first name, Bendemolena, the story is of a wee little cat who loves the quiet.
There once was a cat named Bendemolena. She lived in a house on Cat Street, where cats and kittens lived all together. Brothers and sisters, cousins and friends were in and out and all about. What a noisy place it was! One day when Bendemolena was playing, she found a shiny pot. She put it on her head. Suddenly all the noise was gone.
She liked that quiet so much, she decided to go about her day with the pot over her ears. Ah yes. Peace and quiet can be a good thing, but a soundless life soon leads to misunderstanding.
When mother cat wants Bendemolena to tell her siblings its "time to put the fish on to bake" words are misconstrued as "put soap in the cake." "Fix my chair" turns into "ask in a bear." "Make something to drink." "Put a horse in the sink."
You get the idea! (Sort of has the same premise as another of my son's all time faves, Seven Uncles Come To Dinner.) Good, silly, awesome fun as words get misheard and hilarity ensues. Fab!
Also by:
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Great-Grandfather in the Honey Tree
Sam and Zoa Swayne ~ Viking, 1949
I know nothing about this book except that I bought it at a book sale and read it to my son shortly thereafter, and he's asked to read it again every night since. Which is pretty impressive considering the book was written in 1949 and includes language like "Thee lay off thine incessant chopping tomorrow and go hunting" and "I know thee needs a new hominy barrel".
I originally picked up the book because the cover was so bright and bold, but probably never would have read to my son had it not just happened to have been the closest book available that night. His passion for it now is great, and when you search the title online, with the price it fetches, I imagine it has other fans as well.
The dust jacket says the author's grandfather used to tell him a load of tale tales, this one included. At some point, family members convinced him to get this story, in particularly, on paper with his wife doing the illustrations and the rest is history. The jacket also calls it "a story that's as American as apple pie" and says that "families will chuckle over it round the evening fire". Seriously? Got bless an era where the marketing copy includes the fact that it can be enjoying "while round the evening fire."That said, the theme is not for the faint of heart or the vegan animal lover. The story follows a man and his wife, and an episode where one night she complains that they have not eaten meat in three days. So bright and early the next day, the man sets out with a horse, a stoneboat (which is basically a plank of wood that gets pulled behind the horse), a net and a gun with only one bullet. The odds of him catching much are slim... at least until he nets a flock of geese, falls into a honey tree, slaughters a bear just by shoving it, snares a fish with his shirt and a partridge with his button, fells a dear with a tree and a mess of wild turkeys with that aforementioned one bullet.
A veritable Rube Goldberg of slaughter, when he returns with his haul in tow, his wife squeals with delight then gets to work...
She cooled the partridge for their Sunday dinner. She dried the deer meat and smoked the bear's hams. She salted down the fish and preserved all the turkeys and wild geese, half cooked, in bear grease. She made feather dusters from the turkeys' tails. She made feather beds out of the goose feathers so that years afterward all her nine children slept on feather beds.
Whew. That's even exhausting to read, but a delight to share despite the animal body count. Not sure what draws you in, but this book has something that translates even to a seven-year-old boy of today.
Simple magic.
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Peter Workman
The book world lost a prince today. The real genuine article.
Damn. The industry just got a whole lot less awesome.
Peter Workman
October 19,1938 - April 7, 2013
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