Thursday, October 20, 2011

teeny-tiny tale

Teeny-tiny Tale
as told by Jan Sukus ~ illustrated by Terry Rose ~ Whitman, 1969


Whenever I find this particular story, no matter what the version, I always snap it up. The single most frightening tale of my childhood years, looking back it seems so naive to be scared by such a thing. But I was. Big time. As in my childhood version, you never find out what the thing that wants its bone back is. Here, I envision it to be some sort of zombie skeleton, risen from the dead to take back its fibula. And so it goes...

Once upon a time there was a teeny-tiny woman. She lived in a teeny-tiny town with her teeny-tiny cat in a teeny-tiny house.

On her travels one day, the woman spies a teeny-tiny bone and decides to steal it to make some soup for her teeny-tiny supper. Upon arriving home, she's too tired to make the soup and retires to bed early, only to be awakened shortly thereafter by a disembodied voice demanding, "GIVE ME MY BONE!"

A Halloween classic if ever there was one. I've mentioned before the version from my childhood which featured stolen clothes instead of a bone, but still. Even this little retro 60s Tell-A-Tale Book does it for me. Bright groovy colors or not, I still don't wanna find out who's on the other end of the urging. Spooky times five!


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4 comments:

  1. Totally spooky tale, I agree! This one looks so delightful though! :)

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  2. Whoww! Whatta simple and great illustrations! I would like to be such powerful illustrator, you know, without all these postmodern s**t in my head. Childhood power kills the conservatism!

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  3. My dad illustrated that book. I loved it too! So nice to see it here, as I don't have a copy.

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  4. I had forgotten about this book as a child! It was one of my favorites. :)

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