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Poetry of Earth

Selected and illustrated by Adrienne Adams

Did you know that Earth Day started way back in the 1970’s? For many it marks, as a website quotes, “the birth of the modern environmental movement.”

Way back in 1962, author Rachel Carson began the run up to concern for the environment with her New York Times bestseller, “Silent Spring.” It generated with its sale of 500,000 copies in 24 countries, a call for public awareness of concern for the gradation of the environment and by inference, its impact on public health.

Change is a hard thing to measure and it is usually only measurable AFTER it has occurred.

That is why the picture book’s value in its ability to both entertain and enlighten, is so underrated in some quarters in the sometimes headlong drive to get to the chapter book. So much is missed and discounted in what the picture book has offered in the past and continues to offer in the present. And Ms. Adams’ book is a perfect example.

Adrienne Adams is the winner of two Caldecott Honor books in 1960 and 1962 for “The Day We Saw the Sun Come Up” and “Houses From The Sun”. Both were done with text by Alice E. Goudey.

She is also the illustrator of ALA notable books for her Grimm’s Brothers versions of “The Shoemaker and the Elves, ”Jorinde and Joringel,” and “Thumbelina” by Hans Christian Andersen.

In “Poetry of the Earth,” Ms. Adams has chosen thirty-three poems from renowned poets such as Robert Frost, Randall Jarrell, Carl Sandburg, William Butler Yeats, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, celebrating everything from buffaloes to bats, snails to specks, sandhill cranes to squirrels and tiger lilies to tortoises.

Listen to this small sample from Robert Frost’s, “Dust of Snow”:

                 “The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree”

 

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.”

Young readers, once you get past their understanding of the word, “rued”, will certainly get the visceral feeling of how one single moment can change a day; one small second in time can change a minute from moody to merry. Kids do it all the time; it’s part of being a child!

And its impetus for them can be a poem, a line from a book, a hug, a smile, or a touch of the hand.

Let Earth Day this year, and books that echo both the shelter and nourishment it gives humanity, be the jumping off spot for a teachable moment with young readers. Share books with them that celebrate how wonderful and healing the earth can be; what a sacred space it is, and how much it is in our care.

Below is a link to 50 fun and engaging hands on Earth Day Activities for young ones.

http://tinkerlab.com/fifty-earth-day-activities/

It Could Always Be Worse

Margot Zemach

I have a framed sampler at home that shows freshly laundered clothes, snapping in the breeze on a clothesline; something that is just about as classic as the book I am about to reintroduce.

And the embroidery in the framed piece has a saying that reads:

If all our troubles were hung on a line;

 

You would take yours.

 

And I would take mine.

Every time I look at it, I’m reminded of how often I’ve caviled and kvetched about certain circumstances in which I find myself. And, I imagine no one else’s can possibly compare…or be worse.

Margot Zemach’s 1978 Caldecott Honor designated book, taken from a Yiddish folk tale, hits the mark when it comes to appreciating the fact that “things could always be worse.”

Margot, along with husband, Harve, also won the Caldecott Medal in 1974 for Duffy and the Devil: A Cornish Tale.”

Additionally, she was United States nominee in 1980 and 1988 for the prestigious international Hans Christian Andersen Award for children’s literature.

At her passing, she was lauded by picture book titans with these words:

                Margot not only revivified

                the American picture book,

                but was one of the very few

                who helped elevate it to an

                art form.

Maurice Sendak

 

 

                 I consider her the consummate

                 illustrator for children’s literature.

                 There’s no doubt her work will

                 endure.

William Steig

All the more reason to read Margot Zemach’s work.

Most of us have a bit of the “carper” in us, at any given time. It’s a very human trait to complain about what is, and oh, how we wish things could be different…better, and then, we would be supremely happy!

Here, in It Could Always Be Worse, Margot Zemach’s picture book is about a Jewish nuclear family on a learning curve of life, and the wise Rabbi that tenders advice in this perceived crisis of crowding.

Listening most patiently to this Tevye-look alike owner’s complaints, the Rabbi innocently offers a continuing and confounding set of suggestions and solutions on remedies to alleviate the noisy home situation.

The farmer follows the Rabbi’s admonitions to the letter, and dutifully, but with fear, the farmer adds a proliferating series of his barnyard animals to their hut home.

The family and farmer quickly find that “crowded” is a very relative term, especially when it involves the add on of this many   animals, that add immeasurably to the family’s previously limited perception of what a “crowded” house truly feels, looks and smells like.

Admittedly, at the outset, it is a man, his wife, his mother and six children; all living in one room. Things are a tad tight.

 

The hut was full of crying and quarreling.

But, can this Rabbi, to whom the man flees for comfort and advice, ease this seemingly untenable and uncomfortable situation?

Maybe.

But, it’s not the original situation that he suggests altering by deleting tenants. No. He suggests additions, instead. From a nearby shed, he suggests one by one, successive add ons of chickens, a goose, a rooster, a goat, and a cow to their hut homestead.

Can this possibly calm the human storm!

Of course not. It merely adds to the general cacophony of the crowded hut.

BUT, the wise rabbi can, and does provide, perspective as to what degrees “crowded” and “quarreling” really look, feel, and sound like.

The actual noise level of man and animal existing day-to-day, in a one-room hut is off the charts! And Margot Zemach’s illustrations brings its rambunctious reality of the constant motion of a herded household, alive for the young reader.

Not until things reach critical mass, and the reverse occurs in the way of removal of the amended animal guests, does the formerly quarrelsome, quartered family find a perfectly peaceable kingdom… by comparison to what had been… literally…animal house.

Margot Zemach’s watercolored drawings are humanity in the throes of comic crisis…all bodies in daily routine, trying to find surcease and a place of peace, in a one hut circus of cowering and crying kids and adults, along with a host of animated animals doing their thing, too. Her art, depicting the final scenes of man and mammal coexisting in one room, is riot run amok.

Hilariously human is Zemach’s artful take on the Rabbi’s solution for the age-old problem of crowding.

Absent the animals, the original household,  numbering nine, is now heavenly… and peace reigns:

                That night the poor man

                and all his family slept

                peacefully. There was no

                crowing, no clucking, no

                honking. There was plenty

                of room to breathe…

And, perhaps with it, my sampler’s simple lesson is learned by farmer and family?

                 “Holy Rabbi,” he cried, “you

                 have made life sweet for me.

                 With just my family in the hut,

                 it’s so quiet, so roomy, so

                 peaceful….What a pleasure!”

It’s a not-to-be-missed picture book lesson for young readers by the incomparable storyteller and artist, Margot Zemach, that less is definitely more…if only we realize what we have…from the outset.

The Big Snow

By Berta and Elmer Hader

By all accounts, we have dodged “The Big Snow” of this 1949 Caldecott Award winning title, as spring descended on us March 21, 2016.

But, it’s a classic picture book read that is as fresh as newly fallen snow, either in 1949 or 2016. And for that reason, it’s worth sharing with your young readers, snuggled up in a cozy nook, just as the avians and animals are in this winter picture book classic.

Urbanization can sometimes lead us further from a view of nature and the life lessons it imparts, as the seasons cycle through their sequences.

But, thank goodness, young readers have Berta and Elmer Hader’s book written and illustrated to allow young readers a front row seat, urban or rural, at the prep done by animals for the advent of winter, and with it…the first big snow.

Guided by instinct and intuition, geese fly south, thickened coats grace white-tail deer and Mrs. Cottontail and her rabbit brood, along with raccoons and chipmunks are laying in supplies for the “long winter nap.” Even the skunk family takes refuge in its den before the flakes fall thick and fast, covering their habitats, that mere months ago were green with leaves. The “fat groundhog” too, has grown his new furry covering that he wears in his burrow, napping till spring that avoids the inconvenience of foraging for food. Smart!

What about the birds like the red breasted and brown male and female cardinals? Do they go south? You’d have to listen in and learn whether they do.

For it’s the chatty back and forth companionable conversations that fly among the woodland folk, that seems so natural to a reader’s ear, as the blue jay queries a cardinal couple as to their winter plans to become “Snowbirds,” as it were?

          “No, indeed,” replied the cardinals.

          We can find plenty to eat here. We

          like winter”

Song sparrows and robins are like minded with the former feasting on meadow grass seed as well as birches and ash trees.

Robins, too, plan to stick it out.

Lots of woodsy types, like the ring-necked pheasants, crows, not to mention squirrels gathering acorns on the fly, begin to naturally hunker down as winter waits in the wings.

Leave it to the wise old owl to be the harbinger of The Big Snow.

            …Then the night after Christmas

            there was a rainbow around the

            moon…The wise owls knew what

            that meant. A rainbow around the

            moon meant more snow. MUCH

            MORE.

Soon the countryside is blanketed with thick, white flakes falling fast.

Kids will love the “little old man” shoveling a path out of his stonehouse.

                He was followed by a little

                old woman dressed all in

                green. She scattered seeds,

                and nuts, and breadcrumbs,

                to right and to left.

                The cry of the blue jays echoed

                over the hillside. “Food, food,

                food,” they cried again and

                again.”

Not over quite yet, as a 1949 version of Punxsutawney Phil declares The Big Snow is not quite at an end, as he sees his shadow on February 2nd, and opines:

                  “Oh-Oh, I know what that

                  means,” he said. There will

                  be six more weeks of winter.”

                  And he hurries back to his den

                  sleep until spring.”

Spring does come at last, but the ‘little old man and the little old woman put out food for them until the warm spring came.”

What a wonderful classic picture book to introduce that genre to young  readers.

The alternating gray pencil sketches of animals in their winter habitats, alternating with other denizens fairly popping out of the Haders’ occasional color suffused pages, are a treat.

Match this with the plus of informational facts interwoven with a wonderful narrative, and young readers receive an animal shared sense of getting through the daily hardships of a prolonged winter season. No wonder it won the Caldecott in 1949!

And it’s as fresh today as it was then.

The Big Snow is a great classic picture book, beautifully done with both realistic animal wintry scenes, coupled with a gentle modeling to young readers that both man and mammal are in this world – together.

Don’t save this one for a snowy day!

It’s a great read fair weather or fowl…er foul!

The Egg Tree

By Katherine Milhous

This classic Easter tale and winner of the Caldecott Award for best picture book in 1951, still holds up over time.

This charming tale of the emergence of a Pennsylvania Dutch Easter tradition, its retelling on a Red Hill Pennsylvania farm, and the beginnings of a family tradition spreading from a small table top tree filled with decorated eggs, to one that might have rivaled the size of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center, will have your young ones saying, “Can we do that at our house?”

That’s just what happened to my now grown  girls after we read this, oh some thirty years back.

They clamored for the egg tree, post read, and it initially started as a small one tucked in a corner of the dining room with decorated eggs and beribboned in yellow, pink and lavender.

Now, it has morphed into egg filled quince branches  with gently pale pink flowers that time their bloom just in time for Easter.

The painted egg scenes in our collection have grown exponentially, and those eggs are quite the stand alone memory book, when surveyed as a whole on the branches.

And, it all started with a picture book called The Egg Tree by Katherine Milhous,  chronicling the Easter visit of young Katy  Carl and cousins, visiting their grandma’s country farm.

Kids will cotton to the idea of spreading flower petals on the lawn to attract the Easter Bunny, who happens to wander by as a real life hare, so the grand egg hunt can commence.

And, as always, with young ones, it’s a mad rush to see who can gather the most eggs. And, they are consumable ones.

Young Katy, with nary an egg in her grasp, wanders up to the attic in search of secreted ones, and there, in a lined hat is a collection of colored and painted eggs that almost rival in numbers, Carl’s swiftly scavenged collection.

And, with Katy’s discovery, grandma is happy to introduce a new generation to the art of painted eggs designs, that find their way on Easter morning, to decorations on a small tree’s branches.

Katherine Milhous has suffused her art here with softer shades of brown, blue, orange and yellow, as grandma introduces the children to the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch symbols used on the eggs, such as The Bright Morning Star, The Deer on the Mountain, The Cooing Dove, The Pomegranate, and picture book’s grandly glorious cover picture that is The Horn Blowing Rooster.

The borders that surround Ms. Milhous’s narrative are artistically Pennsylvania Dutch in feel as well.

And, most young readers will surely identify with young Katy who falls behind in the egg gathering competition count at the hunt’s outset as she is outpaced by Carl.

Yet, she gains a far more wonderful accolade from her grandma as Katy’s discovery of the stored away and painted attic eggs are a reminder of a treasured tradition that winds up jump starting it anew for another generation of children when her grandma comments:

     Katy may not have found the most

     eggs; she found the most beautiful

     eggs.

The pace and pulse of The Egg Tree is just far enough out of the frenetic feed of today’s kids, as to make it a soothing and satisfying read. The egg decorating commences with each child contributing their own artistic coloration and art to the eggs that fill the tree’s branches.

And, I love the grandmother’s gentle reminder after the initial egg decorating on Easter is complete. The rest is held in abeyance till the morrow with the simple declarative lines that say what is beautifully inferred with her “no work” dictum:

           Today we celebrate Easter.

Please let your young readers begin their own Easter egg tree tradition with the reading of this classic Caldecott winner.

But, don’t be surprised if your small table top tree continues to morph over the years into a tree where, as in the book, neighbors pop in to see and contribute to its decor.

Traditions, like those begun and enhanced by the reading of The Egg Tree, are what bind faith and family together even in 2016, some sixty-six years after its publication!

And, classic picture books and traditions they engender through continued readings, do stand up to the test of time, and perhaps they number among those many wonderful small things that kids may come to count on in times of unsettled uncertainty in the world of childhood.

Traditions are things that remain the same, providing continuity amid the changing landscape of life, and are predictably comforting to young readers, even when they are something so small, or big, as an egg tree.

The Egg Tree, in both book and branch form, lives and… thrives!

Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper

Translated and illustrated by Marcia Brown

Picture book author Tomie de Paola tweaked my memory bank recently with his art-mail on the birthday of Charles Perrault.

Many of you may know the contributions of this author and member of the Academie Francaise. He basically set the stage for the modern telling of fairy tales taken from his retelling of folk tales.

Perhaps the most famous would be “Cendrillon” or Cinderella.

Even the Grimm Brothers got into the act, retelling his tales some 200 years after Charles Perrault lived and wrote.

Remember, too, that the famous Broadway creative team of Rogers and Hammerstein got into the Cinderella act with a musical version in 1957 of this transformative tale based on Perrault’s Cendrillon ou la Petite Pantoufle de verre. Starring Julie Andrews, and seen on TV, it was seen by millions of viewers. Wonder what Monsieur Perrault would have thought of that? And since then, there have been several more recent TV versions in 1963 and 1997.

Perrault’s legacy to the picture book genre, and even derivatively to movies, is huge.

Please share with your children that, perhaps in their innocence, they truly believe that Walt Disney conceived the idea of Cinderella. Monsieur Perrault, were he here, would beg to differ!

Mais non! Please set them straight as you sit and enjoy this wonderful picture book, precipitated by Charles Perrault’s tales.

Which is a convenient circle back to this 1955 Caldecott Award winning picture book classic by Marcia Brown entitled, what else, Cinderella. Her book is a free translation from the French of Charles Perrault’s story of a girl literally confined, at times, to the cinders of a fireplace.

Ms. Brown’s translation misses none of the essentials of this gentleman’s daughter whose second wife is, shall we say, less than generous to our heroine? The new wife’s own two daughters inherit her sour and bitter disposition as well. But Cinderella is goodness itself:

       The husband had a young daughter

       of his own, but she was sweet and

       good. She took after her mother,

       who had been the best in the world.

Alas, as the fairy tale goes, things are not roses and daffodils in this particular blended family! Not one to complain of her treatment to her papa at the hands of her new family members, I wonder that he must have been absent most of the time or near-sighted not to have seen his daughter’s ill treatment! Thank heavens we have many blended families and step moms in particular today, in sharp contradiction to this one:

         She gave her the vilest household

         tasks; it was Cinderella who scoured

         the pots and scrubbed the stairs,

         Cinderella who polished the bed

         chamber of madame and also those

         of her daughters.

And yes, all the glorious transformations are here in softly tinted pastel drawings that make it all the more dreamlike.

A moonlike pumpkin morphs into “a gilded coach of pure gold.” Meandering mice are transformed by Cinderella’s godmother, who just happened to be a fairy as well. In a twinkling they are changed into “dappled greys.” Rats are reimagined into coachmen and lizards are dragooned in a trice, into footmen.

And what might this tale be without a description of the famous ball gown:

         Her fairy godmother had scarcely

         touched Cinderella with her wand

         when her rags changed into a gown

         of gold and silver, embroidered with

         rubies, pearls and diamonds.

With the midnight admonition in her ears, Cinderella is off to the royal ball. And her future life awaits…. with a few bumpy turns in the road before a royal wedding ensues.

But, here’s the loveliest part, to my mind, of Marcia Brown’s classic picture book tale.

Cinderella forgives her stepsisters for their treatment of her, and even, get this, gives them a home in her palace!

And, what is even more generous, on the same day that Cinderella marries the prince, she finds her stepsisters husbands!

And they are married on the same day as Cinderella, to “two great lords of the court.”

Now that is a true princess worthy of emulation, not for mere physical beauty, but for her generosity of spirit and forgiving nature.

Cinderella’s sense of noblesse oblige is off the charts.

And as the New Yorker stated in its review:

       The pages sparkle with Marcia

       Brown’s exquisite artwork and

       lovely colors.

Please allow the magic of Marcia Brown’s Charles Perrault translation of Cinderella, to weave its magic with your young reader.

It will be a vivid literary reminder of what the transformative melding of both outer and inner beauty in a person can do.

Through this Caldecott winner, it allows  young readers to see a huge change wrought first by magic in one life, but beyond that, in the lives of others. And those changes are not brought about by magic, but solely by the simple humanity of Cinderella, and her treatment of those step sisters, lucky enough to be in her sphere of influence. Beautiful!

And, to my mind, that is the real magic of this classic picture book read. It is one not to be missed.

Yertle the Turtle

By Dr. Seuss

Guess that famous turtle named Yertle hasn’t heard that there is a turtle soup shortage! Or maybe he has!

Yertle who longs to be King of the Turtles uses underling turtles to put himself above the rest. Higher and higher Yertle stacks these poor things, with Mack the turtle in the basement, so to speak. Imagine the pain and hunger imposed on the bottom rung turtles of this turtle tower?

I was recently listening to a news report while on vacation that mentioned a dearth of turtle soup on store shelves.

And why has this happened? Turtles are in short order, rare supply, and scarcely to be found. At least since they have been put on the endangered list, they can no longer be hunted, captured and cooked. Coastal developments, fisheries, pollution and climate change, all have a played a part in the depletion of the numbers of turtles. Turtle protection habitats for helping and recovery of these terrapins are in the news if you look for them. And that is good news for the Yertles and Macks of the world. Well, maybe just the Macks of the turtle tribe deserve the good news. Yertle has a ways to go in his redemption as this picture book tale reveals. As the adage goes, “Pride goeth before the fall.”

As an interesting  sidebar, did you know that during the Great Depression, turtles were consumed, and referred to as “Hoover’s Chickens” in the south? Wonder how President Herbert Hoover felt about that appellation? They must have been plentiful and tasty in a time of food lines across a country reeling from its economic woes.

But, back to Dr. Seuss’s Yertle, as the classic picture tale reveals rebellion rearing its head in the turtle tower among the ranks of those squished at the bottom of the heap. Will Yertle continue his ascent? Will Mack and the other terrapin tower partners rebel?

When finally “the moon dares to be higher than Yertle the King,” something has got to give, and Yertle’s collapsing tower is quick and calamitous, as he soon devolves into “King of the Mud.”

It’s a classic picture book read for young ones. For some it could be seen as a morality tale of building ones ascent on the literal “backs” of others. Or maybe a scientifically gentle reminder that “what goes up must come down.”

But my bet is on kids that may intuit from this classic read that how we ascend, or do better in the world, is just as, or much more important than, where we rise to.

April’s Kitten

By Clare Turlay Newberry

I love these Way Back Wednesday classic picture books featured on The Snuggery. This particular one was given to me as a gift when my brother visited a favorite book store “haunt” of his in Florida. I asked him to browse the classic picture book section, and voila, he came up with this gem.

It won Caldecott Honor designation in 1940, and ALA Notable Children’s Book inclusion in books spanning 1940-1944. And it’s easy to see why, even in 2015. And if you think a book from 1942 is out of touch, listen to this line from the opening page as young April, living in a New York apartment with her parents and a cat has to find new digs for her cat’s offspring with this quote:

 

“Nobody has much room in

New York because so many

people are trying to live there

at the same time. So April and her

mother and father and Sheba live

all crowded up together in a very

small apartment.”

 

Still pretty true long after it was written, right?

Plus, its art and narrative hold up over time. It is not “dated” in the least. In fact, its story of a black kitten named Sheba, seemed a “purr fect” Way Back Wednesday fit for this season leading up to Halloween.

Imagine the reading worth of a picture book that can hold up for over 50 plus years, and has a reissued edition to boot.

That is pretty impressive, and just one of the reasons that I keep bringing books like “April’s Kitten” forward for new generations of readers, whose parents or grandparents might have missed them.

Their art and narrative with great vocabulary, sentence structure and imagery, both entertain children and show them what “great” looks and sounds like, as compared to mediocre.

Mediocre is okay, but maybe not as a steady diet, as unbridled candy consumption may be okay for a day come Halloween; but not everyday. There is nourishment of the mind to be found in these classics. So come and enjoy.

Young April is faced with a dilemma. Her cat, Sheba, has delivered three kittens. They are all different, and are named Charcoal, Butch and Brenda.

How young April finds a solution to finding adoptive homes for Sheba’s sweet cats living in a small apartment, is a wonderful book for cat lovers, animal lovers – or just about anyone.

Will she find all three homes or will a new apartment be the solution for at least some of April’s cat coterie?

I loved reading about Ms. Turlay Newberry’s  childhood in Enterpise, Oregon, and her innovative idea of drawing on small strips of  papers found between Shredded Wheat Biscuit boxes back then, as paper was scarce. Now that was enterprising.

Studying at the California School of the Arts and Grand Academie de la Chaumiere in Paris, among other places, she also wrote three additional Caldecott Honor picture books, and they are:

 

Barkis  – “Will go straight to the hearts of dog lovers of all ages – The New York Times.  Relates the story of a sister jealous of a brother’s new dog.

 

Marshmallow –  Tells of a relationship between a cat and a baby rabbit.

 

          T-Bone the Babysitter – Meet a cat with spring fever. 

 

All four are classic picture book reads!

Why not try one…. or all four?

A Woggle of Witches

By Adrienne Adams

Halloween has morphed slowly from a night out for trick or treaters into a huge holiday in the United States. And so, as the run up to All Hallows Eve begins, here’s a Way Back Wednesday picture book gem from the early 70’s.

I was curious about the term “woggle” from Adrienne Adams’ title, called “A Woggle of Witches.” Seems a “woggle” as defined in the dictionary is the thing that attaches neckerchiefs. If you have a Boy Scout in the family, or love scarves, you will know what I mean.

But my husband ventured that the title infers more a “gaggle” or gathering, than anything else. That’s what I think too.

Your young reader will love the haunting atmosphere created in Adams’  wood full of witches, lounging in hammocks amid the treetops on All Hallows Eve.

 

“On a certain night, when the moon is high,

one calls, “Wake up. Time for the feast is come.”

 

And feast the witches do …on bat stew.

Then, it’s a quick hop on a broom to circle the moon on a cloudless flight.

Adrienne Adams’atmospheric and mood-filled art of witches winging their way skyward, in formations Blue Angel pilots would envy, is fanciful and fun. Her use of color in green, black, yellow and purple makes this Halloween holiday woggle witch gathering a reading trip to enjoy with your young readers this season.

And its ending is sure to please with its “who really scares who” scenario as the woggle stumbles upon a “woogle” of young trick or treaters in a cornfield.

     “Let’s get out of here!”they cry.

     All quivering and quaking,

     they leapt on their brooms,

     and slant toward the sky.”

“A Woggle of Witches” by Adrienne Adams is a Halloween sweet treat picture book not to be missed.

*Here’s a link to another favorite witch of mine. She’s a witch called Hazel that appeared in this 1952 cartoon called “Trick or Treat,”with Donald Duck’s nephews named Huey, Dewey and Louie.

Donald wants to trick, but Hazel gets the nephews their treats in a witchy way.

Boo!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-6LvIJKb_E

Hot Air: The (Mostly True) Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride

By Marjorie Priceman

You’ve probably seen them once or twice. They ride high up among fleecy cloud formations. Big, colorful bubbled balloons that glide swiftly through the sky, festooned with decorations, and attached to a basket for passengers to ride in.

Maybe you’ve dreamed about taking a ride on one yourself, or even had the opportunity to do so at a vacation site.

Then please hop into “Hot Air” by Marjorie Priceman, with your young reader, as it provides a colorfully picture book perfect window into the very first hot air balloon’s inaugural flight.

With some literary license of “what might have been”, Ms. Priceman’s wonderfully bold and colorfully larger than life art recreates the adventurous ride of the first air borne balloon -  AND its animal passengers.

Imagine the setting if you will. It’s the palace at Versailles {sigh}, with its 700 rooms, 15 fountains and 2,000 manicured gardens in full bloom. And it was the take off spot where, on September 19, 1783, with a ton of notables present, including King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette and Ben Franklin, a demonstration of the first hot-air balloon took place.

The amateur inventors, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier, are ready to show off their splendid and exciting new mode of transport to the waiting crowd.

Ms. Priceman’s charmingly woven tale of a duck, a sheep and a rooster aboard a solo flight in the Montgolfier’s trial balloon, is as big, bright and beautiful as their ride.

Her picture book takes and traces the farm folk aloft on an exciting excursion over the French countryside, solo!

In actuality, the trio did fly solo in a fifty-seven foot high, forty-one feet in diameter, 1,597 pound balloon, not counting an additional 900 pounds for the basket, the duck, sheep and rooster.

The flight lasted all of 8 minutes, but what a ride. And Marjorie Priceman’s Caldecott Honor Award winning book will hold young readers in thrall as they travel boldly where no farm animals have gone before. At least, I think not.

She pictures a small boy on a town roof top  shooting arrows upward at the balloon as it glides by, clothesline apparel swirls upward in the balloon’s draft, near misses occur on church spires on which the passenger sheep attaches an errant sock, and dive bombing birds clad in clothesline castoffs, circle the balloon in a frenzy. Amazing!

Young readers will not know where to look next as the trio’s flight unfolds, but they will be charmed immensely by the exploits of this stalwart bunch of feathered and furry air borne animals.

Watch for a duck-created homemade  swimming pool in the air; maybe the first one ever, and very inventive

Young readers will relish this ride, a safe touchdown, and the trio feted with much food and frolic at their safe arrival.

The historical details of the ride, given at the rear of the picture book in “A Brief History of Montgolfier’s Balloons,” are quite accurate, but Ms. Priceman’s picture book imaginings are the best.

Vive la difference!

 “All in the Golden Afternoon” with Alice

Did you know that this is the 150th Anniversary of the utterly “contrariwise”  childhood nonsense world that one can discover in “The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland?

And so, here is the perfect opportunity to introduce the youngest of readers to Alice and her utterly unbelievable list of endearing characters inhabiting Wonderland.

Please fall “down the rabbit hole” with  Alice, the dreamer in Wonderland, White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Red Queen, March Hare, Cheshire Cat, Caterpillar, and, of course, those chatty, catty talking flowers in the garden.

Walt Disney gave Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, pen named Lewis Carroll, a perfect homage in that amazingly anthropomorphic song, sung by the garden flowers in Walt’s animated version of “Alice in Wonderland.”

Do please enjoy their song at the bottom of my blog!

And did you know that Lewis Carroll began his story of Alice with a poem in stanzas, called “All in the Golden Afternoon” that preceded the opening of Alice’s story? Well, he did; in 1865, to be exact. That would make it 150 years ago!

On a boating trip to Oxford, Alice Liddell asked for a story. And Lewis Carroll obliged, writing in his preface poem, an oblique reference to the three Liddell sisters named Edith, Lorina, and, of course, Alice.

For it was for Alice, in particular, for whom he wrote his classic, zany tale of a world where everything makes little sense.

So, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the writing of “The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland”, you may just want to let your young ones have a taste of Alice’s world,  with one, or all three young reader versions that I sampled of her story.

Plus, for the first time in three decades, the original manuscript of Lewis Carroll’s book is available for viewing in New York’s Morgan Library at 225 Madison Avenue until October 12, 2015. Why not take the young ones for a fall excursion to see it and the accompanying never before seen drawings, letters and objects – all on loan from the British Library?

There is a link at the bottom for more information.

A Little Golden Book: Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland

Disney’s Golden Book version is probably well known to most Baby Boomer parents and grandparents as it’s based on the Disney movie, from the Carroll classic. The movie debuted in 1951 and may still be seen from time to time on the Disney Channel and is a great purchase on DVD. There is an “Un-Anniversary”2 disc edition that is out now.

Those amazingly talented Disney animators made Alice an indelible image for children for a generation or more. The Golden Book version is a memory bank of pictures from your childhood, ready to share with any young reader. I spent time poring over it myself, and have to say it is a sweet treat that made me want to revisit the Disney movie version!

In speaking recently to a Millennial mom, she mentioned that with all the new animation that has come out in the past few years, those Disney’s classics are sometimes overlooked.

What a shame that would be because their clever nuanced take on the nonsensical world of Alice is a movie not to be missed; followed closely or preceded by this book.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Alison Jay

Ms. Jay has provided young readers with a sturdy board book that will hold up well to lots of poring over and pointing out of pictures. Her book put me in mind of my early primer reader that could make a single word or phrase evoke the accompanying picture to a tee.

Ms. Jay, in her use of words like “run”, juxtaposes it against a picture of Alice chasing the White Rabbit, while “shrink” has a picture of the diminutive Alice after she has drunk from the bottle marked “Drink Me.”

It’s simple and subtle, yet leaves room for the reader and the listener to fill in as much as they want. I love the cover of a burgeoning Alice bumping up against the ceiling as she “grows.”

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Robert Sabuda

Robert Sabuda’s pop up adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is just plain, well, “wonderful.”

From the opening of its first page, where a huge pop up leafy tree emerges, under which sits a tiny Alice and her sister, there are surprises.

At the bottom of the page, an accordion like  folded down piece of paper, closed with a “Open Me”slide across piece, beckons.

And, when opened, it grows to a tall column or hole, through which a child may peer down, and see a kaleidoscope feature of Alice falling “down the rabbit hole.”Amazing!

With each successive page, young readers will revel in Alice’s journey  through Wonderland and its nonsensical inhabitants.

For instance, at the Mad Hatter’s and March Hare’s Tea Party, look to the left and there is a folded out piece of paper neatly tucked into a tidy pocket-like feature with corners. Open it, and the  reader can discover the text from “Alice in Wonderland”that describes the scene in the pop up picture.  It’s never too early for young readers to discover the young girl that tires of things as they are, and wishes for a place where  everything is as it isn’t!

Growing up is never easy. And for kids today, it seems as full of unanticipated things as Wonderland. And perhaps that was the whole point of Carroll’s classic. To appreciate what you have, you have to grow into yourself and see your life from a different perspective. It’s a bit of a “no place like home” philosophy.

May I conclude with a pitch for the picture book? They easily and joyfully allow children a gradual introduction to the thrill of reading that is sort of akin to training wheels on a bicycle. They lead to the chapter book and YA and everything beyond. Great picture books draw young readers in with wonderful art and a narrative that fits their age. It eases them into reading while entertaining and enlightening – all at the same time.

And here, although the reality of growing up may not be easy peasy, the adventure of it all can sit lighter on one’s shoulders with a visit to Wonderland.

Please let these three gems introduce your young reader to their first steps to a place where a Cheshire Cat, Dodo, March Hare, White Rabbit, Red Queen, Caterpillar and an array of talking flowers, all allow young readers the enjoyment of a “Golden Afternoon”, as they grow up!

Young readers may find themselves mimicking the ear to ear smile of the Carroll’s Cheshire Cat as he intones, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

But, dear reader, you know the path that leads straight to the doors of this classic tale in picture book form.

Please beat a path there sometime soon -  with a young reader in tow!

http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/alice

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7YEHt6cUMQ

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography

Laura Ingalls Wilder; editor Pamela Smith Hill

For those parents and readers that made the “The Little House on the Prairie” book series a part of their lives growing up, and its equally successful follow up TV series, here is a definitive autobiography to poke, peruse and page through. It is not the typical picture book. In fact it is not a picture book at all!

But, just maybe, over the long summer months, it is the book to share bits and pieces of, with your young readers. It could be used as a priming introduction to the reading of the books themselves, on the Ingalls family’s adventures in Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakota Territory.

It is not a book to be read in one sitting or even several, but it is so rich with insight to an author’s experiences that fed a book series, it certainly reveals through its pages, an even fuller view into Ms. Ingalls’ pioneering family life.

With its “one hundred twenty-five images, eight fully researched maps and hundreds of annotations based on numerous primary sources, including census data, county state and federal records, and newspapers of the period,” it puts “The Little House on the Prairie” series and the sixteen years of travel of this remarkable family in full relief.

Here is the story of how an unpublished memoir made it to a book series that became a triumph of publishing magic.

Through her own stories, Ms. Wilder was able to frame the larger stories of the culture and communities that she was part of in her family’s travels.

Those people that Ms. Ingalls Wilder chronicled and cared about are brought to a fresher insight through this over-sized 370 page book.

I love the scene in the book on page 322, taken from the book called “These Happy Golden Years” in which the now grown Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder take their vows, in a very simple ceremony, as man and wife:

           “We were at Mr. Brown’s

            at eleven and were married

           at once with Ida Brown and

           Elmer McConnell as witnesses.

 

           Mr. Brown had promised me not

           to use the word “obey” in the

           ceremony and he kept his word.”

 

It’s not so much what is said through the lines on the page. It is what is inferred by the reader about the writer. And it is wonderful.

If you want to see and read, at your considerable leisure this summer, some insight into the patience, pluck and perseverance of a writer named Laura Ingalls Wilder nee Laura Ingalls, then this book is the window of opportunity.

It’s a rare treat providing a thorough look into the life that filled the pages of a book series that fueled a TV series, that entertained millions of faithful readers and viewers.

Thumb through memories with Laura and introduce your children to a true heroine.

Little Red Riding Hood

retold and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

Did you know that the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” was a special favorite of Ms. Hyman’s? And, she apparently, if biography tales can always be believed, spent a whole year wearing a red cape as a homage to this heroine in red.

I love stories that give you a personal window into what motivates and influences a picture book author’s art.

And Trina Schart Hyman, winner of a Cal- decott for this particular book, and a Caldecott in 1985 for her “St. George and the Dragon” is both a wondrous artist and teller of tales. Thank goodness, we can discover and rediscover essential classics like this one with young readers of picture books. When we introduce narratives and art like hers to them, it certainly sets the bar quite high as we show them in that genre, what is great vs what is merely mediocre.

Mediocre can be okay – at times. Like food, a steady diet of the essentials is what will make the body strong. And equally so, a diet of the essentials of the canon of great children’s literature is the best way to feed the mind and imagination of children. The fluff of treats and sweets is also palatable and easy going down, but does it satisfy as well? Maybe, but I think not. Something to ponder.

I love borders in picture books. They add dimension, and sometimes depth to what lies within. And Ms. Hyman here, like the notable Jan Brett, has brought borders with rusticity that play perfectly to the story of the red caped girl.

Here, Red Riding Hood has a name. It’s Elisabeth and the red cape is a birthday gift from grandmother.

The wolf here is pretty cagey, as per usual, making polite conversation, all the while plying Red Riding Hood with queries about her destination.  

I love Ms. Schart Hyman’s pose of the wolf and Red Riding Hood in the wood with shafts of quiet light descending on the wolf as if to expose his evil intent. Heh Heh!

He is wolfishly wily and craven as he springs out of bed in grandmother’s garb!

But, thank goodness for the noble huntsman that Ms. Schart Hyman has clad in buckskin a la Davy Crockett! Charming!

If you’re looking for one version of this tale as old as time, this is the version to introduce to your young reader.

Red Riding Hood is as sweet as a Hummel figurine and the story with its detailed and muted illustrations, lends a cheery warmth to a red caped girl that knows her way around a wolf!

The Noisy Clock Shop

By Jean Horton Berg; pictures by Art Seiden

The Snuggery was borne of the belief, not held by everyone, that many, if not all, classic picture books reads have value for young readers. And that they should be reintroduced to successive new generations of young readers.

To sum it up in a sense, as far as classic picture books go, I do believe “What’s vintage has value.” – for the most part.

So I had a squeal of delight when I discovered G and D Vintage. This line features books that many of you grands and even parents may recall.

Culled from the Wonder Books line, originally published in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, these titles, in their day, put books at a reasonable price into the eager hands of young readers.

And through the newly minted G and D Vintage, it will continue in that same mode, to put wonderful vintage titles into the hands of a new generation of young readers.

I recently thumbed through the pages of a title from the G and D Vintage line titled, “The Noisy Clock Shop.” It was a deja vu moment for me rereading this delightful tale by Jean Horton Berg with pictures by Art Seiden of the white mustachioed, checker vested clock mender called Mr. Winky.

Mr. Glum, (love the moniker on this guy for the illustrations fit him to a tee), comes for a visit – and immediately flees the shop.

“How can you stand this awful noise?” is his parting remark from Mr. Winky’s wall to wall domain of clocks of all shapes and sizes as he adds, ….”I can’t hear myself think.”

What follows is a stroll by the owner, out into an equally noisy world, from a place he had ceased to notice was less than quiet.

What we all can get used to as background noise, right?

Mr. Winky meanders through his town, and even a nearby forest, where he encounters all the myriad noises that life throws off. Even HE can’t hear himself think at the conclusion of his promenade.

Art Seiden’s terrific illustrations of the thrum of life’s activities are colorfully clanging, cawing and cacophonous!

And Mr. Winky’s return to his clock shop might prove more of the same, you might surmise. But you’d be wrong.

What greets Mr. Winky is the grand silence! And why? Kids will have figured it out as they read along with you.

Please let your young readers in on a real treat perhaps this summer as you introduce them to G and D Vintage titles, and even perhaps reintroduce parts of your own reading childhood to yourself. Tuck a few in a take along bag as you travel this summer, or sit under a tree and just enjoy reading time travel to a simpler time of a less frenetic pace of life.

It’s a trip down reading memory lane worth taking!

Poetry of Earth

Selected and illustrated by Adrienne Adams

Thought I might hit a veritable trifecta here, with one title meeting all three criterion that I was aiming for. Adrienne Adams’ title hits the mark with her glorious picture book aptly fitting in with April’s National Poetry Month, a Way Back Wednesday classic picture book designation AND its subject matter dovetailing with the celebration of Earth Day 2015 on April 22nd. How’s that for a triple threat for young readers in one title?

Did you know that Earth Day started way back in the 1970’s? For many it marks, as a website quotes, “the birth of the modern environmental movement.”

Way back in 1962, author Rachel Carson began the run up to concern for the environment with her New York Times bestseller, “Silent Spring.” It generated with its sale of 500,000 copies in 24 countries, a call for public awareness of concern for the gradation of the environment and by inference, its impact on public health.

Change is a hard thing to measure and it is usually only measurable AFTER it has occurred.

That is why the picture book’s value in its ability to both entertain and enlighten, is so underrated in some quarters in the sometimes headlong drive to get to the chapter book. So much is missed and discounted in what the picture book has offered in the past and continues to offer in the present. And Ms. Adams’ book is a perfect example.

Adrienne Adams is the winner of two Caldecott Honor books in 1960 and 1962 for “The Day We Saw the Sun Come Up” and “Houses From The Sun”. Both were done with text by Alice E. Goudey.

She is also the illustrator of ALA notable books for her Grimm’s Brothers versions of “The Shoemaker and the Elves, ”Jorinde and Joringel,” and “Thumbelina” by Hans Christian Andersen.

In “Poetry of the Earth,” Ms. Adams has chosen thirty-three poems from renowned poets such as Robert Frost, Randall Jarrell, Carl Sandburg, William Butler Yeats, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, celebrating everything from buffaloes to bats, snails to specks, sandhill cranes to squirrels and tiger lilies to tortoises.

Listen to this small sample from Robert Frost’s, “Dust of Snow”:

                 “The way a crow

                 Shook down on me

                 The dust of snow

                From a hemlock tree”

 

                 Has given my heart

                 A change of mood

                 And saved some part

                 Of a day I had rued.”

Young readers, once you get past their understanding of the word, “rued”, will certainly get the visceral feeling of how one single moment can change a day; one small second in time can change a minute from moody to merry. Kids do it all the time; it’s part of being a child!

And its impetus for them can be a poem, a line from a book, a hug, a smile, or a touch of the hand.

Let Earth Day this year, and books that echo both the shelter and nourishment it gives humanity, be the jumping off spot for a teachable moment with young readers. Share books with them that celebrate how wonderful and healing the earth can be; what a sacred space it is, and how much it is in our care.

Below is a link to 50 fun and engaging hands on Earth Day Activities for young ones.

http://tinkerlab.com/fifty-earth-day-activities/

A Day’s Work

By Eve Bunting; illustrated by Ronald Himler

Maybe you’ve them seen; workers standing in the early morning hours. They gather huddled in groups drinking coffee trying to get warm. And waiting for work.

At a certain hour, trucks and vans pull up and eager workers hop in. Maybe someone needs a laborer or a gardner, bricklayer or some other job – for a day.

You’ve heard the phrase, “A day’s work for a day’s pay”or “It’s all in a day’s work.”

Tens of millions of undocumented immigrants seem to be waiting for just that every day; just a days work.

I’m not going to argue the legalities involved here or the moral imperatives to finding a just and legal solution to this conundrum that has galvanized a nation’s frustration on both sides of the argument for years.

But, that is what I love about picture books. They can bring issues such as immigration to the fore for children with stories accompanied by wonderful art that both prompt questions from readers and also points sometimes, in a direct or indirect way, to simple ways to build character in a child. I venture to say that your young reader may have plenty of questions for you after sharing this book.

Eve Bunting’s picture book, “A Day’s Work” and the earthy artistry of Ronald Himler does just that.  It provides a window on a new elderly, immigrant carpenter turned gardener for a day.

How his abuelo or grandfather, shapes the life of his young grandson, Francisco, through his reaction to the grandson’s telling of a lie in order to get work for his grandfather is revelatory and character building.

Abuelo, newly come to California to live with his daughter speaks no English. His grandson in a generational role reversal acts as interpreter and guide, in the scrambling shape up for jobs.

Hired for a weeding job on a hillside for one day culminates in a misunderstanding of what’s what in the identification of chickweeds versus plants! A botched job results and Mr. Benjamin, the new boss is angry.

But the soft spoken abuelo, a just and honest man realizes his hirer has been fibbed to by Francisco, in his grandson’s eagerness to obtain the $60 daily wage for the two of them. This is unacceptable to abuelo and must be rectified.

As abuelo and Francisco replant the entire bank of flowers, refusing even half the wage until the entire job is completed as promised, a young boy has modeled to him what a man’s word and integrity mean.

It is a question of honor…and honor is rewarded, because in the words of Mr. Benjamin, “The important things your grandfather knows already. And I can teach him gardening.”

Named a Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, it was also named a 1994 Americas Commended Title by the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs.

Intergenerational books are some of my favorites. And here in Eve Bunting’s touching tale of old and young learning what’s important from one another, the wisdom of age sometimes trumps the young’s ability to interpret the world.

Was it MLK, Jr. that said something akin to, and I am paraphrasing here, “An education devoid of values is like a ship without a rudder.” Well said.

Francisco has been guided true north by the compass of his abuelo’s conscience and the content of his character. They will both be alright!

Mrs. Katz and Tush

By Patricia Polacco

Sacrifice, suffering – and a gradual, hard won ascendance are part of the dual Jewish and African American histories.

Is it possible to blend these two cultural stories into a simply wonderful Passover story?

You bet. If your name is Patricia Polacco and you’ve had some hard won hurdles of your own as a child growing up, then overcoming hardship is a part of the literary picture book history of your own life – and a modeled resilience in the face of them.

Usually, there are some older characters in some of Ms. Polacco’s picture books that share their life experiences, and a generational wisdom gained from their own trials, with a member of the younger generation as beneficiary. I think of it as “modeling IN the world what you want to SEE in the world.”

The sharing of generational life experience in her stories is never preachy or boring. It peaks the readers interest as it only serves to draw the two generations closer as one learns from, and informs the other – as it should be.

So it is here, with Mrs. Katz, a lonely and lovable Jewish widow, and her friendship with the young African American, Larnel. She is in need of a friend and companionship. He provides her with both, beginning with a small cat that needs a home.

A bargain is struck..she will take the cat she names Tush, if Larnel will sign on as co- caretaker with her. Done.

And what proceeds from that, is a life long lesson in, well, LIFE. She shares with Larnel her life in Poland, her Jewish heritage, her love for her deceased hubby, Myron, and the history of the seder feast that precedes Passover.

It’s very interesting in some of Ms. Polacco’s books that families are not necessarily born of biological connections, but come about as a result of shared time and caring. I call them “families of the heart.”

Tush the cat may be the impetus for their initial connection, but she only provides the bridge for two people of different generations AND cultures to see what they share, and everything builds from there.

I think young readers will love Mrs. Katz, her homey goodness, sprinkled liberally with small Jewish words of endearment such as bubeleh, (term of endearment for a female) and bubee (grandmother), plus Jewish vocabulary such as chuppa, kugel, kaddish, shalom, and matzoh.

From finding a home for a small, homeless cat named Tush, Larnel and Mrs. Katz share a wonderful friendship that grows to eventually include both his family and later Larnel’s own children. It’s funny that not just a feline named Tush is looking for a home and companionship. Humans have just as great a need here, too.

But first, Mrs. Katz and Larnel find themselves sharing a series of events that include Tush’s disappearance, rescue and a seder table. They find in each other what every one of us is looking for – acceptance and love. And something more emerges here.

I think “Mrs. Katz and Tush” may bridge religious lines of demarcation for young readers too. And I’ll tell you why I believe it to be so, with one very minute, but telling piece of evidence.

In the secondhand copy I am holding, there is an inscription that reads, “Merry Christmas to Dom and Nick from Matt and Jake.” Wonderful!

The Easter Bunny That Overslept

By Priscilla Friedrich, Otto Friedrich; illustrations by Donald Save

Imagine a story of how a rabbit named Peter came to be called the original Easter Bunny of a place called April Valley. Filmed in what was billed as “Animagic,” a stop motion animation project using figurines, Animagic’s original claim to fame came in 1964 for the mother lode of Christmas animation specials, second only to “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. It was called “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Sound familiar now?

But for this particular 1971 hour-long, made for TV special that the team of Rankin/Bass also put together, it was titled “Here Comes Peter Cottontail.”  It featured an all-star voice cast heralded by such notables as Danny Kaye, Vincent Price and Casey Kasem as the voice of Peter.

From numbers topping five hundred thousand hits on the YouTube space where it appears, as well as purchase on DVD, many enjoyed this made for TV special as children. Now, they revisit it with their own children. I remember seeing it for the first time in the 1970’s with my own kids. By my calculations, that’s more than 44 years ago. Yikes!!!

Then, imagine in 2015, you discover the original story, probably began from a picture book from 1957, called “The Easter Bunny That Overslept.” Why is it so hard to fathom that many of these animation ideas always begin with the written word? Liz, you’re a goose!

Nine times out of ten, the movie starts with the book!! I guess what I’m getting at is: “Always go back to the source material and give it a read.” Witness the current hit movie, “Cinderella.”  Please have children read The Brothers Grimm version, plus Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” that generated the movie “Frozen” and also his story of “The Little Mermaid.” Did you think that the story of Ariel just popped from the sea? Nope.The original story was a creation of Hans Christian Andersen that morphed into the movie for modern audiences. Please don’t let your young readers miss out on the original stories! 

It’s only, oh about 40 years from the TV debut of “Here Comes Peter Cottontail”, that I discovered a copy of the original story from whence, I believe, rose the TV tale. The picture book tells the tale of the Easter Bunny that arises from a snooze on Mother’s Day to discover he’s missed Easter entirely! It’s called “The Easter Bunny That Overslept” by Priscilla and Otto Friedrich with illustrations by Adrienne Adams although other editions have illustrations by Donald Saaf.

The Easter Bunny post nap goes through the holiday themed calendar with his egg basket. Imagine trying to palm off eggs on July 4th? Halloween? Pretty tough sell for this bunny, no? It takes a gift from Santa himself to prevent a repeat of the napping lepus the next year. 

Here’s a link to the original Rankin/Bass special, plus another that features three songs from the special that are, well, endearingly comforting and sweet.

My absolute favorite is “In The Puzzle of Life.” Great philosophy behind its lyrics for young readers today! Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2_ZdknLMIo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zpu_eSmY28

Hansel and Gretel

By The Brothers Grimm; Pictures by Eloise Wilkin

A Little Golden Book

I venture to guess most, if not all, of the Baby Boomers that are now grandparents, grew up reading these books.

Starting in 1942, they originally sold at the ginormous price of 25 cents! Yes, for one quarter of a dollar, your child could read the likes of “The Pokey Little Puppy”, “Tootle the Train”, “Scuffy the Tugboat”, “The Saggy Baggy Elephant”, “The Shy Little Kitten”, “The Tawney Scrawny Lion”, “The Little Red Caboose”, “Mother Goose”, “Prayers for Children”, “Three Little Children” and a slew of other initially published titles.These small books soon found their way into households, hands and eventually the hearts of young readers everywhere. And they have stood the test of time, with the authors and illustrators whose artistry created them. That is my definition of a classic picture book read and Little Golden Books are classics.

Their lure was not merely their attractive price, but their writers and illustrators were the likes of Garth Williams, illustrator of “The Little House on the Prairie” series, “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little”, Margaret Wise Brown of “Goodnight Moon” fame, Richard Scarry, Trina Schart Hyman, James Marshall, and Alice and Martin Provensen to name but a very few.

These people made artistry and great narrative available to every child that had a quarter. That, in and of itself, is a wonderful thing.

Guess the reason I keep bringing these classic books forward in the Way Back Wednesday segment of The Snuggery is that I firmly believe their artistic value needs to be brought forward again and again so a new generation can see them and hopefully love them as we Boomers did.

I had a first hand experience of the impact they had on one child now grown to be an artist that did covers for Penguin paperback books. Bill had, as a child, a well loved copy of “Scuffy the Tugboat.” It somehow was lost in the passage of time. When he spoke of this book, and its story and art, you could tell it had affected his life, AND maybe even his future profession as artist.

So I made up my mind to find an original of this Little Golden Book. It took a while, but I did it. Wish you could’ve been there when I put the book in his hands. It was really something to see him gently thumb the pages of a book he had treasured as a child and could practically recite as a adult.

Books DO affect young readers for a lifetime.

So, why not perhaps revisit YOUR journey with these wonderful Little Golden Books and launch a new discovery, via your own grandchildren, children or a young reader you know?

Please go and rediscover a Little Golden Book with your little ones. It’s way past time!

Chanticleer and the Fox

By Barbara Cooney

“Flattery looks like friendship, just like a wolf looks like a dog.” Remember that line please, for it provides a perfect introduction via this anonymous quote, to another essential classic in our Way Back Wednesday essential canon of picture book not to be missed classics.

Flattery is at the heart of Barbara Cooney’s Caldecott Award winning adaptation of “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”, taken from Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales.”

Winning the award in 1959, the picture book tells the story of Chanticleer, a beautifully crowing, but proud cock and his nemesis, a wily, but ultimately outfoxed fox. Chanticleer, and his mate Partlet, are a lovey dovey duo, living on the farm of a poor, but hardworking widow with two young daughters.

Chanticleer has a very prophetic dream that his mate pooh poohs. He dreams of a

….beast like a hound which tried to grab my body and would have killed me. His color was between yellow and red, and his tail and both ears were tipped with black different from the rest of the fur

Hmmm. Now what sort of description does THAT fit, eh Partlet? But instead of comforting her partner, she calls him a coward and says, “Do not fear dreams.” Dear Partlet, tell that to Caesar, when his wife, Calpurnia (great name), warned him not to go to the Senate on the Ides of March. And we all know how THAT dream ended.

But this tale is not so much about dreams, but how flattery can get both Chanticleer and the fox in a spot where both use flattery to get what they want. Fortunately, for Chanticleer, they each want different things.

Barbara Cooney won a second Caldecott in 1980 for “Ox-Cart Man” and, who can ever forget the Lupine Lady, “Miss Rumphius?”

In “Chanticleer and the Fox”, Ms. Cooney elegantly employs a combination of color and black and white in her drawings to emphasize the intensity of the action, or a splash of color to set off more pastoral scenes.

Her descriptive passages and narrative draw young readers in, and her use of vocabulary is first rate.

I applaud picture books such as “Chanticleer and the Fox.” They are excellent both in storytelling, art and they believe their audiences to be up to the challenge of this type of book and never water things down too much.

May I say that they, in a way, “flatter” the reader in a good way? They believe young readers are up for it. And they are; if we, as adults, believe it too!  

When Everybody Wore a Hat

By William Steig

I confess I had never heard of this title by one of my favorite picture book authors. William Steig, former illustrator for the “New Yorker” who did not start his picture book career till he was in his sixties, is a sure reminder for all those second career, “Chapter two” people dreaming out there, that it is never too late to dream. What is that saying? ”There is one book in EVERYONE.

And Bill Steig had a slew of them in him from his Caldecott medal winning, “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” to “The Amazing Bone”, also a Caldecott Honor book, and from “Amos and Boris” to “Dr. De Soto”, and “Abel’s Island”, BOTH Newbery Honor books. Quite a haul for someone that wrote such stories of imaginative adventure and characters of cunning, ingenuity, daring, along with a knowing acceptance of life. Coupled with wonderful vocabulary using words such as phosphorescent and odoriferous to describe the sea with the first word and a villain with the second, and it’s easy to see why young readers still love his books. Ever hear of a kindly ogre named Shrek? That’s Bill Steig’s book too!

I love books that connect generations. Kids want to know what life was like in mom and dad’s day, and better still, gram and pop pop’s day! And here, Bill Steig serves it up to this generation from HIS generation, in the story of when he was a boy, .”…almost a hundred years ago, when fire engines were pulled by horses, boys did not play with girls, kids went to libraries for books, there was no TV, you could see a movie for a nickel and everybody wore a hat,” as he tells it.

Bill gives a clear, but vividly cartoonish take in art and a wonderfully descriptive feel for his parents from the Old Country. I chuckled at his depiction of a typical mom/pop quarrel in which they spoke one of the four languages they spoke; German, Polish, Yiddish and English. Thankfully, the kids didn’t quite know what caused the ruckus, but the radiator also came in for a bit of dad’s ire for letting off steam as well.

Caruso and the opera were favorites of his parents, as they listened to a phonograph you wound up with a crank. Hey, I have one of those too, and the sound is great! Chess also was a favorite game played with a neighbor named Mr. Hoffman.

Hats were worn – sometimes with fruit on it – by ladies. Hey, I even remember wearing hats to church on Sunday! If you watch old news footage of baseball games in the 40’s and 50’s, EVERYBODY is mostly wearing a hat, even on a weekday! You’re right, Bill!

And, boy were things inexpensive as Bill points out. For instance, young readers will be agog at the fact that a hot dog could be bought for a NICKEL, as well as a pound of fruit and a seat at a movie.

They’ll also marvel at the number of times Bill moved and he was impressed at how strong those movers hauling huge pieces of furniture down flights of stairs were. Bill Steig lets us meet lots of interesting people that came in and out of his life when he was eight years old. Here are but a few worth meeting; foibles and all: Esther Haberman had a big mouth, a beefy butcher named Barney, Prince the janitor’s dog that scared the local kids, the elegant Mrs. Kingman who was just passing through the neighborhood with her pooch, and kindly Dr. Wager who actually came to the HOUSE! Yup, doctors made house calls then. I may be dating myself, but our family, too, had a fine man named Dr. Modrys that visited us when my youngest brother had the measles. It really wasn’t very unusual then.

Bill Steig’s trip down the memory lane of his young life is worth the reading journey for your young reader. It’s a fine peek into a window in time that has closed. Then, boys like Bill had haircuts in barber chairs and listened to stories filtering through the air at Ditchick’s Barbershop. And sitting on a horse like a real cowboy and having your picture taken was a treat.

All of these simple pleasures and interesting characters fed Bill’s very active artistic imagination with lots of material for his books. All the drawings in this book will make you feel as if you have taken a stroll through Bill’s neighborhood with him and know these people too.

But his closing lines are very telling. He says he wanted to be either a seaman or an artist. He DID become the artist, but you can’t tell me he hasn’t sailed to some pretty interesting places aboard those books he wrote!

And the best part of it all is that WE get to go along for the ride in all of them. Thanks for the ride, Bill! We get to see the past through your eyes and art. A time it was and what a time it was.

A Christmas Memory

By Truman Capote

If your children have never heard of this picture book gem from Truman Capote of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “In Cold Blood” fame, you and your young readers are both in for a real treat. Originally published in 1956 in “Mademoiselle” magazine, December 1956, it was reprinted in 1966 in book form.

And with the words, “It’s fruitcake weather”, young Buddy, for that is the alias that Mr. Capote uses in his very evocative memory book, he draws a very readable time capsule of Depression Era Alabama and his memories of Christmas past that highlight his relationship with his Aunt Sook. It is an autobiographical look at a snapshot in time of his life until he was ten.

Young Buddy has lived for as long as he can remember with an assortment of older relatives in a big, rambling house, but the only kindred spirit in the place is Sook. She is childlike, though that fact is never emphasized by Buddy nor seen as a negative. In fact, it is the very opposite. Sook and Buddy are two souls who are emotionally simpatico in that they understand what it is to be childlike; to still get excited by the wonders in nature, people and a joyful task they yearn to do together each year – the baking of their traditional Christmas fruitcakes. So small a thing? Maybe. But it is in the counting out of nickels, dimes, quarters and pennies saved for the purchase of ingredients, trundling out to a wood filled with old, gnarled pecan trees to gather a baby carriage full of them and ending with a visit to an American Indian nicknamed Haha, owner of a local cafe where they purchase $2.00 worth of whiskey to spice the cake up, that we are allowed the privilege of seeing two souls sharing a season. It is beautiful.

Some children may have a bit of trouble sitting for the telling of this lengthy Christmas tale that ends with separation, but I think we need to expose our young readers to picture books just like this one. Why? Because they can elongate the attention span that may have a tendency to be shortened by some books that don’t allow a story to patiently come to the child, develop and grow in a space of time that allows reflection and thought regarding characters and plot. Kids are much more perceptive and intuitive than we believe. And this is a book that allows children to savor a real give-and-take between two soul mates of very different generations, separated by age but not by much else.

Plus, Beth Peck’s soft watercolor drawings are so spot on perfect for Capote’s book that I think I’d recognize Buddy and Sook if I saw them walking down my street one day. I should only be so lucky!

There is also an amazing made for TV movie of “The Christmas Memory” that garnered an Emmy Award for actress Geraldine Page as Sook in 1966? She won another for a sequel to Buddy/ Capote’s Christmas picture book adaptation. It too became a made for TV movie and it’s called “The Thanksgiving Visitor.” Did you know there were bullies in school way back in the 1930’s, too?

Sweet and childlike, yet strangely worldly-wise, Sook has a surprising way of teaching Buddy how to treat a bully. Kindness seems to be the key to her approach where Buddy’s is tit for tat. Great lessons here for kids.

Here are links to both movies:

“A Christmas Memory” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0vjTfVyZco

“The Thanksgiving Visitor” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfkYVO9RgdU

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas

By Russell Hoban; pictures by Lillian Hoban

Maybe the only way you may remember this classic Christmas tale of animals that reflect the giving spirit of O’Henry’s short story, “The Gift of the Magi”, is through Jim Henson’s Muppet version. It too captured in word and song the husband/wife team of Russell and Lillian Hoban and their story of these endearing wintry animal inhabitants of Frogtown Hollow struggling to make ends meet before Christmas.

And for the fatherless Emmet and his mother who takes in wash that is soaped and cleaned in a wash tub, these are hard times indeed. Yet there is a sturdy hardiness and cheer about these animal folk who could teach us a thing or two about resilience in the face of deprivation.

If this picture book sounds like a downer, it’s anything BUT!! Emmet uncomplainingly rows in his little rowboat, in hat and scarf tied tight, up and down the river gathering laundry for his mother to wash. He hauls water, chops firewood, and goes out with his dad’s tool chest determined to find the odd job to help out at home. Emmet is the soul of tenacity when he hears that The Merchants’ Association is putting on a talent show with a $50 prize!

Gathering pals Wendell Coon, Harvey Muskrat and Charlie Beaver who individually can play a kazoo, blow on a jug and strum a cigar-box banjo, he’s full of hope. What’s missing is a WASH TUB bass! Guess who has the wash tub that Emmet borrows and puts a HOLE in for a chance to win the prize and gift mom with the piano he dreams of giving her? And mom has to sell Emmet’s tool box to give him..well, you get the picture. Mom is determined to give her Emmet the gleaming guitar with mother-of-pearl inlays he longs for in the store window.

Impossible? Success in life often involves sacrifice the Hoban’s tale tells us and our dreams may come true in very unexpected ways. The important thing this rich story imparts is the ageless truth that love, friendship and community are the real Christmas gifts. They are the glue that binds us together AND sustains us when the times and our lives become difficult. And never giving up on hope and the tenacity that fuels our dreams that make life bearable is another. I’d say if you can get that message across AND entertain in a picture book that lasts, it’s a classic!

Please share this classic picture book and its comfy message with your young ones this Christmas. We, and they, need to hear it again and again and again!!

Here’s the complete version of The Muppet 1977 made for TV movie.

In the words of Emmet’s mom, “Emmet, that’s about the nicest present anybody ever TRIED to give me.”

Watch Emmet Here! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeG499fHctw

Millions of Cats

By Wanda Gag

One of the reasons I started The Snuggery and the Way Back Wednesday portion of it was the belief that there ARE “essential classics” in the realm of the picture book world that should be part of a canon of literature for kids. And, more than that, these “essentials” had, for a variety of reasons, fallen off the radar for parents, grandparents and anyone interested in introducing great picture books to children.

So, as the year winds down and the weather grows colder and we move many of our activities indoors, it’s a perfect time to highlight the “essentials” with your young readers.

In case you’ve forgotten THIS title, Way Back Wednesday today features the oldest American picture book in print, “Millions of Cats” by Wanda Gag.

One of the very few picture books to win a Newbery Honor book designation, it was given in 1929. Wanda also pioneered the double page spread as Anita Silvey, prominent reviewer points out in her book, “100 Best Books for Children,” “She used both pages to move the story forward, putting them together with art that sweeps the entire page spread…..”

And its popularity stemmed from the hand lettered text that Wanda’s brother contributed to the book, its black and white folk art style, and, of course the repetitive phrase that has stayed alive and been repeated by young readers since its printing:

                                           “ Cats here, cats there,

                                        Cats and kittens everywhere,

                                             Hundreds of cats,

                                             Thousands of cats,

                                   Millions and billions and trillions of cats.”

 

A sweet, but lonely peasant couple living in the country are looking for a cat to keep and love. So, off the husband goes in search of one. But trouble ensues when, after finding a cat, he is tempted by additional ones that make final decision making quite a task. Instead of just one, he opts for a coterie of cats, a cacophony of cats and a conglomeration of cats that drain ponds as they each take one sip, de-blade a hillside of grass as each takes a munch on the trip home and, ultimately get into the biggest “cat fight” in history!!

Prompted by a final cat selection question from the couple somewhat akin to the queen in “Snow White” asking the mirror, “Who’s the fairest of us all?”, a cat calamity begins with a row of epic proportions among all but one of the cats.

Can you guess who is picked as the prettiest?

Read and remember right along with your young reader, this cat tail er tale that is still essential some 85 years after its printing!! It’s a “cat astrophically” essential picture book classic.

Pumpkin Moonshine

By Tasha Tudor

Recently, I went to our local costume/party shop in town to find it decked out for Halloween. The owner has even been known to create a pretty authentic looking in-house haunted house, a time or two. Pretty creepy, I must admit. Outside you will find a VERY angry looking clown with green teeth and inside you’ll see ghouls,trolls, bats and other baying-at-the-moon types. Many are sound and voice activated and echoed through the shop as I trekked up and down the aisles looking for the ghost of Halloween Past. It was nowhere to be found. Instead I found costumes of gruesome gargoyles and the like. What I was looking for was a kinder, gentler Halloween of cute witches, hobos and fairies. No dice. But wait, I DID find it in a picture book I remembered, called “Pumpkin Moonshine” by Tasha Tudor.

If you’ve not discovered this iconic picture book author OR if she has fallen off your young reader picture book radar, this is a perfect book to introduce her or reintroduce her to your youngest of readers.

It’s opening dedication is titled “A wee story for a very sweet wee person” and that’s just what it is. But just in case you’re thinking – dullsville – I say, oh nay nay! Tasha Tudor in her art and narrative has captured holidays and family life celebrated as special moments filled with traditions and sentiment. BUT, there is usually excitement afoot as there is here in “Pumpkin Moonshine.”

Did you know that “Pumpkin Moonshine” is an alternative name for a jack o’ lantern? Meet Sylvie Ann visiting her grandmother in Connecticut on Halloween. Setting out for the cornfield with her small dog Wiggy in tow, they “ puff like steam engines” up the hill on their search for the perfect pumpkin.

If you have young ones that are on a “perfect pumpkin” quest you know it is sometimes quite a quest. And quests usually are time consuming, but a labor of love. And so it is with Sylvie Ann and Wiggy. They find a pumpkin so big it must be rolled “just the way you roll big snowballs in wintertime.” Hey, I’ve done that! But I’ve never rolled it DOWN the hill where the momentum of a BIG pumpkin can let him get away from you – and so it does with Sylvie Ann!

Kids will be laughing as goats, hens and geese scatter in the wake of the runaway pumpkin moonshine that “tore into the barnyard at a truly dreadful speed”, with Wiggy and Sylvie Ann in hot pursuit. Mr. Hemmelskamp ( love the name) is the one that is upended in the path of the galloping gourd – and lands on his face!

With apologies to all, grandpa and Sylvie Ann commence lopping the top off the pumpkin, scooping it out and making “eyes and a nose and a big grinning mouth with horrid teeth.”

Pumpkin moonshine sits on the front gate post on Halloween as night falls and grandpa and Sylvie Ann hide in the bushes “to watch how terrified the passers by would be..”

For me, the best part of the book is the full cycle of nature that Tasha Tudor weaves into her tale as Sylvie Ann saves the seeds and plants them in the spring. As the seeds grow and cover the earth with vines, NEW pumpkin moonshines will fill the field to be made into future grinning jacks and pumpkin pies!

We’re selling “pumpkin moonshines” at our farm and I think I will put a sign up announcing this alternative naming of the pumpkin! It’s great to have a picture book with both great art and narrative AND a lesson in it for kids that the carved up jack o’ lanterns they shape this Halloween, have within them, the seeds for a NEW crop the following year.

Tasha Tudor has fashioned stories with great respect for families, traditions that bind them together and the renewability of nature.

Why not introduce your young ones to this sweet teller of tales named Tasha Tudor this Halloween, and her wonderful “Pumpkin Moonshine”; an essential classic for any picture book reader this time of year. Happy Halloween!