In 1996, Iona Opie edited a collection of Mother Goose rhymes. The title of the book is My Very First Mother Goose. Illustrations are by Rosemary Wells. For the most part, I really like her work. Some books by her are among our family favorites.
My Very First Mother Goose is one of those books that got starred reviews, won some awards, and ended up on a great many recommended-books lists. Here's the cover:
When I saw the book that year, I pointed colleagues to page 60 and 61, on which Opie placed "Up the wooden hill to blanket fair" because of the illustration that Wells came up with for that particular rhyme. This evening as I read through reviews, I see that only one reviewer noted the page... That person was Janice Del Negro. Her review, in The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (December 1996) said "the use of rabbits dressed up as Indians (complete with feathers and teepees) for "Up the wooden hill to Blanket Fair" may give some pause."
Here's the pages:
Let's look at those illustrations. On the right side, we see a bunny lying down, covered with a blanket. See the designs on the blanket? If you hadn't yet seen the facing page, you might not say the designs were meant to signify American Indians.
Now, look at the illustration beneath the rhyme. There's two bunnies in a cart. To me, they seem kind of affluent, perhaps like tourists out west, going to visit a store, or gallery, or museum, or some place where they will see Indians, and maybe purchase Native-made art.
Now look at that full-page illustration. No doubt about it... Those bunnies (should I be calling them rabbits?!) are definitely meant to be Indians... Maybe, they're even meant to be Navajos. Anyone 'in the know' about American Indian tapestries would know that the Navajo, or Dine, people are well known for the rugs or blankets they weave. But if we conclude that the bunnies are meant to signify Navajos, what is that thing that kind of looks like a tipi doing there?! Tipis are not used by Navajos...
I don't think any of the other pages in the book are about American Indians, and there don't seem to be any that are about, say, African Americans. So what gives? Why did Opie and Wells do that? What do you think?
2 Comments on Rosemary Wells illustration in MY VERY FIRST MOTHER GOOSE, last added: 8/26/2010
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Oh, no! How terrible.
One more reviewer did pick up on the "Navajo" rabbits. Nancy Willard, in The New York Times Book Review (Nov. 10, 1996, p. 38) also remarked that:
"The one regrettable lapse in taste is the illustration for a going-to-bed rhyme, 'Up the Wooden Hill to Blanket Fair,' which shows six very white rabbits in Native American dress and headbands, surrounded by geometrically patterned blankets and gathered around a tepee."
I probably would have used stronger language than "lapse in taste," but at least the reviewer mentioned it -- probably thanks to the awareness that you and others like you, Debbie, are raising through your work.