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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!

Camp Rex

By Molly Idle

Parents of campers are just about beginning to get the jump on camp preparations for their young ones this summer. Some may be headed for day camp, sleep away camp or just to the back yard for an overnight with their neighborhood best friend. All of this, of course, begins when schools close for the summer that in case you haven’t checked is almost upon us! And I’ve found a great book to ease into the change.

If you loved Ms. Idle’s tongue-in-dinosaur-cheek treatment called “Tea Rex”, you will enjoy this outing of dinosaurs and kids called “Camp Rex” and perhaps might want to tuck a copy of it into their duffle for reading by flashlight on a mosquito buzz filled night!

Get out your Wilderness Camp Guides and venture forth for this rollicking riff on fresh air, exercise, wildlife, campfire building; all of which, I might add should be proceeded by the Scout Motto – “BE PREPARED!! When dinosaurs are part of the outing of this young miss who tries not to miss much, but does, and a stalwart brother that together pitch tents, try to stick to the trail, all while not disturbing the natural landscape, it’s well, “what’s wrong with this picture funny”!

Take bees for example. These swarming biters did NOT get the non-disturbance memo and are MUCH disturbed by the young camping contingent. And it put me in mind of the time that an errant wasp decided to fly up the leg of my “pedal pushers” (they’re the same as Capri pants), and by the way, a great fashion word, for it defined WHAT you did when you wore them and that was fly like the wind on a bike! It wasn’t the wasp’s fault he didn’t know the way OUT was DOWN, so he kept stinging me till he expired. Luckily for Camp Rex campers, they know how to RUN!!!

The juxtaposition of Ms. Idle’s charming words and illustrations will rate many giggles from the young reader set as in “there’s nothing more refreshing than a dip in a mountain lake or a bit of canoeing” as the illustrations depict a sample of something akin to white water rafting, dinosaur style. Just hold on!

Molly Idle’s two “Rex books” have cornered the market on what it means when gentility and grace meet immovable objects called dinosaurs that are sweetly eager to learn the rules of the rituals. And whether it be a tea party or camping, there is sure to be a bit of a learning curve for BOTH that will have you and your young camper laughing by flashlight! Bring a BIG tent!

Time of Wonder

 by Robert McCloskey

           How could I begin my Liz’s Summer Picks with any other book than Robert McCloskey’s Time of Wonder?  Winner of The Caldecott Medal as “The most distinguished picture book of 1958,” it is a classic picture book, if the word classic still has meaning in this genre. His observations of one matchless summer season in the islands in and around Penobscot Bay in Maine are evocative, beautifully illustrated and reflective as the moods of the seasons and the sea he describes through the eyes of two children.

Out on the islands that poke their rocky shores above the waters of

Penobscot Bay you can watch the time of the world go by from minute

to minute, hour to hour, from day to day, season to season.

           Whether diving off rocks on the island’s point made by glaciers eons ago into icy cold water, sailing among the islands where mother seals nurse their babies in Swain’s Cove Ledges, watching porpoises at sunset “puffing and playing around your boat”, days build with a lazy momentum. It captures the pulse and promise of life lived by this family of four that is unhurried enough to savor the moments. But these small moments of discovery build to a sense and signal that the winds inevitably change to something quite eventful. Nature can change in a moment with a sudden ferocity coming ashore, blowing the cozy cabin door open sending people, Parcheesi boards and papers flying.

            There is gentleness to McCloskey’s book that gives the eye and ear time to sense and explore with the children the feeling of this island respite in Maine. And there is a sweet sadness at its close as another summer ends and school beckons with the quickening pace of life off island. The time you and your children will spend there is time lived fully and intimately with nature and the natural pace she sets. It is a time of wonder you will long remember and savor with your child again and again.

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.

Jack

by Tomie de Paola

Jack is on a journey – and the message is – so are we! That is what is so unbelievably appealing to me about the picture book. For our very young readers, it takes them on their very FIRST journey into reading with stories told in pictures and a chance to see what lies ahead for a lifetime of reading.

And who better to be their escort on these early journeys than the inimitable picture book author, Tomie de Paola? His picture books are legend and his awards in the arena of the picture book are legion. And here in ‘Jack” is a deceptively simple tale of a young boy living on a farm with his grandpa “way out in the country” who goes to the city to seek his future. But, as you may see it has a powerful message

According to Jack, HIS perfect future involves an opportunity to “see the world and make new friends and live in a house in the city?” Sounds doable, right? And it sounds like the dreams of thousands of young people today as they enter young adulthood. But Jack relies on Grandpa for a plan and a mentor at the journey’s end. Smart Jack! The wisdom of the older generation is a treasure just WAITING to be plumbed – and so many times – it isn’t!

Kings too, make great mentors, being “wise and generous men, says Grandpa. And off Jack goes – alone – but not for long. He is joined on his journey to the city by a very noisy and diverse group of tag alongs. After hearing Jack’s plans, they, too, want to come along for the ride er walk. In beautifully nuanced artistic succession, Jack takes on a veritable armada of animals, all added on after a simple Q and A of “Where are you going?” and “We’re going to the city to ask the king for a house.” Naive? Maybe. But in the words of a Rogers and Hammerstein song called, “ Happy Talk”, it affirms the truth that Jack knows. And that is “You gotta have a dream – If you don’t have a dream – How you gonna have a dream come true?”

Jack has a dream and it is shared by a quacking, squawking, barking, cheeping, mooing, oinking, croaking menagerie of add on dreamers. I forgot the ones that are the late comers like the ones that baa, neigh and hoot!

I had to chuckle when I read the answer the guard gives Jack at the palace when he asks for admittance. ‘Go right in.” says the guard. The parallel to modern “white houses” is pretty funny – or not.

Jack gets his audience with the king accompanied by his noisy companions where he is handed the “key” to a house that is a veritable fixer upper – but doable as the king expresses confidence in Jack’s abilities.

Some say, as Jack moves in, “There goes the neighborhood,” as people have mimicked for years, BUT, others chime in with – “And it’s about TIME.”

Tomie de Paola has created a beautiful metaphor for the shared dreams of generations of people that go to the city to pursue a dream. The city IS a melting pot of different tongues and talents. But the dream is the same – a better life. And the best part of realizing a dream is that along the way, you usually have, if you are lucky – a ton of tag along friends that buoy you up in your dream. They may be create a din at times, and they may be diverse – but they share your dream! They believe in you – and the dream.

And as Tomie so wisely imagines in his simple tale – if you are dogged and determined – you just may be handed the key to a very small kingdom called a house where dreams come true. For Jack, it’s a house, but for others today, it may just be a job. BUT, kids will intuit the message that whatever your dream is, it may be shared by many who are NOT like you. And, in the end, journeys are made to be shared – as well as dreams -and there is room for all! Well done, Tomie! It needs to be said again and again for each generation of dreamers.

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Bambino the Clown

by George Schreiber

There is a very fine dividing line that I have discovered on opinions surrounding the subject of CLOWNS. And the line is crystal clear, as it seems there IS no middle ground. You either love them or fear them. So imagine my surprise when I found a Caldecott Honor book from 1948 that will let YOU make up your mind from a SAFE distance. I must recuse myself from this debate as I fell in love with Bambino! And whether after reading it, you too fall in love, in LIKE or still run screaming into the night, you will have shared with your young reader a beautiful narrative on what it takes to be understood in this world – a listening ear, time and compassion. Bambino has all three virtues in equal amounts. And it does help if you also have as a pet a black Sea Lion called Flapper and a sense of humor!

When I read these wonderful vintage Caldecott classics, I often wonder to myself, “Where are these authors now?” “Are they still living?” Do they realize the effect their picture book are STILL having on readers, as in the case of Bambino, some 66 years after its printing? Sometimes I DO look them up online to see where they are and the specifics of their careers as writers. And in the case of George Schreiber, it started me down an offshoot of my original intent on a review of his book.

What sidetracked me was the discovery of something George Schreiber and many other artists were part of in the years of the Great Depression and even into World War II. Have you ever heard of the Federal Arts Project? Well, neither had I. It was an arm of the WPA or Works Progress Administration, begun by Franklin Roosevelt in his New Deal effort to get the country moving again economically. Started in 1935 and ending in 1943, it gave artists such as Jackson Pollock, Thomas Hart Benton, George Schreiber and hundreds of other artists an opportunity to do posters, murals and paintings that wound up hanging in schools, hospitals and libraries. The Federal Arts Project provided artists with income and an opportunity to display their work. And the public had a chance to see great art at a time when the soul-feeding jolt that the arts provide was sorely needed. George Schreiber enrolled in the WPA Arts Project in 1936 and over the next three years he traveled all 48 states (yes, only 48 at that time!), creating lithographs of American Regionalist imagery. A link to a sample of that imagery is provided below.

Museum collections representing Mr. Schreiber’s work include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Whitney Museum of American Art and The Museum of the City of New York. I always am excited to see young picture book readers experience great art ALONG with a great story. It lets them see and remember at a young age what “great” is, as opposed to “mediocre!”

At his death in 1977, George Schreiber who was not ONLY an artist but also a war correspondent in World War II AND poster designer was part of a NYC WPA Artists exhibit at Parsons School of Design. He was also a noted lithographer, teacher and writer. And so, we come full circle back to his book on the little clown, Bambino.

Take a look with your young reader at some great art by George Schreiber and the charming story of his invention, Bambino the Clown, a Caldecott Honor book of 1948. This clown and the art that brings him alive is a story in itself that shows young readers what “good” art really looks like! Thank you Mr. Schreiber!! You made me smile! For as Bambino reminds his young friend, Peter, as he confides to him what it means to be a clown, “Now you know how to be a clown; you must remember it means just one thing: “To laugh and make everybody happy!”

Religion As a Theme in Picture Books

I read a blog recently that set me wondering and I may be touching a very sensitive “third rail” topic, but here goes. The article mentioned the scarcity of recently published great children’s picture books that have religion as a theme. At the same time I’m reflecting on this, I also read an Op-Ed piece in a New York newspaper written by Naomi Schaefer Riley giving reasons why 20-30 year olds are NOT interested in organized religion. Seems they are marrying later and thus are delaying having children, which for some, is the portal to return to religion, coupled with their mistrust of institutions and a societal stigma that no longer exists, of a lack of affiliation with an organized religion.

Ms. Riley cited in her piece a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released in 2012 that found that fully one-third of young people under 30 had no religious affiliation as compared with 9% of those over 65. What changed in thinking between the Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers and the Gen X and Millennial generations? Maybe it’s a question worth asking.

How does ALL of this relate to the picture book? I started going back in time to take a glance at the Caldecott Award and Honor Books given to the best picture books of a given year. I started from 1938 when the Caldecott began to see if religion popped up in these awards with any frequency and, going forward, if a pattern emerged. And I think it did. Maybe it has to do with the age old question: Does art merely reflect what is going on in society or does it, in fact, in some ways shape it? Here are but a few of the titles of winners I found and the years they won. Interestingly enough the list sort of gave my curious question a nod, as the very FIRST Caldecott winner in 1938 was called Animals of the Bible, A Picture Book, illustrated by Dorothy P. Lathrop; text: selected by Helen Dean Fish. And here are some others I noted along the way:

1941 Honor Book

The Ageless Story. By Lauren Ford

 

1944 Honor Book

Small Rain: Verses from the Bible. Illustrations by Elizabeth Orton Jones; text selected by Jessie Orton Jones

 

1945 Caldecott Winner

Prayers for a Child. Illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones; text: Rachel Field

Honor Book

The Christmas Anna Angel. Illustrated by Kate Seredy; text: Ruth Sawyer

 

1947 Honor Book

Sing in Praise: A Collection of the Best Loved Hymns; illustrated by Marjorie Torrey; text selected by Opal Wheeler

 

1960 Caldecott Winner

Nine Days to Christmas; illustrated by Marie Hall Ets; text: Marie Hall Ets and Aurora Labastida

 

1961 Caldecott Winner

Baboushka and the Three Kings, illustrated by Nicholas Sidjakov; text: Ruth Robbins

 

1977 Honor Book

The Golem: A Jewish Legend by Beverly Brodsky McDermott

 

1978 Caldecott Winner

Noah’s Ark by Peter Spier

 

1985 Caldecott Winner

St. George and the Dragon, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman; text: retold by Margaret

 

1990 Honor Book

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman; Text by Eric Kimmel

 

1997 Caldecott Winner

Golem by David Wisniewski

 

2003 Honor Book

Noah’s Ark by Jerry Pinkney

Introducing the concept of religion has always been a very sensitive topic for parents, and I fully realize and respect that fact. But I also want to emphasize that children’s literature has historically been used as a vehicle and subject area to introduce religion to those children whose parents do find it helpful. Its use has always, and should be, solely at the discretion of their parents.

But what if parents have difficulty finding wonderful picture books to help them in the area of introducing religion to their child? What then? And why should it be so? As I mentioned before, I think it’s a question worth asking.

I’ve found an article for parents as they wrestle with this question and have provided a reference to it. It can be used as a jumping off spot for those of you out there who are interested in picture books where religion and related topics such as God, prayer, heaven, angels etc. are a theme.

I think it may prove helpful to have a little aid, divine or not, when the topic of religion arises in your picture book age child’s life:  Wicks, Don A., Darin Freeburg, and Doug Goldsmith. “Depictions of Religion in Children’s Picture Books.” Journal of Childhood and Religion Volume 4.3 (2013).

Camp Rex

By Molly Idle

Parents of campers are just about beginning to get the jump on camp preparations for their young ones this summer. Some may be headed for day camp, sleep away camp or just to the back yard for an overnight with their neighborhood best friend. All of this, of course, begins when schools close for the summer that in case you haven’t checked is almost upon us! And I’ve found a great book to ease into the change.

If you loved Ms. Idle’s tongue-in-dinosaur-cheek treatment called “Tea Rex”, you will enjoy this outing of dinosaurs and kids called “Camp Rex” and perhaps might want to tuck a copy of it into their duffle for reading by flashlight on a mosquito buzz filled night!

Get out your Wilderness Camp Guides and venture forth for this rollicking riff on fresh air, exercise, wildlife, campfire building; all of which, I might add should be proceeded by the Scout Motto – “BE PREPARED!! When dinosaurs are part of the outing of this young miss who tries not to miss much, but does, and a stalwart brother that together pitch tents, try to stick to the trail, all while not disturbing the natural landscape, it’s well, “what’s wrong with this picture funny”!

Take bees for example. These swarming biters did NOT get the non-disturbance memo and are MUCH disturbed by the young camping contingent. And it put me in mind of the time that an errant wasp decided to fly up the leg of my “pedal pushers” (they’re the same as Capri pants), and by the way, a great fashion word, for it defined WHAT you did when you wore them and that was fly like the wind on a bike! It wasn’t the wasp’s fault he didn’t know the way OUT was DOWN, so he kept stinging me till he expired. Luckily for Camp Rex campers, they know how to RUN!!!

The juxtaposition of Ms. Idle’s charming words and illustrations will rate many giggles from the young reader set as in “there’s nothing more refreshing than a dip in a mountain lake or a bit of canoeing” as the illustrations depict a sample of something akin to white water rafting, dinosaur style. Just hold on!

Molly Idle’s two “Rex books” have cornered the market on what it means when gentility and grace meet immovable objects called dinosaurs that are sweetly eager to learn the rules of the rituals. And whether it be a tea party or camping, there is sure to be a bit of a learning curve for BOTH that will have you and your young camper laughing by flashlight! Bring a BIG tent!

Noah’s Ark

Illustrated by Peter Spier

Peter Spier’s 1977 Caldecott Award winning take on the story of The Flood is more kid relatable, at least for those of picture book age, than Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connolly as Noah and wife in the PG-13 spectacular and darker movie variation called Noah. Even Anthony Hopkins gets into the act as Noah’s grandfather, Methuselah. Spier’s version was named an ALA Notable Book, New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 1977 and winner of The Christopher Award.

Peter Spier’s does know a thing or two about the tale, for his telling in picture form has all of the essentials of the movie and is way less scary The two by twos are there in all their jammed packed glory. His ark is very “arky” and true to the image one has of the famous boat that sailed forty days, and as comedian Eddie Izzard observes in his routine, “C’mon, the nights are implicit!” They travel on one of the most famous of sea voyages along with Noah’s family and a boatload of snakes, insects, lions and tigers (caged of course), otherwise it would have been a munch fest! Russell Crowe’s boat in the movie is more rectangular and made from the Tree found in the Garden of Eden!

Two of everything else you and your child can imagine is living together in very close quarters! The sense of claustrophobia in the movie version, I’ve heard, is a bit unnerving, but then Spier’s Mr. and Mrs. Noah do not have an easy time of it either. His illustrations convey in beautiful watercolors, the preparations for the journey, the day in day out passage of time as man, bird, beast and every living thing get along, or try to, for the 40-day sojourn. Even Mrs. Noah grabs her husband in a big hug as the rain stops and the dove returns with a leafy branch from the appearance of land. It is a very human moment.

As the ark initially departs, I felt really sad, and your child may too, as there are animals left behind standing in knee-deep water as the rain pours down and the doors of the ark close. I can imagine those animals nudging each other and saying, “Hey, where do we fit in this scenario?” Scene shifts to the ark sailing hundreds of feet above cities and the land they once sat upon. Very powerful!

But Spier’s telling is by no means grim. It is realistic, closely detailed and invites a child to pore over the drawings and ask a ton of questions. Suggestion: Reread Genesis in the Old Testament if possible beforehand. Listen to this review from The Horn Book Magazine that is a tribute to an ancient tale that is timeless and told specifically for the picture book reader:

Peter Spier’s characteristic panoramas are marvels of minute

detail, activity, vitality and humor; a few of the scenes are

quiescent and serenely beautiful.

Peter Spier spares no detail of the scene inside the ark after the animals offload with the elephant first off! They have to call in Merry Maids, no question!

Since we have a vineyard, I was quite moved when the FIRST thing Noah plants in the new land is a VINEYARD. The scene is simply lovely with a rainbow arcing overhead!

On Noah’s Ark

By Jan Brett

May I also suggest another wonderful retelling of this story called On Noah’s Ark by that wonderfully talented and much touted picture book author, Jan Brett? It is seen through the eyes of Noah’s granddaughter who helps everyone settle in for the journey. Jan’s great love for animal life is evident on every page as she lovingly recreates the passengers on the big boat. Ever one for realistic research and detail in her books, Jan and her husband traveled to Botswana, Africa to see many of these animals in their own habitats. As Jan says, “To be physically close to Africa’s creatures was a primal, rapturous experience.” The panels surrounding the illustrations are taken from the papyrus plants they saw as they paddled in the Okavango Delta.

My favorite illustration is the granddaughter of Noah cuddled up and asleep on a soft furry lion’s mane as the long voyage continues.

I think it helps readers to see the same story told in two very different styles by two picture book artist’s that have the technique to detail the minute moments and the great ones of a story that continues to recreate itself in children’s lives in many forms as art, books, and toys.

Lentil

By Robert McCloskey

Yes, it’s the same author of Make Way for Ducklings, One Morning in Maine, Time of Wonder, and Blueberries for Sal, many of which take place in Maine. But just maybe your young reader missed not only these, but another peek at a slower pace of childhood in Lentil!

Mr. McCloskey grew up in Ohio, so it’s not unusual that this picture book is set in a place called Alto, Ohio wherein lives a lad named Lentil.

It’s a happy life in Alto, save one glitch: Lentil wants to sing and can’t. Can’t sing and can’t even whistle, so what do? Why buy a harmonica of course!

Pennies saved buys the longed for harmonica and Lentil plays early and often with the best sound reverb coming from playing in his bathtub! Most everyone enjoys the sounds emanating from Lentil’s harmonica, save for OLD SNEEP. Don’t you just love the oily sound of that name? You don’t even have to LOOK at Mr. McCloskey’s perfect black and white drawings to figure out what kind of character ole Sneep will turn out to be. Why, he’s a veritable grump of course, and a wood whittling, park bench-sitting grump at that.

News spreads fast in small towns and the famous Colonel Carter, one of Alto’s most favored citizens, is descending after two years away. He owns the finest house in Alto and the library was a gift from the Colonel. Everyone is excited except Old Sneep:

“Humph! We wuz boys together. He ain’t

A mite better’n you or me and he needs

Takin’ down a peg or two.”

(Good time for an introduction by the reader on the whys and wherefore of dialect allowances.)    

So Alto plans a big celebration for the Colonel with crowds, flags flying, speeches AND the Alto band set to play as he exits the train. BUT ole Sneep, jealous of the Colonel’s celebrity, is the fly in the ointment, and commences slurping a LEMON from the roof of the train station as the band puts lips to instruments. Talk about being unable to wet your whistle, all the band mates can do is pucker rather than play because of the slurping sound of ole Sneep!

But guess who knows a nifty version of “Comin’ Round the Mountain When She Comes?” Soon the Colonel is finger snapping and singing. And he even joins in on a chorus or two with Lentil’s harmonica, as it seems the Colonel played one as a child! In fact the Colonel is so happy about the bang up welcome he received, he’s going to build a HOSPITAL for ALTO. Even ole Sneep is so happy he can be seen indulging in an ice cream cone to celebrate the occasion.

Mr. McCloskey has a gift for portraying the large heart within a small town like Alto or a big city like Boston in “Make Way for Ducklings.” His art and words make people and places VERY ACCESSIBLE to your child whether they’ve been there or not. Don’t let the sounds of Lentil’s harmonica, the Colonel, Sneep and the good people of Alto elude your young reader’s ears. It is childhood at its simplest, community with all the shadings of gray and a great heart at the center!!

Mr.Wuffles

By David Wiesner

David Wiesner’s book, Mr. Wuffles, winner of a 2014 Caldecott Honor Book designation, put me in mind of the phrase, “strange bedfellows” and the Disney movie Cinderella. Please bear with me if all this seems a bit strange and I will explain all.

Mr. Wuffles, a large black cat, looms large on the front cover of this graphic novel picture book with no narrative save the ‘Wiesneresque” invention of alien speak. In order to understand this very imaginative picture book, you must enter the world of Mr. Wuffles who is confronted by a group of ALIENS who invade his master’s house and flee this cat combatant to the safety of a grilled vent.  Indignant at these house intruders, the cat is totally in defense mode, sending the space ship and its tiny inhabitants, who are on a search and discovery mission from a planet far, far away, sliding, with a swat of his paw, into a vent where they seek refuge and repair of their damaged ship. Are you with me? Good! For at the outset of this book I, too, had the sense of “Whaaa?”

Even if you are a huge fan of the classic picture book, as I am, you have to be in awe of an imagination that conceived this book’s premise and the art that executed it.

Mr. Wiesner ingeniously gives a tip of the hat to the Lascaux Cave paintings of 1940, discovered by one Marcel Ravidat near a village called Montignac, in southwestern France; and how he executes this feat is even more amazing. Just some background on Lascaux first; Ravidat, an 18-year-old garage mechanic at the time, wandered into a cave in the Dordogne region and uncovered startling Paleolithic era cave art, revealing drawings of animals unseen by humans for 17,000 years!  Side note: The cave was closed in 1963 to protect the 600 paintings and 1500 engravings found there from deterioration.

Mr. Wiesner’s picture book puts forth a parallel theme between the cave painters of Lascaux and the small aliens that immortalize their encounter with Mr. Wuffles for future visitors at their hiding place. The aliens draw on the wall of their refuge behind the vent-hiding place, pictures of their encounter with Mr. Wuffles, their antagonist! They want to leave behind drawings that say, “We were here and this is what we SAW.” For the Lascaux painters, it was probably the buffalo-like animals that the cave painters beat a retreat from. For the aliens, it’s the predatory Mr. Wuffles that they flee, who, in his defense, is only protecting his turf! “The more things change, the more they…”

Cooperation ensues of necessity between the ant inhabitants of the vent, other insects that live there, in concert WITH the aliens in order to repair their spaceship for their return voyage home. Which brings me full circle to the “strange bedfellows” phrase and Cinderella.

In the movie, Cinderella is in dire straits as the evil stepmother and her harridan daughters have locked Cindy in her room, correct? How can she try on the glass slipper? Just who stands in the way of opening her door with the rescued key? None other than Lucifer, the cat, that’s who! Banding together mice and birds help outsmart the fat beady-eyed black cat that stands in the way of Cinderella having the chance to try on the glass slipper and find her way HOME – to the castle! Everyone is Dorothy in one way or another, as there really is no place like home whether it’s a planet out THERE or a home in a vent.

It may be a stretch, but I think Mr. Wiesner is trying for a way to express the commonality of the need for cooperation and ways of expressing experience that stretches across species and time! Banding together for a cause seems to be nothing new in the universe, Mr. Wuffles seems to be suggesting.

Wouldn’t it be nice to think that it were so.

This is a book that definitely requires a sit down with your young reader where together the story is fleshed out in their words, with help from you. The really excellent avenue for an opening up of a possible discussion exists here about cooperation and the discovery of the Lascaux cave paintings. Thanks, Mr. Wuffles for the lead in to further inquiry of great topics and also a very inventive way of expressing the need for cooperation, even if it is cross species! And, yes, we know you were only doing your job as protector of the house! But even cats need to lighten up once in a while!  

Walking Down Corridors with the Caldecott

Merriam-Webster defines the word “canon” as “a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related work” as in the canon of great literature.

I recently wrote a blog that intimated that just as most literate adults have read a canon of great literature that reaches a high water mark, so too in picture book literature there is a sort of canon of best books that define what a classic picture book is and should be in content and style and in the ability to move the imagination and heart of our youngest readers. That canon’s foundation, to some, starts with the list of Caldecott award winners and honor books begun in 1938. The Caldecott Medal “shall be awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American Picture Book for Children published in the United States the preceding year.” Awarded by the Children’s and School Libraries section of the American Library Association, it’s named in honor of Randolph J. Caldecott, nineteenth-century English illustrator.   

At the Snuggery, in our Way Back Wednesday segments, we’ve tried to shine the spotlight on these gems that might have fallen off young parents’ picture book reading radar or slipped their notice. This year, in fact, marks the 75^th Anniversary of the Caldecott Medal and I’ve written blogs on many of them this year at the Snuggery. Have you ever had a feeling of perfect synchronicity, where things fall in an almost perfect alignment or “meaningful coincidence”?  I recently had one of those moments when I came face to face with the canon or at least large parts of it. I couldn’t take the smile from my face as if I were recognizing friends; friends that I wanted to introduce around.

I walked the halls of Penguin Young Readers, and there, as I turned corridor after corridor, lining the walls were the covers of the canon – framed. To see classic picture books in a store randomly displayed is one thing. BUT, to see one publishing house and its contributions to the canon was amazing! Many were books I’ve certainly read to children, my own included, and to other young ones in story hours I’ve done. It was a moment I’ll remember.

There was something about seeing row after row of great picture book covers that gave me a renewed hunger to share these books with young readers that haven’t heard the words and seen the pictures that make the stories come to life and to share with children something of the lives of the wonderful authors behind them. I didn’t just see the covers in those corridors. I saw the children for whom they were written who’ve read them and those who are still waiting to read them.

Don’t let your children and grands miss out on the start of the great picture book canon! And while you’re at it, add your own favorite “read it again” to the list! Back to school is the perfect time to “connect with the canon” and jump-start your children’s love of reading. You and your young reader can connect with all that lies beneath the covers of the canon!

Here is a list of just some of the extraordinary book covers I saw on those Caldecott corridors:

They Were Strong and Good – Robert Lawson – 1941                        

Make Way for Ducklings – Robert McCloskey – 1942

Madeline’s Rescue – Ludwig Bemelmans – 1954

Time of Wonder – Robert McCloskey – 1958

Nine Days to Christmas – Marie Hall Ets, illus., text: Marie Hall Ets and Aurora Labastida – 1960

The Snowy Day – Ezra Jack Keats – 1960

The Funny Little Woman – Arlene Mosel – 1973

Arrow to the Sun – Gerald McDermott – 1975

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears – Leo and Diane Dillon, illus.; text retold by Verna Ardema – 1976

Ashanti to Zulu – Leo and Diane Dillon, illus., text: Margaret Musgrove – 1977

Ox-Cart Man – Barbara Cooney, illus., text: Donald Hall – 1980

The Glorious Flight Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot – Alice and Martin Provensen – 1984

Owl Moon – John Schoenherr, illus., text: Jane Yolen – 1988

Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China – Ed Young – 1990

Mirette on the High Wire – Emily Arnold McCully – 1993

Officer Buckle and Gloria – Peggy Rathmann – 1996

Rapunzel – Paul O. Zelinsky – 1998

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat – Simms Taback – 2000

So You Want to Be President? – Judith St. George – 2001