The Bunny Book by Richard Scarry

Richard Scarry, Western Publishing Company, 1965

This book is more informative than anything. Simple descriptions and explanations introduce young readers to the variety of characteristics that make up the bunny. This book appears to have many different cover options, but it's the content I care about. I simply adore this "Rabbits have large families" image.

Young readers will learn that some rabbits have giant ears and some have tiny ones and rabbits can run very fast. The book also focuses in on a few rabbit examples: the snowshoe rabbit turns white in winter and brown in summer, Angora rabbits have soft, cuddly fur. Lop-eared rabbits have long, floppy ears. Then on one page five different breeds are illustrated: Dutch, Chinchilla, Flemish Giant, Vienna Blue, and Cottontail. Ah yes, this is more than just your "Easter bunny" book. Though there is a page dedicated to that too.


There is only one "true to form" busytown looking page with two little bunnies dressed to the nines. "Rabbits like to get all dressed up if they are going to be in a story book." Yeah, you can't beat that!

The King of the Elephants

Laurent de Brunhoff, Random House, 1973

As they move through the four seasons in and around Celesteville, the city of elephants, we see the lives of Babar and Celeste and their children--Alexander, Pom, and Flora. We meet Old Lady (also their teacher) and cousin Arthur and his friend Zephir, the monkey.
This is a family "on the go" and we follow Babar and Celeste from the domestic fun of gardening to tennis, warm days of swimming in the lake to throwing parties at Celesteville gardens. Sometimes they go sailing or for drives in the country. The children enjoy soccer and like their teacher who is not strict. In the winter they go ice skating, and downhill skiing and one of the children suffers a small mishap which requires a doctor visit. "This is not too serious," he says. Though I think the wound looked pretty nasty!

I really don't remember Babar from my youth though I seem to have a few books. I guess I was always vaguely aware of this French elephant. I think I'm more intrigued by him and his family now than I was when I was small. This particular 8 X 8 book is a sanitized and simplistic version of the Babar stories which merely serves to intoduce the characters.

I realize now that Laurent is the son of the original author, Jean de Brunhoff. Jean first published his popular French children's book in 1931. He wrote six more before his untimely death and his son Laurent has continued the series.

Jean de Brunhoff's Babar books, and the titles of the English translations, were:

* Histoire de Babar (1931) - The Story of Babar
* Le Voyage de Babar (1932) - The Travels of Babar, or Babar's Travels
* Le Roi Babar (1933) - Babar the King
* L'ABC de Babar (1934) - A.B.C. of Babar
* Les vacances de Zéphir (1936) - Zephir's Holidays, or Babar and Zephir
* Babar en famille (1938) - Babar and His Children, or Babar at Home
* Babar et le père Noël (1941) - Babar and Father Christmas

You can read more about Babar's history here, on the TV website-- Babar is also a popular TV show.

Happy New Year!

Holly Hobbie, American Greetings Corp, 1978

To start the year off right, we sometimes need a few words of wisdom reminding us not just how to live but how to live well. Holly Hobbie does just that in her Happy Day Book.

Holly Hobbie is one of my all-time favorite illustrators when I was a child and even more so today with her current books. She has the ability to create the most detailed and delightful illustrations, both nostalgic and modern. It seems right to begin 2009 with an artist who has not faded into the past. And with her work I celebrate old and new. Look for one of her more recent books next week on my "Modern Monday."

click on the blue images to see the pages up close

Animal Babies

Harry McNaught, Random House Pictureback book, 1977

I simply LOVE the illustrations in this book. I had a copy as a child but it disappeared as many of those things do. My pal, Jenny, sent me this copy. I guess because she thought I'd appreciate it and she was right! Animals featured in the book are wild turkeys, orangutan, rabbits, deer, lions, swans, ducks, horses, pigs, robins, alligators, flamingos, anteaters, bison, polar bears, zebras, giraffes, hippos, elephants, rhinos, penguins, kangaroos, and koalas.

The book includes wonderful little facts, some useful as trivia questions. Here are a few:

Rabbit babies are called kits. They cannot see or hear until they are about ten days old.

Flamingo chicks bark like puppies when they are hungry.

When a giraffe calf is born, it is almost as tall as a full-grown man.

A PeePul Pals Book

John Johnson, illustrator, Golden Press, 1967

The PeePul Pals Book by Daphne Davis seems like a strange one to me. Yet, these images really are locked in my brain. I think I liked the way the illustrator combines these funky 60s drawings which seem sort of 3D and the actual dolls. The story is very simplistic. Nurse is taking baby on a plane ride and baby wants to hear a story. The stories are fairy tales which include Cinderella, and Goldilocks. Then after they eat on the plane the nurse tells baby how she might one day be a ballerina or a bride or have a baby of her own. Yikes!

Here are some more of my favorite illustrations.




I have a soft spot for Little Red and her nemesis.

Here's a link to more pages from the book.


Though I didn't have any of the dolls apparently you could buy PeePul Pals to play with.

500 Words to Grow On

Harry McNaught, Random House, 1973

I've been having trouble finding out much about this author/illustrator, but I can assure you I have a number of books illustrated by him. And though this one offers only a glimpse into his style, he is wonderful! He did a number of Sesame Street books, but I remember him most for a few of the 8 x 8s I have on my shelf. 500 Words to Grow On is one of those. This is more or less a way to learn words. It's a pictoral dictionary for small children, I guess. Revisiting the pages was great fun a couple weeks ago when a friend and I were discussing dictionaries and language for children. Everything looks so old fashioned in a subtle way. My favorite word? Newel post.