Love Those Little Golden Books

Ryan Novelline, designer, 2011

Apparently I'm not the only one. I just ran across this gem in the School Library Journal. Artist, Ryan Novelline used approximately 1500 pages from 300 Little Golden Books which he found at thrift stores and sewed together with golden thread. There are AMAZING pictures of this wild dress here on his site. Do check them out.

Modern Monday -- La Cucaracha Martina: A Carribean Folktale

La Cucaracha Martina A Carribean Folktale
retold and illustrated by Daniel Moreton
Turtle Books, 1997

Simply put: While searching for the source of one beautiful sound, Martina, a ravishing cockroach who is tired of the city life, rejects marriage proposals from a menagerie of city animals which woo her with their noises. All ends well when she finally meets the cricket of her dreams and after the wedding they move to the country.

The illustrations are sharp and colorful and were created on a Mac with Adobe Illustrator. The book has a ton of delicious details and a spattering of Spanish: Aeropuerto, Telefono, Autobus... by way of example. The signage in particular is all in Spanish, and the porcine waiter wears a name tag which reads "Me Llamo Puerco."


The sounds the various animals make are all written in large funky fonts and the illustrations feature text all over the place, not exactly in the hyper text sense but in something fresh and unusual from the picture books of the past.

While I'm not a fan of the common cockroach in regular life, I have a soft spot for Miss Martina and I'm glad she found her wonderful noise and the creature that belonged to it!

Modern Monday-- The Seven Silly Eaters

Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman
Illustrated by Marla Frazee
Voyager Books-Harcourt, 1997

Each of Mr. and Mrs. Peters SEVEN children is fixated on one particular food in this charming story told in rhyme, written by Mary Ann Hoberman, our current children's poet laureate! I love the way it unfolds and how the busy kid-filled illustrations hold details about their lives: Mom plays cello, they live in a home on lake, mom looks sporty, love dad's beard. Frazee does a great job capturing the spirit of the story in her illustrations -- someone is always reading, the laundry is always in progress, their are cats and dogs all over, chaos abounds but in a good and loving, happy sort of way.

Now time went by as time will do;
And as it passed, the children grew.
The problem was that as they grew,
Their appetites kept growing, too!
But not their choice of what to eat:
Each child continued to repeat
They wanted what they'd had before--
The trouble was
they wanted more!

Finally both mom AND the house are a wreck and the children decide to surprise HER for a change on her birthday by making all their favorite foods. A great for picky eaters and parents alike!

Modern Monday--The Library by Sarah Stewart

The Library by Sarah Stewart
David Small, illustrator, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995

In my quest to reign in my own overindulgence in books, I was reminded of this gem of a book by Sarah Stewart.

The Library is written in rhyming verse telling the story of Elizabeth Brown from infancy to old age. She is never without a book. In one illustration, we can see other young people hand in hand outside the window and we see Elizabeth's feet propped on the sill as she reclines in the chair wrapped up in a good book.

The problem, however, is clear. Her books are taking over and so her solution is to donate her house and her books to the city to be used as a library and she moves in with a friend. I'm not quite at that stage yet!

David Small's watercolor and ink illustrations offer touches of humor throughout the book. Note the sweet image of baby Elizabeth falling to Earth.

Hey, Diddle, Diddle!

Feodor Rojankovsky, Harper and Row, 1942

My copy of The Tall Book of Mother Goose is well worn. I have loved it to pieces. I have a soft spot for Russian born children's book illustrators and Rojankovsky is no exception. Of course I'm not alone in my adoration; he won the Caldecott Medal in 1956.


This Mother Goose collection has some verses I can't find in my other books which adds to the attraction. If I counted correctly it has 102 of the verses. Of course, some of my faves I scanned in for you.

But a few other memorable ones are as follows:

Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

------------------------

There was a crooked man
and he went a crooked mile,

He found a crooked sixpence
against a crooked stile;

He bought a crooked cat,
which caught a crooked mouse,

And they all lived together
in a little crooked house.

------------------------

There was a little girl
and she had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead
When she was good,
she was very, very, good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

"Curious, and curiouser," said Alice.

Walt Disney Productions, Western Publishing Company, 1965

I am a huge Alice in Wonderland fan and so it stands to reason I would have some special feelings about this book. I have a lot of faves when it comes to the artwork in various editions of Lewis Carroll's story, but I'm not afraid to admit my love for this lovely print adaptation of the Disney film. The book seems like it should have a record to accompany it, because it is that Read Along record size but I don't see any mention of it on the intro page, or is there a pocket for the record in the back. With only 23 pages of text, it's frightfully abridged, but that just makes it a bite-size treat.

Modern Monday -- I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child

Lauren Child, Candlewick Press, 2000

Meet Charlie and his little sister Lola. Sometimes Charlie must give Lola her dinner which can be tricky because she is a very fussy eater. With a little creativity, his problem is solved. Charlie uses what I've long believed to be the secret to babysitting--imagination. Children love the surprise and wonder involved in taking the everyday and ordinary and transforming those mundane moments into something extraordinary. In this case, Charlie and Lola revise their understanding of common dinner foods.


The story begins with Lola reminding Charlie of all the foods she just will not eat:

"Lola won't eat carrots, of course.
She says carrots are for rabbits.
I say, "What about peas?"
Lola says, "Peas are too small and too green."

Hmmmm... hard to argue with that. In addition to carrots and peas, Lola would happily pass on potatoes, mushrooms, spaghetti, eggs, sausages, cauliflower, cabbage, baked beans, bananas, oranges, apples, rice, cheese, and fish sticks and of course, she'll NEVER eat tomatoes. It's as if she's anticipating every last item in the cupboard that Charlie might offer her.

Charlie assures her that they have none of those things and those orange things that look like carrots? No, they're not carrots... they are twiglets from Jupiter. And the green things that look like peas? (love the animorphic pea in the middle!)

Well, those aren't peas.

"They are greendrops from Greenland.
They are made of green and fall from the sky."

Lauren Child's fantastic illustration style is what initially drew me to this book and her Clarice Bean books too. I love the collage technique--how she incorporates photographic images, fabrics, and all sorts of mixed media into each illustration. I love how she draws Lola and then cuts her out and uses her as a collage piece on a larger "canvas." It's childlike and sophisticated and original and cool. (You can see why I am not an art critic...) And I love her color choices too!

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

Lisbeth Zwserger, illustrator Scholastic Inc, 1991

When I was a wee one in kindergarten class I remember our "nap time" ritual which involved fetching our rugs from the hooks where they hung in the entry way outside the classroom. Then we'd each find a place around the classroom and after the lights were dimmed we'd settle down for a little nap. I have no idea how long this lasted. 15 minutes? 30? Did anyone actually sleep? Or was this just a time for a "rest." I do remember that sometimes we were awakened by Mrs. James's white fluffly tickle feather. She'd move around the room and touch each student with the special feather and that was when you knew it was time to get up. During our rest times we sometimes listened to stories on tape or record, I guess. The one that I remember best was the story of The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde.

For many years I didn't know the name of the story, nor had I ever seen a copy of the book. At some point I discovered many of these tales by Wilde -- The Happy Prince, The Star Child, The Selfish Giant among others. Essentially these are fairy tales but more modern than some of their counterparts. I simply loved this story about a selfish giant who comes to see the error of his ways. I remember the idea of winter never leaving because of his selfishness. What I don't recall was the Christ child at the end of the story and I wonder if maybe our little record left that sad bit out.

Lisbeth Zwerger is an award-winning,l Viennese illustrator whose work is perfectly suited to the fairy tale. She has a sort of wispy, demure, soft colored look about her watercolor images. I have many books illustrated by her.

Modern Monday -- Re-Zoom.

Istvan Banyai, Viking, 1995

Re-Zoom, a wordless picture book featuring artwork by the author/illustrator Istvan Banyai, is profound in the way it plays with perception and expectation. It opens with an extreme close-up of this image, then on page two we can see it's a rendering of an archer with an arrow ready to fly.

Page three reveals this image is not on some ancient cave wall, but on the wrist watch of a boy, though it takes two more pages before we know that for sure. The story is a series of images that zoom in and zoom out revealing you don't always know "where" you are with each image. What might seem like a house on a lake, will soon reveal it's a design on a lady's fan and so on. This book is a sequel to Zoom, which is also delicious and fun in the same way (Click here for a sample of images from that book). I just happen to prefer Re-Zoom. Istvan Banyai is a Hungarian born illustrator, designer, artist, and children's book author. His latest book is one called The Other Side (I think this also qualifies as a "Monday Must Have" for me.

Modern Monday -- Women's History Month Kicks Off!

Amelia and Eleanor Go For A Ride by Pam Munoz Ryan
Pictures by Brian Selznick, Scholastic Press, 1999

At a conference in 2001, I heard Ryan and Selznick discuss this book and talk about its conception and realization. In the book's "author's note," Ryan explains how both women have long been high on her personal heroes list and when she read an obscure reference to their night flight in 1933 she was determined to write a story about it.

It turns out that Eleanor Roosevelt loved flying and longed to get her private pilot's license but circumstances prevented it. Instead she celebrated her love of air travel by flying more passenger miles in the 20s and 30s than any other woman in the world.

This book is a fictionalized account of a true event. Not only did Ryan find associated press articles about the night that Amelia Earhart visited the White House, but Selznick found photographs and in the thank you note Earhart sent she acknowledged the crab chowder, which Ryan faithfully included in the story.


It was fantastic to hear Selznick describe the research he did to create his illustrations. He used original photos of Washington D.C. in 1933; even his china patterns and wallpaper in the backgrounds were authentic. The artwork was done with graphite pencil and colored pencil and in black and white with tints of purple the images have an old-timey feel. The illustrations are rich with detail and that adds so much to the story. Truly Selznick and Ryan are a superb collaborative team.

"Amelia and Eleanor were birds of a feather."

In 1933 Earhart was already a celebrated aviator. She and her husband were in town for a speech she was delivering. When Roosevelt heard, she invited them over for dinner. The first few pages show the two women getting ready, putting on their gloves for the event contemplating how the Amelia's gloves were not unlike the ones she wore flying... and how Eleanor's gloves were not unlike the ones she wore while driving. Both of those activities were considered bold and somewhat dangerous for women.


During dinner Amelia enchanted everyone with her descriptions of flying at night. "Everyone at the table leaned closer to hear. Very few people in the whole world had flown at night, and Amelia was one of them."

In no time at all, a spur of the moment night flight was planned and Amelia and Eleanor boarded the Curtis Condor twin-motor airplane with plans to fly to Baltimore and back. Reporters met them after landing and peppered them with questions and it was evident to all just how much the women had enjoyed their time.

When they returned to the White House, before going inside they slipped away in Eleanor's new car, so she could have a turn at the wheel touring Washington D.C. from the ground. Truly these women were "birds of a feather."



In the official story Amelia doesn't actually fly Eleanor.. they simply ride together in an Air Transport plane, though Amelia did take the controls for a time. The author felt in creating her fictionalized version that it would be more exciting to allow each woman to display her own brand of independent spirit and adventure.

Modern Monday --A Poke in the I

A collection of concrete poems

selected by Paul B. Janeczko Chris Raschka, illustrator,
Candlewick Press, 2005

My copy of this book is signed by Chris Raschka and for that reason I've had to stop using this particular copy of in the classroom and invest in a "school edition" that can be handled again and again by careless students. This is a wonderful example of the art of concrete poetry.

Some old favorites are in the book --"Swan and Shadow," being one of them--but I also found some new loves. I even enjoy the "Table of Contents" page which is in the shape of a table... why not? :)

Vintage Valentine.

The Children's Page.

Joan Walsh Anglund, illustrator and children's book author
Good Housekeeping Magazine, found here.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Joan Walsh Anglund created a quarterly "Children's Page" in Good Housekeeping magazine. The pages often included paper dolls. It was for that one page that I eagerly read through my mother's Good Housekeeping magazines. Later I would read the novel excerpts, often seeking out the full versions in book forms.

Her images all include children with the small pin dot eyes and minimal features. I am pretty sure I have a book of hers somewhere...

Modern Monday -- The Stray Dog by Marc Simont

Retold and illustrated by Marc Simont,
from a true story by Reiko Sassa
Harper Collins, 2001

I absolutely adore this book. It's easily one of my favorite children's books of all time. It's nothing profound. It's quite simple, actually. But the story is one that most everyone can relate to. The search for belonging, the desire of a family to welcome a little dog into their own. Simont's illustrations drew enough attention to earn him the prestige of being a Caldecott honor, but I truly believe it should have been a medal winner!

The book flap explains the story well,

"When a little dog appears at a family picnic, the girl and boy play with him all afternoon, and they name him Willy. At day's end they say good-bye. But the dog has won their hearts and stays on their minds. The following Saturday the family returns to the picnic grounds to look for Willy, but they are not alone--the dogcatcher is looking for him, too....

Caldecott Medalist Marc Simont's heartwarming tale of a stray dog who finds a home is told with appealing simplicity and grace."

Willy has SUCH personality. I could just eat him up!

Here's the family on their second visit to the park,
with hopes of seeing Willy again.
The father has food set out for Willy and is eyeing it expectantly.

Willy appears, but he has no time to visit with the dog catcher in close pursuit!

This is my FAVORITE image in the book. Sigh.

Must-Have Monday -- Charley Harper Goodies

He Does NOT Live in Malibu with his Brother Alan. No, Charley Harper (1922-2007) was a Cincinnati-based modern artist whose specialty was wildlife prints and posters and books. Here are a few kid-friendly ABC, 123 sorts of books featuring his work. These are books I think would be wonderful additions to my collection. I learned about Harper not long ago when I saw a "memory game" featuring his illustrations marketed for kids at some popular retail shops-- Barnes and Noble, Old Navy and Amazon.

If this blog was a catalog of yummy expensive clothes and someone was looking for things to buy for me, I would be turning down the corners of the pages and circling THESE items with a ball point pen. You know, just in case.