A Tasty Tuesday Treat

The Sugarplum Tree by Eugene Field

excerpted from The Gateway to Storyland
Favorite Nursery Stories and Poems
Edited by Watty Piper, Illustrated by Eulalie
Platt and Munk, 1925, 1961

(these pages from the 1985 edition)

I loved this storybook collection as a child, but it was lost in a fire a few years ago and so we replaced it unknowingly (darn online booksellers) with a version that looks very unlike the one I had a child. Our original one was the red cover you see here, but this 1985 one is thin, tall, and purple, of all things! The illustrations are really the most important bit and this poem on these two pages was my favorite of all of them. It's a bit along the lines of that Christmas song, "It's a Marshmallow World" and the Lesley Gore one, "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows." I wasn't familiar with "Big Rock Candy Mountain" back then, but between these happy songs and my "Penny and the Elf" story, I'm sensing a theme.

I expect I'll post more on this wonderful book and maybe even get my hands on the original red one. For now, I'll leave you with some fine poetry and fine illustrations!

Humpty Dumpty's Holiday Stories

Kelly Oechsli, illustrator, Parents Magazine Press, 1973

This is a collection of poems and stories about the four seasons and their important holidays, including April Fool's Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Groundhog Day. The selections (listed in the image below) appear to be reprinted from Humpty Dumpty's magazine for children. I don't think I got mag as a child, but I did subscribe to Jack and Jill which is pretty much the same thing.

I just love the familiar orange and brown tinted illustrations in this book. I had to resist the urge to scan or photograph the entire book.

Junior and Herman the Elephant Christmas caroling.
It's an image from the story "Bascom The Blue-Nosed Bear."

Little Gray Mouse after a Valentine-nibbling feast,

from "The Tasty, Pasty Valentine"

In this poem "Junior" is not our egg shaped friend. He seems to be her little brother.

Sandman Stories

Hallmark Children's Editions, 1976

Sandman Stories: Twenty Children's Stories for Quiet Bedtime Reading is a book I loved as a child. The stories were selected by Julia Summers. The illustrations and decorations in the book were created by Cynthia Bonderer, Steve Carter, Karen Clark, Susan Fidler, Judy Griffith, Tracy McVay, Vikki Marshall, Michael Olszewski, John Overmyer, Pat Paris, Maggie Swanson, and Rebecca Webb under the direction of Bruce Baker who is credited with book design. I feel the need to credit these fine people because it's the designs and illustrations that I remember most. Perhaps this book is the origin of my love of the silhouette. I am a huge fan of paper cut designs and shadow puppet images and black silhouettes as book cover images and the images in this book are often silhouettes.

The posted image is from a Carl Sandburg story, "The Huckabuck Family and How They Raised Pop Corn in Nebraska and Quit and Came Back."

A favorite story in the collection is "Penny and the Elf" by Barbara and Elaine Skolnik. You can read the story by clicking on the images.





Stories included in the book....

Who Likes the Dark? by Virginia Howell
Gleegles by Amy Neelands
The Baker and the Beggar by James Rhodes
Old Man Winter Has a Visitor, Retold by Ann Hudson Downs
The Wee Little House by Patricia Scarry
Found, the Lost Little Dog by Val Teal
The Wonderful Feast by Esphyr Slobodkina
Donny's Good Idea by Blanche Boshinski
Penny and the Elf by Barbara and Elaine Skolnik
Beauregard Bunny Runs Away by Ellen Starr
The Boy Who Grew Up by Jay T. Stocking
The Huckabuck Famy by Carl Sandburg
The Bus-Driving Tiger by Eileen Landay
The Guess-What Girl by Gail M. Peterson
Barnum Bunny by Georgia Tucker Smith
Lenny, the Lion Who couldn't Roar by Barbara Burrow
Dream Touches the Sky by Danita Ross Haller
The Silver Flower by Rhea Wells
The Soup Stone by Leila Berg
There's Only One You! by Dean Walley