Old Witch and the Polka-Dot Ribbon

Wende & Harry Devlin, Parents Magazine Press, 1970

I loved the Cranberryport books by the Devlins when I was young and I just discovered Old Witch and the Polka-Dot Ribbon by Wende and Harry Devlin and I'm sort of surprised I didn't read this one when I was young since my parents seemed to have collected all of the Parents' Magazine Press books. Their illustrations are very distinct and while they aren't my typical aesthetic there's a kind of nostalgia there that I can't ignore.


Old Witch lives in the attic of the Jug and Muffin Tearoom in Oldwick. One day she wakes up to discover Nicky and his mother baking a cake for contest. The contest is part of a fundraising carnival aimed at raising funds for a new bandstand. Old Witch raises some havoc in the kitchen until she's banished and she sulks outside muttering little rhymes like the one in the next illustration.

Finally Old Witch gets an idea to enter the contest herself and she unwittingly discovers some contest fraud and solves the problem in her own unique way. The story is full of clever, wry language that makes me chuckle and like all Devlin books it comes complete with a recipe for Old Witch's Magic Nut Cake.

In ND, the Weather is Important.

Harry Devlin, Parents Magazine Press, 1975

Harry Devlin of the Cranberry Port books writes a book about weather. This is a timely tale considering today is a snow day and the flood waters are rising. Devlin's tales focus on thunder and lightning, but I am guessing there are tales for these other phenomena too.

An excerpt from Devlin's foreword:

"A wild crashing thunderstorm is awesome to us all. But to a child the explosive fury of lightning, followed by thunder's sonorous booms can be a terrifying experience.

By the time we reach adulthood, most of us vaguely understand the causes of electrical storms. We have respect for, but little fear of, the phenomena.

Whether thunder and lightning will frighten or delight a child, however, depends on how that child relates imaginatively to storms. And this, no doubt, explains the folklore collected in this book..."

He goes on to explain how the the 15 tales in the book were collected largely through personal encounters with people from many cultures and bits of those cultures were reflected in the tales. Devlin marvels over how often people from different cultures, separated by many miles often told very similar stories.

The book identifies the cultures and includes a Devlin illustration for each of the 15 tales. The first illustration I included was from the Mayan tale called "The Giant Who Smoked Cigars" which identified lightning as the sparks that flew as one of the gods striking a great piece of flint to light his cigar and the loud noise it made was the first thunder and I suppose the black clouds would be the cigar smoke. Some of the other cultures represented include German, Polish, Nigerian, Peruvian, Irish, Czech and more.

When I was young I believed thunder was "God rearranging the furniture in heaven" which more or less matches the tale from Trinidad below. (click on each image to read the text or see a bigger pic)






I happen to love Norse myth so I included this story here too.

Cranberry Valentine

Wende and Harry Devlin, Simon and Schuster, 1986

While Cranberry Christmas was my first and most beloved of the Cranberryport stories, I have a deep appreciation for all of them. They are books that make me long to visit Maine and seashores and well, eat cranberries.

This holiday story is about how Mr. Whiskers deals with the onslaught of valentines that come his way after a chance remark about how he'd never gotten any in the past. One might think he'd be flattered or glad, but as more and more keep appearing he grows panicky...

"Why me?" asked Mr. Whiskers. Then he reflected, "Why not? I'm the best clam digger in the bog country. I have wonderful whiskers. I sing like a blinking bird."

Seth broke into Mr. Whisker's shining thoughts. "Now, Mr. Whiskers, if some lady gives you a present on this Valentine's Day, you should have a box of chocolates to give in return. A gentleman would."

Mr. Whiskers looked terrified at the idea.

Of course, it's not all as bad as it seems and after dodging some near embarrassment, Mr. Whiskers his true admirers and ends up enjoying the holiday much more than he expected.

A Flat-Billed Prehistoric Scratchafratch?

How Fletcher Was Hatched
by Wende and Harry Devlin
Parents Magazine Press, 1969

When Alexandra starts to pay more attention to the newly hatched chicks, her hound dog Fletcher becomes jealous. He slinks off to the river bank where he finds his best pals, Beaver and Otter, whose advice is to act more like a chicken. Can you peep? Maybe you should hatch? And from those questions a fantastic plan is "hatched." Fletcher's pals construct a giant egg from reeds and pink clay and they helpfully roll him to the school campus the next morning to surprise Alexandra.

Meanwhile Alexandra is nearly inconsolable worried about her lost dog, Fletcher. The entire school is abuzz, the principal and the science teacher are giddy with speculation over the giant egg (note the title of the post), and Alexandra can't be bothered until she sees Fletcher burst free. It's a great little story with heartwarming pictures that have a nice 1970s feel to the illustrations.

Cranberry Christmas

I have a soft spot for Wende and Harry Devlin. With Christmas just around the corner it seemed appropriate to remember this one. In this story, Mr. Whiskers must save the local skating pond from mean old Cyrus Grape who insists the kids are trespassing and he won't allow it. A second conflict erupts when Mr. Whisker's sister, Sarah, insists he move back to the city so she can take care of him. With his pal Maggie and her grandmother helping out, not only are all the problems solved, but a lovely Christmas is had by all.

As described on Loganberry Books site, "Wende and Harry Devlin are both artists with a sense of humor. Working for several magazines in the 1940's, Harry became the leading editorial cartoonist at Collier's while Wende wrote a comic strip callled Fullhouse (also known as Raggmopp) with characters named for their own six children. On the serious side, Harry paints architecture and Wende portraits, but their winning combination in children's books and illustrations (and perhaps recipes?) is their best known artistic achievement, and most especially the Cranberryport series."

None of their books are currently in print, which is a shame because I just discovered there are far more of the Cranberry series than I realized. Below are some of my favorite illustrations:

Wende and Harry Devlin, Parents Magazine Press, 1976

Wende and Harry Devlin, Parents Magazine Press 1976