Picture Book Memories
At times like this when I’m exhausted but can’t sleep, and too exhausted to concentrate fully on anything heavy, I turn to metafilter for entertainment. Just now the site pointed me to “What Book Got You Hooked”–where a nonprofit has a list of celebrities explaining what book first ignited their reading passion.
This in turn got me thinking of all my favorite picture books when I was a little kid. Of course, like every kid, I was a big Dr. Seuss fan, but here I’ll feature a few titles that don’t seem to be around much anymore.
Miss Twiggley’s Tree - A story in rhyme about an eccentric reclusive woman who lived in a treehouse with a bevvy of talented animals and a color TV. She’s misunderstood and talked about judgmentally by all the townspeople, until she saves all their asses during a flood and they finally figure out that different can actually be cool rather than scary. I loved this book and can still quote parts of it. Quite obviously, my sense of kinship with freaks and outsiders developed early.
How Fletcher Was Hatched - A dog feels neglected by his young female owner, who’s too busy cooing over the newly born chicks to pay attention to him. So he (naturally) devises a scheme to hatch out of an egg to regain her love. Quite obviously, my sense of kinship with freaks and outsiders developed early. Ahem.
The Magic Friend Maker - About a girl who is has just moved to the city (there’s that outsider theme again) who ultimately makes a best friend with the aid of a “magic” rock.
The Lonely Doll (and following sequels) - A story told in words and black-and-white photographs of a lonely doll named Edith and two teddy bears (Mr. Bear and Little Bear) living in New York City. Reading it as an adult, I was surprised by how completely haunting many of the images appeared and how creepy and sometimes depressive-seeming a lot of these books were. But I loved them at the time, and the photography is beautiful. I particularly loved the one Lonely Doll book where Edith and Little Bear picket City Hall.
So, did any of you read any of these? What picture books were you obsessed with as a small kid? Links to the books appreciated, so I can check ‘em out!
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
There are a few whose titles I simply can’t remember…one is Henry something or other…
Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse
The above are readily available, but there were several books I absolutely loved loved loved that I had a hard time finding as an adult in pre-Amazon.com times. These are Island Heritage books, a Hawaiian publisher that created books meant to represent the different cultures in Hawaii, and they were my top favorites as a child:
Momotaro, or Peach Boy, one of the classic Japanese folktales. This book has the best telling of the story and gorgeous illustrations.
Puapualenalena, about a magical trickster dog who lived in Waipi’o Valley on the Big Island long ago.
Island Heritage also published a picture book called Kamapua’a, a Hawaiian demi-god who was born in the form of a pig, but later could also transform himself into a handsome man, a humuhumunukunukuapua’a (Hawaii’s state fish), and a leaf of a plant, but it’s really hard to find. That book and Puapualenalena were illustrated with very distinctive watercolor drawings by Guy Buffet, a French artist who is now a resident of Hawaii. To me, his watercolors perfectly captures what one might imagine to be the atmostphere of ancient Hawaii.
Ahhh, I remember “Alexander and the Wind-up Mouse!” I loved that book. I’d completely forgotten about it.
Momotaro reminds me of this book I used to love by Rumer Godden called “Miss Happiness and Miss Flower” about two Japanese dolls that are alive (unbeknownst to the English girls they belong to). There was a third little boy doll called Little Peach, who is discovered inside a peach instead of a pit. It must have been a reference back to the Momotaro myth, but I don’t remember if that was ever explained or not. I haven’t read that book in years; I wonder if it was actually culturally sensitive or the typical imperialist, subtly racist English children’s novel. At the time I remember feeling there was a great respect for the doll’s “culture” in the novel…but the strongest thing I remember is that in the novel, the girls’ older brother builds them an authentic Japanese-architecture-style doll house for the dolls to live in, and at the back of the book, it included blueprints for someone to make their own version of the doll house. I always lusted after that and wished my dad had some handyman skills.
I don’t think I’ve seen any of the books you’ve got up there! Not even very much Dr Seuss - a little, but not so much. Likely there’s a US/UK difference.
Okay, here are some of my faves:
Where the Wild Things Are.
I had a load of Errol Le Cain books, which looking at now make me feel instantly fascinated and excited. All that beautiful detail.
And another one with lots of minute, beautiful detail: Anno’s Journey. No words at all, actually, but hundreds of visual references to landmarks, fairy tales and other stories.
I loved Dorrie The Little Witch.
Ooh, and I scared myself silly with a huge, heavy book of African Myths and Legends, full of gruesome illustrations of tokoloshes. My grandmother gave me a lot of mythology books - Chinese, Greek, Egyptian. They all had beautiful watercolour illustrations that I still know by heart, although I can’t find the books on the net for ya.
Hope the links work!
The Dorrie books look adorable and vaguely familiar, though I’ve never read them. But I think “Where the Wild Things Are” is the only one that was equally as popular over here as over there.
As a kid, I found Maurice Sendak’s drawings creepy; I was scared by them and I remember avoiding the Wild Things book, though many other kids loved it. I’m not sure why I had such a strong reaction to them.
Dr. Seuss was pretty much ubiquitous over here with kids in my generation. They had both books and a number of animated cartoons made from his books. In fact, the rabbi of my family’s synagogue growing up used to show Dr. Seuss cartoons at the monthly family service. Particularly The Sneetches, which ultimately was about the dangers of bigotry and stereotyping.
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