From the team that brought us A Hole Is To Dig, here's another romp through the wild and wonderful imagination of children.
Synopsis
From the team that brought us A Hole Is To Dig, here's another romp through the wild and wonderful imagination of children.
Children's Literature
If you are an adult reading this book for the first time, close your eyes. Have someone read it aloud to you. Listen to words and rhythms you will remember from childhood. Funny ones. Thoughtful ones. Goofy ones. Kind ones. It's as if the author re-entered her own childhood to capture the cadences of language and thought that typify young children. "I think I'll grow up to be a steam shovel." "(L)ove is you give them a leg off your gingerbread man." If you didn't say those exact phrases as a child yourself, you no doubt said something similar. Now open your eyes. Take a look at the tiny, enchanting illustrations accompanying the text. Whimsical line drawings cover the page at will. Tiny children dance in the corner of the page; a horse hangs by his tail from a tree; two little boys leap gleefully off Earth into space. The drawings' joy and abandon match the lack of self-consciousness of the text. Published nearly half a century ago, this book proves that in many ways, small children haven't changed a bit. Thank heavens for little girls—and boys—and those who document their ways so well. 2001 (orig. 1954), HarperCollins, $14.95. Ages 2 to 6. Reviewer: Stephanie Farrow
About the Author, Ruth Krauss
Ruth Krauss, a member of the experimental Writer’s Laboratory at the Bank Street School in New York City in the 1940s, imaginatively used humor and invented words to create some of the very first books for children that highlighted a child’s inner life. She collaborated with some of the greatest illustrators in children’s literature, including Maurice Sendak and her husband, Crockett Johnson.
If you are an adult reading this book for the first time, close your eyes. Have someone read it aloud to you. Listen to words and rhythms you will remember from childhood. Funny ones. Thoughtful ones. Goofy ones. Kind ones. It's as if the author re-entered her own childhood to capture the cadences of language and thought that typify young children. "I think I'll grow up to be a steam shovel." "(L)ove is you give them a leg off your gingerbread man." If you didn't say those exact phrases as a child yourself, you no doubt said something similar. Now open your eyes. Take a look at the tiny, enchanting illustrations accompanying the text. Whimsical line drawings cover the page at will. Tiny children dance in the corner of the page; a horse hangs by his tail from a tree; two little boys leap gleefully off Earth into space. The drawings' joy and abandon match the lack of self-consciousness of the text. Published nearly half a century ago, this book proves that in many ways, small children haven't changed a bit. Thank heavens for little girls—and boys—and those who document their ways so well. 2001 (orig. 1954), HarperCollins, $14.95. Ages 2 to 6. Reviewer: Stephanie Farrow
