Great Monday Give: Mike Mulligan

Though I've never reviewed this book before, my son's been listening to the audio version in the car nonstop for the past week, and I recently found a newish paperback copy at a junk shop that I'd like to share. So for today's Great Monday Give, please welcome the Virginia Lee Burton classic, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. Great read. Wonderful story. To be entered to win all you have to do is comment on this post between now and midnight, November 22 ~ Sunday. The next morning a winner will be selected and announced.

That said, the winner of our Easter-in-winter give of The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes is Linda. Now I must admit, usually the winner is selected using my patented blind scroll and point method, but this time it was the comment that got me.

I belong to a group called Ready Readers of St. Louis. We read to at-risk kids in Head Start Programs in the inner city, ages 3-5. Most new books are irrelevant to them. They don't know any farm animals or what noises they make; never saw Knuffle Bunny's laundromat, and wouldn't give a mouse a cookie, if they had one, which they usually don't. But the vintage books work for them. Their lives are still back there where it takes courage to deal with an ogre - probably on a daily basis. My great quest is for my own Tall Book of Make Believe, now painfully expensive, but until I find one I will continue to follow your blog for ideas to read to my 40 favorite kids who have never had a book, and some have never turned a page. Thanks for providing a resource I really treasure.

Linda, send me an e-mail at webe(at)soon(dot)com with your mailing info and I'll send this book out to you asap... along with a few other goodies for your 40 favorite kids. Have a great one!

Orlando the Brave Vulture

Orlando the Brave Vulture
Tomi Ungerer ~ Harper & Row, 1966

Since Ungerer is top of mind and I am in the market for bird books for Christmas, I thought I'd share this story and send out a call for recommendations of books like it. As you know, my son's wild for birds, and I'm always searching for titles where the hero is a bird or a bird plays a large part in the story. Though we haven't read it yet, I ordered a copy of the goose tale The Real Thief (the boy's been digging Steig's Dominic on audio book this week), but I'm still looking for other options. Any suggestions as to where else I should turn?That said, our story begins with Orlando the vulture flying across the body of a dying and lost gold miner. Now, seeing Orlando perched over the man's body would lead you to believe you know what happens next... after all, we see it every single day played out on our nation's highways. The circle of life at its most functional. Well, you can't judge a bird by its cover.

Among the man's belongings he found a picture of the miner's wife and son. There was nothing Orlando could do for him, so he tied up the various objects in a bandanna and flew off.


Thus begins an adventure in search of the miner's family that includes intrigue and kidnapping and a grand finale in an Indian village that would suit any Frank Capra film where Orlando becomes the only beloved vulture in Mexico. My son the nature show enthusiast will be the first to tell you how smart and useful vultures are. And his biggest thrill in life is when we come across a cell phone tower that is swamped with them. Maybe your little ones are just as inspired by these winged scavengers, maybe they aren't. Either way, it's a great read by the always entertaining Ungerer. His books would stuff anyone's stocking with awesome.

Also by:
The Hat
The Mellops Strike Oil
Crictor
Seeds and More Seeds
The Three Robbers
Moon Man
Zeralda's Ogre
I Am Papa Snap and These Are My Favorite No Such Stories
The Beast of Monsieur Racine
Allumette
Emile
Book of Various Owls
Adelaide

Baby Animals

Baby Animals
Gyo Fujikawa ~ Grosset and Dunlap, 1978

After battling swine flu and stomach viruses, we are now deep in the trenches of strep. Ugh and ugh. So to get everyone ready for the weekend in style (who is going to see Fantastic Mr. Fox? anyone? anyone?), here are some sweet illustrations from my boy's favorite Fujikawa. Similar to the still-in-print, classic So-Tall-Board-Book Babies, the cute goes a step further. I've spared you the baby monkey here as you might literally go blind from adorable.

Happy Fox Day!

Also by:
A Child's Garden of Verses
A Child's Book of Poems
Let's Grow a Garden
Oh, What a Busy Day!
Our Best Friends
Come Follow me
Fairy Tales and Fables

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Read along on Facebook, tumblr, Twitter and Etsy

The Snow

The Snow
John Burningham ~ Jonathan Cape, 1974

Not sure if this one was ever published in the U.S. but it seems to be one in a series of small books that also includes The Baby, The Rabbit and The School. I've pulled it out in anticipation of the holidays. We are headed to the East Coast for Christmas, and I am secretly sending a letter to Santa myself hoping he'll bring my little Texan his first snow. If not, Burningham's wonderful colored pencil sketches will have to do.

One day it snowed
Mummy and I rolled a big snowball
We made a snowman
I sat on the sledge
Mummy pulled me
But I fell off<I noticed too in the front cover that the book was designed by Jan Pienkowski of Meg and Mog fame. There's something about little square hardcovers that sets my heart alight. Makes me wish I could be reincarnated as a book designer.

Also by:
Cannonball Simp

Bear Party

Bear Party
William Pène du Bois ~ Viking, 1951

Ever since someone gifted me the angelic book Lion, I've been on the lookout for titles by this Jersey-born Frenchman. One of the founding editors of The Paris Review and author of the Newbury Medal-winning classic The Twenty-One Balloons, Du Bois' stories are very whimsical and often border on science fiction in their altering of reality. Here, he imagines the social life of koala bears and adds another layer of mystery to their already snuggly legend.

There's a park down in Australia named Koala Park where real teddy bears live in trees. They are most always happy and play together all day, but: Once upon a time they became angry with each other, no bear remembers why, and they became angrier and angrier. First they stopped speaking to each other, and then they even stopped looking at each other and just stared straight ahead and made growling noises.

Unrest ensues until a wise old bear decides to have a costume party to throw the bears off the scent of their anger. All works well, until the party ends and the costumes come off and they are all reminded of their tempers. After much grumbling and rumbling, the bears learn that sometimes it's good to stay partially costumed in order to keep the peace.

I really don't see how the drawings here could be more wonderful. They remind me a bit of the Little Fur Family in their fuzziness as Du Bois uses that same wonderful scratching to create the most touchable pelts. As a nonAustralian who's been lucky enough to see koalas in the wild, I have to say, it is very jarring to see a hugable teddy sleeping in the tree above your tent, so to imagine them with a colorful social life doesn't seem all that far fetched. And I did pay some crazy amount of money to some national park over there to hold one and I have to say, as long as you keep shoveling eucalyptus in their chow holes, they'll snuggle you til the cows come home.

Also by:
The Runaway Flying Horse
Lion

A Child's Garden of Verses

A Child's Garden of Verses
Robert Louis Stevenson ~ Ruth Ruhman
Western Publishing, 1964

Time has seriously slipped away today, so I'll have to keep it short. On that note, I wanted to quickly mention the awesome site Flashlight Worthy Books (the book lists there are always insightful and fun), and though you longtime readers have heard most of it before, head on over for a list of ten out-of-print children's books I think are worth overpaying for.

Next, I'm gonna keep it small and sweet in honor of today's book. Really, who doesn't love tiny books? Rand McNally Elf Books. Golden Nature Guides. And of course, Whitman's Tell-A-Tale Books. In the later group, this little ditty happens to be a 60s stand out. I love any version of the verses, but here, the sentiment is especially sweet and pocketsized.

TO ANY READER
As, from the house, your mother sees
You playing round the garden trees,
So you may see, if you will look
Through the windows of this book,
Another child, far, far away,
And in another garden play.

Love, love, love these poems in any incarnation. The best of the best of the best.

Also by:
A Child's Garden of Verses - Duvoisin edition
A Child's Garden of Verses - Wildsmith edition

Zeralda's Ogre

Zeralda's Ogre
Tomi Ungerer ~ Harper & Row, 1967

OK. I've coveted this book for a long time. Readers continually mention it, and I've always salivated for it. But alas, the online copies were too rich for my blood. So, the other day, a friend of mind mentioned she's looking for a copy of The Hat and I remembered seeing one in a used book shop... so just by chance I happened to pass the shop and stop by to see if it was still there... and what (low and behold!) do I see sitting on the shelf beside it? A first edition of ZO priced at an amazing $4.95? OK, these are the moments I live for in this hobby. Finding something I've been wanting for a long time in great condition and priced to move. And yes, I am in love. And thankfully, despite the main character's baby-eating origins, the boy is head over heels as well. IT IS SOOOO GOOD! (The book, not that babies, that is.)

Once upon a time there lived a lonely ogre. Like most ogres he had sharp teeth, a bristling beard, a big nose, a big knife, a bad temper, and a huge appetite. Of all things, he liked little children for breakfast the best. Everyday the ogre came to town, snatching up children. Terrified parents dug secret hideaways for their infants. They stuffed their little boys and girls into trunks and barrels in shadowy cellars, and in underground vaults. Schools were empty and teachers were out of work.

So yeah, when all the children go into hiding, the ogre gets mighty hungry... that is until a wee little unknowing girl comes out of the woodwork and shows the horrible ogre there is more to the culinary arts than devouring infant flesh. Ogre gives up eating children. Girl and ogre fall in love and procreate. The end. Simply a genius story!

Really, I have a mild obsession and love for children's books with a matte finish, both new and old. Something about the way the book feels to the touch. How it doesn't reflect. How the paper soaks in the ink. And the colors, oh the colors. When I go to my son's shelf, I always find myself going to the matte finishes first. Just a fetish I guess, but one I don't see ending anytime, uh, EVER! And if Mr. Tomi can have them, why can't I!?!

(Love the subtle nuances in the drawings. Take a close look at the top scan of the family portrait from the last page of the book... looks like their happily ever after might have some hereditary issues.)

Also by:
The Hat
The Mellops Strike Oil
Crictor
Seeds and More Seeds
The Three Robbers
Moon Man
Orlando The Brave Vulture
Christmas Eve at the Mellops'
I Am Papa Snap and These Are My Favorite No Such Stories
The Beast of Monsieur Racine
Allumette
Emile
Book of Various Owls
Rufus
Adelaide