Lilith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
reflectedeve) wrote2012-02-04 01:00 pm
reflectedeve) wrote2012-02-04 01:00 pm
reading pictures (but not panels)
Mmmm, Saturday. So I'm sitting here at work daydreaming, and I have a question for you all: what were your favorite picture books when you were a child?
There's an ulterior motivation to the question, I confess; I've never thought of myself as a children's storyteller, but I'm going to need to be one for at least one assignment, and I've been digging through my own memory for inspiration. Honestly ... it's too big a category to get my head around easily! I was obsessed with picture books as a child, far beyond the age where I was reading all kinds of other, less illustrated things; I remember being in late elementary school and still going and nabbing a huge pile of them to read in bed on weekend mornings.
I'm having this funny problem where I can't remember titles anymore; the illustrations stick in my head clear as anything (it's probably not surprising that the most visually beautiful or interesting ones are the ones I remember best), and bits of the stories, but I'm having trouble even putting together a Google search for a lot of them. There's this one I loved to pieces, about a pair of siblings who go into "the city" for a day trip - their mother admonished them "not to forget the peas for soup." The text wasn't particularly exciting, just fairly straightforward description of a mildly fanciful visit (I think they saw a parade, and went to a party on a roof, and were flown home), but the illustrations were bizarre. Half the denizens of the city were weird-looking animals, the architecture was all unlikely, and when they brought home the peas at the end ... they fell out of the sky from an airplane made of peapods, and were several times bigger than people, and the kids caught them in huge party hats. I don't even know. I'm thinking of calling my mother later.
Anyway! I had too many favorites, but some were definitely ... well, Miss Rumphius definitely stands out, the story about a woman's life searching for "a way to make [her] world more beautiful," which she finally does by planting flowers everywhere. It had some issues (I seem to recall some imperialism, hmm), but I remember looking up to the character and really internalizing the overall message. And then there was Little Fox Goes to the End of the World, which is about adventure, but also totally about storytelling ... and jfc, John Wallner's illustrations were so lush and beautiful. (It looks like that version is out of print, to my dismay!) I have the most vivid memory of the fearsome one-eyed cats, and the patchwork blankets the little fox was going to use to hold the four winds ...
Also all the Robert McCloskey (most famous for Make Way For Ducklings and Blueberries For Sal, though I particularly loved Time of Wonder) and Maurice Sendak of course (my first grade class did a huge unit on Chicken Soup With Rice which involved cooking and making our own illustrations for our birth months). And the Madeleine books (all the plucky heroines!), and most especially Dr. Seuss. I was a huge fan of the Lorax and the Sneetches and Horton, although one of my favorites was definitely Bartholomew and the Oobleck, because it was so beautifully weird. I liked odd things; has anyone read As I Was Crossing Boston Common ("not very fast, not very slow")? Random zoology and quirky ink illustrations, idk. (It makes me think of exploring the Peabody museum at Harvard when I was small.)
There are just too many to even scratch the surface, but in the last few minutes I randomly talked about this with two classmates as they wandered in and out of the building where I'm working, and they hadn't heard of many of the titles I was thinking about (and I didn't know the ones they came back with either). It's always fascinating to get fandom talking about their favorite books, but while I've had discussions of formative YA experiences, I don't think I've ever seen much talk about picture books. It makes me curious: which ones do you remember? What grabbed you when you were small?
There's an ulterior motivation to the question, I confess; I've never thought of myself as a children's storyteller, but I'm going to need to be one for at least one assignment, and I've been digging through my own memory for inspiration. Honestly ... it's too big a category to get my head around easily! I was obsessed with picture books as a child, far beyond the age where I was reading all kinds of other, less illustrated things; I remember being in late elementary school and still going and nabbing a huge pile of them to read in bed on weekend mornings.
I'm having this funny problem where I can't remember titles anymore; the illustrations stick in my head clear as anything (it's probably not surprising that the most visually beautiful or interesting ones are the ones I remember best), and bits of the stories, but I'm having trouble even putting together a Google search for a lot of them. There's this one I loved to pieces, about a pair of siblings who go into "the city" for a day trip - their mother admonished them "not to forget the peas for soup." The text wasn't particularly exciting, just fairly straightforward description of a mildly fanciful visit (I think they saw a parade, and went to a party on a roof, and were flown home), but the illustrations were bizarre. Half the denizens of the city were weird-looking animals, the architecture was all unlikely, and when they brought home the peas at the end ... they fell out of the sky from an airplane made of peapods, and were several times bigger than people, and the kids caught them in huge party hats. I don't even know. I'm thinking of calling my mother later.
Anyway! I had too many favorites, but some were definitely ... well, Miss Rumphius definitely stands out, the story about a woman's life searching for "a way to make [her] world more beautiful," which she finally does by planting flowers everywhere. It had some issues (I seem to recall some imperialism, hmm), but I remember looking up to the character and really internalizing the overall message. And then there was Little Fox Goes to the End of the World, which is about adventure, but also totally about storytelling ... and jfc, John Wallner's illustrations were so lush and beautiful. (It looks like that version is out of print, to my dismay!) I have the most vivid memory of the fearsome one-eyed cats, and the patchwork blankets the little fox was going to use to hold the four winds ...
Also all the Robert McCloskey (most famous for Make Way For Ducklings and Blueberries For Sal, though I particularly loved Time of Wonder) and Maurice Sendak of course (my first grade class did a huge unit on Chicken Soup With Rice which involved cooking and making our own illustrations for our birth months). And the Madeleine books (all the plucky heroines!), and most especially Dr. Seuss. I was a huge fan of the Lorax and the Sneetches and Horton, although one of my favorites was definitely Bartholomew and the Oobleck, because it was so beautifully weird. I liked odd things; has anyone read As I Was Crossing Boston Common ("not very fast, not very slow")? Random zoology and quirky ink illustrations, idk. (It makes me think of exploring the Peabody museum at Harvard when I was small.)
There are just too many to even scratch the surface, but in the last few minutes I randomly talked about this with two classmates as they wandered in and out of the building where I'm working, and they hadn't heard of many of the titles I was thinking about (and I didn't know the ones they came back with either). It's always fascinating to get fandom talking about their favorite books, but while I've had discussions of formative YA experiences, I don't think I've ever seen much talk about picture books. It makes me curious: which ones do you remember? What grabbed you when you were small?
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Definitely Make Way for Ducklings, because we also lived near Boston. Paddle to the Sea and Pagoo, though those are more books with pictures than picture books.
The Funny Bunny Factory had wonderful pictures.
And there was one that was about a red snowplough named Katy, who saved the town when there was a heavy snowfall and no one could go anywhere -- oh, right, that would be Katy and the Big Snow. Katy was awesome.
Oh, and *all* the Beatrix Potters. Our library had them in small formats I could handle easily, and I remember once carrying around a stack I could barely see over. The librarians suggested maybe I could leave some for other kids, too. *g* (Those librarians put up with a lot from me. I, er, still have the copy of The King's Stilts that I hid and refused to give back. We did pay for it...)
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Ooh, yeah, I have never been a favorite of librarians either. I was always taking out more than my share of the Seuss titles at that age.
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My son loves anything with sound effects or repetition that he can remember/read and anything that makes him laugh... Robert Munsch books (illustrated by Michael Marchenko) are great. He LOVE LOVE LOVES "The Bear _____" series by Karma Wilson. They're simple rhyming stories with great friendships and they're fun to read and the paintings are beautiful. Shelley Moore Thomas's Good Knight books are great also because they have a lot of repetition and nice stories. Harold and His Purple Crayon? Linda Bailey's Stanley's Party and Mary Ann Hoberman's Seven Silly Eaters are ones we read often because they have beautiful art to look at... I get a lot of inspiration from kids' books sometimes. Seven Silly Eaters is also ridiculously fun to read! :D
Eughhh I have a huge list of kids' books I'd love to buy just due to the art but I will spare you. ;)
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Text-wise, all the picture books that stick in my head I read as an adult.