OK Go! Â They Might Be Giants! Â Joel Plaskett! Â Elvis Costello! Â R.E.M.! Â Stevie Wonder! Â Lots of musicians have recorded songs for children – either lyrically revised versions of one of their tunes, or entirely new ones. Â Here are 10 great ones. OK Go, “3 Primary Colors Song” “3 Primary Colors Song” is just out from OK…
Courtesy of Mark Newgarden, it’s Crockett Johnson advising you to get a check-up so that you don’t get cancer. Â Johnson created this 1958 pamphlet for the American Cancer Society, and I strongly suspect that he designed it, too. Â (Clicking on each image will produce a larger version.) Unfold to the left, and see: Next, unfold…
In terms of number of Caldecott Medals won, you are now tied with Dr. Seuss. And Crockett Johnson. And Wanda Gág, Eric Carle, Esphyr Slobodkina, James Marshall, Donald Crews, Jon Agee, Tim Egan, Peter SÃs, Lane Smith, Barbara Lehman, Mo Willems, Lois Ehlert, Leo Lionni, and H.A. Rey. None of them won the Caldecott Medal,…
Harold taks his purple crayon to the walls of the Ben Franklin School, on Flax Hill, in Norwalk, Connecticut.  The school houses the Head Start program.  I’m told that the mural was painted by employees of Pepperidge Farm. The photos are all courtesy of Jackie Curtis, a friend of Ruth and Dave – a.k.a. Ruth Krauss…
In 1952, Dr. Seuss published an essay in which he pointedly critiqued racist humor. True, his own work – both before and after then – did contain stereotypes. In an essay that’s been languishing at American Quarterly since August 2010, I examine the conflict between Seuss’s progressive impulses and a visual imagination steeped in early…
I’m doing it again – teaching an entire course devoted to Dr. Seuss (the link in this sentence takes you to the current draft of the syllabus). Â Art! Â Politics! Â Verse! Â Nonsense! Â Activism! Â These are but some of the subjects we’ll explore in English 710: Dr. Seuss, a graduate-level course which begins on Wednesday. Aiming to…
There’s a new blog that children’s lit readers & Curious George fans will want to explore. Â Titled All Things Rey (an homage to the great All Things Thurl website, perhaps?), it features posts devoted to H.A. and Margret Rey. Â It launched on Nov. 2 2011 with a post on H.A., at a New Hampshire swimming…
The beginnings of children’s literature in America predate the nation, but not the region. In 1686, the publication of the New England Primer heralded a centuries-long tradition of books for children and young people written in, on, and around New England. These works show that constructions of places and people are not wholly separate processes;…
Here are a few en français. For each, I also provide the title as translated into English. As noted in Emily’s Library, Part 1, I read the books in English (since I don’t speak French) and then send the French originals to my niece (whose parents are raising her in English & French). I agree…
As mentioned in Emily’s Library, Part 1, one reason for including these is that they’re multi-lingual, but another is that they’re compelling works of narrative art. They highlight art’s centrality to the picture book itself. To restate what I noted in yesterday’s post, art is so central to the picture book that, as part of…
