"Pet Advice" From Maggie Rudy's Super Cute Mice

Do you wish sometimes...

that you had a pet?

Maybe even just a little roly-poly?  

If this sounds like your child, you've got to run out and find this adorable new picture book from talented artist Maggie Rudy...

Maggie's hand sewn mice and charming dioramas will lead you and your child into a "Mouseland" that you'll want to venture a peek into again and again!

And her little mice offer plenty of good advice about what it means to own a pet, such as...
1. Pick a pet that suits your style.
2. A pet is not a doll (it might not like to play dress up)...

3. Your pet might like to play fetch...

4. Care for you pet...
- Keep it clean
- Keep it comfy, fed, and watered.
- And when it makes a mess, clean up after it!

You'll discover lots of other criteria for becoming a pet owner in this adorable book, but most important of all remember: "Pick a pet who will be your friend..."

I Wish I Had a Pet is Maggie Rudy's second book (after The House that Mouse Built.)  Hat tip to one of my blog followers - Martha from The Scrumptious Life - who turned me onto Maggie's amazing work!

I immediately got in touch with Maggie, and she graciously agreed to answer a few questions so we could get to know her a little better:

Maggie holding her newest book,
I Wish I Had A Pet
source: http://mouseshouses.blogspot.com/

I understand that you and your sisters acquired your first felted mice during a year that your family lived in England. What were a few of your favorite children's books growing up?

Maggie: I loved The Little Fur Family, by Margaret Wise Brown and Garth Williams; Ferdinand The Bull, by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson, and my first chapter book, The Adventures of Sam Pig, by Allison Uttley, illustrated by Graham Percy. I loved Sam Pig! I was always drawn to the pictures in books at least as much the stories. Our father also read us the entire Ring series by J.R.R Tolkien when I was about six, and much of the imagery from those books stays with me still.

What led you into the world of art and creating your own little creatures?

Maggie: My grandmother and mother were both artists, so I had the example of people around me making things, and there were always art supplies to be had. And my sisters and I spent hours making little environments from moss and sticks for our troll dolls. I'm not exactly sure how, but those two things were certainly starting points for the creation of Mouseland.

When did you decide to take the plunge into the world of children's books? 

Maggie:I took a photograph of some mice one year for a Christmas card, which gave me the idea of using them as illustrations. My sons were leaving home and I was eager to explore new career possibilities, so I enrolled in a children's book illustration class at our community college. The instructor told me that I had something special with the mice, and that I should pursue a career in the field. So I did!  

I'm just crazy about Maggie's books and her fun blog that features the "newest exploits" of her mice!!  Maybe it's because when I was a baby, I was nicknamed "Wendy Mouse" by a close friend of my parents - he insisted that I was so small my cry was "just a squeak".  The pet name (pun intended) stuck, so I'm always ready for a good mouse story! Go here to read my past post, "FUN MOUSE STORIES (that aren't about Mickey!)"

Here's the book trailer for I Wish I Had a Pet.  What do you think? 

Wow - What a Calamity!

Today I'd like to tell you about a new children's book, from photographer Olivier Toppin (he did the pictures for Molly Coxe's Benjamin and Bumper to the Rescue, which I reviewed here.)

The book is Calamity Chick! (translated from the original French edition, Pouissin Catastophe!). This playful story explores the fun adventures, hopes, and dreams of an accident-prone little chick named "Calamity".  Your children will be captivated as Calamity accidentally finds a passage from his new country home to the subterranean living quarters of "Molly" the Mole.  

This quirky little chick comes from the imagination of two artists from a studio based in France: photographer, Olivier Toppin and designer, Serge Rosenzweig. 

Photographer Olivier Toppin

The visual world found in this book has a unique style, conceived by these two talented artists. The lighting that looks like a perfect spring day was created in a photographic studio, and every set was built with a lots of rich natural elements and vintage objects. (It reminds me of the "I Spy" books that my kids used to love searching through for hidden objects.)

Designer Serge Rosenzweig

Olivier's original sketch rendering...

The finished set.

Young children will have fun discovering the circles on almost every page, which Olivier told me symbolize not only the passage of the chick from one surprising place to the next, but also speak to the creativity and ultimate realization Calamity finally has of his life long dream - as he comes "full circle"!  (There are some hearts hidden as well throughout the photographs.)

Olivier and Serge have certainly created a unique world for children to explore with Calamity Chick.  What is this chick's dream?  You'll have to get the book to find out! [hint: if you were a chick, what would you most want to be able to do?]  This joyful book is available as a kindle or paperback edition - here, from Amazon.

Ansel Adams' Photographs and Washington Irving's "Sketch Book"

"When words become unclear, 

I shall focus with photographs. 

When images become inadequate, 

I shall be content with silence."

 – Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams [2/20/02 - 4/22/84] source

Today marks the 29th anniversary of the death of legendary American photographer Ansel Adams. He has been called the most influential photographer for the cause of our beloved national parks. 

Are you curious about why I am featuring him here on my blog about children's books?  Well, on a recent trip to Yosemite National Park, we stayed at the historic Ahwahnee Hotel, and I discovered that Ansel Adams is not only linked to Yosemite because of the many photographs he took, but also because of his part in an annual event there that is based on a children's book!

Celebrated every December since 1927, the Bracebridge Dinner  transforms the beautiful dining room at the Ahwahnee Hotel into a 17th century English manor for a feast of food, song and mirth.

Bracebridge Dinner

The inspiration for this yuletide ceremony was "Old Christmas" from Washington Irving's Sketch Book. It describes Christmas Day, 1718, at Bracebridge Hall in Yorkshire, England. (You may be familiar with Sketch Book - it includes Irving's short stories, including "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".  You can see it here in its entirety on Archive.org, here).

"The Christmas Dinner"
Illustration by R. Caldecott
source: Project Gutenberg

What does this dinner have to do with famed photographer Ansel Adams?  Adams wrote the Ahwahnee's original Bracebridge Dinner program, which still follows his score of classic Christmas carols.

Adams was also the original "Lord of Misrule" (the court jester given rule over the evening) of the first dinner in 1927, and the Pageant Master of the Bracebridge Dinner for 40 years! Ansel Adams wrote the lines for all the characters in a rhymed, upbeat cadence, and searched out appropriate music.

Ansel Adams (right) as the Lord Of Misrule, a role he played in 1927-28.
[Photo courtesy of KennyKarst/DNC Parks & Resorts@Yosemite Inc.]

Today, a cast of over 100 people, including performers from San Francisco's Eugene Fulton Chorale move diners to tears with an a capella rendition of "O Holy Night" one minute, and have them howling with laughter the next at the antics of the Lord of Misrule.

Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco four years before the great earthquake of 1906. An aftershock of the earthquake threw him to the ground, breaking his nose and marking him for life.

He spent his childhood days playing in the sand dunes beyond the "Golden Gate" (the entrance to the San Francisco Bay, where the bridge would eventually span the Pacific to join San Francisco and Marin across the narrows).Young Ansel gained an appreciation for nature there, which would become his primary source of photographic inspiration.

Natural shyness and a certain intensity of genius, coupled with the dramatically “earthquaked” nose, caused Adams to have problems fitting in at school. He was finally pulled out of school to be tutored at home by his father and aunt. He eventually became a gifted musician, teaching himself to play the piano and read music at the age of 12.

Adams first visited Yosemite in 1916, when he was 14 years old. On that trip, he hopped up on a tree stump to take a photo of Half Dome, then stumbled, headfirst, and accidentally pushed the shutter release. The upside-down image remained one of Adams’s favorites, he wrote in his autobiography.

Here is an amazing vintage 1958 video, "Ansel Adams, Photographer". Watch and listen to how Adams integrates the artistry of his piano playing with his artistic photography talents!


I love the view of the Yosemite Valley as it opens up to you, just after you've driven through the tunnel, arriving at Inspiration Point.

I took this photo during our visit in February 2013.  I just realized in writing this post,
that I was there just a few days before Ansel Adams' birthday, which was Febraury 20!

Ansel Adams has shot several dramatic black and white photos of this stunning view during different seasons and weather conditions...this particular shot is during a thunderstorm.

"Yosemite Valley Thunderstorm" by Ansel Adams, 1945 - source

And I love this unique photo I found of Adams with his camera, shooting another picture of the same view in 1976...

Ansel Adams at Inspiration Point, 1976
Alan Ross Photography - source

Here is a wonderful biography for kids, illustrated by the photographs of Adams. The text follows the pictures, with an insightful account of Adams' life, from his upbringing in San Francisco to his love of nature and photography.


For Grades 5 and up, but children of any age who have visited Yosemite National Park (or are planning a trip there) will enjoy looking at the photography.

Ansel Adams: America's Photographer, A biography for young people, by Beverly Gherman.

CHICKS - JUST IN TIME FOR SPRING!

"Spring, summer, winter, fall -
which is the best season on all?"

FUN CHICK CRAFTS:
Pom-Pom chicks are out in stores and ready for Easter crafting.  Martha Stewart LIVING has some cute ideas here.  I especially love the cute plastic Easter eggs that are decorated with sitckers and then filled with a chick and small treat - ready for an Egg Hunt!

Eggs - ready for hunting!

FUN CHICK BOOKS:
Your little ones will love the hilarious antics and photos of COCO THE CHICK - and, who knows, they might even be inspired to make their own diorama scene, if you buy them some pom-pom chicks.  SLOANE TANEN'S books (baby-preschool) with their fun, rhyming text spell F-U-N.  STEFAN HAGEN'S photographs are eye-popping!   Enjoy them all:

WHERE IS COCO GOING?


COCO COUNTS


C IS FOR COCO

THE ART AND SCIENCE OF SNOWFLAKES AND THE DETERMINATION OF A YOUNG BOY FROM VERMONT

Snowflake Bentley, written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, illustrated by Mary Azarian. (ages 4-8) This beautiful picture book (1999 Caldecott Medal winner) is the biographical story of W.A. Bentley. Young Wilson Bentley was fascinated by the six-sided frozen miracles that are snowflakes, and once he acquired a microscope with a camera, his childhood preoccupation became a scientific life study. His countless exquisite photographs examining the tiny crystals and their delicate, mathematical structures are still used in nature photography today.

 

The wonderful woodcuts by Mary Azarian perfectly highlight the author's tender storytelling and help communicate the homey-ness of the life of this determined and often misunderstood boy, who lived in Vermont with his very supportive parents (they spent their own savings to buy him the special camera when he was only 17 years old!)  When Bentley first begins to use the camera, he makes mistake after mistake, but he doesn't give up!  After much perserverance, he finally figures out how to photograph snowflakes, all the while enduring criticism and scoffing from his neighbors and the local farmers.

Bentley later wrote:  The average dairy farmer gets up at dawn because he has to go to work in the cow yard.  I get up at dawn, too.  But it is because I want to find some leaf, hung with dew; or a spider web which the dew has made into the most delicate ropes of pearls...I take my camera with me, get down on my knees in the wet grass, and photograph these exquisite bits of nature. Because I do this I can show these lovely things to people who never would have seen them without my help.  They will get their daily quart of milk, all right.  Other farmers will attend to that.  But I think I am giving them something which is just as important. 

His hard work paid off and his gift to the world - a book about snowflakes - was finally published.  It's still available today, and if you child is interested, I would encourage you to find it at your local library, or buy it:

SNOW CRYSTALS - by W.A. Bentley and W.J. Humphreys, contains over 2,000 photomicrographs of snowflakes, plus slides of frost, rime, glaze, dew and hail. The introduction by meteorologist W. J. Humphreys discusses techniques of photographing snow crystals, the science of crystallography, classification and markings. Your child will enjoy thumbing through page after page of the beautiful snow crystal photographs!