PUBLIC DOMAIN MONDAY: AESOP

Illustrations by Richard Heighway

Textual Collections

A State University System of Florida PALMM Project

(c) Copyright 2003, State University System of Florida.

EDUCATION THROUGH ADVENTURE!

PADDLE-TO-THE-SEA is also a film.

Kids love books full of adventure. The genius of Holling C. Holling was that he knew how to teach through adventure, by filling his entertaining tales with well-researched historical, geographical, and scientific data that might otherwise be boring to children had it not been presented in an exciting work of fiction.

This author/artist/naturalist was born in Jackson County, Michigan, in 1900.   His father was superintendent of schools, so as a boy, Holling had access to all the books he could want at home (but his mother would also make trips to the library to find books that he especially liked about animals and Indians.)

He not only loved reading, he loved being in the outdoors - roaming the woods, camping and exploring. “At three, he was an avid artist, drawing very advanced pictures of horses, cows, and other animals. In his youth, his father once brought him a dead owl. The investigative boy became fascinated with it, making an Indian headdress from the feathers and a belt with the claws. His love of Indian customs and ways was a constant throughout his life.” (as noted in Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults, 2nd ed., Gale Group, 2002)


Holling Clancy Holling graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1923. He then worked in a taxidermy department of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and spent time working in anthropology.  He married Lucille Webster and within a year of their marriage they had both accepted positions as art instructors for a year (1926-1927) on the first University World Cruise, sponsored by New York University.

For many years of his life, Holling C. Holling dedicated much of his time and interest to creating books for children.  I'd like to focus on a set of large format books he started in the 1940's.  Much of the material he wrote about was known to him firsthand through field and library research. His wife worked with him on many of the illustrations.  Each story is rooted in the natural world: set on the sea, rivers, the coast, and inland trails. Each story involves a journey.

"The story lines of these books are well-complemented by their art. Of special interest are the sidebars that make a reader linger. They may be a detailed, hand-lettered pen and ink of a ship’s rigging in Seabird or the Great Lakes displayed “like bowls on a hillside” in Paddle-to-the-Sea. Learning new information was never more inviting and entertaining. Holling was a writer/illustrator who tapped into children’s secret consciousness and curiosity.  Such richness in storytelling and illustration still makes for classical favorites, which says much about this master of children’s literature." -Walter Giersbach, (Grinnell College Book Review).

These stories are especially loved by homeschooling families.  Click here to see Beautiful Feet Books wonderful "Geography Through Literature Pack" that uses these books.

PADDLE-TO-THE-SEA the four year journey of a miniature wood carving of an Indian boy in a canoe from its starting point in Lake Nipigon, Canada, through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River to its final destination in the Atlantic Ocean.  Paddle receives help staying on course from people who read the message carved on his canoe: "Put me back in the water. I am Paddle-to-the-Sea".  Middle readers will learn about the history, industry, geography, seasons, tides, currents, locks, inhabitants, animals of the region.


TREE IN THE TRAIL the story of the passing of history as seen by a stationary cottonwood tree, located on what eventually becomes the Santa Fe Trail. (The wood from the tree is eventually made into an ox yoke and ultimately makes a journey to the end of the trail.)


SEABIRD - Through the travels of Seabird - an ivory gull carved by a cabin boy from a walrus tusk - the history of America at sea is traced. Your child will delight in this story of sailing, whaling, ships and ship building, while they learn world geography and much more!


MINN OF THE MISSISSIPPI Minn (a snapping turtle) travels over many seasons and years from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico.  Children will learn about the history of the Mississippi River Valley and its fascinating world of bayou's, steamboats, river pirates, flatboats and keelboats, French and Spanish explorers, plantations, floods, and even Mark Twain.


PAGOO studies life in a tidal pool through the story of a hermit crab named Pagoo.  Every detail of tide pool life is presented. Holling's wonderful illustrations bring to light the many microscopic forms of life found in the sea, and the habits and methods of survival are clearly explained.

IRREPLACEABLE TREASURES

For any of you who read my post back in October 2010, IN PRAISE OF PICTURE BOOKS, you know about the New York Times front-page story, "Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children", which caused quite an uproar in the World of Children's Books - among publishers, bookstores, parents, authors, and illustrators.

I recently came across a rebuttal to this article printed in Publisher's Weekly that, I'm happy to say, explores some of the same points in defense of picture books that I did!  It's titled, "Don't Write the Orbit for Picture Books Yet" and you can read it by clicking here.

Karen Springen, the author of this well-researched article, makes many great points about what is influencing the sales of picture books, but I think two that she highlights are especially relevant:  the economy and libraries.

In a bad economy, families are still reading picture books—but many families are getting them at the library, and previewing them before deciding to purchase them. "Library use is up," said Julie Corsaro, president of the American Library Association's Association for Library Service to Children division. "And in many public libraries, picture books have the highest circulation." At the Brooklyn Public Library, picture book circulation is at an all-time high—1.5 million at the end of the most recent fiscal year. For the next fiscal year, BPL is projecting circulation of more than two million, said youth selection team leader Alison Hendon. She is buying new ones, too—both replacement copies and new titles...


But when the economy recovers, will picture books return to their heyday? It's hard to know for sure, but booksellers, publishers, and librarians maintain that traditional picture books are irreplaceable treasures. Oddi of Cover to Cover told the story of a young man who works for minimum wage at Jiffy Lube, next to her store. On break, he stopped in and, on a staffer's recommendation, bought Dog House by Jan Thomas to read to his three-year-old. He said it was $14 he didn't have and at first regretted it. Later, he returned to the store and said, "I read that book every night to my little girl. She laughs," said Oddi. "He said, ‘That's the best $14 I ever spent.' "


But we consumer parents, teachers, and literature lovers knew that, huh?

HAVE YOU MET RUBY BRIDGES?

Norman Rockwell's portrayal of Ruby Bridges:
"The Problem We All Live With"

It was 1960 and she was the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans, after the federal courts ruled that public schools there had to desegregate.  You can read her story told in her own words here (as published in Guideposts, March 2000).  I shed tears as I was reminded how much a mother's faith and a teacher's kindness can influence and shape a young soul - and how the forgiveness shown by one innocent child, as she stared into the face of hatred, set a lasting example for a divided nation.  I think the two children's books highlighted below will have a profound effect on your children...hearing her story, they will never forget the courage and compassion shown by a little girl named Ruby Bridges.


The Story of Ruby Bridges (ages 5-8) by Robert Coles, with beautiful illustrations by George Ford, shows us all how brave and how forgiving a six-year-old child can be. Every school day, Ruby was escorted by U.S. marshals (the city and state police would not help her) past angry crowds and up the steps to her new school. And as she walked, she prayed - that God would forgive them.  A touching and powerful telling by a celebrated author (Dr. Robert Coles also happens to be a child psychiatrist that helped Ruby through the whole ordeal).

Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges (ages 8-12). From Publisher's Weekly: With Robert Coles's 1995 picture book, The Story of Ruby Bridges... readers may feel they already know all about Bridges... But the account she gives here is freshly riveting. With heartbreaking understatement, she gives voice to her six-year-old self...Her prose stays unnervingly true to the perspective of a child: "The policeman at the door and the crowd behind us made me think this was an important place. It must be college, I thought to myself." Inside, conditions were just as strange, if not as threatening. Ruby was kept in her own classroom, receiving one-on-one instruction from teacher Barbara Henry, a recent transplant from Boston. Sidebars containing statements from Henry and Bridges's mother, or excerpts from newspaper accounts and John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, provide information and perspectives unavailable to Bridges as a child. As the year went on, Henry accidentally discovered the presence of other first graders, and she had to force the principal to send them into her classroom for part of the day (the principal refused to make the other white teachers educate a black child). Ironically, it was only when one of these children refused to play with Ruby ("My mama said not to because you're a nigger") that Ruby realized that "everything had happened because I was black.... It was all about the color of my skin." Sepia-toned period photographs join the sidebars in rounding out Bridges's account. But Bridges's words, recalling a child's innocence and trust, are more vivid than even the best of the photos. Like poetry or prayer, they melt the heart.

BLUEBIRDS AND BALLET SHOES

Today I had the immense pleasure of watching a male and female Western Bluebird eating berries from a vine on a wall outside my kitchen window. Bluebirds are often linked with happiness:

"If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why oh why can't I?"  -Judy Garland, Somewhere Over the Rainbow (from THE WIZARD OF OZ)

"The Bluebird carries the sky on his back."  -Henry David Thoreau (American author and poet)

"The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression."  -Gary Larson (FAR SIDE comic creator)
and last, but not least...
"Mr. Bluebird's on my shoulder..." -Zippity Do Dah (from Disney's SONG OF THE SOUTH)...

Mytyl and Tyltyl,
from the 1908 MAT production

There's also a play titled The Blue Bird, by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. It premiered in 1908 at the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia.  The story is about a girl called Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl.  They are seeking happiness, represented by "The Blue Bird of Happiness", and they are aided by the good fairy, Bérylune.

The play has been adapted into several film versions (one starring Shirley Temple, which not successful at the box-office) and is referenced in several books, one of them being a favorite chapter book of my daughter's, BALLET SHOES by Noel Streatfeild.

Set in London, in the 1930's, BALLET SHOES is the story of three orphaned babies, Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil, who are all adopted by "GUM" - Great Uncle Matthew. (Uncle Gum is an archaeologist, who brought home lots of fossils to his home in England, until he was injured and decided to travel the world!) 

These particular "fossils" of Uncle Gum are not siblings, but are adopted one by one and raised by Gum's great-niece, Sylvia, and Nana, her old nurse while he is away. Sylvia takes in several boarders (including a dance instructor) who take charge of  the girls' education and help them get into The Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training.

At the academy, Pauline is given the chance to play "Tyltyl" and Petrova is assigned the part of "Mytyl"...
  They got home and Pauline told them all the story of THE BLUE BIRD, as she was the only one who knew it.
  "It's about two children," she explained, "called Tyltyl and Mytyl.  Tyltyl is a boy and Mytyl a girl."
  "That's a pity," Nana interrupted.  "With your hair you'd make a better girl, and Petrova the boy."
  Pauline shook her head. "The boy's the eldest, and has most to say.  It tells all the places they go to look for a blue bird, which really means happiness."
  "Did they find a blue bird?" Posy asked.
  "Yes.  It was at their home all the time.  Tyltyl's dove.  It was blue, but they'd never noticed.
  "Where do we look for it?" Petrova wanted to know.
  "In the Land of Memory; that's where the children's grandfather and grandmother and their brothers and sisters who have died, live.  And with Night.  And amongst the children who aren't born. And with the dead people.  In the end Tyltyl's dove flies away, and Tyltyl says to the people who are watching the play: 'If any of you should find him, would you be so very kind as to give him back to us?...We need him for our happiness, later on...' "  


There is a whole series of "Shoe Books" by Streatfeild (but this is the only one we read, since my daughter was in ballet at the time).  Click here to see more chapter books my daughter loved.

ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

Do you ever feel like you need a midweek pick-me-up?  This week I definitely did, and I got it yesterday when my friends came over, with toddlers in tow, for our weekly coffee, tea, and conversation time.  One friend (who I can always count on for good book recommendations!) brought three clever and rather offbeat books to share, that her preschool-age daughter recently picked out at the library. All three are irresistibly funny and great for grades K-3 (unless you happen to have a 4- well, almost 5- year-old! preschooler like her daughter Sophie, who has a very quick and sophisticated sense of humor!)

By the way - what are some of your favorite funny books??

WHAT'S SO SCARY? by John Stadler. Review from Library School Journal: Upset that the illustrator has drawn him into the wrong book, a dog tries to get the story right before its conclusion. The artist, it seems, is a bit of a klutz and some spilled paint causes the cast of characters that he has just drawn to flee in terror. Finally, the pup takes matters into his own paws and draws an appropriate ending, which just happens to fit the story he thought he belonged in all along. The text is infused with funny one-liners, sight gags, and wordplay such as "If a tree falls in a book and no one is reading, does anybody know?" or "I've got a sinking feeling" as a boat is filling with water. A narrative strand involves a tortoise and a hare with amusing brief dialogue. The brightly colored illustrations make use of perspective in an imaginative and amusing way. Younger readers may find it confusing, but visually sophisticated youngsters will appreciate the unusual premise.


WHEN DINOSAURS CAME WITH EVERYTHING by Elise Broach, illustrations by David Small.  While running errands with his mom, a young boy is suffering from boredom - until he sees a sign at the bakery they've stopped at that says, "Buy a Dozen, get a Dinosaur".  He can't believe his eyes.  "They must mean a toy," his mom says.  After they purchase their dozen doughnuts, the store owner hands over a dinosaur...a REAL, LIVE, DINOSAUR.  His mother begins to panic a bit as they come to the realization that all the stores in town are participating in this dinosaur "giveaway of the day"!  (After they've acquired four of these giants, his mom decides to go home immediately).  More fun ensues as she finds ways of solving the "problem" of having the dinos in their home.  Great for independent readers or read aloud listeners.


BEWARE OF THE STORYBOOK WOLVES by Lauren Child. This author/illustrator does a clever job of communicating the real fears and runaway imaginations that can inhabit young minds.  Her witty and silly text, combined with her unique illustrations, will turn those unspoken fears into out-loud laughter.  Just imagine what you would do if a storybook character Wolf and his side-kick (more ridiculous than threatening) climbed out of your book and into your room!  Well, a young boy named Herb outwits the Wolf when he reaches into his fairy tale treasury and shakes out more characters, such as Cinderella and a Fairy Godmother, who lend help and some hilarious antics.

IF YOU'RE A LOVER OF LITERATURE, YOU'LL WANT TO READ THIS BOOK

Anita Silvey (former Horn Book editor and publisher with Houghton Mifflin) asked over 100 respected and admired contemporary figures from all different backgrounds -  art, science, politics, business, journalism, sports, and entertainment - what their favorite children's book was and how it influenced their life.  Their answers, compiled in EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED FROM A CHILDREN'S BOOK, are a tribute to the lasting impact that good children's literature can have on its readers.

Each of the notable contributors provided a brief essay, reminiscing how the book influenced him or her, accompanied by an excerpt and illustration from that book.  Alongside the essay, Silvey herself gives a short historical commentary on each book mentioned.  As back matter, you'll find a brief paragraph about each contributor and a recommended reading list of  children's books.

A fun addition to any parent's - or literature lover's - library.