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Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan

May2

Unlike everyone else in the known universe, I hated The Time Traveler’s Wife. I thought it was way too long, way too confusing, and way too crude and sexually and violently graphic. This book, A Portrait of Jennie, is a much gentler, shorter (125 pages) book with a plot comparable to The Time Traveler’s Wife. I liked it very much.

A Portrait of Jennie was published in 1940; it’s out of print but available used from Amazon. In the story, it’s 1938, and the narrator, a starving artist, meets a little girl named Jennie. She’s a girl from the past, and she inspires a painting that captures the interest of an art gallery owner. As the girl re-appears in the narrator’s life, a bit older each time, she continues to inspire paintings and, finally, love.

Author Robert Nathan wrote many novels, a couple of children’s books, and some collections of poetry. According to Wikipedia, he had seven wives. You wouldn’t think he’d know much about romance and long term love and commitment, but A Portrait of Jennie is poignantly romantic.

A Portrait of Jennie was made into a movie in 1948 starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten. Nathan also wrote The Bishop’s Wife, a novel which was also made into a movie.

Quotation Time:

“I suppose most artists go through something of the sort; sooner or later it is no longer enough for them just to live —to paint, and have enough, or nearly enough, to eat. Sooner or later God asks His question: are you for me, or against me? And the artist must have some answer, or feel his heart break for what he cannot say.”

Picture Book Preschool Book of the Week: Week 19

May7


Since Sunday is Mother’s Day, the theme for Picture Book Preschool this week is Mothers. All the books on the list for this week are classics, but my favorite, because it brings back nostalgic memories, is Snipp, Snapp, Snurr and the Red Shoes by Maj Lindman. In this story, Swedish triplets Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr find jobs to earn enough money to buy their mother a pair of red shoes for her birthday. That’s about all there is to the storyline. The illustrations are old-fashioned paintings of three Scandinavian boys in short pants and shirts, fresh-faced, ready and eager to go out and work to buy their mother the best of all possible presents.

Ms. Lindman wrote and illustrated a series of these picture books about Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr and another series about girl triplets Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka. There’s something fascinating about the setting, Sweden in the 1940’s, the characters, identical triplets, and the situations, everyday adventures, that appeals to young children. I think I had never heard of triplets before I discovered them in the Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr books, and I also probably made my first visit to Sweden in these stories.

Here’s a list someone made at amazon of all the Snip, Snapp, Snurr books and all the Flicka, Ricka, Dicka books. I think Red Shoes is the best of the lot, but your preschooler may want to read them all. I did. The bad news is that these series are only available new in paperback, and I have not been very pleased with the quality of the paperback copies that I have purchased. They’ve all fallen apart. If you find a hardcover copy of any of Maj Lindman’s books at a used book sale or thrift store, grab it. A hardcover copy of Snipp, Snapp, Snurr, and the Red Shoes in good condition looks to be worth about ten or twenty (or more) dollars. But if I found one, I’d want to keep it for myself and my own children.

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase a downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.