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The King at the Door by Brock Cole

Jun10

Brock Cole was a professor of philosophy before becoming an illustrator and author of children’s fiction and picture books. Several of his picture books are derived from classic folk tales, such as The King at the Door (out of print, unfortunately), in which a ragged old beggar at the village inn says that he is really the king, but no one believes him except for a servant.

My pastor used this story as a sermon illustration one time, and it worked quite well. Picture books should be featured in sermons more often, in my opinion. This review says the book is about gullibility versus cynicism. I’m not so sure about that.

Little Baggit, the servant boy at the inn, believes the ragged old man who claims to be king and serves him with respect and with all the material wealth that he can spare. The innkeeper makes fun of Little Baggit and of the poor-looking old king and offers sarcastic comments and a lack of generosity. I think it’s a story that mirrors Matthew 25:32-48.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Little Baggit sees the old man in need and he helps him. Perhaps Little Baggit recognizes the inherent kingliness in the man, or maybe not. But Little Baggit is generous and kind anyway. The innkeeper wouldn’t recognize a king (or a child of God) in any guise because the innkeeper is a stingy sourpuss who enjoys ridiculing Little Baggit’s instinct for kindness and faith.

The King at the Door was Dr. Brock Cole’s first published picture book, and I love it. It’s quirky with a happy and just ending, and it’s one of the recommended books in my Picture Book Preschool book list. I see that Dr. Cole later went on to write and publish at least three Young Adult novels. The YA novels sound awful to me, but that doesn’t tarnish this gem of a picture book.

Harry, the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

May8

Zion, Gene. Harry the Dirty Dog. Illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham. Harper, 1956.

Here’s another book that was first published in 1956, the year before I was born. And it’s remained in print all the years since then because it tells a classic story of a dog who doesn’t want a bath. (I remember some children who were much like Harry–bath-resistant.) Because Harry, a white dog with black spots, runs away when it’s bath time, he gets very dirty and turns into an unrecognizable black dog with white spots. And when his own family doesn’t recognize him, well, Harry begs for that bath that he so successfully avoided at the beginning of the story. I could read this story over and over and not get tired of it, which is why it’s one of the 520 books listed in Picture Book Preschool.

I have A Harry the Dirty Dog Treasury in my library with Harry the Dirty Dog and two more stories about Harry, No Roses for Harry and Harry by the Sea. In No Roses for Harry, Harry’s hated sweater from grandmother unravels, to his delight. And in Harry by the Sea, another Picture Book Preschool selection, Harry, covered in seaweed, is mistaken for a sea monster. Harry and the Lady Next Door is the fourth and last of the Harry books. All four Harry books, whether you read them in the treasury or individually, are warm and funny and just a delight that no preschooler should miss out on.

Illustrator Margaret Bloy Graham and author Gene Zion were a husband and wife team collaborating on the Harry books. And a fine team they were. Unfortunately, the couple divorced in 1968, and there were no more books about Harry, the dirty dog after that. Margaret Bloy Graham did, however write and illustrate at least one book of her own, Be Nice to Spiders, which is also a Picture Book Preschool selection in the week themed “Creepy Crawly Creatures.” Mr. Zion, on the other hand, quit writing after their 14-year long collaboration ended with the divorce.

I’m thankful they were together long enough to give us Harry, one of the great dogs of picture book literature. You can check out all of the Harry books by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

The Little Fish That Got Away by Bernadine Cook

May7

Cook, Bernadine. The Little Fish That Got Away. Illustrated by Crockett Johnson. William R. Scott, 1956.

This little book was published the year before I was born, in hardcover and then in a paperback edition from Scholastic. Then it went out of print at some point, and for a long time, the old Scholastic paperbacks were all that could be found. Then, HarperCollins published a new edition in 2005 and again in 2019, and now it’s readily available, new and used at reasonable prices for the used books.

If the cover reminds you of The Carrot Seed and Harold and the Purple Crayon, that’s because Crockett Johnson illustrated all three. Crockett Johnson was the pen name for author, cartoonist, and painter David Johnson Leisk. He was married to children’s author Ruth Krauss, who wrote The Carrot Seed and many other picture books. Johnson’s little round faced boys with the big eyes are iconic, easily recognizable in this book about a boy who goes fishing–and about the fish that he caught and the one that got away.

“Once upon a time there was a boy who liked to go fishing. . . He went fishing every day. But he never, no never, got any fish. All he ever did catch was a bad cold. But ONE day . . .”

The story goes on to tell about the boy’s adventures with a GREAT GREAT big fish, a GREAT big fish, a BIG fish, and finally a little fish. Can you guess which one got away?

The story is repetitive, which children love. Of course, it lends itself to being read aloud. I can get a little tired of repeating the same phrases over and over again for each of the boy’s attempts at catching a fish, but I haven’t met a child yet who gets tired of the repeating choruses. And the ending, which escapes the repetitive cycle, is funny every time.

The Little Fish That Got Away is a Picture Book Preschool selection. It can be seen as teaching tool for learning about relative sizes of things, but I wouldn’t suggest pointing that aspect out to little children. Let them enjoy the story and pick up on the “math” and measurements as they listen. Children absorb learning better if they are not force fed.

You can also check out The Little Fish That Got Away from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

The ABC Bunny by Wanda Gag

May6

Wanda Gag, author of Millions of Cats and Gone Is Gone, or The Story of a Man Who Wanted To Do Housework, also wrote The ABC Bunny, in which the aforesaid bunnies crash and dash and meet up with all kinds of other alphabetically named forest creatures and events and objects– all the way from “A for Apple, big and red” to “Z for ZERO, Close the Book.” In this book, X, always a letter I check in alphabet books because it’s so hard find words that begin with X, is “for eXit–off, away,” with a picture of a rabbit rushing to hide in his burrow.

Really, though, I like the text in this book, but the pictures are so delightful that they could carry an entire wordless book by themselves. These illustrations of bunny rabbits doing everything that can be done by rabbits in a forest or a garden, are black and white lithographs, similar to those in Millions of Cats if you are familiar with that classic. However while the cats and the little old man and lady in Millions of Cats are exquisitely tiny and quaint, these rabbits and their fellow forest creatures are big and bold and full of dash and flash and dart. I just love them!

In the front of my book and again in the back there is music for you to sing the text as an ABC Song. I don’t sight read music, so I don’t know if the tune is catchy or not, but if you do, let me know what you think. The music was written by Wanda Gag’s younger sister, Flavia Gag. The words in the book were hand lettered by Wanda’s younger brother, Howard. And Wanda created The ABC Bunny for Gary, her small nephew. So it’s a family collaborative endeavor, shared with the world.

Alphabet books are kind of hit and miss with me. “A is for Apple, B is for Boy,” just doesn’t engage adults or young children unless there’s something added to the illustrations or the text itself to make the book more appealing and nourishing. The written story in this one is fine, well written enough to win Ms. Gag a Newbery Honor for her work in The ABC Bunny in 1934. However, I think it would have garnered a Caldecott Honor or Award, had the Caldecott been around in 1934. As far as I’m concerned, in The ABC Bunny the “eXtra” is in the pictures (and maybe the song.) Wanda Gag’s artistry was enough to make this one a Picture Book Preschool selection, one of the ten ABC books included in Picture Book Preschool.

You can check out a copy of ABC Bunny from Meriadoc Homeschool Library. Or you can purchase your own copy, brand new, since this 1933 book is actually in print from University of Minnesota Press.

Learn more about this and other living books at Biblioguides.

And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss

May5

Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, was born in 1904 in Springfield, MA. His first book was To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, and it was rejected by 27 publishers before being published by Vanguard Press in 1937. Dr. Seuss wrote 46 children’s books, and although Mulberry Street wasn’t his best-selling book, it was enduring in its popularity.

In this children’s classic picture book, Marco’s father wants him to “keep your eyelids up and see what you can see,” but also admonishes young Marco to “Stop telling such outlandish tales” about what he does see on his way to school. So Marco is caught between a rock and a hard place. He can’t tell his dad that the only thing he saw was a horse and a wagon on Mulberry Street. So he embellishes just a little, and then a lot!

The horse and wagon turn into a mob, a circus, complete with a brass band, a blue elephant, some even stranger beasts, and people from all over the world. There was some controversy about this book a few years ago, and the Seuss estate pulled the book out of print. Which of course, made the price for used copies of story go sky-high. Most of the controversy had to do with this picture of a “Chinese boy” (originally called a “Chinaman”). You can decide for yourself if you think the picture is offensive or not.

At any rate, when it was first published, the New York Times gave it a good review, and the famous and somewhat dictatorial arbiter of children’s literature at the time, librarian Anne Carroll Moore of the New York Public Library, said it was “as original in conception, as spontaneous in the rendering as it is true to the imagination of a small boy.” She then sent a copy to her friend Beatrix Potter, who wrote, “What an amusing picture book … I think it the cleverest book I have met with for many years.” I’m in agreement with The New York Times (1937), Miss Moore, and Ms. Potter, which is why To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is a Picture Book Preschool selection.

To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is a journey of the imagination, encouraging kids to enjoy all the wonder that their little minds can conjure, while eventually returning to earth with the sober truth. Marco finally tells his father what he really did see on Mulberry Street, or does he? Perhaps imagination is just as real as Reality, just in a different way.

A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams

May4

Vera B. Williams was an American illustrator and author who wrote several popular picture books for children. The two that I’m most familiar with are A Chair for My Mother, which won a Caldecott Honor, and Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe, the story journal of a mother-daughter-aunt canoe trip. A Chair for My Mother is a beautiful homely story about a girl whose family experiences a fire in their apartment. No one is hurt, but all of their possessions are destroyed in the fire. Their community and family come together to give them things to help them start again, but the one thing they don’t have is a soft, comfortable chair for the girl’s mother to relax in after a hard day of work at the diner. So the family begins to save up their money in a big jar to buy a chair for mother (and grandmother who lives with them). It’s such a good book about a working class family and about how families work together to manage their money and save for something important. I feel as if the book teaches gratitude and delayed gratification and teamwork and so much more, but in a story, not a sermon.

A Chair for My Mother would be a lovely book to read for a Mother’s Day story time, and it’s one of the books in the (May) Mothers week for Picture Book Preschool. But really this book would be appropriate for anytime of year. The chair the family end up buying is bright and colorful, and the family in the book is endearing and sweet. A multi-generational family story like this one is good for reading together anytime.

Ms. Williams’ bio sounds as if she led a colorful life: she helped start a “community” (sounds like a commune) in the hills of North Carolina and a school based on the Summerhill model. Then she moved to Canada and lived on a houseboat for a while, where she illustrated her first book. Oh, and she spent a month in the federal penitentiary in West Virginia after a “peaceful blockade of the Pentagon.” 

“I don’t make a point of ending up in jail. But if you try to put your hopes and beliefs for a better life into effect, arrest is sometimes a hazard. As a person who works for children, who raised three children . . . I have to be able to say I did something to try to save our planet from destruction.”

It sounds as if our politics would differ, but I do appreciate Ms. Williams’ books.

The Big Green Pocketbook by Candice Ransom

May2

Ransom, Candice. The Big Green Pocketbook. Illustrated by Felicia Bond. A Laura Geringer Book/HarperCollins, 1993.

First of all, does anyone really call a purse a “pocketbook”? And what’s more, in the cataloging information, one of the subject headings for this book is HANDBAGS–FICTION. Does anyone call a purse a “handbag” these days? Maybe, I might say “I left my bag in the restroom,” but handbag? Pocketbook? Maybe it’s regional. Or perhaps the author just wanted kids to learn a new word. Pocketbook. It is a rather important sounding word.

So, The Big Green Pocketbook is the story of a little girl whose big green pocketbook is empty. She can’t think of anything to put in it at home, but when the girl and her mother go to town on the bus, she collects many items to store in her big green pocketbook: a bus ticket, a lollipop, a keychain, a sample calendar, some crayons, and more. Now her pocketbook is full of treasures. The author describes each place that the mother and the little girl visit during the course of their morning errands with simple, but evocative text. However, as the girl and her mother arrive home after a long morning in the city, the story takes a critical turn. Nevertheless, all ends well with some help from a friendly bus driver.

Felicia Bond, who also did the illustrations for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and its many sequels, does a lovely job of showing the little girl and her mother and the big green pocketbook that the little girl fills with treasures from her morning in the city. Just looking through the cheerful and colorful pictures in this book can tell the story, and nonreaders will enjoy being reminded of the story, just by perusing the pages on their own, after having it read aloud once or twice.

A Pocket for Corduroy by Don Freeman and Katy No-Pocket by Emmy Payne would be good followup reads for this one. And you might want to have an old pocket or pocketbook or purse, or even a handbag, to give your preschooler after the reading, so that she–or he–can collect treasures in her very own Big [Color] Pocketbook.

The Big Green Pocketbook by Candice Ransom is a Picture Book Preschool selection, and it can be checked out as a part of the PBP Farms and Cities Picture Book Treasure Box from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Biblioguides: The Big Green Pocketbook by Candice Ransom.

The Adventures of Taxi Dog by Debra and Sal Barracca

May1

Barracca, Debra and Sal. The Adventures of Taxi Dog. Illustrated by Mark Buehner. Dial Books for Young Readers, 1990.

My name is Maxi
   I ride in a taxi
      Around New York City all day.
I sit next to Jim
   (I belong to him)
      But it wasn't always this way.


Maxi is a homeless dog in the Big Apple until one day he meets Jim, a taxi driver. Jim takes Maxi home and feeds him and ties a red scarf around Maxi’s neck. Then Maxi gets to ride in Jim’s taxicab every day and “see all the sights . . . uptown and down.” Maxi and Jim pick up and transport all sorts of interesting fares: a businessman, an opera singer, a pregnant lady about to give birth, two clowns, and even a chimpanzee. And Maxi sometimes provides a bit of entertainment for the passengers as they ride through NYC to their destinations.

“The art for this book was prepared by using oil paints over acrylics. It was then camera-separated and reproduced in red, yellow, blue, and black.” I don’t know exactly what that process looks like, but the result is colorful, crowded montage of city life with black and yellow taxicab frames around many of the pages that contain only text. The illustrations fill the other pages with Maxi mostly at the center of each picture.

Children will love the rhyming text and the dog’s-eye view of New York City, which is why this Reading Rainbow book made the grade to be added to the Expanded Edition of Picture Book Preschool. The author blurb in the back of the book says that Debra and Sal Barracca were inspired to write The Adventures of Taxi Dog after riding in a taxi whose owner kept his dog with him in the front seat. I wonder if that taxi driver knows that he and his dog inspired a beautiful and vibrant picture book.

I just found out, by way of another private lending librarian, that there are at Least three more books by the Barraccas about Maxi the Taxi Dog:

  • Maxi the Hero
  • Maxi the Star
  • A Taxi Dog Christmas

If you want to donate one of these other Maxi books to the library, I won’t turn it down. I’m quite fond of dogs–in books.

You can check out The Adventures of Taxi Dog along with other books listed in Picture Book Preschool under the themes of Farms and Cities as a part of the PBP Farms and Cities Picture Book Treasure Box from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

A Walk in the Rain by Ursel Scheffler

Apr10

Scheffler, Ursel. A Walk in the Rain. Illustrated by Ulises Wendell. Translated by Andrea Mernan. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1986. A Picture Book Preschool book.

I don’t know how I discovered this under appreciated and mostly unknown German picture book, but I know I loved it at first sight, more than thirty years ago. Published in German in 1984, this one is simple, but it stands the test of time for me. It’s out of print, but at present multiple copies are available online, used for less than $10.00.

“Josh loved visiting his grandparents, especially on rainy days. Because Josh’s grandmother loved to walk in the rain.”

So begins our story. Josh appears to be four or five years old, and his grandmother is grey-haired but healthy enough to walk on logs and pretend to be a tightrope walker with Josh walking ahead. The narrative simply details the various things that Josh and his grandmother see and do as they walk in the (gentle) rain: a ladybug, birds sheltering from the rain, leaves collected near a drain in the street, the logs in the forest, mushrooms sprouting.

Josh’s grandmother answers his questions, feeding him a little bit of information about rain and its effects, in answer to his questions. “[T]he birds’ feathers are covered with oil, which helps keep them dry in the rain just like a raincoat.” Mushrooms “sprout everywhere when it rains.” But mostly Grandmother just lets Josh explore the rainy day and the various wonders that the two of them find on their walk.

Before the walk Josh’s grandparents give him a yellow raincoat and rain boots, and afterward the nature explorers dry off, and Grandfather reads a story to Josh as they look out the window at the rain. The illustrations are just as simple and delightful–and rainy–as the story. Artist Ulises Wendell used soft colors, mostly blues and greens and yellow, for the raincoats, and brown for the trees and the dog. Wendell, now deceased, was a prolific illustrator of more than fifty picture books and other children’s books in Europe, mostly published in Spain or Germany.

I like to walk in the rain myself, and I must like the theme of a walk with grandparents because two other books in Picture Book Preschool have this basic plot. In Rain by Sam Usher, a boy goes out to mail a letter with his grandfather after the rainstorm is over. In Gramma’s Walk by Anna Grossnickle Hines, Donnie and Gramma, who is in a wheelchair, take an imagined walk to the seashore and smell the salty breeze, walk barefoot on the warm sand, observe animals, and build a sand castle. Those are both lovely books, but A Walk in the Rain complements the other two rather than replacing them. Read Mr. Scheffler’s simple story specifically before a walk IN the rain, and then take that walk and see what you and your young child or grandchild discover on a rainy day nature walk.

You can check out a copy of A Walk in the Rain from Meriadoc Homeschool Library

Knight Owl and Early Bird by Christopher Denise

Jan17

I read and reviewed Christopher Denise’s Caldecott Honor book, Knight Owl, last year, and I added it to the new edition of Picture Book Preschool. It’s a fair to say I’m a fan of Denise’s storytelling and his beautiful, colorful illustrations. And Knight Owl, the character, is adorable as well as brave.

Well, Knight Owl is back, with a new, adorable—and brave—friend, Early Bird. Early Bird is Knight Owl’s “biggest fan.” She wants to be a knight just like Knight Owl, and she’s very vocal with lots of questions about how and when and where she can begin her knighthood journey. Unfortunately, while Knight Owl quietly guards the castle during the night and sleeps during the day, Early Bird begins the day at dawn, “making a great deal of noise.” How can Knight Owl mentor or even tolerate such a noisy, chatty, questioning Early Bird?

Some sequels are a disappointment, and others are just O.K. This one has illustrations just as good as Knight Owl, and I liked the story even more than I did the the story in the first book. In Knight Owl, the little owl manages to tame a dragon, an eventuality for which I was willing to suspend disbelief. However, I tend to think the “dragons aren’t so bad” trope that is common nowadays is a bit of a cop-out. Dragons are meant to be villains. In this story, however, we have true danger (wolves!), and Early Bird gets to save the day with his early warning and his noisy ways.

The illustrations are so expressive. Knight Owl looks sleepy and grumpy and watchful and frightened in turn, all as a result of something that Mr. Denise does with the eyes and the lighting and the interplay with the text of the story. Early Bird manages to look admiring and innocent and industrious all at the same time. And the two-page spread in which Early Bird goes out into the forest in the snow because Knight Owl is exasperated with all the questions and noise—what a masterful illustration of a sad and forlorn little bird!

I read this book out loud to myself, and it reads well. I can’t wait to read it to some children for storytime or to my own grandchildren. Perfect read aloud, published in 2024, fun and fanciful, Knight Owl and Early Bird will be my next purchase for the library, and it’s one of my favorite picture books of 2024.

*Now available for check out from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.