From Sea to Shining Sea

 Filled with a wonderful collection of stories and some of our favorite illustrators, this treasury of American Folklore and Folk Songs is a necessary addition to any children's library.  The Dillons, Anita Lobel, Egielski, Cooney, and Trina Schart Hyman are just a few of the artists included.  Spanning centuries and across the country it's a sampling of Native American lore, Gospel songs, tall-tales, and historical stories.  The hilarious skit "Who's on First?" is even included!  It's one of those books that nice to pickup and read here and there.

From Sea to Shining Sea

compiled by Amy L. Cohn 1993

If You Listen

A Father's Day post for those with fathers far away...

If You Listen

Charlotte Zolotow

illustrations by Marc Simont 1980

Charlotte Zolotow's gentle story is about a little girl who misses her father.  We are never told why her father is away or where he is, but we are comforted along with the little girl by the words of her mother.

The little girl's father had been away a long time.

"How do you know if someone far away is loving you?" she asked.

"Do you mean your father?" her mother said, smiling.

"Yes," said the little girl.  "If I can't see him, or hear him, or feel his hugs, how can I know he loves me when he isn't here?"

The little girl's mother tells her that when she is lonely she has to stop and listen...for the church bells that she can hear but not see, for the apple in the orchard that falls onto the ground, for the rustle of birds, for a train far away...

"If you listen hard you'll feel someone far away sending love to you."

(Amazon is selling a newer version with a different illustrator.  In my opinion Marc Simont's soft pictures from our copy enhance the story perfectly.)

The Happy Day

The first day of Spring and it's cold here and there's talk of snow.  But at least my tenacious crocuses and daffodils are undeterred.

The Happy Day

Ruth Krauss 1989

pictures by Marc Simont

In this book by Ruth Krauss, even the animals are happy to see a sign of spring!  They wake up from their sleep and "sniff and run" to the one bright spot of color in the black and grey illustrations.

Other books with Marc Simont's illustrations:

13 Clocks

The First Christmas

The First Christmas

The First Christmas 

Robbie Trent

pictures by Marc Simont

 Sometimes sweet and simple is best.  This book was originally published in 1948.  It tells the Christmas story in an easy to read way and ends with the hymn "Away in a Manger".  I thought the illustration style looked familiar and sure enough Marc Simont also did the pictures for The 13 Clocks.

 As much as I love elaborate illustrations, I also appreciate the simplicity of books like this.

The 13 Clocks

 

The 13 Clocks

James Thurber 1950

illustrated by Marc Simont

A suitable book for Halloween reading.  There is a wicked Duke, cold and evil with legs of different lengths and a velvet patch over one eye.  He lives with his niece, the Princess Saralinda, in a castle with thirteen clocks that wouldn't go. 

The clocks were dead, and in the end, brooding on it, the Duke decided he had murdered time, slain it with his sword, and wiped his bloody blade upon its beard and left it lying there, bleeding hours and minutes, its springs uncoiled and sprawling, its pendulum disintegrating.

The cold Duke was afraid of Now, for Now has warmth and urgency, and Then is dead and buried. Now might bring a certain knight of gay and shining courage-

When suitors come for the beautiful Saralinda, the Duke managed to kill them all or give them impossible tasks like cut a slice of moon, or change the ocean into wine.  They were set to finding things that never were, and building things that could not be.

A prince dressed as a ragged minstrel and calling himself Xingu (but who is really Zorn of Zorna) sets off to wed the princess.  In this odd story he meets the Golux ("I am the Golux," said the Golux, proudly, "the only Golux in the world, and not a mere Device), must avoid the awful Todal (who looks like a blob of glup, makes a sound of rabbits screaming, and smells of old, unopened rooms), and the Duke's spies, Hark and Listen.

It's a strange but wonderful little book- part fairy tale, a little bit dark with some sharp humor.  I can't help but think fans of Norton Juster would love this as well.