Tasha Tudor's A Child's Garden of Verses

A Child's Garden of Verses

Robert Louis Stevenson

illustrated by Tasha Tudor 

Robert Louis Stevenson and Tasha Tudor never get old.  Here they are paired together- Tasha Tudor's lovely illustrations for Stevenson's classic poems about childhood.  I couldn't imagine a more complimentary partnership!

Springs Of Joy

Tasha Tudor's ode to Spring.  Her delightful illustrations are embellished with some truly wonderful words celebrating springtime, art, nature and life.  I suppose this could fall into the category of "inspirational" books, but makes a lovely picture book to read to children nonetheless.

The Springs of Joy

Tasha Tudor

A Tale for Easter

An Easter book more in the fanciful magical realm than the religious one.  Tasha Tudor's pictures are particularly lovely as she describes a little girl's dreaming on the night before Easter morning.

A Tale for Easter

Tasha Tudor 2001

Around the Year

Around the Year

Tasha Tudor

A sweet thrift store find for us, Tasha Tudor's classically beautiful illustrations lead us around the seasons.  She's at her very best evoking all the simple joys and activities of childhood and family life as the year goes round.  There's no small part of me that wishes I lived a Tasha Tudor life!

Mother and Child

I took a photography class years ago and a fellow student mentioned this book.  And since I have always loved portraiture, old-fashioned clothing, the subjects of women and children, it makes sense that I would be drawn to these pictures.

This is Dorr's introduction:

The Story is from everlasting to everlasting.  Yet when it happens to you, that your new-born child is laid for the first time in your arms, it is the whole miracle of creation and your heart cries out as did Mary's"  "My soul doth magnify the Lord."  You know without being told that you are as near to touching the divine mystery as one may come in this life.

Here are pictures of my children, my children's children and my god-children.  These are our rooms, our houses and our lands in the States of Connecticut and New Hampshire where we live.  Our story begins on the day of Bet's wedding and speaks of these last years.  Sequence is of no importance here.  A day is remembered for itself and the picture is all that we finally keep.  I am here with my children.

Mother and Child

Nell Dorr 1972

A remarkable bit of trivia is that Dorr was good friends with the artist Tasha Tudor and these photographs were in collaboration with her and her family.

And It Was So

Tasha Tudor is one of those author/artists whose books I snatch up wherever I see them. If you're going to start a children's book collection, she is the premier author/artist to collect. This was our very first book of hers- it was mine from childhood.

And It Was So

Tasha Tudor

In it is the story of creation, some words from the Psalms and Ecclesiastes and highlights from Jesus. I loved the pictures as a child and they left such an impression on me that I can still see them in my mind when I hear some of the verses. It was one of my very favorite books growing up, and one of the few that survived through the years to sit on my own childrens' bookshelf.

One of my favorite pictures, this is what I wanted to look like when I grew up and became a mother.