Madeline

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
Illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans
1939

     Madeline was awarded the Caldecott Honor in 1940.  I start by saying this because it's one of the few picture books published during the 1930s to have receive that honor and still feel like a current book and have as much appeal now as it did back then.
     Madeline is the story of a brave and spunky girl who attends a Catholic boarding school for girls in Paris.  She was the smallest of her class of twelve but she was the most spirited of them all.  A bit of a trouble maker, she always knew how to frighten Miss Clavel with her antics.  When one night Madeline wakes up screaming in pain, she is rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy.  When her classmates came to visit her at the hospital, Madeline proudly shows her new scar.  Back at school, Miss Clavel must send to bed the rest of the girls who are all now wishing to have their own appendixes removed.  "And she turned out the light- and closed the door- and that's all there is- there isn't any more.
     If you have only known Madeline through her more modern portraits and editions, do yourself a favor and grab this 1939 one.  The yellow and black illustrations are wonderful and the flow and rhythm of the text are delightful.  Love Madeline!

Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes

Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes by Sally Mavor
2010

     Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes is a collection of traditional nursery rhymes.  Some are very popular and some I had never heard of, but that's not the point.  The reason I picked this book is because it is a work of art.  The illustrations are  fabric relief collages made from a variety of materials (acorns, stones, driftwood, walnuts, beads, buttons, and even wire) all hand sewn together on dyed wool and photographed.  The result is stunning.  This book is a true treasure to be savored over and over...and try to resist the temptation to rip the pages out and frame them to decorate you child's room. 

The Carrot Seed

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
Illustrated by Crockett Johnson
1945

     If you have been reading my blog, you know that the books I tend to write about are all fairly recent publications, 10 years old at most.  Today is different.  When I was trying to decide what book to blog about, my eyes kept going back to my little board book edition of The Carrot Seed.  As old as this book is, (first edition dates back to 1945) I only read it for the first time two years ago and it's been a family favorite ever since (I grew up abroad, so some of the books that everybody grew up with in the US, I have never read...and vice versa).
     "A little boy planted a carrot seed."  His mom, dad and brother keep tell him that nothing is going to come up, that the seed won't germinate.  But still, the boy tends to the patch were he planted the seed.  He waters it, weeds it and waits, and waits.  Still nothing comes up and his family insists that nothing will ever come up.  But the boy believes and eventually, a carrot came up "just as the little boy had known it would."  He never gave up, even when nobody else believed.  That's perseverance and dedication right there.  Aside from the story, I love the illustrations by Crocket Johnson (of Harold and the Purple Crayon fame).  The drawings all have a kind of sepia, mustard and rust tone to it, except for the carrot tree which comes up shooting straight to the sky with a bright green, and the gigantic carrot the boy is able to harvest which is a bold orange color.
     I will try to include from now on, those classic books that I get to rediscover.