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How Dr. Seuss Got His Start 'On Mulberry Street'Seventy-five years ago, before Theodor Geisel rocked the culinary world with green eggs and ham or put a red-and-white striped top hat on a talking cat, Geisel (whom you probably know better as Dr. Seuss) was stuck on a boat, returning from a trip to Europe. For eight days, he listened to the ship's engine chug away. The sound got stuck in his head, and he started writing to the rhythm. Eventually, those rhythmic lines in his head turned into his first children's book: It was called And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. The story, which turns 75 this year, is about a boy named Marco who wants to tell his father an interesting story about what he saw that day on his walk home from school — but the only thing Marco has seen (other than his own feet) is a boring old horse and wagon on Mulberry Street. |
Mo Willems |
Mo Willems is the go-to author for children — and their parentsThe most famous man in the literary world, if you are under three feet tall, has a trim beard and a lean physique and is currently sending the kindergartners of Raymond Elementary School into fits of apoplectic hysteria because he has just uttered the funniest phrase in the history of the universe, which is “bird poop.” Mo Willems wrote City Dog, Country Frog. “The thing about writing for kids is that there are no cultural modifiers. You can’t say that something ‘is so Walter Mondale.’ ” You can’t reference the Kardashians. The Kardashians are meaningless to kids. “So all you have to work with is love, anger, jealousy — it’s a very small palette, but the existential crises are ultimately the same.”
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The seemingly simple story is told with considerable sophistication. A nameless, nearly expressionless bear is looking for his hat. One by one, he asks the forest creatures he encounters whether they have seen it. “No,” says a frog. “I have not seen any hats around here.” “I saw a hat once,” replies a snake. “It was blue and round.” “What is a hat?” a clueless possum responds. To each, the bear, dejected, is nonetheless unfailingly polite: “Thank you anyway.” it is a wonderful and astonishing thing, the kind of book that makes child laugh and adult chuckle, and both smile in appreciation. |
JUST A SECOND
Steve Jenkins also wrote the wonderul book Sisters and Brothers |
How to Really Tell TimeA four year old approached his mother, the director of a child's museum, and asked her, "Is it later now?" How can children understand time? Steve Jenkins the author of many children's books offers a creative look at ways to help children gain a useful perspecitve on the passage of time. He uses natrual happenings like the number of times a bumblebee beats its wings in one second. A horned lizard can devour 45 ants one at a time in one minute. |
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CITY DOG, COUNTRY FROG, by Mo and Muth, is a poetic, funny, and stunningly beautiful picturebook tale of friendship in five chapters: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring Again. If there is such a thing as perfection in the world of picturebooks, this is definitely located in that neighborhood. In the spring, a leash-less City Dog running in the country encounters a Country Frog sitting on a rock: "'What are you doing?' asked City Dog."'Waiting for a friend,' replied Country Frog with a smile."'But you'll do.'" The two new friends proceed to play together. Since the dog "was new to the country," he follows the frog's lead in playing games that involve "jumping and splashing and croaking."
Author Mo Willems and illustrator Jon Muth have captured the essence to having a satisfying and rich life. You will find yourself reading this book over and over to your child because there will be loses just as there are gains in life. If your child knows how to react to the loss of a friend, a loved animal, then life will be good again if your child learns to say, "But you'll do" when the time comes for him to make new friends or perhaps get another dog or kitty. It's these kinds of stories that act as buffers during hard times in life. |
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Al Yankovic took his father's advice about life when he grew up. "Do whatever makes you happy," his father told him. And, he did. In this book the main character, Billy, takes on life with gusto. When asked what he wants to be in life he replies, in rhyme of course, that he wants to train snails, shave tarantulas, be a gorilla masseuse. Such nonsense out the mouth of babes is not nonsense at all. Who says what you imagine has to make sense? Some of the brightest children I have ever met imagined things which made very little sense but their imaginations were as big as the Empire State Building--or as wide as the mile-long tide of the Mississippi river. These kids always made my day a little better, more stimulating, and lots more interesting. Use this book as a portal to your child's imagining. See what happens! It is such a delight to read this book with a child. You will find this book being pulled off the shelves often and read and re-read over and over again. Imagining something has no limits, doesn't have to stick with any rules. It's always a bastard kind of event. |
How Things Work |
2011 Medal Winner |
All Saints' Day School Carmel, California 831-624-9171
February 8, 9 -- 6-8pm Valentine's Favorites! 831-644-0272
831-625-JAMS
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One of the unforgettable ways an artist makes a point is by pairing. Pairing? What's that? Pairing is the juxtaposing of two or more ingredients together. Wine and cheese is a pairing we are all familiar with. Painters belonging to the fauvist school of painting juxtaposed strong colors. But there is pairing of another kind of thing----- a pairing of ideas. When done thoughtfully, it can elicit a deep awareness of what it is to be alive and part of something bigger than yourself. Patrick McDonnell's new book South pairs human emotions with an activity humans never really experience first hand. Birds migrate. Butterflies migrate. Whales migrate. But humans only watch migrations. They click away counting the migration participants, but they don't participate in migrations year after year during their lifetimes. |
But, as McDonnell sees it, an orphaned yellow bird who doesn't join his fellow birds in a migration south can experience loss, lonliness, crossing boundaries, expanding horizons just as humans can. Fortunately in South McDonnell hesitates to use any text whatsoever. And this is the one omission that signals the drama of powerful situations like lonliness, loss, saying good-bye, and expanding horizons.
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A Unique Pairing
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831-625-JAMS
Contra Costa Certified Farmers' Market
Bahama Island Steakhouse Carmel, California 831-626-0430 This is the best menu around for fresh salads that surprise you with mangos, pineapple, nuts, and fresh ginger. Their seafood creations are also highly recommended. |
831-644-0272
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Monterey Farmers Markets
Carmel Farmers Markets |
All right reserved - Judy Wilken MS - 2011