Books for Children: A Christmas List
BY CHARLOTTE JACKSON
CHARLOTTE JACKSON, who is the author of seven juveniles,is Children’s Book Editor for the San Francisco CHRONICLE.
The following books, chosen from the hundreds that burgeon from the presses at this season, are written with originality and imagination and illustrated with pictures that reflect the feeling of the text.
We begin with the alphabet books for the youngest readers and proceed chronologically, with selections from the various categories in each age group, to those for the early teenagers,
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTTJVWXYZ, written and illustrated by KARLA KUSKIN (Harper & Row), begins with ants nibbling plants, alternates activities of insects and small animals throughout, and finishes with zoos filled with gnus. A happy combination of precise pen-and-ink drawings washed with color and a humorous couplet for each alphabetical participant.
DR. SEUSS’S ABC BOOK (Random House). The twenty-six letters, big and little, bravely adapt themselves to Dr. Seuss’s nonsense rhymes, alliterative word groups, comical pictures, and made-up words,
HAROLD’S ABC, written and illustrated by CROCKETT JOHNSON (Harper & Row), pictures pajamaclad Harold and his familiar purple crayon, with which he draws alphabet stepping-stones that provide him with a solid footing for his trip to the moon.
COWBOY’S SECRET LIFE, written and illustrated by JOAN WALSH ANGLUND (Harcourt, Brace & World). Moppets who enjoy their own peregrinations into special, private worlds will relish the magical adventures of this brave cowboy who can quell fierce dragons with a glance, command a ship in a raging storm, or transport himself effortlessly to Eskimoland or outer space. Real and imaginary exploits charmingly defined by the author-artist.
DORCAS PORKUS, written and illustrated by TASHA TUDOR (Walck),
is an ingratiating tale, with pictures to match, that tells about the troubles of Sylvie Ann when she decided to give her pig a bath on the day her mother was having a quilting party.
A TRAIN TO SPAIN, written and illustrated by WADE RAY (Knopf). A complete panorama of gay pictures tells, along with the simple text, just how a determined group of people in southern France get to a fiesta in Spain to which they have been invited.
PARIS IN THE RAIN WITH JEAN AND JACQUELINE by THEA BERGERE, pictures by Richard Bergere (McGrawHill). Protected by a huge umbrella, two French children wander the slick, cobbled streets, peek into sidewalk cafés, sail boats in the overflowing gutters, pause to watch the tugs and barges on the Seine, and enjoy many other adventures before popping into bed to listen to the raindrops drumming on the roof. Watercolor scenes in misty purple with an occasional splash of red.
THE LITTLE KNIGHT’S DRAGON, written and illustrated by DENISE and ALAIN TREZ (World). Unimpressed by tales of his father’s brave deeds of chivalry, Little Knight simply continued to play marbles quite happily. Then he heard that a beautiful princess was held captive by a fierce dragon, and off he galloped in shining armor, not forgetting his marbles, which came in very handy. Comic pictures in full color.
MRS. POPOVER GOES TO THE ZOO by DALE EVERSON, pictures by Janet McCaffery (Morrow). Plump Mrs. Popover, generous with cakes and cookies, had a serious fault that the neighborhood children tried to overlook. The day she took twentyfour of them to the zoo, however, it was almost her undoing. A jolly counting story, with a marvelous sequence of pictures in rainbow colors.
JUST BEYOND PRIMERS
THE GOLDEN FROG by ANICO SURANY. illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher (Putnam). An Indian boy living on a remote island in the San Blas group discovers a shining relic of another civilization while pursuing his dog into the thick, tropical jungle. A fresh locale, good adventure, and an altogether charming tale, with illustrations in brilliant color, inspired by textiles woven by Panamanian Indians.
LOOKING FOR ALEXANDER by DAVID CORNEL DEJONG, illustrated by Harvey Weiss (Atlantic—Little, Brown), is an enjoyable sequel to The Happy Birthday Egg. In this story David’s cat, Alexander, climbs to the top of a flagpole to escape a pack of dogs and then is afraid to come down. All methods of persuasion fail until David thinks of an idea that really works. Good reading fun. large type, and witty illustration.
ROLLING ROUND, written and illustrated by ROLF MYLLER (Atheneum). When Hildegard, the king’s horse, developed a temperature and was too sick to carry the king to remote towns in the kingdom, other means of transportation had to be found immediately. Thus begins the amusing saga of how not only the king’s problem was solved but that of the rest of the world as well by the invention of the wheel. Wonderful spot drawings throughout show the progress of various forms of locomotion up to the present.
THE WITCHES OF VENICE, written and illustrated by BENI MONTRESOR (Knopf). A merry, rosy-cheeked little boy and a beautiful little girl, both rejected flower-plant children, outwit the King of Venice and the Witches of the Grand Canal in this delightful new fairy tale, which does not neglect traditional rules but injects a seasoning of the modern. The illustrations are some of the best this talented artist has yet done.
A WHITE HERON by SARAH ORNE JEWETT, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Crowell). Small Sylvia, living with her grandmother on a lonely farm in Maine, made friends with animals and birds in the swamps and woods and was quite happy until a hunter, intent on finding the rare white heron, disturbed the tranquillity of her days. Sensing that Sylvia could help him but never would, the disappointed hunter is forced to leave. Pictures like Japanese prints interpret the quiet beauty of this gentle story.
BURT DOW: DEEP-WATER MAN, written and illustrated by ROBERT MCCLOSKEY (Viking). The comic adventure of an old Maine fisherman, who puts to sea in a leaky dory accompanied by his giggling pet gull and who almost meets disaster in the belly of a huge whale. New England know-how gets him out of that situation and others during a stormy day when he barely manages to get home. The spectacular part of this salty tale is the twenty-seven handsome paintings in full color revealing all aspects of the rough voyage.
THE MIDDLE YEARS
WILDFIRE by EVANS G. VALENS, JR., pictures by Clement Hurd (World). Author and artist with their combined talents vividly describe a forest fire which, starting from a tiny ember fanned by a slight breeze, sweeps through the woods, driving animals and birds before it and leaving charred ruins in its wake.
THE BEAST WITH THE MAGICAL HORN by ELEANOR CAMERON, illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush (AtlanticLittle, Brown). Mrs. Cameron, well known for her Mushroom Planet stories, has directed her versatile imagination to writing a charming fairy story. Pictures in color and black and white.
THE WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE by JOAN AIKEN, illustrated by Pat Marriott (Doubleday). This spellbinder is set in a country house in nineteenth-century England and tells of spine-chilling and at the same time funny situations that arise when two girls are left to the tender mercies of a wicked governess named Miss Slightcarp, whom they eventually outwit.
SAINT GEORGE AND THE DRAGON by EDMUND SPENSER, adapted by Sandol Stoddard Warburg, illustrated by Pauline Baynes (Houghton Mifflin). Taken from the first book of the Faerie Qjieene, the legend of the Redcross Knight is translated from archaic English, at first simplified, then gradually made more like the original, until the last canto, which becomes pure Spenser. Those who might resist the poem in its original form will find this version pleasurable reading that could open the way for further delving into the poet’s work. A handsome example of typographical design with delicate line drawings throughout.
BY THE GREAT HORN SPOON! by SID FLEISCHMAN, illustrated by Eric von Schmidt (Atlantic-Little, Brown). Jack Flagg and Praiseworthy, his young aunt’s butler, sought to recoup the family’s lost fortune by taking ship from Boston to California during the gold rush. Never dismayed, these bold adventurers cut villains down to size, made and lost fortunes, and invariably turned hopeless situations into triumphs. Tento twelve-year-olds will chuckle over the humorous dialogue and inadvertently get a bit of history from the authentic background.
TIME AT THE TOP by EDWARD ORMONDROYD, illustrated by Peggy Bach (Parnassus). Susan was terribly cross and fidgety when she took the creaky old elevator to the top, and no wonder, what with disappointments at home and at school. What took place from the time the elevator deposited her is a highly original tale of fantasy and realism, its segments dovetailed so neatly that the reader is unaware of where one ends and the other begins. A book not to miss, beautifully illustrated with black-and-white drawings, which are as much a part of the story as Tenniel’s are of Alice.
YOUNG MAN FROM THE PIEDMONT by LEONARD WIBBERLEY (Ariel) is the first volume of a projected threevolume series about the life of Thomas Jefferson. This first book begins with Jefferson’s birth in 1743 and closes with his signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776. In between, the reader learns of his life at home and at school and how his activities related to the political, social, and intellectual times just prior to the American Revolution.
GUNS IN THE HEATHER by LOCKHART AMERMAN (Harcourt, Brace & World). Son of an American secret agent, Jonathan Flower, who attends school near Edinburgh, receives a telegram ostensibly from his father instructing him to meet a certain Mr. Finch, who turns out to be one of an enemy gang intent upon doing away with Flower senior. Thus begins a chase that leads father and son all over Scotland, in and out of harrowing situations, until the villains get their just due. Many literary allusions, witty dialogue, and a fine background of bleak moors, boiling waterfalls, and threatening skies, all of which are eminently suitable to the story.
SISTER OF THE BRIDE by BEVERLY CLEARY, illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush (Morrow). Everyone in the family approached the impending wedding of eighteen-year-old Rosemary from a different viewpoint. The future bride was completely practical; Grandma thought of heirloom veils and gowns; Mother and Dad struggled to keep the affair within a certain budget; but sister Barbara, still in high school, enveloped herself in a rosy romantic dream, a dream that did not seem nearly so important once the wedding was over.
CHRISTMAS STORIES
HOW MRS. SANTA CLAUS SAVED CHRISTMAS by PHYLLIS MCGINLEY, illustrated by Kurt Werth (Lippincott). At first, Santa would have none of Mrs. Claus’s ideas for a new kind of Christmas, and putting them out of his mind, fell asleep. Mrs. Claus went straight to work, and when Santa woke up, he was as pleased as she with the new plan. Jolly pictures in red and green augment this gay story in verse.
MR. MILLOWBY’s CHRISTMAS TREE, written and illustrated by ROBERT HARRY (McGraw-Hill). Faced with tree so huge that it could not be brought into the house, Mr. Willowby solved the problem neatly, and as a result all the little forest animals were able to share in his Christmas celebration. Appealing verse and spirited pictures.
BRING A TORCH, JEANNETTE, ISABELLA, illustrated by ADRIENNE ADAMS (Scribner’s). Glowing watercolors illustrate each stage of the seventeenth-century Provençal carol as it is interpreted by French children and their parents on Christmas Eve, and has been for the past three centuries.
THE SHEPHERD’S REWARD by LEONARD WIBBERLEY, illustrated by Thomas Fisher (Washburn). An unusual, reverent version of the Nativity scene told in verse with penand-ink illustrations.
THE LAMB AND THE CHILD by DEAN FRYE, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin (McGraw-Hill). This story is based on The Second Shepherd’s Play from the fifteenth-century Wakefield cycle, in which the thieving Mak outwits the honest shepherds while they sleep. This version, played in the English villages for centuries, has lovely realistic touches of humor in text and pictures.
THE FOREVER CHRISTMAS TREE by YOSHIKO UCHIDA, illustrated by Kazue Mizumura (Scribner’s). When Takashi, living in a remote Japanese village, heard how Christmas was celebrated in other parts of the world, with trees laden with ornaments and lights, he longed for a Christmas tree of his own. The story tells how he found and decorated a special tree, thereby making the whole village, and particularly a lonely old neighbor, very happy.