The Lungfish, the Dodo, and the Unicorn, by Willy Ley.
“An Excursion into Romantic Zoology. New Edition, Completely
Revised and Considerably Enlarged.” There was a copy of this in the high school
library; it is a very early work of cryptozoology, theorizing about extinct
animals, anomalous creatures, and the possible real basis for legendary animals
like dragons and unicorns. I was happy to run across this copy at Half-Price
and finally snag an old memory. Many line illustrations. [Lacks this jacket.]
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Cryptozoology. Hardback.
The Good Old Days – They Were Terrible! by Otto L. Bettman
There was a copy of this in the high school library. It is
sort of a record of anti-nostalgia, recording all the disasters, plagues, foolish
practices, prejudices, and unregulated pollution of the past, from the 1800’s
into the early 1900’s. A corrective for anyone with an over-idyllic idea of the
past. Many contemporary illustrations.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Social History. Softcover.
They Have a Word for It, by Howard Rheingold. Illustrated by
Rosanne Litzinger.
“A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words and Phrases”.
“They Have a Word for It takes the reader to the far corners of the
globe to discover words and phrases for which there are no equivalents in
English. From the North Pole to New Guinea, from Easter Island to Tibet, Howard
Rheingold explores more than forty familiar and obscure languages to discover
genuinely useful (rather than simply odd) words that can open up new ways of
understanding and experience life.” – Goodreads. An interesting browser from
which I learned about ‘wabi’ and ‘sabi’, and other terms for which there is no
precise English equivalent. I’ve had it for about 30 years.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Lexicon. Humor. Hardback.
The Isle of Gramarye: An Anthology of the Poetry of Magic,
Edited by Jennifer Westwood. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes.
A lovely little collection, less than a hundred pages long,
not of childish rhymes but poems that were selected to appeal to youngsters
with a taste for magic. With poetry by Shakespeare, de la Mare, Yeats, Tolkien,
Masefield, and others, it is an enchanting book full of Baynes’ charming
illustrations.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Poetry. Magic. Hardback.
The Impossible People, by Georgess McHargue. Illustrated by
Frank Bozzo.
“A History Natural and Unnatural of Beings Terrible and
Wonderful”. “The Impossible People is one of the first volumes of
folklore I ever owned. I got my original (softcover) copy for ten cents at a
school book sale [I think it was a church school]; this hardback I ordered just
this year [2009]. We read the cover off our old copy; I remember our amusement
when the description of a Hag ("females of great age, with bent backs,
rheumy eyes, clawlike hands, sunken cheeks, long noses, wispy hair,
and sometimes pointed teeth") perfectly fit our third grade teacher.
Informative and well-organized, presented without any embellishments or
speculation, it is a great introduction for a young reader to creatures of
legend and fairy tale.” – Power of Babel. I now find there is a kind of a
companion volume by McHargue: “The Beasts of Never: A History Natural and
Un-natural of Monsters Mythical and Magical.” [Lacks Jacket. I include the old Dell Yearling cover.]
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Folklore. Children’s. Hardback.
The Beasts of Never, by Georges McHargue.
“A History Natural and Unnatural of Monsters Mythical and
Magical: Revised and Expanded Edition.” Illustrated by Frank Bozzo. One of the
volumes ordered for my 57th birthday and arrived August 1st.
Used library book, apparently, and so was in a rather sturdy and very
reasonably priced format.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Mythological Bestiary. Children’s Book. Hardback.
Nathaniel’s Witch, by Katherine Gibson. Illustrated by Vera
Bock.
“Nathaniel's Witch, by Katherine Gibson, illustrated by Vera Bock (Longman's,
Green and Co., 1941). This book was brought out by the same team that
produced Cinders, the lost childhood book I've written about
before; the existence of Nathaniel's Witch was even pointed out
by Peter Sieruta on the same site that helped me find Cinders. It
is the story of Nathaniel Endicott, 11 years old, who is that rarest of
characters in children's literature, an orphan. It is 1785 in the United States
of America, and among his other troubles, Nathaniel finds he must help a
reluctant witch escape the power of the evil Witchmaster (highly hinted to be
the Devil himself). The Witchmaster has scornfully declared the witch can
escape "only when you are St. Nick!" Nathaniel decides they can make
this come true if the Witch delivers toys on Christmas Eve, and the adventure
of the book is them trying to accomplish this against all odds and the
Witchmaster's opposition. While I was reading the tale I began to feel it was
designed to be a perfect 1940's film: I even cast it using period actors in my
mind, with Jackie Cooper as Nathaniel, Veronica Lake as Jacquett the Witch,
Basil Rathbone as the Witchmaster, and S. Z. Sakall as the Toymaker. It was a
highly enjoyable tale and one I am glad to add to my library.” – Power of
Babel, 2012. An ex-library copy. [Lacks Jacket]
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Fantasy. Children’s. Hardback.
Noodles, Nitwits, and Numskulls, by Maria Leach. Illustrated
by Kurt Worth.
This is an old ex-library copy I bought at Yesterday’s Warehouse,
I think. Being young and inexperienced at the time, at one point I mended the
spine with gray masking tape. Sigh. “This collection of centuries-old
noodlehead jokes, riddles, tricks, and stories with surprise endings provides
background material and sources for each story.” – Goodreads. [Lacks Jacket]
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Fool Tales. Riddles. Hardback.
Into Other Worlds, by Roger Lancelyn Green.
“Space Flight in Fiction, From Lucian to Lewis”. Green “was a
British biographer and children's writer. He was an Oxford academic who formed
part of the Inklings literary discussion group along
with C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.” – Wikipedia. The book covers the
varied literary tradition of ways to travel in space to other worlds, whether
magical, metaphysical, or scientific. Learned without being pedantic, this
straightforward book recounts what these ‘voyages’ said, with some pithy
backgrounds of the people, culture, and times they were written. A rather old
book and a little frail; found at a local estate sale, I think, rather to my
surprise. [Lacks Jacket]
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Space Flight. Literary Criticism. Hardback.
Grimm’s Fairy Tales, by the Brothers Grimm. Translated by
Mrs. E. V. Lucas, Lucy Crane, and Marion Edwardes. Illustrations by Fritz
Kredel.
This second-hand book, old as it is (it is inscribed ‘Merry
Christmas 1947’) and baby oil-stained (would be my guess), it is the first
replacement I ever found for the copy we had (and still have) from as far back
as I can remember, and which has been read into rags, as much an artifact as a
book. Bizarre images, from poodles being fed fiery coals to a severed horse
head being nailed over a gate to weird little inhuman grey men bargaining for a
man’s son; these sank into our own heads, populating them with a world of
wonder and danger. How did we get that first copy? Was it left over from Mom or
Pop’s childhood? Just bought at a secondhand store or garage sale? Given as a
present from a relative when Mom and Pop had kids, because kids needed fairy
tales? No one alive to ask about it now. A strange connection to Chesterton,
though. Mrs. E. V. Lucas was the wife of one of his best friends. This was a
popular edition from Grosset and Dunlap, often paired with a similar printing
of Andersen’s Fairy Tales.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code. Fairy Tales. German. Hardback.
Fairy Tales and After: From Snow White to E. B. White, by
Roger Sale.
I found this book at a retired teacher’s estate sale, back
when I still went with Susan and Andy to garage sales. I was familiar with the
name of Sale as an editor and contributor to a book of essays on Tolkien and
his works, so was interested in what he had to say about children’s literature.
It was published in 1978, so it was a time when whimsy and fantasy still needed
some defending; I would say that it’s now reached the point when it needs some
judicious curbing. He begins with fairy tales, both folk and literary, then
“concentrates on what he calls the ‘classic successes’: Lewis Carroll, Beatrix
Potter, Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows, Kipling’s Kim, L. Frank Baum’s
Oz series, White’s Charlotte’s Web, and the Freddy stories of Walter R.
Brooks.” - New Yorker. One classic
illustration at the head of each chapter.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Literary Criticism. Children’s Literature. Soft
Cover.
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones.
“The Essential Guide to Fantasy Travel. Revised and Updated
Edition. Dark Lord Approved.” “I got a copy of Jones' A Tough Guide to Fantasyland.
I had heard good things about it, and it turned out to
be completely as advertised: a hilariously
funny parodic encyclopedia of the clichés of Fantasy writing. I
laughed and groaned as I recognized my own past sins time and time again, from
the perils of STEW to the plain facts about BOOTS and HORSES.” - Power of
Babel. The book that went far to reconciling me with Jones’s work, which before
had seemed … well, “Every time I would search the shelves [at a bookstore] I
would pass a huge wodge of her books I would automatically jump over, cursing
her (unfairly) for taking up space while the books I wanted were elsewhere.” –
Ibid. Connected in a way with her “Dark Lord of Derkholm” and “Year of the
Griffin” books.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Fantasy. Parody. Hardback.
Reflections on the Magic of Writing, by Diana Wynne Jones.
With a Foreword by Neil Gaiman.
“This collection of more than twenty-five critical essays,
speeches, and biographical pieces chosen by Diana Wynne Jones before her death
in 2011 is essential reading for the author's many fans and for students and
teachers of the fantasy genre and creative writing in general. The volume
includes insightful literary criticism alongside autobiographical anecdotes,
revelations about the origins of the author's books, and reflections about the life
of an author and the value of writing for young people.” -from the book jacket.
Includes her last interview. Jones attended lectures by both C. S. Lewis and J.
R. R. Tolkien when she was in college – which may or may not have a lot to do
with this book but is a fascinating fact. I will always listen to what a good
fantasy writer tells me about fantasy writing, and she is one of the better,
more entertaining ones. Though she was writing for most of my life, I got on
the Jones bandwagon (figuratively speaking) just minutes before she passed
away. Just a note here: I used to have the Chrestomanci books, in three volumes
containing three books each, some allied short story collections, and the
Dalemark series in one volume, but I sold or gave them away, I can’t remember
which. Why? Not quite what I wanted, and I could spare them.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Essays. Literary Criticism. Hardback.
House of Many Ways, by Diana Wynne Jones.
“The Sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle”. “Charmain Baker has led
a respectable, and relaxing sheltered life. She has spent her days with her
nose in a book, never learning how to do even the smallest household chores.
When she suddenly ends up looking after the tiny cottage of her ill Great-Uncle
William she seems happy for the adventure, but the easy task of house-sitting
is complicated by the fact that Great-Uncle William is also the Royal Wizard of
Norland and his magical house bends space and time.” – Wikipedia. Howl, Sophie
and Calcifer also turn up. Although I know I read this book, I remember very
little about it; but it is the last in this particular series of Jones’s books.
Ranking: Essential to the Collection.
File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.
Big Fish, by Daniel Wallace.
“A Novel of Mythic Proportion”. I came to this book via Tim
Burton’s movie adaptation, and found that, as usual, a book and its film are
very different critters, worthy as each might be. “In his prime, Edward Bloom
was an extraordinary man. He could outrun anybody. He never missed a day of
school. He saved lives and tamed giants. Animals loved him, people loved him,
women loved him. He knew more jokes than any man alive. At least that’s what he
told his son, William. But now Edward Bloom is dying, and William wants
desperately to know the truth about his elusive father—this indefatigable
teller of tall tales—before it’s too late. So, using the few facts he knows,
William re-creates Edward’s life in a series of legends and myths, through
which he begins to understand his father’s great feats, and his great failings.
The result is hilarious and wrenching, tender and outrageous.” – Amazon. A
story about how people can come to understand one another through mythic means,
when bare “facts” can hardly reveal the soul.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Novel. Magical Realism? Softcover.
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