The Moffats, by Eleanor Estes. Illustrations by Louis
Slobodkin.
I have this because I have vague memories of it being in Mrs.
Roberts first grade class, and because it is a Scholastic book. It seems a
little advanced for first grade, but perhaps she read it for story time.
Ranking: Nostalgia. Keeper?
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Scholastic Book, Illustrated by Dom Lupo. Bought at a
garage sale, years later, as a remembrance of grade school ambiance, though I
didn’t read it there. We did have a Classics Illustrated comic book though, and
a Whitman Classic [from Gibson’s], I think.
Ranking: Keeper.
Paul Bunyan Swings His Axe, by Dell J. McCormick. Illustrated
by Leo Summers.
A word about these Scholastic Books, many of which are
upcoming. I read lots of these in McQueeney, and most by Fourth Grade. But we
didn’t own a whole lot of them. Now I’m not entirely sure which ones we did.
The sad truth is that in those early years we read many books to rags, and then
they got thrown out, and memories grow fuzzy. Most of these copies are
secondhand, garage sale books that I went collecting through the 80’s and 90’s.
But I do know I read it.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Children’s Book. Scholastic. Softcover.
Stuart Little, by E. B. White. Pictures by Garth Williams.
A Dell Yearling Book. Read what I have to say about “Stuart
Little” in a previous entry. This is a ‘reading’ copy in better shape.
Ranking: Keeper.
The Enormous Egg, by Oliver Butterworth. Illustrated by Louis
Darling.
In 1956 Oliver Butterworth, an English and Latin teacher in
New England, published a children's book called The Enormous Egg.
It tells the story of a twelve-year-old boy named Nate Twitchell whose favorite
hen lays an unusually large egg that hatches into a triceratops that the lad
dubs Uncle Beazley. Nate raises the throwback, and most of the story tells the
trials and joys of caring and feeding for the lumbering, genial behemoth.
Eventually it becomes too much for the boy and Uncle Beazley ends up being
well-cared-for prize exhibit in a government zoo.
In 1964 the Sinclair Oil Company made nine life-sized
fiberglass replicas of different species of dinosaurs for the New York City's
World Fair. When the Fair was over the dinosaurs were donated to several
museums and institutions throughout the nation. One of them, the triceratops,
ended up in the 1968 hour-long T.V. special made of The Enormous Egg,
playing Uncle Beazley. I watched that show when I was but a wee lad, and
although the figure was completely unarticulated, it was so realistic a figure
and the way it was shot was so artful, I swear I remember it breathing and
blinking its eyes.
In 1972 I was in fourth grade, and I read the book. It
included illustrations by the ubiquitous children's illustrator Louis Darling.
I dimly remembered the show from almost half my lifetime ago. When the time
came to write to an author for a class project, I chose Oliver Butterworth. I
wrote about how I enjoyed the book, and what I could recollect about the show.
He sent me back a card (it had a rather abstract picture of a couple of owls on
it) and a letter written inside. He said about how the model of Uncle Beazley was
now at a national zoo. My mom put the letter inside the first volume of our set
of Childcraft. It has since disappeared, but I was always rather proud of this
contact with an author.
Oliver Butterworth published two other books, one a sequel
adventure of Nate Twitchell (no dinosaurs this time). He passed away in 1990.
As of 2007, Uncle Beazley was still on display in Washington D. C.'s National
Zoo, where he was still a sentimental favorite with kids and nostalgic baby
boomers everywhere.
Ranking: Essential.
Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren. Illustrated by Nancy
Seligson.
In 1973, a Pippi Longstocking movie was released in America,
so it was in the air. She was also familiar from school readers. I remember
reading it in 4th grade, a rather daring act, because the
protagonist was a - gasp – girl! But she was liberated beyond the girly-girls
of the time, being the strongest girl of the world, living on her own, having a
chest of gold to pay her way through the world, and most appealing of all, not
giving a hoot about grown-ups and social conventions. I recall feeling a sort
of admiring friendship for her. It is possible – just possible – that a little
bit of her snuck into my portrait of Daisy Bellamy without me being aware of
it. Those pigtails!
Ranking: Essential.
The Seven Voyages of Sinbad and Other Tales from the Arabian
Night, Retold by Gladys Davidson. Illustrated by Irma Wilde.
A Scholastic Book, the same text as that paperback earlier,
which I didn’t realize until now. Saw this version in 4th Grade,
which is why I have this copy.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Children’s Book. Classic. Softcover.
Rudyard Kipling’s First Jungle Book. Illustrated by Charles
Beck.
A Scholastic Book, which I saw in 4th Grade. We
already had a “Companion Library of Classics” edition, but I read this one in
class. I remember being impressed with the illustration of the White Cobra. Got
this copy in memory.
Ranking: Keeper.
Mr. Popper’s Penguins, by Richard and Florence Atwater.
Illustrated by Robert Lawson.
Very popular; not only in various classrooms, but even
Captain Kangaroo read from it. I liked it okay, but it wasn’t ever a favorite
of mine. Scholastic Book, often in the Weekly Reader book orders, as I recall.
Ranking: Keeper.
Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars, by Ellen MacGregor.
Illustrations by Paul Galdone.
The first in the series by McGregor, Scholastic also
published “Miss Pickerell and the Geiger Counter”, “Miss Pickerell Goes
Undersea”, and “Miss Pickerell Goes to the Arctic”. The series is famous for
its cunning insertion of actual scientific fact as the elderly spinster goes on
one after another unlikely adventure. Read it in grade school and got this copy
later. The series was continued after MacGregor’s death (1954) until 1983. “The
first heroes of children’s literature were little old women.”
Ranking: Keeper.
While Mrs. Coverlet Was Away and Mrs. Coverlet’s Magicians,
by Mary Nash. Illustrated by Garrett Price.
More kids trying to get along without grown-ups, their father
being off on a job and their housekeeper being called away. The superior older
brother Malcolm, the practical worrywart sister Molly, and the headstrong
youngest boy Toad (real name Theobald) who always mishears names and titles
that gives him strange ideas. The second book has them in the same position,
except that Toad is using magic he learned from sending away from an ad in a
comic book on their temporary unpleasant guardian. I read these in grade school
and liked them alright and got these in memory of that experience. There is a
third volume, “Mr. Coverlet’s Detectives”, which I do not have. These books might
have influenced my affection for cats.
Ranking: Keepers.
File Code: Scholastic. Children’s Book. Classic. Softcover.
Lost Race of Mars, by Robert Silverberg. Illustrated by
Leonard Kessler.
A Scholastic book, read in 4th Grade. Learned much
later that Silverberg was a fairly famous science fiction writer.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Children’s Book. Softcover.
Detectives in Togas, by Henry Winterfeld, Illustrated by
Charlotte Kleinert.
Read this book in 4th Grade, and it’s probably the
first novel of historical times in Rome that I’d ever read, possibly because of
its connection to the myths and legends. “Set in ancient Rome, the story
follows a group of schoolboys who try to solve several crimes: the attack on
their teacher and the desecration of a temple wall.” – Wikipedia. Originally
written in German, and sneaks in a great deal of history. There is a sequel,
“Mystery of the Roman Ransom”, that I’ve never seen or read. Bought this copy
in memory. It’s sort of a groundbreaker for ‘Claudius’ for me.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Children’s Book. Mystery. Soft Cover.
Henry and the Paper Route, by Beverly Cleary. Illustrated by
Louis Darling.
The only book by Beverly Cleary I ever owned. Henry Huggins
has plans to run a paper route (though he is a little young). Hard to judge at
this distance why I wanted this book; it seemed interesting at the time, and
the author was popular. Did I want to have a paper route? Did I connect it with
the Homer Price books? This copy bought in memory of my old Scholastic book.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Children’s Book. Softcover.
Tales from Silver Lands, by Charles J. Finger. Woodcuts by
Paul Honore.
A Scholastic book, bought at Yesterday’s Warehouse. “The book
is a collection of nineteen folktales of the native populations of Central and South America. Collected during Finger's travels,
it was one of the first volumes of South American indigenous folktales
available to children.” – Wikipedia. I bought it when I realized that it
contained “The Hungry Old Witch”, that I had read and shuddered at in “Witches,
Witches, Witches”.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Newberry winner. Folktales. Softcover.
