The Thirteen Clocks, by James Thurber. Illustrations by Marc
Simony.
Another acquisition from the great San Antonio Library Sale.
They seemed determined to get rid of any good books they still had, or maybe
they had new copies. Anyway, I had read it in college and was as pleased as
punch to find this copy. A poetic book, a fractured fairy tale, and has the
Golux, the only Golux in the world, and his indescribable hat. This book is the
obvious ancestor of Peter S. Beagle’s “The Last Unicorn”. A book, like the
Golux’s hat, that is indescribable, a mixture of whimsy, horror (the scene
where the ball comes bouncing down the staircase is somehow worse than anything
I’ve ever read of in many a ‘scary’ book), and magic, and must be experienced
to even begin to comprehend what it is. Its library binding somehow makes it an
even more authentic experience. [Not my cover.]
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.
Rivets and Sprockets, Written and Illustrated by Alexander
Key.
A book I read in grade school and in the public library
during the summer. There were two others in the series; the first was
“Sprockets: A Little Robot”, and the third was “Bolts: A Robot Dog”. Sprockets
is a factory mistake: a robot the size of a boy with a brain the size of a
planet (a genuine Asimov Positronic Brain!). His little brother Sprockets had
only a semi-positronic brain. Together they help Dr. Bailey and his son get to
Mars to answer a mysterious signal before the evil scientist Professor Vladimir
Katz can claim it for the Russian government. Looking now at the dilemma of a
little metal boy in a world of humans, I wonder if my own character of Athenor
might not have been influenced by stealth memories of Sprockets (who also wears
clothes, not a robotic or brass homuncular trait). Had no idea until years
later that this was the same Key who wrote the Witch Mountain books, or “The
Golden Enemy”, a book we read in middle school. We didn’t really pay much
attention to author’s names back then. This copy is from the great San Antonio
Library sale.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Science Fiction. Series. Hardback.
The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley. Illustrations by
Roberta McDonald.
Junior Deluxe Edition. For years I avoided reading this book;
illustrations and adaptations I’d seen of it seemed a little too frilly and
twee to me. When I read Humphrey Carpenter’s synopsis and analysis in “Secret
Gardens: The Golden Age of Children’s Literature”, however, I gave it a try and
found it actually deserving of its classic status. It is the story of a poor
chimney sweep named Tom who falls into a stream and drowns, becoming a
Water-Baby in the process. He must undergo a Purgatorial, evolutionary process as
he travels through the sea and grows wiser and kinder, eventually saving his
cruel former master (who also has died) from the Back of Beyond. “And then, if
my story is not true, something better is; and if I am
not quite right, still you will be, as long as you
stick to hard work and cold water. But remember always, as I
told you at first, that this is all a fairy tale, and
only fun and pretence: and, therefore, you
are not to believe a word of it, even if it is true.”
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.
The Peculiar Miss Pickett, by Nancy R. Julian. Illustrations
by Donald E. Cooke.
Part of the “Nanny Invasion” of America after Mary Poppins,
Miss Pickett was a babysitter with peculiarly powerful spectacles. I read it in
5th Grade, I think, and what I remembered most about it was the
gathering of bears that included the Big Bear, Ursa Major, with stars in its
eyes. I didn’t find it all that impressive even then, except from a comparative
literature point of view. I was developing an eye for sources and influences,
or ‘copying’, as I called it then. Bought this ‘in memoriam’ years later.
Besides, it’s a Scholastic. I find now it has a sequel, “Miss Pickett’s
Secret”.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Children’s Fantasy. Softcover.
The Wizard in the Tree, by Lloyd Alexander. Illustrations by
Laszlo Kubinyi.
The first Alexander I ever read, in Briesemeister. If I
traveled back in time right now, I could locate its exact position on the
shelves. The story of the kitchen maid Mallory, who discovers a wizard who has
been caught in a tree since before the magic people left for Vale Innis, an age
ago. As they seek to revive his rusty powers, the two get caught up in the
machinations of the Dickensian Squire Scupnor, who thinks they have seen too
much of his evil plans. An entertaining book that fed my want of wizards, with
nice pencilly pictures. But it wasn’t quite “The Hobbit”. Hard to believe that
I read this but not “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, though. A Dell
Yearling.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.
The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander.
Cover by Jean-Leon Huens.
Eight tales connected to the history of Prydain, explaining
some background and mysteries about the characters and objects in the
Chronicles. A Dell Yearling.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Short stories. Fantasy. Softcover.
Homer Price and Centerburg Tales: More Adventures of Homer
Price, Written and Illustrated by Robert McCloskey.
Read these stories back in 4th grade, and they are
a slice of small-town Mayberry-esque Americana, An out of control donut
machine, a musical mousetrap, mail-order seeds gone wild, an ear-worm song that
takes over the town, a slick salesman selling an ‘invisible’ enhancer, all lead
to adventure and mayhem. I love the picture of the musical mousetrap, a vehicle
to lure away the mice rather than kill them. And we can all learn the lessons
taught by buying Ever-So-Much-More-So. Got these copies of newer Scholastic
reprints at Half-Price.
Ranking: Keepers.
File Code: Children’s Books. Americana. Softcovers.
The 13 Clocks, by James Thurber. Illustrated by Marc Simont.
Introduction by Neil Gaiman.
A New York Review Children’s Classic Collection book, with
their signature red spine binding. A new deluxe edition I had to have. See
elsewhere in the Inventory for my review of the book.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.
The Shy Stegosaurus of Indian Springs (Illustrated by Paul
Galdone), and The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek (Illustrated by Hubert Buel,
by Evelyn Sibley Lampman.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that all small
children love dinosaurs. How much more can they love a dinosaur named George,
the talking, peaceable last of the stegosaurus who has the chameleon-like
ability to fade into the rocks and sand of the desert and thus evade detection.
It’s no wonder he makes friends with the children who discover him and who then
must keep his secret. I read the ‘Cricket Creek’ one back in McQueeney; I don’t
believe they had a copy of the other one. When I saw these copies at the fabled
San Antonio Library sale, I had to have them. They are bound in that
old-fashioned school binding that somehow incorporate the cover picture into
the boards; are they just bought that way or is there a process they can do? I
think the ‘cricket’ in the title might have helped draw me. I always had a
liking for crickets; they were harmless, easy to handle, and swarmed the school.
Our grade school paper (a mimeograph) was even called “The Cricket Chirps”; its
mascot was a cricket in a matador suit.
Ranking: Keepers.
File Code: Adventure. Children’s Book. Hardback.
Mr. Revere and I, and Captain Kidd’s Cat, Written and
Illustrated by Robert Lawson.
Two fairly harshly used ex-library editions of Lawson’s
books, one told by a horse and the other by a cat. Personally, I’d like to find
a copy of “I Discover Columbus”, as told by his faithful parrot. More looks at
history through the eyes of the animals who happened to be there. I read
‘Revere’ years ago in school, but still haven’t got around to ‘Cat’ yet.
Ranking: Essential. Essential. Keeper. In that order.
File Code: History. Beast Fable. Hardbacks.
