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juushikaTitle: The Whispering Rabbit
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator: Cyndy Szekeres
Published: Golden Books, 1975 (1965)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 25
Total Page Count: 524,325
Text Number: 1907
Read Because: reading the author, borrowed from Open Library
Review: This is so cute that it made me lose my mind a little. Sweet, pastel, adorable art (Szekeres illus.), but not obnoxiously so. But the narrative is what won me: the invitation to creative invention which is so small, so gentle, so quiet, so thoughtful and sweet is a delightful, gentle premise and must make for a great bedtime book.
Title: The Important Book
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator: Leonard Weisgard
Published: HarperCollins, 1977 (1949)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 25
Total Page Count: 524,350
Text Number: 1908
Read Because: reading the author, borrowed from Open Library
Review: This is just poetry, isn't it! I appreciate the arbitrary simplicity of each importance, fundamentally non-definitive and therefore open to counter-definition, to reader involvement. The bold art and emphasis on graphic design compliments this nicely; there's a poster vibe to each panel. Brown has a penchant for list-oriented, experimental work, and while this is no Goodnight Moon it's a fascinating alternate example of the same general approach.
Title: Pussy Willow
Author: Margaret Wise Brown (1997 edited from the original by Diane Muldrow)
Illustrator: Leonard Weisgard (1951), Jo-Ellen C. Bosson, 1997
Published: Golden Books, 1951, 1997
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 25, 25
Total Page Count: 524,400
Text Number: 1909-1910
Read Because: reading the author, borrowed from Open Library
Review: Very charming, not very deep, teaching the wheel of the year, ending, delightfully, with the line "Everything that anyone would ever look for is usually where they find it." But I get grumpy about outdoor cat narratives even if they were published in 1951, and this doesn't have enough to counterbalance in my eyes.
Weisgard illus. 1951 are much more saturated and dark, with a bold graphic quality. Bosson illus. 1997 is pastel, cute, a little wonky, stylistically reminiscent of Home for a Bunny, and the text is edited from the original. It's a simplification (compare: "Time passed: hours and minute and nights and days. And Pussy Willow grew more fur." (1951) vs "Nights passed and days passed and Pussy Willow grew more fur." (1997)) and cuts down on the number of encounters with other creatures. I don't mind the latter so much, as it makes for an easier read for a young audience, but MWB's voice is so much more distinctive in the original; the rewrite lacks detail and character.
Title: Big Red Barn
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator: Rosella Hartman, Felicia Bond
Published: W. R. Scott, 1956; HarperCollins, 1989
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 40, 35
Total Page Count: 524,610
Text Number: 1915-1916
Read Because: reading the author, borrowed from Open Library
Review: This is MWB at her most list-y, physical and specific. But the wording is restrained, with only a few evocative lines ("And that is where the children would play, but in this story the children are away, and only the animals are here today"), and the only movement is the transition to night. Hartman's illustrations (1956) are sketchy, red and green against graphite, and grow outright ominous as night comes—memorable, somber. Bond's illustrations (1989) are pretty jank and much cuter, happier, more vibrant and less memorable, although the transition to night, vibrancy faded away, lands cozy rather than creepy. Either way, I'm not crazy about this. I'm not convinced the Hartman illustrations work, but they're just about the only memorable bit of this book.
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator: Cyndy Szekeres
Published: Golden Books, 1975 (1965)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 25
Total Page Count: 524,325
Text Number: 1907
Read Because: reading the author, borrowed from Open Library
Review: This is so cute that it made me lose my mind a little. Sweet, pastel, adorable art (Szekeres illus.), but not obnoxiously so. But the narrative is what won me: the invitation to creative invention which is so small, so gentle, so quiet, so thoughtful and sweet is a delightful, gentle premise and must make for a great bedtime book.
Title: The Important Book
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator: Leonard Weisgard
Published: HarperCollins, 1977 (1949)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 25
Total Page Count: 524,350
Text Number: 1908
Read Because: reading the author, borrowed from Open Library
Review: This is just poetry, isn't it! I appreciate the arbitrary simplicity of each importance, fundamentally non-definitive and therefore open to counter-definition, to reader involvement. The bold art and emphasis on graphic design compliments this nicely; there's a poster vibe to each panel. Brown has a penchant for list-oriented, experimental work, and while this is no Goodnight Moon it's a fascinating alternate example of the same general approach.
Title: Pussy Willow
Author: Margaret Wise Brown (1997 edited from the original by Diane Muldrow)
Illustrator: Leonard Weisgard (1951), Jo-Ellen C. Bosson, 1997
Published: Golden Books, 1951, 1997
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 25, 25
Total Page Count: 524,400
Text Number: 1909-1910
Read Because: reading the author, borrowed from Open Library
Review: Very charming, not very deep, teaching the wheel of the year, ending, delightfully, with the line "Everything that anyone would ever look for is usually where they find it." But I get grumpy about outdoor cat narratives even if they were published in 1951, and this doesn't have enough to counterbalance in my eyes.
Weisgard illus. 1951 are much more saturated and dark, with a bold graphic quality. Bosson illus. 1997 is pastel, cute, a little wonky, stylistically reminiscent of Home for a Bunny, and the text is edited from the original. It's a simplification (compare: "Time passed: hours and minute and nights and days. And Pussy Willow grew more fur." (1951) vs "Nights passed and days passed and Pussy Willow grew more fur." (1997)) and cuts down on the number of encounters with other creatures. I don't mind the latter so much, as it makes for an easier read for a young audience, but MWB's voice is so much more distinctive in the original; the rewrite lacks detail and character.
Title: Big Red Barn
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator: Rosella Hartman, Felicia Bond
Published: W. R. Scott, 1956; HarperCollins, 1989
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 40, 35
Total Page Count: 524,610
Text Number: 1915-1916
Read Because: reading the author, borrowed from Open Library
Review: This is MWB at her most list-y, physical and specific. But the wording is restrained, with only a few evocative lines ("And that is where the children would play, but in this story the children are away, and only the animals are here today"), and the only movement is the transition to night. Hartman's illustrations (1956) are sketchy, red and green against graphite, and grow outright ominous as night comes—memorable, somber. Bond's illustrations (1989) are pretty jank and much cuter, happier, more vibrant and less memorable, although the transition to night, vibrancy faded away, lands cozy rather than creepy. Either way, I'm not crazy about this. I'm not convinced the Hartman illustrations work, but they're just about the only memorable bit of this book.
