I bought this framed page of a children’s book several years ago, and I’ve been trying to track down the book it came from without much luck.
If you happen to recognize it, please let me know. I’d be really grateful.
Wow. I have a million images in my head. I’m struck by how much it looks like the book – the colors, especially, are exactly like the color palettes in the book, and the hand drawn font evokes the like quality of the book, too. Interesting.
This came out of a discussion at work — who’s your favorite children’s book character?
Obviously, mine is Curious George, but there are lots on my list. Who is on yours?
New Yorker article discusses how much author P. L. Travers dislike the movie version of her Mary Poppins book, even though it made her rich. In examining some details about Travers’ life, it become evident that the movie seems to have an opposite message from the one she may have intended.
When I was in second grade, the following story was in my school reader, (which I’ve since discovered was called “Believe and Make-Believe (Sheldon Basic Reading Series)“) and I remember sitting with my mom at home listening to her read it out loud before bedtime. It was one of my favorite stories, and I was happy to stumble across it again out there on the internets. The credit I found was to “Caroline Feller Bauer” but I’ve since discovered (see comments below) that it was written by Betty Van Witsen.
There was once a little boy who ate cheese, peas and chocolate pudding. Every day he ate the same thing: cheese, peas and chocolate pudding.
For breakfast, he would have some cheese, any kind: cream cheese, American cheese, Swiss cheese, Dutch cheese, Italian cheese, cottage cheese, bleu cheese, green cheese, yellow cheese, even leiderkrantz. Just cheese for breakfast.
For lunch, he ate peas: green or yellow peas, frozen peas, canned peas, dried peas, split peas, black-eyed peas. No potatoes, though; just peas for lunch.
And for supper he would have cheese and peas and chocolate pudding for dessert. Cheese, peas and chocolate pudding. Cheese, peas and chocolate pudding. Every day, the same old thing: cheese, peas and chocolate pudding.
Once, his mother bought him a lamb chop. She cooked it in a little frying pan on the stove, and she put some salt on it and gave it to him on a little blue dish. The little boy looked at it. He smelled it (it smelled delicious!). He even touched it. but — “Is this cheese?” he asked. “It’s a lamb chop darling,” said his mother. The boy shook his head. “Cheese,” he said. So his mother ate the lamb chop herself, and the boy had some cottage cheese.
One day, his big brother was chewing on a raw carrot. It sounded so good and crunchy, the little boy reached his hand out for a bite. “Sure!” his brother said, “Here!” He almost put the carrot into his mouth, but at the last minute he remembered and asked, “Is this peas?” “No, it’s a carrot,” said his brother, “Peas”, the little boy said firmly, handing the carrot back.
Once his daddy was eating a big dish of raspberry pudding, It looked so shiny red and cool, the little boy came over and held his mouth open. “Want a taste?” asked his daddy. The little boy looked and looked at the raspberry pudding. He almost looked it right off the dish. “But, is it chocolate pudding?” he asked. “No, it’s raspberry pudding,” said his daddy. So the little boy frowned and backed away. “Chocolate pudding!” he said.
His grandma bought him an ice cream cone. The little boy shook his head. His aunt and uncle invited him for a fried chicken dinner. Everybody ate fried chicken and fried chicken and fried chicken, except the little boy. And you know what he ate. Cheese, peas and chocolate pudding. Cheese, peas and chocolate pudding. Every day the same old thing: cheese, peas and chocolate pudding.
But one day — ah, one day a very funny thing happened. The little boy was pretending to be a puppy. He lay on the floor and growled and barked and rolled over. He crept to the table where his big brother was having lunch. “Arf, arf!” he barked. “Good Doggie!” said his brother, patting his head. The little boy lay down on his back and barked again. But at that moment, his big brother dropped a piece of something right into the little boy’s mouth. The little boy sat up in surprise because something was on his tongue. And that something was warm and juicy and delicious!
And it didn’t taste like cheese. And it didn’t taste like peas. And it didn’t taste a bit like chocolate pudding. The little boy chewed slowly. Each chew tasted better. He swallowed the something.
“That’s not cheese,” he said. “No, it’s not,” said his brother. “And it’s not peas,” he said. “No, not peas,” said his brother. “It couldn’t be chocolate pudding.” “No, it’s certainly not chocolate pudding,” said his brother, smiling, “It’s hamburger.”
So the little boy thought very hard. “I like hamburger!” he said.
So ever after that, the little boy ate cheese, peas, chocolate pudding and hamburger.
Until he was your age, of course. Then he ate everything!
The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
2005 — Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
2004 — The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering.
2003 — Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
Hardcover
2002 — A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
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2001 — A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
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2000 — Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
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Microsoft e-book
1999 — Holes by Louis Sachar
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1998 — Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
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1997 — The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg
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1996 — The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
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1995 — Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
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1994 — The Giver by Lois Lowry
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1993 — Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
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1992 — Shilohby Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
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1991 — Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
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1990 — Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
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1989 — Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
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Paperback
1988 — Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman
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1987 — The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
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1986 — Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
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Study Guide
1985 — The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
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1984 — Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
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1983 — Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt
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Lesson Plans on CD
1982 — A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard
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1981 — Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
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Audio Cassette |
Lesson Plans on CD
1980 — A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos
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Paperback
1979 — The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Hardcover |
Paperback
1978 — Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
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Lesson Plans on CD
1977 — Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
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Lesson Plans on CD
1976 — The Grey King by Susan Cooper
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Audio Cassette |
Microsoft e-book |
Adobe e-book
1975 — M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton
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1974 — The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
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Lesson Plans on CD |
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1973 — Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
1972 — Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O’Brien
1971 — Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
1970 — Sounder by William H. Armstrong
1969 — The High King by Lloyd Alexander
1968 — From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
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Audio Cassette
1967 — Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
Out of Print
1966 — I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino
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1965 — Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska
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1964 — It’s Like This, Cat by Emily Neville
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1963 — A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
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1962 — The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
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1961 — Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
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1960 — Onion John by Joseph Krumgold
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1959 — The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
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1958 — Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
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1957 — Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson
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1956 — Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
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1955 — The Wheel on The School by Meindert DeJong
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Paperback; illustrated by Maurice Sendak
1954 — And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold
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1953 — Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
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1952 — Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
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1951 — Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates
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1950 — The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
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1949 — King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry
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1948 — The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois
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1947 — Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
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1946 — Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
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1945 — Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
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1944 — Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
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1943 — Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray
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1942 — The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds
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1941 — Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry
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1940 — Daniel Boone by James Daugherty
Out of Print
1939 — Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
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1938 — The White Stag by Kate Seredy
Paperback
1937 — Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
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Paperback
1936 — Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
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1935 — Dobry by Monica Shannon
Out of Print
1934 — Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs
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1933 — Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis
Hardcover |
Paperback
1932 — Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer
Out of Print
1931 — The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
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Paperback
1930 — Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
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Paperback
1929 — The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly
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Paperback
1928 — Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji
Hardcover
1927 — Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James
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Paperback
1926 — Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
Hardcover
1925 — Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger
Out of Print
1924 — The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes
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1923 — The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
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e-book Microsoft |
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1922 — The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon
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From Alice in Wonderland:
The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”
“Come, we shall have some fun now!” thought Alice. “I’m glad they’ve begun asking riddles.–I believe I can guess that,” she added aloud.
“Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?” said the March Hare.
“Exactly so,” said Alice.
“Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.
“I do,” Alice hastily replied; “at least–at least I mean what I say–that’s the same thing, you know.”
“Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter. “You might just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’!”
“You might just as well say,” added the March Hare, “that ‘I like what I get’ is the same thing as ‘I get what I like’!”
“You might just as well say,” added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, “that ‘I breathe when I sleep” is the same thing as ‘I sleep when I breathe’!”
“It is the same thing with you,” said the Hatter, and here the conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, while Alice thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks, which wasn’t much.