Book Talk: Favorite Children’s Books, Part Two
The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown
I think I liked this book for the same reason I liked the Philip Glass color wheel animation on Sesame Street. Something haunting and primeval. And colorful. And kind of trippy. And also because even from an early age I knew Margaret Wise Brown was something special. Ask me about my first encounter with her less-remembered classic, The Dead Bird.
Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
Who wouldn’t want a friend like Toad? Someone to eat pea soup with, who will read quietly in an overstuffed armchair with you for hours. Frog and Toad were like Ernie and Bert, only slimier. As an added bonus, the Frog and Toad books convey that same whimsical pastoralism as The Wind in the Willows, except for people with shorter attention spans. (A side note: I wonder if Michael Moorcock would also hate Frog and Toad.)
A Charlie Brown Encyclopedia by Charles Schulz
Long car trips? No problem. Hey, Mom, did you know about this place called Pompeii? OMG, you don’t think that could happen in Fairview Park, do you?? Charlie Brown’s Super Book of Questions and Answers, one of the many hand-me-down books I got from my sister, was one of those neurosis-inducing books that I’m sure my parents regretted letting me get my mitts onto. It also began my lifelong love affair with encyclopedias, alongside volume D of my parents’ 1980 World Book set. Why D? Dogs, dinosaurs, diseases. It’s what I moved on to after Minnie the Mump, I guess.
The Creative Workforce Fellowship is a program of the Community Partnership for the Arts and Culture, made possible by the generous support of Cuyahoga County citizens through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture. 