Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Good Book Finds: Elizabeth Coatsworth and Janina Domanska ~ Under the Green Willow

It’s a blog about living in a library, but, not much talk about books so far, really, eh?


Need to change that. So, I bring you “good book finds” – installment #1.




As a result of the renovations, things were extra dusty here this year, when we moved in. I have been working to get out from under all the dust, and slowly making progress. Meanwhile, I have been finding books to be particularly out of order and mixed up in the children’s room. So, on Sunday afternoon, I got a bucket of warm water and a rag, and Ray and I embarked on a major children’s room cleaning and organizing effort. Not done yet. But, getting there.

Dusted and cleaned on and around the books, and did some serious alphabetizing work. One of the fun parts of this work was finding all sorts of books that I got really excited about. Books I have known and loved, but temporarily forgotten. Books that are beautiful. Books that are somehow extra "interesting". Books by writers/illustrators I love, but did not know about. And so on and so forth.

The first one I have for you I pulled because of the author: Elizabeth Coatsworth. Most famous, I think, for The Cat Who Went To Heaven. I admit to not remembering it. Anne says she read it to Alden last year. Then, this spring, Alden read a whole bunch of different Elizabeth Coatsworth books. One of the libraries we frequent at home has a big collection of her books, and I just happened to pull a few one day to feed to Alden.


So, when I saw a book by her when I was cleaning, I grabbed it. After looking through it more closely, it was the illustrations, by Janina Domanska, that I fell in love with, more than anything.

This one is more of a Milo book than an Alden book. The ones Alden read were short-ish chapter books, with real stories. This one is short and simple, just a few words on each page, hardly a story at all. Yet, I have happily read it to Milo for the last three or four nights.


Summary: birds, turtles, fishes, hanging out in the water, waiting for crumbs, all under the green willow.

More on Coatsworth here.

And, Domanska here.
might see if I can still buy that book she won the Caldecott Honors for...

2 comments:

Spgonahan said...

What is the book Milo's got? I have not seen that one ...

Beautiful header ... Special thanks to Jean et. al. for funding the construction ... I am loving this blog. More photography please!

Clarissa said...

Actually, that book Milo has is a REALLY STUPID one, I think.

It is a "farm/counting" book.

I had pulled it out for my farm-themed books. and then he got his hands on it.

When I read it, I decided it was STUPID.

Just dumb text. Furthermore, it is a total copy of the classic "Over in the Meadow" counting song, but, nowhere does it admit/acknowledge that. And, it is a much stupid-er version.

Have I said "stupid" enough in this comment?