Saturday, October 25, 2008

MIA






So sorry. My internet connection has been ack lately. I have had a lot that I wanted to share too. I hate playing catch up though. It seems sort of cheap. I will pretend today is Monday. Virginia Lee Burton anyone? We have 4 of her books. Only three are represented here. The Little House is lost somewhere on the shelf.  I seem to be drawn to artist/writers from the 40's and fifties. Something about the optimistic aesthetic from that time period pleases me. My favorite textiles seem to be from the same pd. Mike Mulligan is probably her most famous. Matt loved it as a child. Burton's  Life Story is wonderful, although my kids could care less about it. It is basically an illustrated time line beginning with a red hot fiery ball of matter and ending with a bucolic farm scene and then, " And now it is your life story and you play the leading role..." The images are beautiful and have a Grandma Moses feel to them. Auntie Michaela from San Francisco, gave us Maybelle the cable car, which is really sweet. I think the one book that would complete our collection (of my personal favorites ) would be Katy and the Big Snow. A lovely story about a persevering little snow plow named Katy (great material for budding feminists). I am not a huge fan of talking cars and machines, but let's face it, the boys are into that kind of thing. Virginia Lee Burton has a way of  animating machines/houses etc.  in a manner that is not cheap or "Disney" in any way. All of her books have gentle morals in them, whether it be  honoring the underdog, celebrating perseverance and grace or embracing the beauty of  the "old".  

1 comment:

Rebecca said...

oh *I* remember those books! How lovely to see the illustrations again!

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