A Sampler of Seuss

 

So far I've always blogged about vintage books that I own, but since I took out about a bazillion Dr. Seuss books from the library to decorate for Keira's birthday party, I figured I would show them to you.  Dr. Seuss has written A LOT of books so it will take a few posts to show them all to you!  I probably won't do them all in a row- we'll do a few and then take a break and get back to the rest later on or something.

First we have The 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins.  I did not actually read this book to my daughter - I knew she would be scared and probably have a nightmare!  The magicians and the executioner in this book are too creepy for our taste!  In the story, Bartholemew is not able to remove his hat in the presence of the king because every time he does, a new and more ornate one appears on his head!

Then we have Daisy-Head Mayzie - the last children's book written by Dr. Seuss, although it was not published until after his death, and The Butter Battle Book.  This is an anti-war book - while I appreciate the moral of the story, I don't really find this book to be that captivating like many of Seuss' other works are.

And last we have The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories. This book includes the stories The Bippolo Seed, The Rabbit, the Bear, and the Zinniga-Zanniga, Tadd and Todd, Steak for Supper, The Strange Shirt Spot, The Great Henry McBride, and pictured here, Gustav the Goldfish. These stories were published in magazines in the 1950's but never in book form.  'Gustav' was later written into the book "A Fish out of Water" by Helen Palmer Geisel, Dr. Seuss' wife.   I really want to find that book somewhere, it is so cute.
More on Seuss next time!


Linking to Cozy Book Hop

Turning 6 with Dr. Seuss

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some pictures here of my daughter's 6th birthday party with a Dr. Seuss theme.  Not sure how well you can see her dress  but I ordered it from Etsy - it has Cat in the Hat fabric on it.  I bought the Dr. Seuss book 'Happy Birthday to You' and had her party guests sign it.  We played the Cat in the Hat "I Can Do That" game and made Cat in the Hat hats.  In lieu of actual loot bags, I bought Dr. Seuss books from the used book store and tied them to balloons to give as favours.  It was a fun time!  I took out ALL the Dr. Seuss books from the library to add to the ones we own to use as part of the party decor. I also had a Dr. Seuss teacher bulletin board set to use to decorate.  I will have some upcoming posts about Dr. Seuss books.  Quite a few people that came to the party said they hadn't known that Dr. Seuss actually wrote so many books.  I think that most people are more familiar with the Early Reader ones but don't always know about books such as Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, for example.

A Child's Garden of Verses - Illustrated by Ruth Ruhman

 

 

 

 

I lovelovelove these illustrations by Ruth Ruhman. This book is one I salvaged from my grandmother's attic.  It is pretty beaten up - scribbled on, missing some pages, and the remaining pages are a bit loose.  I really like A Child's Garden of Verses and I would like to collect some more editions of it by different illustrators - I have my eye on the one by Gyo Fujikawa- I have quite a few of her books but not that one yet- and the one by the Provensens, for example.  I framed a page from this book that is so cute and reminds me of my daughters, and I also made a decoupage frame that included some pics from this book.

Linking to Cozy Book Hop

Retro TV and Toys for The Very Young - The Electric Company

HEYYYY YOU GUUUUYYYYYSSS!!!  (If you have never watched the show before then just ignore that!) My 6-year-old has been watching the episodes of the modern re-make of The Electric Company on Netflix. Once she saw the first episode, she was hooked. It's about 4 kids who have super powers with words.  I really like it too- the bad guys, known as 'The Pranksters', are funny and the songs are really catchy.  The show has had star appearances from Wyclef Jean, Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Ne-Yo, Mario, Pete Wentz, Jack McBrayer, and more.  A good choice as far as children's programming goes! And of course it's great for helping kids with practising their reading, spelling, and new vocabulary too!  The new version is very different from the old version from the 70's.  I bought a 'best of' from the original version on dvd for my daughter's recent birthday.  I was a little bit worried she wouldn't like it - I explained to her beforehand that it was very different from the show she was used to.  But she likes the old one too - yay!  She laughs at the sketches and likes the songs and animations. The old series ran from 1971-1977.  It was designed for kids who had 'graduated' from Sesame Street.   Some of its well-known cast members were Bill Coby, Rita Moreno, and Morgan Freeman.  It has guest appearances from celebrities such as Carol Burnett, Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Carroll O'Connor, and Lily Tomlin.  Enjoy these clips below from the 'old' and 'new' versions of the show.

More Eloise - Baby Dear and Birds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 "Baby Dear" reminds me of how we bought my older daughter Keira a baby Cabbage Patch doll not too long before our younger daughter Tegan was going to be born.  She adjusted quite well - we only really dealt with a small amount of jealousy and acting out from her.  But she was 4 and a half already so she really was ready to be a big sister.  Now that Tegan is almost a year and a half now, Keira gets more frustrated with her now as they sometimes fight over toys or Tegan wrecks something that Keira has been making.  Seeing the page about writing in the baby's memory book is filling me with guilt.... I have not been keeping up with Tegan's baby book!  Such a typical thing to do with the second child - everyone I knew with more than one child said that this was the case with them, and I didn't want it to happen with me but it has - I really need to get some things written down before I forget them!  It's not that I never have any free time to do it, it's more that by the time I get both girls down to bed I just want to relax and I keep procrastinating. Anyway, enjoy these illustrations by Eloise Wilkin - I especially love the second-to-last one here from "Birds" - just gorgeous.

Linking to Cozy Book Hop

Shopping

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Shopping With Mother", a Ladybird book, depicts a day of shopping at various places.  The family goes to the fish shop, greengrocer's, ironmonger's shop (What??  I had to look this up - it basically means hardware store, in Britain.) , the chemist's shop, the baker, the flower shop, the draper's shop, the butcher, and the toy shop.  Wow!  Not like nowadays when we just go to Walmart and be done with it, haha!  "Let's Go Shopping", a Wonder Book published in 1958, tells the tale of Sally Snappit (what a great name!) as she asks her mother about all the different foods in the supermarket and where they came from.  Love her cute little outfit.

Lilian Obligado

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two books illustrated by Lilian Obligado for you today.  The cover of the first one, the Golden Sturdy Shape book, reminded me of something that I still have from childhood.  Check out these pictures I took of my Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe piggy bank.  As you can see from the bottom of the 'shoe' - my aunt Vicki made it in 1981 for me. Isn't it adorable?  I don't have a ton of things still from my childhood but this managed to to make it unscathed.  It now resides in my 1-year-old's room on her shelf.