21st century | Cotsen Children’s Library

SIX WILD THINGS!!!

Maurice Sendak, “Before You Jump Online,” a study for print advertisement for Bell Atlantic’s campaign “Wild Things are Happening” (1998). Gift of Dennis M. V. David. (Cotsen)

Maurice Sendak, “Stretching the Dollar,” study for American Express’s campaign, “Extended Warranty” 1988. Gift of Dennis M. V. David. (Cotsen)

FIVE BOOKS ON BAKING

FOUR LOVELY DRAWINGS

Border, headpiece, and two letters for an alphabet by Elise von Holtorp. Gift of Andrea Stillman. (Cotsen)

A preparatory drawing by Richard (Dicky) Doyle. Gift of Andrea Stillman. (Cotsen)

THREE COUNTING BOOKS

TWO BANNED BOOKS

A Birthday Cake for George Washington. New York: Scholastic Press, 2016. (Cotsen)

AND A PICTURE BOOK ON HANUKKAH…

One of a group of picture books on Hanukkah from an anonymous donor in honor of Lloyd E. Cotsen and Margit Cotsen. Simon and the Bear: a Hanukkah Tale. New York: Disney Hyperion Books, [2014]. (Cotsen)

With heartfelt thanks to our generous donors who surprised us in December 2016!

*****

6. The Wild Things: Gift of Dennis M. V. David. Five preparatory drawings by Maurice Sendak for “Wild Things Are Happening,” the Bell Atlantic advertising campaign for Bell Atlantic Net, a state of the art Internet service launched in 1998.

5. The books on baking: five picture books about birthday cakes from an anonymous donor who bakes. Sue Aldridge, Children’s Party Cakes (London: New Holland, 1998); Debbie Brown, Enchanted Cakes for Children (London: Merehurst, c2000); Alexander McCall Smith, The Great Cake Mystery. Illustrated by Iain McIntosh (New York: Anchor, c2012); Helen Oxenbury, It’s My Birthday (Cambridge: Candlewick, 1994); Rosemary Wells, Bunny Cakes (New York: Scholastic, c1997).

4. The original artwork: four drawings presented to the Cotsen Children’s Library by Andrea Stillman. Hugh Deane, color drawing of a troll king and his two companions; Richard “Dicky” Doyle, sketch of a girl in crown riding a reindeer; Elise von Holtrop, border design, headpiece and the letters A and B for an unidentified alphabet book (possibly unpublished); D. Viel, pen and ink drawing of a crew of elves chopping down a flower.

3. The counting books: gift of an innumerate anonymous donor. Jennifer Adams. Jane Eyre: A Counting Primer. Illustrated by Alison Oliver. A Babylit Book. (Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2012); Barbara Barbieri McGrath. Skittles Riddles Math. Illustrated by Roger Glass. (Watertown, MA, Charlesbridge, 2000); Mark Shulman, I’ll Take a Dozen. A Bagel Book. (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, c2002).

2. The banned books: gift of an anonymous donor from Boston. Arthur C. Gackley [i.e. Bob Staake]. Bad Little Children’s Books (New York: Abrams Image, 2016); Ranim Ganeshram. A Birthday Cake for George Washington. Illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton (New York: Scholastic, 2016).

1 The book on Hanukkah: eleven picture books about Hanukkah in honor of Lloyd E. and Margit Cotsen from an anonymous donor from Los Angeles. Seymour Chwast, The Miracle of Hanukkah. (Maplewood, NJ: Blue Apple Books, 2005); Woody Guthrie, Honeyky Hanukah. Pictures by Dave Horowitz. (New York: Doubleday, 2014); Eric A. Kimmel, Simon and the Bear: A Hanukkah Tale. Illustrated by Matthew Trueman. (Los Angeles: Disney, 2014); Stephen Krensky, Hanukkah at Valley Forge. Illustrated by Greg Harlin. (New York: Dutton, c2006); Leslea Newman, The Eight Nights of Chanukah. Illustrated by Elivia Savadier. (New York: Abrams, 2005); Leslea Newman, Runaway Dreidel! Illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker. (New York: Henry Holt, 2002); Amanda Peet & Andrea Troyer, Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein. Illustrated by Christine Davenier. (New York: Doubleday, 2015); Ronne Randall, The Hanukkah Mice. Illustrated by Maggie Kneen. (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2008), Richard and Tanya Simon, Oskar and the Eight Blessings. Illustrated by Mark Siegel. (New York: Roaring Brook, 2015); Elka Weber, The Yankee at Seder. Illustrated by Adam Gustavson. (Berkeley: Tricycle Press, 2009); Jane Yolen, How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukah? Illustrated by Mark Teague. (New York: Blue Sky, 2013).

The hero of Jan Le Witt’s The Vegetabull. London: Collins, 1956. (Cotsen 14993)

Vegetables, those inanimate edible objects, are the stars of fewer stories for children than creatures with legs, antennae, feathers or fur. Here are some interesting vege-tales In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, in which the gigantic specimens did not meet their ends in creamy gratins and buttery purees…

Aunty Root’s luxuriant trailing leaves make a nice contrast to the elaborate border of carrot greens. Max Froehlich, “Die Ruebentante,” on page 285 in Heim der Jugend, edited by Adolf Cronbach and H. H. Ewers. Berlin: Siegfried Cronbach, 1905. (Cotsen 12147)

“Die Ruebentante” –or Aunty Root–was the creation of Max Froelich, who seems to be unknown except for the work he published in Heim der Jugend: Ein Jahrbuch fuer Kinder und Eltern (1905). In this cautionary tale, a stout lady turnip of a certain age goes for a walk on a moonlit night, trips over over two potatoes in the dark and tumbles down into the mud, unaware of the moon grinning in the heavens. “Don’t wear your slippers outside” is the blindingly obvious moral of this ridiculous story.

The next vegehero is of such majestic proportions as to inspire shock and awe. Vladimir Radunsky’s The Mighty Asparagus (2004) was honored with a New York Times Best Illustrated Book for that year even though a child might ask a parent why the asparagus makes the little king so nervous or how come the queen likes the big stalk so much? Perhaps the judges thought the nudge-nudge, wink, winks would be over the children’s heads and not spoil the adult reader’s pleasure in the text. Likewise the good-natured liberties taken with the paintings of Piero della Francesca, Andrea Mantegna, Perugino, and several other Renaissance artists … Here is the fold-out plate showing the full grandeur of the asparagus.

The fold-out plate folded (panels 1 and 4). Vladimir Radunsky, The Mighty Asparagus. New York: Silver Whistle/ Harcourt, 2004. (Promised gift)

Panels 2 and 3.

Panel 4.

Panels 5 and 6, in which the musicians sing the ballad of the asparagus.

The Mighty Asparagus is, of course, a fractured version of the venerable folk tale of the turnip and Brian Alderson’s telling illustrated by Fritz Wegner is one of the most enjoyable of the many versions. A poor farmer finds himself the proud cultivator of the most prodigious, round, unblemished specimen ever seen in those parts. Such a “right champion turnip” can only be fit for a king, so once the farmer and his family manage to pull it out of the ground and heave it onto a wagon, off they go to the castle. The king is so impressed with this “most champion turnip” that he fills the farmer’s cart full of gold.

Page [15] in Brian Alderson, The Tale of the Turnip. Illustrated by Fritz Wegner. Cambridge: Candlewick Press, 1999. Inscribed by the author to Lloyd E. Cotsen. (Cotsen 53048)

Now when the rich squire gets wind of his neighbor’s good luck, he is so consumed with jealousy that he must take the finest horse in his stable, who is worth more than a thousand turnips, and present it to the king, confident of receiving an even bigger and better reward. The squire gets his money’s worth in turnips all right, as the new owner of the right champion vegetable.

With badgers in bright Russian folklorist costumes, Jan Brett gives her picture book of “The Turnip” a new twist. By eliminating the greedy resentful neighbor, she focuses instead on the communal effort of pulling the turnip out of the frozen field. The successful conclusion of this Herculean labor is celebrated with singing and dancing.

Cover design for Jan Brett, The Turnip. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2015. (Cotsen)

Taking a hint from Helen Bannerman’s Little Black Sambo, Mother Badger grabs her griddle and gets down to making a mountain of turnip pancakes to warm everyone up. It seems unlikely that a savory Chinese or Korean turnip pancake was on the menu, so I like to imagine that she whipped up a kind of latkes, made from half grated potato and half grated turnip, which would taste equally good with butter and syrup or sour cream and smoked fish. If you are still feeling hungry after Thursday’s overindulgence, there are recipes for either kind of turnip pancake on the Internet.

The holiday season is officially declared open!

Cotsen Children’s Library

Princeton University

Category Archives: 21st century

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Vegetables in Picture Books from Mighty Asparagus Spears to Monstrous Turnips