We do love Eloise Wilkin. This book, slightly abridged, comes in a board book format and that was one of the first books I bought brand new for Orianna. Most of my books, as you probably can tell by now, are library discards. Buying a new book is sort of a big deal.
That is how much I love this book.
(Due to my faulty memory, this could be entirely untrue and someone else bought this for Orianna. Which ever way it happened, this was an important book in the life of my older girls.)
See my daisy chain? My first attempt. It is largely less than perfect, but fortunately, you can't really tell in pictures. Just admire it.
When clover and daisies are in bloom....
Isn't she adorable?!?
So. Much. Cuteness in this book. Oh! and there are poems. They are really good ones. I have to say that the abridged version of the board book has most of the best ones. Or maybe I am prejudiced because they are the ones I am the most familiar with. Either way, the full book has more poems per page, and doesn't hold little kids attention as well as the board book. This page has Good Morning Merry Sunshine and one of my favorites--
I wake in the morning early
And always, the very first thing
I poke out my head and I sit up in bed
And I sing and I sing and I sing.
--Rose Fyleman
The Friendly Cow
The Friendly Cow all red and white
I love with all my heart.
She gives me cream with all her might
To eat with apple tart...
--Robert Louis Stevenson
And then--
Oh Susan Blue,
How do you do?
Please may I go for a walk with you?
Where shall we go?
Oh I know--
Down in the meadows where the cowslips grow.
--Kate Greenaway
I love the closeness of kids and animals in Eloise Wilkin's pictures.
When I was little, I thought a birthday party of this magnitude would be the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Streamers, balloons, and party hats! I need to make my kids a party like this.
I say this poem a lot when I am trying to get the kids to hurry up.
Perfectly adorable! I love that Eloise Wilkin was using diverse models way back when.
There was a little turtle.
He lived in a box.
He swam in a puddle.
He climbed on the rocks.
He snapped at a mosquito.
He snapped at a flea.
He snapped at a minnow.
And he snapped at me.
He caught the mosquito.
He caught the flea.
He caught the minnow.
But he didn't catch me!
--Vachel Lindsay
Spring Rain
The storm came up so very quick
It couldn't have been quicker.
I should have brought my hat along
I should have brought my slicker.
My hair is wet, my feet are wet,
I couldn't be much wetter.
I fell into a river once,
But this is even better.
--Marchette Chute
The Daytime Moon often comes to mind as well.
Isn't this picture so satisfyingly November?
We all loved Rickity Rack. Such good rhythm and rhyme.
I love the idea of little kids laying around watching a snail move. I have never seen this in real life, but I like the idea of kids that calm.
These poems catch the simplicity and directness of childhood so well!
When I am walking down the street,
I do so like to watch my feet.
Perhaps you do not know the news.
Mother has bought me fine new shoes!
--Marjorie Seymour Watts
A kid's calendar.
SO CUTE!
Before the bath
It's cold. cold. cold
And the water shines wet.
And the longer I wait,
The colder I get.
I can't quite make
Myself hop in.
All shivery cold
In just my skin.
Yet the water's warm
In the tub I know
So one, two, three,
And in I go!
--Corinna Marsh
Eloise Wilkin always takes the possible and shines it up into splendor. There is a view like that somewhere in the world, but the chance of a small little middle class child seeing it from her house is quite slim. Yet here she is, watching the stars come out in her fabulous rosy twilight.
The very dated and adorable endpapers.
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