CHILDREN'S ILLUSTRATION: October 2019

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Yell, "Good morning, big fat world!"

I learned to read reading the Modern Masters Books for Children, a series of easy readers by Arthur Miller, Shirley Jackson, Robert Graves, Theodore Roethke and others. Edited by the Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress, the cover copy has a high-minded JFK era optimism. One free verse story, What Did I See? is a normal walk in the country until trees and houses come unmoored and float across the page.

Ruth Krauss's Roar Like a Dandelion has the same freewheeling, free-associating exuberance I felt reading the Modern Masters books. Loosely an alphabet book, some lines are goofy (Eat all the locks off the doors) and some lines can be acted out (Hold your arms out like a little pine tree).

Making sense and more nonsense of it all are Sergio Ruzzier's adorable, ingenious, simple and intricate creatures. Roar Like a Dandelion is a perfect pairing of words and pictures.