This post is written in memory of Eric Carle, children’s book author and illustrator extraordinaire, June 25, 1929 – May 23, 2021.
The other day, I opened up a few of my favorite childhood picture books.
Simple Pictures Are Best by Nancy Willard and Tomie dePaola
A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert and Anita Lobel
On Market Street by Anita Lobel and Arnold Lobel
I’ve always enjoyed my family’s collection of picture books. My mom didn’t thin them out as we kids grew up. Instead, she kept them (ostensibly) for the grandchildren … though in reality, neither she nor I could bear to part with them.
Now that I work at a preschool, children’s picture books are a regular part of my life again. It’s one of my favorite aspects of the job. Although reading a particular picture book for the first time as an adult isn’t usually as wonderful as it is in childhood, I can enjoy it vicariously when I see the toddlers’ thrill. I’m on the hunt for my own copies of …
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don Wood
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle
But books I knew in my childhood are different. I was sad to hear that Eric Carle had recently died. He was one of my favorite illustrators, and we have a sizable stack of his books. (Do you know how he did his art? He painted tissue paper and cut it into shapes to form pictures! Look it up on YouTube sometime.) And Tomie dePaola! He was another icon of my childhood, gone for over a year now. Reading their books and others I loved as a kid transports me back in time, back to when I was savoring them and being absorbed in the world their pictures and simple words created. Nothing else can take me back like that, not even childhood movies or toys.
Draw Me a Star is particularly significant to me now because of how it beautifully links the work of an artist with God’s creation, ending with the artist as an old man who lived out his days and flew into the night sky with a star. Rest in peace, Eric Carle.
One of these days, I plan to do a post (or a series) on the memorable books of my growing-up years, but to finish this one out in honor of Eric Carle, here is a list of just his that I own:
Draw Me a Star
Today is Monday
Dragons Dragons & Other Creatures That Never Were
Animals Animals
Treasury of Classic Stories for Children
Pancakes, Pancakes!
A House for Hermit Crab
Rooster’s Off to See the World
The Tiny Seed
The Mountain That Loved a Bird
The Mixed-Up Chameleon
The Lamb and the Butterfly
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Have You Seen My Cat?
The Grouchy Ladybug
A Color of His Own
The Foolish Tortoise
Did you enjoy any of these books I mentioned when you were growing up?
