Every Who Down in Whoville

"Every Who Down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot.  But the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville did not...He stood there on Christmas hating the Who's.  Staring down from his cave, with a sour grinchy frown at the warm lighted windows below in their town." (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss)

www.theiphonemom.com

Rumor has it that Theodor Geisel was turned down not once but three times at the University of Virginia, a school founded by Thomas Jefferson.  Dr. Seuss vowed one day to look down on that university.

In 1937, Theodor Geisel struck gold when he signed a contract with Vangard Press for his first book And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street (see post "From Mulberry St. to Madison Ave" at http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/04/april-29.html ).  He went on to fame and fortune with Horton Hatches the Egg, If I Ran the Circus and other picture books.

Before writing How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Theodor Geisel, now Dr. Seuss, bought a stately home in the mountains overlooking Virginia (just as Thomas Jefferson purchased Monticello).  Just as Dr. Seuss lived on a mountain overlooking Virginia, the Grinch lived on Mount Crumpit overlooking Whoville.  The University of Virginia mascot was called a Wahoo or a Hoo for short.  Some say that Dr. Seuss' inspiration for the Who's was the Hoo's.

Regardless of the book's inspiration, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which first appeared on the shelves in 1957, became an instant hit.  It wasn't long before Americans were familiar with phrases like "a heart two sizes too small" and "little Cindy Lou Hoo" and "carve the roast beast" and "the last can of who hash".  According to some websites, How the Grinch Stole Christmas is the fifth most popular book Dr. Seuss ever wrote.

In 1966, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas premiered on television. Boris Karloff played the role of the narrator.  Albert Hague and Eugene Poddany brought the story to life with their musical score.  I so looked forward to watching that story on TV each year.  I can just imagine the trumpet sounding on Christmas morning...the Who's playing with their wind up toys...little Cindy Lou Hoo asking Santy Claus why he is taking their tree in a peep peep voice...and the voices of the Who's singing Christmas carols which waft up Mount Crumpit and melt the Grinch's heart.  Yes, "every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot."

The Who stands on Mount Crumpit looking down on the Who's courtesy http://www.playbuzz.com/vanjaorman10/how-well-do-you-know-the-grinch-who-stole-christmas.

The History of Picture Books: The Text

"See Spot.  See Spot Run.  Run, Spot, run!" (excerpt from Dick & Jane book)

Before the advent of the picture book, parents read to their children from collections of fables and fairytales.  Mother Goose, written by Charles Perrault and Grimm's Fairytales were two popular titles. In Germany, Der Strubbelpeter, which my father in law read to my husband as a boy, was common.

Mother Goose courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Goose#/media/File:Houghton_FC6.P4262.Eg729s_-_Perrault,_frontispiece.jpg

But the fables and fairytales gave way to the picture books by the mid-20th Century.  The Dick & Jane basal readers, written by William S. Gray and Zerna Sharp, first appeared in American schools in the 1930's.  Using the sight word method of teaching reading, the books were full of repetition and followed a simplistic formula.  Characters included a boy named Dick, a girl named Jane and a dog named Spot.  

Dick & Jane courtesy http://venezky.stanford.edu/images/modern/full-resolution/DickandJanePlayDadandMom.jpg.

In 1942, Simon & Schuster brought the picture book to the masses with the debut of Little Golden Books.  Previously picture books were priced at $2 to $3, too expensive for the average Joe; but at 25 cents a copy, these books were affordable for almost anyone.  The company recruited illustrators from The Artists and Writers Guild.  Janet Sebring Lawry wrote the original title, The Poky Little Puppy, which has sold 15 million copies to date.  Famous authors like Lucy Sprague Mitchell, a proponent of realistic children's books, penned other stories, along with Margaret Wise Brown, author of Goodnight Moon. While the original set of Little Golden Books numbered 12, now there are almost 900 titles.  For more information, visit my post "How a Poky Little Puppy Brought the Picture Book to the Masses" at 

http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2013/07/how-poky-puppy-brought-picture-book-to.html.

The Three Little Kittens courtesy https://p.gr-assets.com/200x200/scale/books/1301756721/9857712.jpg.

Despite the success of the Little Golden Books, it was still the Dick & Jane series that sat on the shelves of the American public schools.  In 1955, Rudolf Flesch published a book called Why Johnny Can't Read? which cited statistics on childhood literacy in America, which was far behind its European counterpart.  He condemned the Dick & Jane readers, suggesting phonics, rather than sight words, as the correct strategy for teaching children how to read.  

Why Johnny Can't Read courtesy http://sausedo.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/why_johnny_cant_read.png

Two year later William Spaulding, the head honcho at Houghton Mifflin, got involved in the debate. He made a list of 200 words which he gave to Theodor Geisel, challenging him to write a children's book with just those words.  Mr. Geisel added some words to the list and the result was The Cat in the Hat.  For more information, read my post "How the Cat in the Hat was Born" at http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2013/02/how-cat-in-hat-was-born.html.

The word list for The Cat in the Hat courtesy https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/1e/9a/71/1e9a7153ed7724ac93c076b55b234cb5.jpg

Mr. Geisel went on to write 46 more picture books, all with basic vocabulary words.  He also added a few of his own made up words.  But with his energizing tone, and his use of repetition, his books were an instant hit, never losing their appeal.  On a recent top 100 list of children's hardcover books, Dr. Seuss had 16 titles including Green Eggs & Ham, Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  

Green Eggs & Ham courtesy http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/mas/prod/images/acontent/B004NWLM8K/com.oceanhouse.media-1.10-AD-Shot3._SL404_V170901764_.jpg.

Dr. Seuss was promoted to editor at Vanguard Press.  A young couple pitched a series about a bear family; their debut title was Freddy Bear's Spanking (later changed to The Big Honey Hunt).  While Dr. Seuss liked their illustrations and story idea, he didn't like the choice of a bear.  However, when the book appeared on the bookstore shelves, it sold like hotcakes.  The Berenstains' wrote dozens of titles, each including a moral or safety lesson, each the same length of 1100 words.  The story formula remained the same:  the cubs had a problem, Papa Bear presented a solution which made it worse and Mama Bear fixed everything.  According to the Berenstains, Mama and Papa were largely based on themselves.  Today, The Berenstain Bears series consists of over 300 titles and has sold over 260 million copies.  For more information, read "How the Berenstain Bears Got Their Name" at 

http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/06/june-1.html.

The Berenstain Bears Too Much Junk Food courtesy http://www.sunshine-book.com.tw/images/upfile/2011/2011101118593164019.jpg.

The more recent Froggy book series by Jonathon London helped my daughter learn how to read. Again, the repetition was key to giving her a sense of confidence.  I found that the variation of the print colour helped as well.  When Froggy's mother yelled his name, it was always in red capital letters.

Froggy's First Kiss courtesy http://a2.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Publication4/v4/b0/c4/33/b0c433b0-0a85-7a6b-3697-10ea96b4053b/IMG_6934.480x480-75.jpg.

For a picture book timeline, visit, 

http://www.picturingbooks.com/slides/picture-book-timeline.html.

The History of Picture Books: The Illustrations

"Caldecott's work heralds the beginning of the picture book." 

(Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Grow)

Ralph Caldecott courtesy upload.wikimedia.org.

One hundred and thirty years ago, artist Randolph Caldecott was one of the first artists "to elevate the image into a storytelling vehicle" (http://www.brainpickings.org/2012/02/24/childrens-picturebooks/).  As Maurice Sendak explained:

"Caldecott's work heralds the beginning of the picture book.  He devised an ingenious juxtaposition of picture and word, a counter point that never happened before.  Words are left out -- but the picture says it.  Pictures are left out, but the words say it.  In short, it is the invention of the picture book."

The House That Jack Built and Ride a Cock Horse to Branbury Cross are but two of Caldecott's "toy books".  The precursor to the picture book, the toy book, popular in Victorian-era England, featured six illustrations, a small amount of text, and sold for six pence.

Caldecott's work was so influential that a picture book award was named in his honour.  The first Caldecott Medal, awarded in 1938 for "the most distinguishable American picture book for children", went to Animals of the Bible by Dorothy Lathrop.  It has been awarded every year since.

Walter Crane, another Victorian era illustrator, wrote toy books as well including Baby's Own Aesop, which included several fables, and The Alphabet of Old Friends, an early ABC book. 

According to blogger Maria Popova, picture books blossomed in the late 1800's and early 1900's thanks to the advances in print technology, the changing attitude towards children and the new class of artists.  

Picture books really came into their own in the 1920's.  The Story of Dr. Doolittle, which debuted in 1920, is about a man who discovers he can talk to animals.  It is one of twelve books written by Hugh Lofting.  The highly successful Millions of Cats, illustrated by painter Wanda Gag, appeared on bookshelves in 1928.  Gag penned over a dozen picture books.

While many successful picture books came out of Britain, we cannot neglect to talk about France. Cecile de Brunhoff used to tell her young sons a story at bedtime about an elephant who escapes from the zoo to a city which resembles Paris, marries and raises a family.  Her sons recommended to their dad, a painter, that he make the story into a picture book.  The result was Histoire de Babar which first appeared in print in 1931.  Two years later, it was translated into English as Babar the Elephant. 

Jean de Brunhoff, who wrote seven books, passed away in the 1940's, but his son Laurent took over the series, producing dozens more.

In 1937, Theodor Geisel debuted in the children's book field with his story And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street.  To learn how the former cartoonist broke into the children's book business, see my post "From Madison Ave to Mulberry St" at http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/04/april-29.html. Full of unmistakable rhythm and rhyme, Geisel's books were an immediate success.  While his earliest works were drawn with pencil, he used pen and ink after the Second World War.  Later books, like The Lorax, were filled with colour.  Under the nom de plume Dr. Seuss, he published over 60 books.

While World War II limited the supply of paper and manpower in the publishing houses, new children's books still rolled off the presses.  Curious George, the creation of the Reyersbach's, a Jewish couple who fled Paris immediately before the Nazi invasion, was based on a monkey and his mishaps.  To learn more about how the book came to be published, read "The Journey that Saved Curious George" at http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/10/october-21.html.  Still popular today, the series has sold 25 million copies.

The line between author and artist started to blur in the 1950's.  Paul Rand, a proponent of visual thinking, produced such books as Sparkle & Spin, Little 1, and Listen!  Listen!

British artists, known for their use of vibrant paint and colours, appeared in the 1960's.  Maurice Sendak produced his famous story Where the Wild Things Are (1963).  Meanwhile, in eastern Europe, Miroslav Sasek, a Czech immigrant to Germany, wrote Stone is Not Cold (1961) and This is Paris (1959) the first of 18 such books.  

Political subjects infiltrated the world of picture books with stories like The Butter Battle Book (1984), a Cold War tale, by Dr. Seuss, and No Hay Tiempo Para Jugar or No Time to Play (2004), based on child labourers in Mexico.  

Today, e-books are all over the Internet.  It's a Book (2010) by Lane Smith features a character examining a good old fashioned book and asking:  How do you scroll down?  Does it need a password?  Can it tweet?  But good old fashioned books continue to grace the shelves of our bookstores and libraries, full of beautiful artwork and compelling stories.

Note:  For more information, read Children's Picturebooks:  The Art of Visual Storytelling by Martin Salisbury & Morag Styles.