Margaret Wise Brown collection ends book buying moratorium

I was trying to place a moratorium on the buying of books until my family and I move house at the end of the month. I absolutely hate moving and the less things to take the better. Don't ask me why I decided to pop into our local children's book shop today - I think I actually believed I could just take a peek and leave without a new book in hand.

Alas, there will be one more book making the move with us. But what a book! Friendly Tales (Little Golden Book Treasury) Twenty stories and poems by my beloved Margaret Wise Brown including Sailor Dog (who doesn't love a sailor dog?), The Colour Kittens, and Home For a Bunny. Best find in a long while. If you have small children buy this book, your family will enjoy exploring the stories of the incomparable MWB for years to come.

One For Father's Day

written by Margaret Wise Brown
pictures by Stephen Savage

Forgive me if I gush, but I just really love the books of Margaret Wise Brown. When Simon and Schuster recently released the previously unpublished The Fathers Are Coming Home, I felt like a Beatles fanatic finding a lost recording. I pre-ordered the book months before my husband's birthday and counted down the days.

Originally written as a welcome home to the fathers returning from World War II the book shows various types of animal fathers returning to their children at the end of the day. Typical of Wise Brown (who was never typical) the animals featured in the book aren't limited to the cute and cuddly (though they are there too).This book celebrates animal dads of all kinds, even the Bug whose family lives under a log and the kind-of creepy looking Daddy Long Legs who, I am sure, loves his children too.

The book is illustrated by Stephen Savage whose retro-looking linocut illustrations are perfectly suited to Wise Brown's trademark sparse and quirky prose. I don't think they could have found a more suitable artist for this one. Check out Stephen Savage discussing his work on the book here.