Random Artsy Oddities: Botanical Spacecrafts and Obscure Books

This blog post will start with an avocado, but it's really about much more, including some wonderful books you've most likely never seen and won't see.  During my college years, an odd little discount bookstore opened in my hometown.  My dad and I would spend hours perusing the store.   Dad would buy me wonderful books filled with art prints, for just a few dollars.  And I would search for obscure children's books (because even before I became an elementary teacher, I always loved kids' books).  On one of my trips to the store, I became distracted by this adorable little book, The Artful Avocado by art critic/art historian/author John Canaday.

 I don't think I had ever seen or heard of avocados before my college years.  They just weren't a common or popular food item where I lived.  And I acquired my first house plant as a gift during my sophomore year of college, and also discovered the wonders of eating avocados.  So, when I found this quirky book about how to root and plant an avocado pit, I discovered I could follow the author's instructions and grow a lovely house plant, after enjoying a delicious food!

The author's words, for the way he recommended rooting the avocado in water, balanced by toothpicks or pins, were "like a miniature botanical spacecraft".  That's one of those book phrases that has stuck in my brain for decades.  (Other such phrases, such as a "perfect day for a bananafish", written by J.D. Salinger, and of course the Dr. Seuss quote from Horton Hears a Who, "a person's a person no matter how small", return to my lips over and over again.  Perhaps I'll have to write a blog post with a collection of favorite book phrases!)  And now back to the botanical spacecraft - here's an illustration from the book:

Fascinated, I rooted several avocados, and had a couple of really successful, lovely avocado plants for many years.  But they didn't live forever, and while I have a ton of house plants, I haven't had an avocado plant for at least a decade.  And I've been trying to root avocados ever since. 

This, above, has been in the water for about a week.  After a while, I will probably throw it away.  Below, is what is supposed to happen.  I've also tried rooting the avocados directly in dirt, as in the pic on the right, an alternative provided in the book. 

 But alas, I have not gotten an avocado to root in a very very long time.  What has changed about the avocados in the supermarket?  Why doesn't this work any more?  I've tried different varieties of avocados, different supermarkets.  My husband just rolls his eyes at the latest avocado pit rotting in water in our kitchen.  I should have a houseful of these beautiful plants!!

Meanwhile, the phrase "botanical spacecraft" reminded me of another book.

 But I couldn't locate my copy of it today.  Instead, I uncovered some other sweet books on my bookshelves that I purchased in that long-gone bookstore.  It is unlikely you've ever seen any of these gems.  The first one I'll share here is Go, Go, Grabote!  In this gem, a little character emerges from the eye of the author/artist, and heads off on exotic painted adventures.

 Something New Under the Sun is a very odd little book...

 Here's Looking at You is a book of poems, each illustrated by someone different. 

 Then there's a book about an "active" little boy, Timothy the Terror.

 And my personal favorite is Number 24, a quiet, wordless book, about someone waiting for a bus.  Most people seem to just scratch their heads at this book.

 Here's a treasure that my dad found in the store and gifted to me as a surprise.

Yup!  The illustrations are by the sculptor Alexander Calder!!!

They very much remind me of the animals in his Circus.

 My dad strangely also gave me this, below.  It is in very bad condition, but I wonder if it has some monetary value.  I suspect it is rare.  I'd like to find out, as it isn't doing anyone any good sitting on my book shelf.  Any ideas?

I don't dare to show you any of the images from inside the Picasso publication, here on the blog, as they are exceedingly X-rated!  Instead, I want to share a few other books that weren't from that little bookstore, but are stored with them on my bookshelf at home.  You probably haven't seen these, either!

Maybe you are familiar with Edward Gorey. But have you seen this little alphabet book, The Gashlycrumb Tinies?  I never shared it with kids at school, because I was worried that someone would get upset.  Because, after all, every letter of the alphabet stands for a child that dies in some horrific way.  Still, I find it hysterically charming.  Is there something wrong with me?

 And then there's this wonderful bilingual book (Russian and English), Here Comes the Cat.  The story is simple and sweet.  After pages and pages of mice, warning that the cat is coming, it turns out that the cat is not so bad after all!

If you are of my generation, perhaps you remember Gerald McBoing Boing?

 Today on NPR, I heard a story about the ground-breaking book Our Bodies, Ourselves, that I've owned since the 80's.  How many young women like myself learned absolutely everything about being a woman from this incredible book?

 And finally, I'll close with a lovely book, To Every Thing there is a Season. 

Tis the season for Cookies and Books!

  Hello there, everyone! 

 

Just for fun, I thought I'd share my recent artsy cookie baking endeavors.  A week ago, I made and decorated these Hanukkah cookies below, for a Temple book club Hanukkah party.  (More about the book club and books in a little bit.)

Then, this week I baked my annual batch of gingerbread cookies, using my husband's family recipe.  I'm not a huge fan of gingerbread, but I do like making these every year.  (Though it took me way too long this year.  Maybe it's because I really don't know anything about cookie-decorating; I just make it up as I go along and hope it works.)  Anyhow, I made a wonderful big mess in the process, and I hope you like the results!   

So about the book club...  I'm actually in TWO book clubs; I've been in one for about 20 years, and joined the Temple group after I retired.  So I've read lots of books I might never have discovered or chosen on my own - some I've liked, and some... not so much.  And I've met some terrific women through both groups.  Both book clubs take a little reading hiatus in December, opting for food instead of books, and also take a meeting break in the summer.  I use that time to read books waiting by my bed that I've picked up along the way.  (Yup, I actually read actual books!  There's something tactile about books that I love.  I have no desire to use an e-reader.)

I want to mention a few books that have made big impressions on me in recent months.  In one group, we recently read West With the Night by Beryl Markham, and in the other group we are now reading (though I've already finished it) An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine.   I'm a big fan of books that are told with a unique voice; both of these books fit that description.  One is non-fiction, and the other is fiction, but I give highest recommendations to both.  They are non-typical, and really special.

Meanwhile, I've independently read a couple of those books on the night table that were NOT book club picks.  I was especially intrigued by The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman.  A little dark and creepy, but I'm a fan of Hoffman's magic realism, and I enjoy books that are a little bizarre!   And this is definitely on that list...  

 A few others from recent months that I really enjoyed reading for my clubs:  The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh,  The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline, and Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt.  And has anyone else read A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka? It was a fun little book that I picked up at a book sale. 

 Have you read any of these books?  Did you enjoy?  

Do you have any other fun book recommendations to pass along?  

Happy Reading, Happy Baking, & Happy Holidays!! 

Bill Peet, author/illustrator extraordinaire!

I thought perhaps it was time to do a post about some favorite children's books that, while not specifically "art books", could certainly inspire art lessons.  Then I discovered that I'd already written that post, about two years ago!  You can find it HERE.

So, instead of just re-writing the same post again, I want to focus on one particular author/illustrator mentioned in that prior post, the fabulous Bill Peet.  If you've never come across any of the books by Peet, you are actually still likely to be familiar with much of his work, because, besides being an author/illustrator of children's books, he also spent 27 years working at Disney as a story writer/illustrator.  He left Disney after a disagreement with Walt Disney, and then continued his career writing and illustrating children's books.

In the shelves of books saved from my son's childhood, I found that he had four books by Peet.  Three of these books are a selection are storybooks, and the fourth (on the left in the photo above) is an autobiography written for an intended audience of upper elementary age children.  The black & white images below are from this autobiography.  His books are filled with rich  drawings of animals, both real and imaginary, trains, cars, buildings, and much more. 

 In the autobiography, he talks about his time working at Disney, as you can see in the two pictures below.   This book is an excellent choice for teaching children about autobiographies. 

One of Peet's most compelling books is The Wump World, a book with a strong environmental warning.  It may remind you in spirit of Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, but Peet's book was published first, about a year before The Lorax.  Here's a few images from The Wump World.

Here's a few more pages from the Peet books that we own, including Cowardly Clyde, and Cock-a-Doodle Dudley.  I think, if you were looking for lesson inspiration, Peet's books could be motivation for using illustrations to tell a story, and inventing creatures, and are wonderful examples of using value to create forms. 

These few that we own are only a small sampling of the books written and illustrated by Bill Peet.  Each one has an intelligent story, well-written, and loads of beautiful illustrations.

One of my favorite Peet books can be somewhat controversial, and years ago I made the mistake of selecting it to read to a 2nd grade class in my school district, when I was invited as a 'guest reader'.  That book is The Gnats of Knotty Pine.  The story takes place at the start of hunting season.  The animals in the forest band together to chase away the hunters.  Unfortunately, the school district where I taught is located in the rural foothills of the Adirondacks of NY, an area very popular for hunting.  I would guess that easily 3/4 of my students lived in homes where there are hunting rifles, and where many of these students have been hunting with a parent, and possibly even own their own guns.  Venison is a frequent meal at the dinner table.  The kids did not understand the anti-hunting stance of this book!

If you've never encountered a book by Bill Peet, I strongly recommend it!