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  • Poems, Prayers, Pets, and a Princess
  • Sandra Fenichel Asher (bio)
A Birthday for the Princess, by Anita Lobel. Illustrated by the author. Ages 4-8. (Harper and Row, $5.95).
The Brownstone, by Paula Scher. Illustrated by Stan Mack. Ages 3-8. (Pantheon Books, $4.50).
Games (and how to play them), by Anne Rockwell. Illustrated by the author. Ages 5 and up. (Thomas Y. Crowell Co., $5.95).
He Was There from the Day We Moved In, by Rhoda Levine. Illustrated by Edward Gorey. Ages 5 and up. (Harlin Quist, Inc., $1.50).
The Knee-Baby, by Mary Jarrell. Illustrated by Symeon Shimin. Ages 2-5. (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, $4.95).
Morris Brookside, a Dog, by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat. Illustrated by Ronald Himler. Ages 3-8. (Holiday House, $3.95).
Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs, by Tomie de Paola. Illustrated by the author. Ages 3-6. (G. P. Putnam's Sons, $3.95).
A Nutty Business, by Ida Chittum. Illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Ages 3-8. (G. P. Putnam's Sons, $4.29).
Pippa Mouse, by Betty Boegehold. Illustrated by Cyndy Szekeres. Ages 2-6. (Alfred A. Knopf, $2.95).
Poems and Prayers for the Very Young, selected and illustrated by Martha Alexander. Ages 2-5. (Random House, $.95).
Riff, Remember, by Lynn Hall. Illustrated by Joseph Cellini. Ages 9-12. (Follett Publishing Co., $4.95).
To Catch a Tartar, by Lynn Hall. Illustrated by Joseph Cellini. Ages 8-12. (Follett Publishing Co., $4.95).

It is both a strength and a weakness of picture books that they must always be a collaborative effort. Even when author and illustrator are one and the same person, the eye and the ear must collaborate. When the team effort is successful, we readers receive the best of two worlds plus a whole even more pleasurable than its parts. Failure, in most cases, means failure to be published, which doesn't concern us here. But, we do often see cases in which one collaborator falters and the other carries the crippled work across the line to publication. Of the twelve books to be discussed now, I consider only six totally successful collaborations. The remaining six vary widely in degree of artistic [End Page 202] shortcomings and/or narrative weakness, but the artists are more often in the role of team booster.

To begin, an example of fine teamwork bent on slapstick comedy, The Brownstone, written by Paula Scher and illustrated by Stan Mack. The situation is inherently funny: the six apartments of a little brownstone house hold six animal tenants of drastically different needs and habits. Miss Cat needs to practice her singing. The Mice need a decent meal. And the Bears need to take their winter nap. Landlord Owl tries various ways of rearranging his household, with resultant disasters in the stairwell and between ill-matched floor-mates. With polite dialogue in the face of ridiculous situations, the zany characters strive to prove to each other—and to us—that they are civilized people, after all, and the goings-on could hardly be their fault. Add illustrations, and this little tale of getting-along-together-despite-our-differences takes wing. Clashing day-glo greens, pinks and oranges accent the nonsense while the cut-away view of the brownstone, showing all six apartments at once, not only increases the fun but helps small children visualize the chaos.

More slapstick, teamed with an ecology message and an unusual look at life in Appalachia, forms the basis of A Nutty Business by Ida Chittum. This book attempts more than The Brownstone and almost brings it off. When Farmer Flint's wife and daughter require new calicoes, he decides to gather nuts to sell to city folks. A band of squirrels nut-nap, bombard and picket ("Nuts to Us!") in protest. Finally, an agreement is reached between people and squirrels.

The characterization of the hill people is done more by the author than the illustrator and it is done well, especially their unique sense of humor. Unhappily, I cannot say the same for the avenging squirrels, who are inexplicably portrayed by Stephen Gammell as a rather urbane street gang of repulsive half-rat, half-human...

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