One of our favorite books, especially for Spring, is Mud Pies and Other Recipes: A Cookbook for Dolls by Marjorie Winslow, illustrated by Erik Blegvad, whose Great Hamster Hunt, also out-of-print, is still on my shelves.
So I was delighted to see it receive a lengthy “salute” from independent bookseller Alison Morris on her blog, Shelftalker. In the post, Alison mentions the concept of bibliobituaries, odes to out-of-print books. Isn’t that the perfect term? As someone with a keen fondness for books, especially children’s books, that are OOP, I’ve found the biggest advantage of a strong Canadian dollar to be the ability to purchase a number of OOP treasures from the U.S. through abebooks.com.
A couple of my favorites, still on my shelves after more than 30 years, well deserving of bibliobituaries I should write one of these days:
The Golden Name Day by Jennie D. Lindquist and illustrated by Garth Williams, which I read and reread. I wanted to be Swedish and live in the country with a large extended family and yellow rose wallpaper. The title was a Newbery Honor Book in 1956, and Miss Lindquist was the second editor of The Horn Book, from 1951 to 1958; here’s a 1953 letter to Miss Lindquist from Laura Ingalls Wilder, with the latter’s gingerbread recipe.
The Windmill Summer by Hila Feil and illustrated by Fred Brenner. As I’ve written previously, it’s about Arabella who runs away from her large family to live by herself in a windmill shaped like a ship with a large wire whisk, olives, coffee ice cream, Yoohoo, Mallomars, and copies of Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking, Swallows and Amazons, and The Hobbit, among (many) other things. A book that doesn’t deserve to be out of print. And for the past 20 years or so I’ve harbored the thought that maybe Arabella grew up to be another of my dear book friends, Laurie Colwin…
Filed under: Blogging, Books, Childhood, Children's Books, Commemorations, Spring
Becky, do you see who is also a fan? (Look at Shelftalker’s comments.) Joyce Sidman, of Butterfly Eyes and Song of the Water Boatman fame. I’m not surprised. I still want to track down a copy of this book!
Oh, the Golden Name Day – I also read a reread that book, and wanted to be Swedish. Now I live in Minnesota, hmmm. I remember some odes in that book to the smell of new mown hay and pestering my mother about how it smelled. Living 12 miles from Midtown I didn’t have any hay fields in the immediate environs. And yes yes to Laurie Colwin.
Oh, I *love* Mudpies! What a wonderful book. Chinaberry is actually pretty good at including back in print books. One that we loved was The Wind Boy by Ethel Cook Elliot.
Susan, oh, I didn’t see that last one earlier from Joyce Sidman! This reminds me of Kelly’s post/conversation about dealmaker/dealbreaker books — finding out that someone else is a kindred spirit based on childhood treasures…
Mary Lou, probably not a coincidence you ended up in Minnesota, or that I ended up in Alberta on a farm : ). No hay on the Upper West Side either, except what we could scrounge from the now-defunct Claremont Stables for our pet rabbits. But I have it by the ton now — do you want me to mail you some, just for sniffing?!
Kris, yes, I think a lot of people discovered “Mud Pies” the second time around through Chinaberry. What a wonderful catalogue — the selections and the spirit are glorious. And getting at least some of the older books back for another chance is a great gift.
Trying to catch up. Thought my favorite bloggers were all on hiatus, out enjoying some springy weather, then discovered my RSS feed was on the blink.
There was a picture book I remember fondly from my childhood, a gift from my grandmother, about a Persian royal and a bumblebee. The illustrations were as intricate and colorful as a Persian carpet, and throughout the story the bee’s loopy path was traced with a dashed line. Oh, if I could only remember the name of it. Maybe that’s where I got the idea to marry the Shah of Iran when I grew up…
L, I’ve bouncing back and forth, between the indoors and out-of-doors as the calves and the kids (and their extracurriculars) allow. Shah of Iran, eh? You’d have had adventures, but a very different kind…
The Persian bee doesn’t ring a bell with me, though I’d love to know the title if you ever find it; have you searched the archives at Loganberry’s “Stump the Bookseller”?
http://www.loganberrybooks.com/stump.html
Thanks, Becky! I’m heading over there to see if they can come up with the title.