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Article Excerpt
We in the world of children's books have, it seems, an apparently endless capacity for concocting special events. We're always celebrating something, be it Children's Book Week, Dr. Seuss's birthday, the publication of the latest Harry Potter book, summer reading, National Poetry Month ... the list goes on and on. Publishers, ever on the lookout for marketing ideas, are happy to encourage us in this festive mindset, with posters, party kits, and a staggering array of promotional gimcracks. In recent years, they've latched onto the concept of special "anniversary" editions of time-proven children's books, usually involving redesigned covers, larger trim sizes, and, far too often for my taste, the dreaded colorization. This season alone we're celebrating the twentieth anniversary of The Napping House by Don and Audrey Wood, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Arnold Lobel's Days with Frog and Toad and James Howe's Bunnicula, the thirtieth anniversary of Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends, and the fortieth anniversary of The Giving Tree.
While none of these titles is in imminent danger of disappearing, a welcome byproduct of this celebratory zeal is that publishers are combing their backlists looking for titles to revamp. Several long-out-of-print books have been reissued in anniversary editions, and I'm thrilled to see their return.
At the top of my "it's about time" list is The Happy Lion by the husband and wife team Louise Fatio and Roger Duvoisin. First published by McGrawHill in 1954 and unavailable for years, this endearing classic has been reissued by Knopf in a handsome fiftieth anniversary edition. I can only wonder what took them so long. The Happy Lion is such a superb melding of text and illustration that the only possible response on finishing it is a deeply satisfied sigh. Set in a "lovely French town with brown-tile roofs and gray shutters," this is the story of a very happy lion who lives in the town zoo and is beloved by his many visitors, until the day his door is left open and he ventures out to return all the visits his friends have paid him. The lion is hard-pressed to explain the screams and panic that ensue as he strolls through the town. "'I can't think,' said the happy lion, 'what makes them do that. They are always so polite at the zoo.'" Just as the town's terrified firemen are about to turn their hoses on the lion, Francois, the zookeeper's son, runs up, calls out "Bonjour, Happy Lion," and escorts him back to the zoo. There he is once again treated royally by the townspeople, "but if you opened his door, he would not wish to go out visiting again." Duvoisin's rich orange, yellow, and brown palette perfectly captures the spirit of the benevolent lion, from the arresting covers with front and back views of the lion to the touching scene of Francois chatting away to his friend as they head back to the zoo. This was the first of ten Happy Lion adventures; I hope several more make it back into print.
John Burningham has always been a Children's Book Shop favorite--as far as we're concerned, his Mr. Gumpy's Outing is required reading for every two-year-old. This spring we were delighted to see that Trafalgar Square has made many of his long unobtainable titles available in this country once again, including the Jonathan Cape fortieth anniversary edition of Burningham's first book, Borka: The Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers (1963). Borka is the utterly charming tale of a goose born with no feathers--"a most unusual case," according to the doctor goose called in by Borka's parents to examine her. He recommends that Borka's mother knit her a sweater, "as much like feathers as she could." Happy and warm in her new gray jersey, Borka is nonetheless teased by the other young geese and ultimately left behind when they all fly south for the winter. Nothing could be more desolate than the picture of an earthbound Borka watching the flock depart. Not knowing what to do, she finds her way aboard a boat on the Thames, makes herself indispensable to the crew, and is eventually put ashore in Kew Gardens, where there are already so many exotic birds that no one minds how she looks at all. Burningham's bold, deceptively simple illustrations won him the Kate Greenaway Medal and started him on a distinguished career in children's books.
Thankfully, a number of other picture books have returned without the impetus of an anniversary. After producing an...
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