“Roundup of children's books: Earth Day - San Francisco Chronicle” plus 3 more |
- Roundup of children's books: Earth Day - San Francisco Chronicle
- Curious George gets a show at Jewish Museum in NYC - Post-Tribune
- Curious George’s genesis: Charming character’s ... - Missoulian
- Curious George gets show in museum - Frederick News-Post
| Roundup of children's books: Earth Day - San Francisco Chronicle Posted: 28 Mar 2010 02:49 AM PDT You can go all doom and gloom for Earth Day, coming April 22. Problems abound: global warming, pollution, overpopulation and on and on. Or you can accentuate the positive, as do some new picture books that highlight growing things as part of some healthy solutions. A perfect pitch for Northern California, self-proclaimed birthplace of the organic-everything movement. Be an environmental chef. That's the invitation of Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth, written by Mary McKenna Siddals and illustrated by San Francisco's Ashley Wolff (Tricycle; 32 pages; $15.99; ages 3-7). Bouncy rhymes and busy collage art zip along as everything from apple cores to zinnia heads gets tossed into a rich and rotting soil-bound mix. A potentially heavy-handed message is delivered with a light touch so that you want to start your own waste heap right away. Mission accomplished! "I take care of the earth because I know I can do little things every day to make a BIG difference." From that opener, a lineup of green-minded kids offers advice in The Earth Book, by Berkeley's Todd Parr (Little, Brown; 36 pages; $9.99; ages 3-6). Their ideas culminate in a fold-out poster with 10 ways to help: Save leftovers, be nice to worms, plant a tree and save water, for example. Parr's trademark art, chunky and childlike, cuts the too-earnest factor down to size for an upbeat introduction to more ecologically correct living. Animals including a rooster named Breakfast, tractors, big sky, fertile land, barns, crops, the nearby town, weather and morning chores are joyfully detailed in Farm, by Elisha Cooper (Orchard/Scholastic; 40 pages; $17.99; ages 4-8). With charming touches of humor, the lyrical writing and loose watercolors gracefully zoom in and out to focus on an Illinois family that through the year produces food for the table and corn feed for cattle worldwide. This book is not about the sustainability of such a model but rather about the dignity of hard work and the complexity of modern agriculture. The many benefits of trees are enumerated in We Planted a Tree, by Diane Muldrow and illustrated by Bob Staake (Golden Book/Random House; 40 pages; $17.99; ages 5-8). They help with erosion, water conservation, clean air, richer soil, shade and food. And to make a global point of it, the action moves from a Brooklyn backyard to a Kenyan farm and on to Tokyo, Paris, Italy and Vermont. Everywhere people love trees. The retro cartoonish art helps glue together the disparate places. A small girl offers keen conjecture in My Garden, by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow/HarperCollins; 32 pages; $17.99; ages 3-5.) Throughout this lovely picture book, she compares her mother's real spring garden with her own imagined one. "If I had a garden," the girl posits, it would have no weeds, flowers would never die, jelly beans would grow into a jelly bean bush, tomatoes would be big as beach balls and so on. Pastel-hued watercolors, solidly outlined in black, are fresh as just-picked strawberries in this reverie. There is almost no end to the kvetching and complaining in The Little Red Hen and the Passover Matzah, written by Leslie Kimmelman and illustrated by Paul Meisel (Holiday; 32 pages; $16.95; ages 4-8). As in classic versions of this old tale, a put-upon homemaker asks her friends for some baking help and repeatedly gets "Not I" for an answer. Witty dialogue keeps the shtick going strong right to the end, when the Little Red Hen guilt-trips Sheep, Horse and Dog for having the chutzpah to then show up for her seder. Some important words from the Passover Haggadah help set everything right. The whole thing is a bit of a Jewish in-joke, but with an explanation of Passover, a recipe for matzah and a Yiddish glossary, all at book's end, accessibility shouldn't be such a problem. All to the good, because this is one of the best holiday takeoffs in recent memory. Susan Faust is a librarian at the Katherine Delmar Burke School. E-mail her at books@sfchronicle.com. This article appeared on page FE - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Curious George gets a show at Jewish Museum in NYC - Post-Tribune Posted: 28 Mar 2010 01:59 AM PDT E ver wonder why Curious George is so curious? Or why the monkey hero of the "Curious George" children's books is so fond of travel, so prone to mischief, yet always narrowly escapes disaster? A new exhibit at New York's Jewish Museum suggests that curious readers need look no farther than the real-life adventures of the intrepid husband-and-wife team who created the beloved character. H.A. and Margret Rey -- he changed the name from Reyersbach -- were German Jews living in Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion, increasingly concerned about finding safe haven. Two days before the Germans marched into Paris, they fled on bicycles carrying drawings for their picture books, including one about a mischievous monkey then called Fifi. Curator Claudia Nahson explains that Hans and Margret created the monkey character that is always on the run while they themselves were on the run. The recurring motif of the monkey's narrow escape from danger is another autobiographical detail. Twice in the months leading up to their escape, the couple was questioned by authorities suspicious of their German accents. Both times they were let off the hook when officials learned what they were really up to -- making children's books. While the exhibit touches on the harrowing conditions they endured on their four-month flight in 1940 from France to New York, it's more about the unusually long and fertile artistic collaboration between Hans and Margret, whose fiery personality is said to be the inspiration for George's insatiable curiosity and spunk. Hans Rey was a gentle, pipe-smoking, self-taught artist who toiled for a time in commercial art designing circus posters before launching his career as a writer and illustrator of children's books. Margarete Waldstein, who shortened her name to Margret, was the more assertive of the two. She had studied art and photography at the famed Bauhaus School in Germany and had strong opinions about nearly everything, including her husband's work. Both loved animals. Hans liked to sketch in zoos, and the couple kept pet marmosets in their apartment in Brazil in the 1930s. Margret even knitted sweaters to keep the tiny monkeys warm on the couple's cold ocean passage to Europe in 1936, but the creatures didn't survive the voyage. The exhibition features nearly 80 original drawings and vibrant watercolors for the more than 30 books the couple wrote and illustrated. The most famous, of course, is Curious George -- the "good little monkey" captured in the wilds of Africa by a man in a large yellow hat and taken to the city to live in a zoo and later, the man's home. The idea for George began in an earlier book about a lonely giraffe named Raffy who befriends nine monkeys, the youngest of which is called Fifi. Eventually, the Reys decided to develop a story just about Fifi. It was one of the stories they smuggled out of France, only to learn when they got to the U.S. that American publisher Houghton Mifflin had doubts about the name Fifi for a boy monkey. And so Fifi became George in the United States -- and Zozo in Britain. With George VI then king of England, it seemed disrespectful for a monkey to have the same name as the British sovereign. The Curious George books, including the seven original stories by Margret and Hans, were eventually translated into many languages, selling tens of millions of copies worldwide. It's not hard to see why. With simple lines and bright, buoyant colors, the Reys created an imaginary world full of innocence and optimism. No reader would ever discern that their lighthearted, good-natured outlook was entirely at odds with the circumstances they faced in the years leading up to and during World War II. The exhibit will be on view at The Jewish Museum through Aug. 1 then travel to the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, where it will run from Nov. 14 through March 16, 2011.What was George's name in Great Britain? Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Curious George’s genesis: Charming character’s ... - Missoulian Posted: 27 Mar 2010 11:29 PM PDT NEW YORK – Ever wonder why Curious George is so curious? Or why the monkey hero of the "Curious George" children's books is so fond of travel, so prone to mischief, yet always narrowly escapes disaster? A new exhibit at New York's Jewish Museum suggests that curious readers need look no further than the real-life adventures of the intrepid husband-and-wife team who created the beloved character. H.A. and Margret Rey – he changed the name from Reyersbach – were German Jews living in Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion, increasingly concerned about finding safe haven. Two days before the Germans marched into Paris, they fled on bicycles carrying drawings for their picture books, including one about a mischievous monkey then called Fifi. Curator Claudia Nahson explains that Hans and Margret created the monkey character that is always on the run while they themselves were on the run. The recurring motif of the monkey's narrow escape from danger is another autobiographical detail. Twice in the months leading up to their escape, the couple was questioned by authorities suspicious of their German accents. Both times they were let off the hook when officials learned what they were really up to – making children's books. While the exhibit touches on the harrowing conditions they endured on their four-month flight in 1940 from France to New York, it's more about the unusually long and fertile artistic collaboration between Hans and Margret, whose fiery personality is said to be the inspiration for George's insatiable curiosity and spunk. Hans Rey was a gentle, pipe-smoking, self-taught artist who toiled for a time in commercial art designing circus posters before launching his career as a writer and illustrator of children's books. Margarete Waldstein, who shorted her name to Margret, was the more assertive of the two. She had studied art and photography at the famed Bauhaus School in Germany and had strong opinions about nearly everything, including her husband's work. Both loved animals. Hans liked to sketch in zoos, and the couple kept pet marmosets in their apartment in Brazil in the 1930s. Margret even knitted sweaters to keep the tiny monkeys warm on the couple's cold ocean passage to Europe in 1936, but the creatures didn't survive the voyage. The exhibition features nearly 80 original drawings and vibrant watercolors for the more than 30 books the couple wrote and illustrated. The most famous, of course, is Curious George – the "good little monkey" captured in the wilds of Africa by a man in a large yellow hat and taken to the city to live in a zoo and later, the man's home. The idea for George began in an earlier book about a lonely giraffe named Raffy who befriends nine monkeys, the youngest of which is called Fifi. Eventually, the Reys decided to develop a story just about Fifi. It was one of the stories they smuggled out of France, only to learn when they got to the U.S. that American publisher Houghton Mifflin had doubts about the name Fifi for a boy monkey. And so Fifi became George in the United States – and Zozo in Britain. With George VI then king of England, it seemed disrespectful for a monkey to have the same name as the British sovereign. The Curious George books, including the seven original stories by Margret and Hans, were eventually translated into many languages, selling tens of millions of copies worldwide. It's not hard to see why. With simple lines and bright, buoyant colors, the Reys created an imaginary world full of innocence and optimism. No reader would ever discern that their lighthearted, good-natured outlook was entirely at odds with the circumstances they faced in the years leading up to and during World War II. The exhibit will be on view at The Jewish Museum through Aug. 1 then travel to the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, where it will run from Nov. 14 through March 16, 2011. On the Net Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Curious George gets show in museum - Frederick News-Post Posted: 27 Mar 2010 10:53 PM PDT
| "> "> NEW YORK (AP) -- Ever wonder why Curious George is so curious? Or why the monkey hero of the "Curious George" children's books is so fond of travel, so prone to mischief, yet always narrowly escapes disaster?A new exhibit at New York's Jewish Museum suggests that curious readers need look no farther than the real-life adventures of the intrepid husband-and-wife team who created the beloved character. H.A. and Margret Reys -- he changed the name from Reyersbach -- were German Jews living in Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion, increasingly concerned about finding safe haven. Two days before the Germans marched into Paris, they fled on bicycles carrying drawings for their picture books, including one about a mischievous monkey then called Fifi. Curator Claudia Nahson explained Hans and Margret created the monkey character that is always on the run while they themselves were on the run. The recurring motif of the monkey's narrow escape from danger is another autobiographical detail. Twice in the months leading up to their escape, the couple was questioned by authorities suspicious of their German accents. Both times they were let off the hook when officials learned what they were really up to; making children's books. While the exhibit touches on the harrowing conditions they endured on their four-month flight in 1940 from France to New York, it's more about the unusually long and fertile artistic collaboration between Hans and Margret, whose fiery personality is said to be the inspiration for George's insatiable curiosity and spunk. Hans Reys was a gentle, pipe-smoking, self-taught artist who toiled for a time in commercial art designing circus posters before launching his career as a writer and illustrator of children's books. Margarete Waldstein, who shorted her name to Margret, was the more assertive of the two. She had studied art and photography at the famed Bauhaus School in Germany and had strong opinions about nearly everything, including her husband's work. Both loved animals. Hans liked to sketch in zoos, and the couple kept pet marmosets in their apartment in Brazil in the 1930s. Margret even knitted sweaters to keep the tiny monkeys warm on the couple's cold ocean passage to Europe in 1936, but the creatures didn't survive the voyage. The exhibition features nearly 80 original drawings and vibrant watercolors for the more than 30 books the couple wrote and illustrated. The most famous, of course, is Curious George -- the "good little monkey" captured in the wilds of Africa by a man in a large yellow hat and taken to the city to live in a zoo and later, the man's home. The idea for George began in an earlier book about a lonely giraffe named Raffy who befriends nine monkeys, the youngest of which is called Fifi. Eventually, the Reys decided to develop a story just about Fifi. It was one of the stories they smuggled out of France, only to learn when they got to the U.S. that American publisher Houghton Mifflin had doubts about the name Fifi for a boy monkey. And so Fifi became George in the United States -- and Zozo in Britain. With George VI then king of England, it seemed disrespectful for a monkey to have the same name as the British sovereign. The Curious George books, including the seven original stories by Margret and Hans, were eventually translated into many languages, selling tens of millions of copies worldwide. It's not hard to see why. With simple lines and bright, buoyant colors, the Reys created an imaginary world full of innocence and optimism. No reader would ever discern that their lighthearted, good-natured outlook was entirely at odds with the circumstances they faced in the years leading up to and during World War II. The exhibit will be on view at The Jewish Museum through Aug. 1 then travel to the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, where it will run from Nov. 14 through March 16. On The Net: n www.thejewishmuseum.org/ n www.louiseborden.com/ n www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/cgsite/ Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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