| Weird and Wonderful: Discoveries from the Mysterious World of Forgotten Children's Books Contributor(s): Poltarnees, Welleran (Author) |
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ISBN: 1595833854 ISBN-13: 9781595833853 Publisher: Laughing Elephant OUR PRICE: $17.96 Product Type: Paperback Published: July 2010 Annotation: In his years of collecting and cataloging the vast Green Tiger library of classic children's picture books, editor Harold Darling has singled out scenes containing particularly unusual images and situations and he has compiled the best and rarest of these discoveries in Weird and Wonderful. The results are both engaging and delightful and reveal a world of children's books where imagination is given free rein. Artists and authors include Frank Baum, Edward Lear, Gelett Burgess, Peter Newell, John R. Neill and Charles Doyle. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Juvenile Fiction | Humorous Stories - Juvenile Fiction | Bedtime & Dreams - Juvenile Fiction | Art |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2010008342 |
| Physical Information: 0.41" H x 8.1" W x 9.1" (0.95 lbs) 112 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Throughout his years of collecting and cataloging his vast library of classic children's picture books, Welleran Poltarnees has singled out particularly unusual images and situations. He has compiled the best and rarest of these discoveries in this book. Weird and Wonderful reveals an engaging and delightful world where imagination is given free rein. This compilation of excerpts and illustrations from 19th and early 20th-century picture books includes artists and authors like Frank Baum, Edward Lear, Gelett Burgess, Peter Newell, John R. Neill, and Charles Doyle. The book is full of rarities from the vault, often paired with an accompanying verse. Every page holds a surprise: Palmer Cox's Brownies make an appearance, as do offerings from Johnny Gruelle, Dorothy Kunhardt, a 1916 work by Hazel Frazee where a pair of elegant ladies plays dominoes, works from Ernst Kreidolf that depict the wonderful beings who inhabit the world of plants, and an anonymous 1884 illustration depicts a hive of winged capital letter Bs carrying signs. Poltarnees's brief, glowing commentary is largely superfluous, as the whimsical, bizarre, and sometimes nightmarish illustrations stand alone as fascinating relics of a bygone era in children's publishing. These wonders and oddities are sure to captivate connoisseurs and curious young readers with an artistic bent. You will likely long for more of these beguiling images. Luckily, as Poltarnees notes in his introduction: There are thousands more buried in our library. |
Contributor Bio(s): Poltarnees, Welleran: - WELLERAN POLTARNEES has a lifelong love of gardens. His first memory is falling out of his baby carriage and landing on a bed of odorous white flowers which not only kept him from injury, but made the experience a sensual delight. He collects books about, and pictures of, gardens -- but there are few timeless things that he does not so honor. He uses a book called Great Gardens of the World as a guide whenever he travels, and, with the exception of the Boboli Gardens in Florence, which came highly recommended and which he found monotonous -- the gardens have always refreshed him. His favorite time for gardens is night. His favorite garden music is Manuel De Falla's ""Nights in the Gardens of Spain"", and his favorite garden poem is ""The Garden"" by Andrew Marvell. |