Saturday, February 28, 2009

From a Little Golden Book















This was one of my favorites as a kid. It was a hot muggy unbearable summer day and I had walked to the local drugstore with my older brother. He usually saw his sisters as nuisances, so I don't know how I got to tag along. He called us all "Sis" as if we had no individual names. When we got to the store, I went to look at the metal book display and asked for this book. He was flirting with the girl behind the counter, and agreed to buy me a book, but when he saw it was a Christmas book, he told me to choose something else. It was stupid to get a Christmas book in August, he said. I said I liked the snow in the book and refused to put it back. He argued, tried to foist a Henry book off on me -- *Henry was a kid with a giant bald head who was obsessed with lollipops-- (as if!) and finally gave up. He thought I was stupid,and I didn't care what he thought. I thought he had no imagination if he couldn't think about snow in August.

*Later I looked at the Henry book and it wasn't horrible or anything--it just seemed so at the time.

10 comments:

R.L. Bourges said...

oh, lovely book! (and the little mouse with the sleigh, and the pretzel on the top picture, and the grainy feel of the paper, and...oh, I like this book. And the story of how it came to be yours, too.)

Anonymous said...

Nice. I never had this one. Still have one of the old Lassie ones, tho' :)

Anonymous said...

OMG - I remember Henry! Didn't he have a comic strip, too, or am I mixing things up? Great Hedgehog illustrations, and a fun story!

JGH said...

Is that the same Henry who has the purple crayon? I have a few golden books too that I just can't part with. Lots of them that I grew up with are out of print now. Hold onto Mr. Hedgehog and those great memories!

e said...

I think that you were wise and spunky to hold your ground! This is a lovely illustated little book. Modern books of this ilk don't hold a candle to this one. I wish I had some of the Golden Books from my Nana's collection now.

tony said...

August is the best time to think about snow! In December we dont need too!

Mickey's Musings said...

One of my regrets is not saving many of my books from my childhood :( It was mostly Nancy Drew,but still...
I did a lot of library reading as a kid :)

Megan said...

I have that one! I have that one!

ArtSparker said...

Henry's face looked disturbingly as if it had relocated fro a different part of his body. My favorite Little Golden Book is the one about the poodle who wanted to be a baker.

ArtSparker said...

Oh, and it's Harold with the Purple Crayon.

My Classic Fiction Book List -Partial List

  • Austen, Jane: (Complete Works)
  • Balzac: Cousin Bette/ Eugenie Grandet / Cousin Pons
  • Best Russian Short Stories
  • Boyle, TC: Short Works
  • Brennan, Maeve : Short Works, 1 Novella
  • Bronte, Emily, Ann, Jane (Complete Works)
  • Brookner, Anita ( Complete Works)
  • Cather, Willa (Complete Works)
  • Chekov: Short Works
  • David Copperfield (Dickens)
  • Dickens:A Tale of Two Cities
  • Dickens:Great Expectations
  • Dickens:Nicholas Nickelby
  • Dickens:Our Mutual Friend
  • Dickens:The Old Curiosity Shop
  • Doyle, Roddy (some novels, memoir)
  • Drabble, Margaret (4 Novels)
  • Drieser, Theodore (Complete Works)
  • Fitzgerald, F.Scott (Most Novels & short works)
  • Hardy, Thomas (Complete Works)
  • Hemingway, Short stories
  • Hemingway: The Old Man in the Sea
  • Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises
  • Hugo: Les Miserables/Hunchback Of ND
  • James, Henry: Daisy Miller
  • James, Henry: In The Cage
  • James, Henry: Portrait of a Lady
  • James, Henry: The Golden Bowl
  • James, Henry: What Maisy Knew
  • James, Henry: Wings of a Dove
  • James, Henry:The Ambassadors
  • James, Henry; The Bostonians
  • Kerouac: Dharma Bums
  • Kerouac: On The Road
  • Kerouac: The Subterraneans
  • Kerouac: Tristessa
  • Lardner,Ring:Short Works
  • Larsen: Quicksand
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Arrowsmith
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Free Air
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Main Street
  • Lewis, Sinclair: The Job
  • MacGill, Patrick (Complete works)
  • Mackin, Walter (novels)
  • Maupassant: Short Works, novels
  • McGahern, John (novels of)
  • McNulty, John (Short Works)
  • Norris, Frank: McTeague
  • O'Brien, Edna (3 Novels)
  • O'Donnell, Paeder : Novels of
  • O. Henry
  • Potok, Chaim (4 novels/1 non fiction)
  • Salinger, JD : Nine Stories
  • Salinger: Franny & Zooey
  • Salinger: Raise High the Roofbeams
  • Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye
  • Sinclair, Lewis: Dodsworth
  • Sinclair, Lewis: Elmer Gantry
  • Sinclair, Upton: King Coal
  • Sinclair, Upton: The Jungle
  • Steinbeck, John: Sweet Thursday
  • Steinbeck: Winter of our Discontent
  • Steinbeck: Cannery Row
  • Steinbeck: East of Eden
  • Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath
  • Theroux, Paul (3 Novels )
  • Toibin, Colm: (Novels of)
  • Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
  • Tolstoy: Short Works
  • Turgenev (2 novels)
  • Twain: T Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi
  • Vonnegut: Early Works (1950s-60s)
  • Wharton, Edith: Novels of/Short Stories
  • Women & Fiction (Edit. Cahill)
  • Zola, Emile ( 10 novels)