When William Faulkner and Langston Hughes Wrote Children’s Books

‘The World Is Round,’ by Gertrude Stein

For a skeptic who by no means fairly completed the primary paragraph of “Tender Buttons” it’s a nice responsibility to report that Miss Stein appears to have discovered her viewers, probably a bigger one than standard, actually a extra appreciative one. As to simply why, it could take an professional within the unconscious and a corps of kid psychologists totally to find out. Not the intoxication of phrases which preserve “tumbling into rhyme,” as one little lady neatly described it; not the irresistible rhythm of such songs as “Bring me bread, carry me butter” and “Round is round,” nor the enjoyable which flashes out when least anticipated, can totally clarify its success. Perhaps it’s as a result of, along with these virtues, Miss Stein has caught inside this architectural construction of phrases which rhyme and rhyme once more the essence of sure moods of childhood: the primary exploration of 1’s personal persona, the sensation of lostness in a world of night time skies and mountain peaks.

It is printed in blue ink, on fiercely pink paper, as toothsome-looking as 10-cent retailer sweet. It is difficult on the eyes, however to youngsters it’s stunning, and positively Clement Hurd’s drawings are pleasant. — Ellen Lewis Buell [Review first published Nov. 12, 1939]

‘Many Moons,’ by James Thurber

When a well known author of grownup books dashes off a juvenile story, a scarred and hardened reviewer is apt to strategy it a little bit gingerly. In Mr. Thurber’s case, fortunately, such warning is pointless. Brief, unpretentious, however sound and proper of its type, his fable is one which adults and youngsters each will get pleasure from for its skillful nonsense and for a sort of humane knowledge which isn’t all the time a property of his New Yorker tales.

Once there was a little bit princess, Lenore, who “fell sick of a surfeit of raspberry tarts and took to her mattress.” Imperiously (as befits a princess), she demanded the moon to make her effectively. So the king referred to as within the lord excessive chamberlain, the royal wizard and the royal mathematician. They flatly stated it couldn’t be had, presenting extensively various statistics to show it. So, as in all good fairy tales, it was the court docket jester who solved the issue, not with out some slight deception however to the satisfaction of the Princess Lenore.

Perhaps Mr. Thurber implies that issues are what you need them to be. Perhaps he implies that youngsters know all alongside when grown-ups are fooling them; or that they settle for the inevitable with extra grace and understanding than their elders. Perhaps not. It isn’t all the time simple to know precisely what Mr. Thurber means.

Louis Slobodkin’s footage are suitably wacky and fill the guide with contemporary very important colours. — Ellen Lewis Buell [Review first published Sept. 19, 1943]

‘The First Book of Jazz,’ by Langston Hughes

Jazz, Langston Hughes says firmly, is enjoyable. Unlike lots of its devotees, he doesn’t regard it as a peculiarly esoteric artwork; as a substitute he writes with a refreshing lack of pomposity and with a readability which can delight those that is likely to be confused on the variations between cool and scorching, swing and bebop. He exhibits how sure components from the spirituals, the blues and the weary subject hollers of the slaves mingled with merrier components of the jubilees, avenue songs, minstrel songs and ultimately developed right into a distinctively American artwork. Homage is paid to the influences and achievements of the good figures of jazz — particularly Louis Armstrong, whose profession, says Mr. Hughes, “is nearly the entire story of orchestral jazz in America.” — Ellen Lewis Buell [Review first published Jan. 30, 1955]

‘The Little Steamroller,’ by Graham Greene

Applying Graham Greene’s personal definition of sure of his novels, his most up-to-date image story may greatest be described as an “leisure.” This is pure melodrama, starring a courageous and resourceful steamroller of an early Rube Goldberg sample and a gang of smugglers. These, we’re assured, are “determined males,” however not even the cleverest of the Black Hand gang is a match for the steamroller as soon as the latter, with terribly fast notion, has detected his true nature. — Ellen Lewis Buell [Review first published March 13, 1955]

‘The Wishing Tree,’ by William Faulkner

William Faulkner wrote one youngsters’s guide in his life, as early as 1926, typed and sure it himself, and introduced the one copy to an 8-year-old little one named Victoria Franklin, who later grew to become his stepdaughter. Except for the writer’s title, there appears little purpose to publish it now. Although it seems in an enthralling version with lavish illustrations by Don Bolognese, it’s a curiosity relatively than a guide {that a} little one would rejoice to learn and browse once more. I can’t consider {that a} collector would learn it both.

Faulkner’s shining expertise is unfortunately lacking from these pages. He begins, promisingly sufficient, with Dulcie waking on her birthday to discover a redheaded boy standing beside her mattress. Maurice, a magical determine in a black velvet go well with, pink sneakers and stockings, carries Dulcie off in a pony cart to an enchanted world. With them go small brother Dicky, George from throughout the road and Alice, a maid with a depraved mood.

As is likely to be guessed from the beginning, Dulcie is merely having a dream. A grown-up reader might marvel uneasily in regards to the darkish nature of her fantasies, the sense of violence, plus the truth that she undoubtedly has it in for poor George. I can effectively think about Faulkner spinning out the story on a lazy afternoon, as anybody might launch freely into preposterous invention to amuse a toddler. Yet to put in writing it down was maybe a mistake in judgment. — Helen Bevington [Review first published May 7, 1967]