The King Who Could Not Sleep

By Benjamin Elkin

Pictures by Victoria Chess

Here is a trippy little gem from 1975. The illustrations reminded me of the Beatles cartoons from the 60’s and 70’s. I remember staring at my dad’s record albums cover while we listened to the record on one of those huge cabinet style stereos. Many a Saturday afternoon was spent reading on the floor quietly while my dad graded papers or painted in our family room. I recommend that this book be read while listening to one of the following songs; "I am the Walrus" "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" or "Strawberry Fields Forever".

This quirky book is about a group of the kings advisors trying make everything quite so a king can sleep. There text is for the most part rhyming thus trickling off the tongue with ease. The end has a little surprise, so that young ones will want to re-read this with abandon.

Written by Benjamin Elkin was an Elementary School Principal in the Chicago area. I couldn’t find anymore info about him, which make him all the more intriguing and therefore readable. He worked with Anita Lobel (wife to Arnold Lobel – of the Frog and Toad fame) on the book The Wisest Man in the World and How the Tsar Drinks Tea. He wrote The Loudest Noise in the World and Gillespie and the Guard which was illustrated by James Daugherty.

The Illustrator for The King Who Could Not Sleep was Victoria Chess. She has illustrated more than 100 books and authored many of her own. She was born in 1939 in Chicago, Illinois. She attended the Kokoshka School of Art, Salzburg, Austria and Boston Museum School. Victoria has been awarded the Brooklyn Art Books for Children citation, the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Public Library, 1973, for Fletcher and Zenobia and American Institute of Graphic Arts Book Show Award, 1975, for Bugs.

So let us see some images from this 1975 flash back….

Does King Karl ever get to sleep.... pick up a copy and find out!

Summer Flu

Ugg... We got back from vacation and I got the flu This means of course that my son now has the flu as does Rae. I hope to get some new stuff up soon...

My love affair with Thrift Store Shopping

Can I just say how much I love thrift store shopping! I had been resisting the urge to go the thrift stores; things have been a little tight lately. The other day I had quite a few books to mail out for paperbackswap.com. If I turn right on the street just after the post office drive I can make it to a thrift store in 5 minutes. I thought, we’d just go in and wander around for a little bit until the library opens at noon. We didn’t get to the library until 2 but I found 25 books for $30! Prices on the books range from 1.50 to just 25 cents. When I shop for books I have a list of books that we have already in my phone so to minimize the amount of duplicates that I get and a list of authors that I am looking for. I prefer to get hard covers but if I have been looking for a particular book a paperback will do. Well I didn’t find one book that I was looking for but I did find a lot of books that were just to interesting to pass up.

Sometimes I think the other shoppers and the workers must think I am crazy. My strategy is I pull any book that I might like off the shelf and put in the cart. Since I had not been to the store in about 2 months the cart was fuller than normal. Then I go through them all, carefully evaluating them for flaws and if I would really like to add that book to my collection. The one thing that makes pretty upset is finding I bought a book and it is missing pages. Oh the horror of a book with ripped out pages….. but I digress.

My poor son just sits in the cart and babbles to me the entire time, he is so good about just sitting there. Of course I some times have to bribe him with candy. My purse has been come like some crazy Willy Wonka purse with chocolate, suckers and assorted empty wrappers. How I miss the days were my purse was small and cute, now I look like a bag lady….

So stay tuned for the next couple of weeks while I review and research my newest finds. I am trying to review books that have not been done so in length. Other than my first posting, dedicated to my most beloved book of all time. I think we can all find reviews of the most popular books out there. I would rather read a review of a lesser known gem.

If you are interested in what paperbackswap.com is, I will put a link and a little explanation in the side bar. Have a great day!

Wild Things

While Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak has been reviewed countless times, it still deserves the first entry on my blog. I spent the better part of my childhood gazing deeply into the gorgeous illustrations. Sendak is a master at story telling and illustrations. He often worked with authors like Else Holmelund Minarik, Ruth Krauss, and his brother Jack Sendak.

The book was made into a short animated film in 1973 narrated by Allan Swift. It was re-released in 1988 with a narration by Peter Schickele. The 1988 version is easily found and worth a watch.

Where the Wild Things Are was made in to a movie in 2009. With a soundtrack written by Karen O, of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, (All is Love) and a trailer featuring the music of Arcade Fire (Wake Up) this movie was brilliant. Though is has gotten mixed reviews by parents for the dark nature of the film, for me it was just an extension of a fantastical adventure that began almost 50 years ago.

There’s a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak produced in 2008 as a companion for the Sendak on Sendak Exhibit at the Rosenbach.

Tell Them Anything You Want (2010) is a documentary film about Maurice Sendak. Shows cantankerous, grumpy and funny old man speaking about his life and his work. The film was directed by Spike Jonze (the director of the 2008 adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are.) The film is a hilarious inside look into the world of Sendak.

In 2008 an article in the NY Times Sendak stated that he was Gay. Sendak has noted that this was not the first time his sexuality had been mentioned. This for me cemented him as my most loved author of all times. Being Gay as a child was confusing. I never felt like I really “fit in.” I retreated to world of books and fantasy because these were solitary activities that required no approval of others. Perhaps this is part of the reason I was drawn to Sendak’s works, but in truth he is just such a fanatic author and artist that I doubt him being Gay had anything to do with my long time love affair.

I could go on and on about all of the wonderfulness of Sendak but I wanted to keep the blog post fairly short…..So without further ado….

Let the wild Rumpus Begin!