Little Chicken
Margaret Wise Brown
pictures by Leonard Weisgard
Harper & Row, 1943
As I've said before, you could do a blog just on these two collaborators. Getting into reading more and more of Ms. Brown's titles, many of them could be extensions of others as the language and imagery are so similar. Of course there is the ever-loved Golden Egg Book, but this one is like how that story could have continued on if the duck had been a chicken.
Once there was a little chicken
who belonged to a Rabbit.
The Rabbit found him one day just
breaking out of an egg,
so be belonged to Rabbit.
All of the books by these two have such a wonderful innocence for kids about nature and animals and love and friendship. However, I find it interesting that through this entire book the name "Rabbit" is capitalized and "little chicken" is not. You could stretch here and say the chicken is just a plaything for the rabbit or that because the rabbit is a mammal, he is somehow superior to the little egg-layer. The whole point of the story seems to be that after soliciting all kings of animals, only birds and monkeys would want to hang with a little peep-peeper while his rabbit friend is off doing more important things.... But I doubt there was that much though put into it.
Also by:
The Quiet Noisy Book
On Christmas Eve
Christmas in the Barn
The Dead Bird
The Golden Egg Book
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Treasures to See
The Big Book of Nursery Tales
The Friendly Book
Sir Kevin of Devon
Cynthia and the Unicorn
The Mouse and the Lion
The 'belonging' theme is in another one of Margaret Wise Brown's Books - Mister Dog: The Dog Who Belonged to Himself. (You probably know that...but still I am compelled to comment because it touched a warm memory.)
ReplyDeleteIt begins..
"Once upon a time there was a funny dog named Crispin’s Crispian. He was named Crispin’s Crispian because he belonged to himself."
Those lines have pleasantly resided in my memory since childhood.
LOVE your blog and your insightful commentary. (Too, the story about MWB's house.) I came here after finding your Etsy site whe searching for members/shops in San Antonio. (I live outside S.A.)