Little Peewee or, Now Open the Box

Little Peewee
Dorothy Kunhardt with illustrations by J.P. Miller/ published 1948 by Little Golden Books

Goodwill find of the month! Written by the creator of the immortal Pat the Bunny, there are a couple of lines in these pages that had me literally busting a gut this morning.

He is so teeny, weeny
that everybody loves him.
And that was true.
EVERYBODY loved little Peewee.
There was a clown with two heads,
but one of them was probably make-believe.
He loved little Peewee.
There was the small man who could juggle
three ducks all at the same time.
He loved little Peewee.
There was the man siting on a chair,
on top of six tables just going to fall down, and blowing soap bubbles.
He loved little Peewee.

It goes on for a few pages like this, and man, oh, man... is it hilarious! So yea, Peewee is this tiny, tiny dog (and you know how I love tiny dogs) who is the circus cat's meow until he grows too big and gets ousted from the show. Little do they know though, that Peewee has just started to grow... and grow he does. Quite simply put, this one is just TOO GOOD.

Illustration Station has a ton of scans from the book, and as it mentions, the title was originally published in 1934 as Now Open the Box but was re-illustrated by the Disney-veteran Miller for Golden Books. The one I bought is a Weekly Reader Book Club edition that is two books in one and includes Sylvester: The Mouse with the Musical Ear.

I was looking for a bio of Ms. Kunhardt and stumbled upon the amazing MOST REQUESTED page on the website of Loganberry Books in Ohio. Geez, it makes me WANT WANT WANT soooooo bad! And speaking of I want.... Does it ever end!?!

Also by:
Lucky Mrs. Ticklefeather
The Little Red Hen
The Around the Year Storybook
Little Galoshes