I Wonder What's Under

I Wonder What's Under
Doris Herold Lund ~ Janet McCaffery
Parent's Magazine Press, 1970

As previously mentioned, I've been collecting titles by my friend's late mother. Of course, another Parent's Magazine Press find... which is always awesome except for a somewhat lame period the publisher had during the 80s. Detailed in what I have to assume are watercolor paintings, imagine yourself a small child again... in bed... scared of what's underneath... and facing that fear, you go deeper. After his father tells him to look under the bed and investigate, our hero Dudley finds all sorts of trinkets and knickknacks he thought he'd lost and then he wonders...

"Daddy?" said the little boy, "just one thing more-- I wonder what's under the rug that's under my bed."

"Oh, no!" Dudley's tired father said.

Dudley sat up. "I know there's not a bear or a monster-- there's not even room for a puppy down there. What I'm worried about the most..."

"Yes?" said his father.

"Suppose there's a ghost? I mean, ghosts are sort of flat. They could slide under the rug and just wait-- like that."

From the rug, the speculation turns to what's under the floor, under the cellar, under the earth. Very cute idea, and a concept book I find right in line with the idea of the universe going on forever... an idea I've recently been ruminating on at length with my son. It brings that abstract idea into a real world setting and helps boost children's imaginations of the known but unseen. Plus, the pictures are totally 70s and remind me so much of the artists from my youth. Groovy.

Also by:
Attic of the Wind
You Ought To See Herbert's House