Little Fur Family

Little Fur Family
Margaret Wise Brown ~ Garth Williams ~ Harper & Row, 1946

As an infant, the boy was obsessed with the rub-the-tummy "Fur Edition" of this title, but when I purged his board books, it got tossed with the rest of them. Last year, I came across a copy of the more big-boy-sized Children's Choice Book Club Edition, and it happily found its way back into rotation. The Little Fur Family is quite possibly my all time favorite first book to give to a child (even more than Goodnight Moon). It's quirky. Funny. Weird. And totally sweet. And little... don't forget little. Though I am a sucker for Eric Carle and Pat the Bunny, I always thought these pages held a little more poetry, abstraction, nuance and soul for a baby book. Case in point..

It was a wild wild wood.
Wild flowers grew all over the ground
and wild winds blew through the air.
Wild nuts fell from the wild nut trees
and wild grass tickled the fur child's nose,
tickled his nose and made him sneeze...
Kerchoo!

and later...

Then he caught a little tiny tiny fur animal
The littlest fur animal in the world
It had warm silky fur and
even a little fur nose.
So he kissed it right on its little fur nose
and put it gently back in the grass
and the little tiny tiny fur animal
ran down a hole into the ground.

Weird, right? Weird in the most wonderful way. As a child, I know I loved to imagine little things, little creatures especially that might be living right outside my window, shuttling around unseen in the dead of night. All the more wonderful to imagine them as furry little creatures in little fur coats rushing off to a hot bath, a snuggle and a goodnight song from Mommy and Daddy.

Sleep, sleep, our little fur child,
Out of the windiness,
Out of the wild.
Sleep warm in your fur
All night long,
In our little fur family.
This is a song.

Makes you feel all warm and fussy inside, don't it?

Also by:
Wait Til the Moon is Full
Do You Know What I'll Do?
The Sky Was Blue

Big Golden Animal ABC

The Rabbit's Wedding
The Quiet Noisy Book
On Christmas Eve
Christmas in the Barn
The Dead Bird
Little Chicken
The Little Island
Amigo
The Friendly Book