Long Ago a Moonboat
Christopher Carroll ~ Silverdog Press, 1974
I know I promised Halloween inspired picks this week, but I keep getting distracted. First off, I know absolutely nothing about this book or the author/illustrator. It's totally 70s though with gorgeous black and white ink drawings and matching quirky text. I have vague memories of it on my parent's bookshelf when I was young and suspect it's one of those books that can technically be called a children's book, but is, in fact, not for children at all.
The title houses three tales: The Message of Queen Clausetta (a bizarre little story of an AWOL queen and the chaos of kingdom that ensues), Stories for Little Elmo (a selection of three tales and a drawing of recent likeness) ~ Ennui in the Nursery, At Court, and L'Amour, and finally, the namesake, Long Ago a Moonboat. The story actually begins on the cover.
Long Ago a Moonboat was blown through the dark night toward a range of razor-sharp mountains. The ship crashed on the highest pinnacle and over the years was transformed into a lofty city known as the Kingdom of Roon. In this kingdom lived the group of very strange people known as Macaroons.
The tale goes on and we meet the king, who likes to throw parties and send out "movable-toe-and-finger-counting machines" to search for other life forms. When the strange Macaroons are discovered by a group of anthropologists from The New World (who happen to be on a scouting mission looking for the missing bones of the ape-man), the anthropologists announce their discovery and the royal family of Macaroons are paraded around for all The New World to see. This totally freaks the king et al out and they return to their moonboat city and set sail away in a giant storm, relocating on another peak, leaving The New World to believe the civilization is lost forever. Yes, it is a mouthful.
If anyone knows anything about this book or its maker or has memories of it, please drop me a note. It's kinda like a mystery within a mystery within a mystery. Which is kinda spooky, right? BOO!
I have a question, completely unrelated to this book, if that is okay? Is one the sweet girls in your header picture of you? Just curious. :) It is such a great picture.
ReplyDeleteI'm the one in the middle. The other two are my sisters. I'm the baby. :)
ReplyDeleteHi - I know the author. He's a Berkeley artist who also designs scarves for a Bay Area company called Zazou. He's such an amazingly talented person - you should check our his scarf designs at zazou.com. (Oh, yes, I am also his friend and colleague - could you tell?) I love that you found this old gem. He draws a calendar for us every year that's just as wonderful. His pen-and-ink stuff is just to die for.
ReplyDeleteI'm the author's niece and my mother has a copy of this book that I used to love looking at as a child. I was trying to find articles written about him in hopes of doing a research project for my Graphic Design class, so thank you for posting this!
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