The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook

The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook
Tony Geiss, Emily Perl Kingsley, David Korr, Jeff Moss, Robert Oksner, Patricia Thackray; pictures by Tom Cooke, A. Delaney, Joseph Mathieu, Marc Nadel
Random House, 1978

Yes, I am going to Sesame Street again, only because a) I always get so many positive responses to these old Muppet books and b) it's Wednesday and we're a mere five days away from kindergarten and less than 24 hours away from meet-the-teacher and c) well, I just feel like it, so bear with me. When has Joe Mathieu ever failed to get us through a hump-day, huh? Speaking of which, my favorite story here from when I was wee was "Grover, Messenger of Love", illustrated by the aforementioned Joe, and it still just kills me with silly. Part Romeo and Juliet ... part The Fantasticks... and ALL furry, lovable 'ole Grover.

Grover was skipping happily down the lane, strumming his lute, when he heard the sound of someone crying. It was a beautiful princess weeping by her garden wall.

"Do not cry, beautiful princess. I, Grover, will play you a happy tune on my cute little lute," he said.

"It won't help," she wailed. "I am crying because of this stupid wall."

I can't imagine a Sesame Street book using the word "stupid" nowadays, but c'est la vie. So yeah, said stupid wall keeps the lovely Lucretia from her handsome Lorenzo and it's up to Grover to transport messages and gifts from one side of the wall to the other till he is run positively ragged. Good fun.

In these pages you'll also find three stories where Oscar has a nightmare that flowers cover his trash can and all the world is clean; Cookie has a bad dream where cookies don't exist; and Count dreams he's forgotten how to count. Not sure what's up with the nightmare theme and how that's supposed to help kids go to sleep but anyways... There's also a story about Ernie losing his rubber duckie, Betty Lou lending a hand, Grover and his twenty-six scoops of ice cream, and my other favorite, "Silly Annabelle" about a little girl who tames a dragon through song.

I've always liked these books with a bunch of different artistic takes and styles on the same characters. Great time capsule.

Other Old Sesame Street Titles:
Sherlock Hemlock and the Great Twiddlebug Mystery
Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum
The In and Out and All About Sesame Street Coloring Book
The Together Book
The Many Faces of Ernie
The Great Cookie Thief
Sesame Street 1,2,3 Story Book
The Amazing Mumford and His Amazing Subtracting Trick

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