Favorite Tales of Monsters and Trolls
George Jonsen ~ John O'Brien ~ Random House, 1977
Sounds exactly like what it is...
The Stone Cheese
There was once an old man who lived with his three sons in a small wooden house at the edge of a forest. The nights were growing long and cold, so one morning the old man asked his eldest son to go into the woods and chop down a tree for firewood.
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Once upon a time there were three billy goats named Gruff who lived together on the mountainside. There was not much to eat in their rocky pasture, but they could see a field of sweet green grass just across a deep valley.
The Trolls and the Pussy Cat
There was once a hunter in the far north who caught a bear the like of which he had never seen before. This bear was so white and so big and so tame that the hunter decided to give him to the King of Denmark as a Christmas present.
All three tales see the outwitting of some ghastly creature, drawn by O'Brien, the famed New Yorker cartoonist and children's book illustrator. Scary, spooky fun.
Halloween's just around the corner, right?
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11 comments:
Holy Toledo you are full of all kind o' goodness today! MUST check this one out, must must must. Julia was just asking to read a rad version of Thee Billy Goats Gruff. We love trolls!
love that first illustration.
snip, snap, snout, this tale's told out.
AAAAAAAHHHH! I totally remember this weirdo fantastic book from when I was a kid! Wow, memories.
That is an absolutely fantastic book I must steal from my sister sometime. I've looked for other John O'Brien books; there are very few, and none have the little people that populate the places In Between. It's so sad when a few of these wee innocents fall with the troll, just because they were careless enough to live in his clothes.
@allen I always felt bad for the guy locked in the hat-jail too. That bird, on the other hand, I always felt he was in cahoots with the troll.
@allen: I always felt bad for the guy trapped in the hat-jail too. Now the bird, on the other hand, I always felt he was in cahoots.
Loved this book as a kid, and now mine do too!
I've been looking for this book for years. This was my fave book from my Da. Lost I thought to the ages,,,, But now found. Awesome thanks for posting.
I absolutely loved this book when I was little. I'm 40 and a fine artist and illustrator. This book is one of the main reasons that I ever started illustrating. Beautiful artistry.
You are amazing for posting this. I searched for an hour and finally found your post. Buying a copy now!
I too had this book as a kid. I stumbled in here looking for a pic shown here from Google Image.
What was amazing about this book was the pictures full of little people an animals, each doing something different, and you could look at one pic for 15 minutes or more just looking at all the little stories going on in the pictures, noticing odd details and wondering what they might mean.
I also had this book as a kid! I spent hours looking at the artwork, and remembered it had the Billy Goats Gruff story, but couldn't remember any other stories or the name of the book. Thank you for posting this, I can now hunt it down for my nephew. He better like it like I did! Lol
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