Seeing as the last few Update Fridays have belonged to Mr. Flora, I figured I'd keep the ball rolling. Here, I update a post from September of '08 on his Leopold, the See-Through Crumbpicker. 
The Simple Prince
There once was a prince who longed to live a simple life. He was tired of idle foolishness and fancy dress balls. So he clapped his hands three times to call his servants. "Bring me some plain clothes," he demanded. "I am going out into the world to live the simple life."
And off he goes, to put upon a poor farmer and his wife to show him the simple life. The prince demands tea, but the farmer insists they need fire and water first to make it. 
After the sawing and hauling and the inevitable milking of the cow, he still foolishly requests some bread, and the comedy continues until at last... 
On Jane Yolen's Website, she includes anecdotal information about all her books which I find totally charming. About The Simple Prince...
Also by:
On My Beach There Are Many Pebbles
One my beach there are many pebbles
Leo was simply the best of the best. 40 children's books and more than 100 years since his birth, and his words and pictures still touch the artistic soul in all of us.
Also by:
Lions
Jim's Going Fishing about a boy who wants to skip school to go fishing but ends up spending the morning with a friendly policeman who sets him straight. I Can't Smile about a girl embarrassed by her missing front teeth on picture day. 
Fun with a Lion about lion hunting at the library. The Lion Gets Away where the lion hunt continues. And the one that most overwhelmed me with memories. Surprize Day at School.
Jan, what is in there? 
The school district next to ours has a bond out now to fund e-readers for all the students in hopes of doing away with text books. If the program goes over well, I'm sure our district will follow suit. Odds are, my son will never touch a single text book. It's a brave new world our children will grow up in. As much as it pains my old school heart that he might never love a book like this, please someone shoot me if they ever hear me complaining... "In my day, we had to tote ten tons of text books through the rain and up two mountains to get to school. They cost a million dollars, and if you lost one, they cut a pound of flesh right out of your arm and we liked it!" 
Into the Ark
The backgrounds are so incredible, with the first page showing blue, cloudless skies, slowly transforming into a black forever, soaked in rain. 
Trying to get the Etsy shop ready for Christmas! I already have some of the holiday titles I've been collecting all year up and plan to share more in the coming months. Plus, I've added these favorites to the shop.
I'm My Mommy, I'm My Daddy
I worked for the company for a short time when it was in transition. When the children sold it to a German conglomeration who at the initial meeting told us our offices would no longer be referred to as "The Muppet Mansion" but would now be called "The International Brand Management Center". I watched closely the sales and passing of torches that followed, always with a sad heart. 
I applaud all the artists who have, in the years since his passing, worked to keep the Muppets alive. I have my fingers crossed, hoping the new Muppet movie will be watchable, but seeing as the trailer has a fart joke in it, it's doubtful. Those characters are more than a licensed product. They were the man and the people he brought into his creative circle. 
Life Magazine did a cover story after he died written by Stephanie Harrigan, and the last passage of it still rings true.
Other Old Sesame Street Titles:
Encounter on the High Seas
In the far north, where there is nothing but ice and water, lives Wally the Walrus. Wally loves to spend his days fishing and painting his white and blue world. One day Wally runs out of white paint. How can he paint without white? Hopping into his ice car, he hurries to the paint store.
I originally bought this book at Goodwill because of the bright 70s palette, but now the whole thing confounds me to no end. It is only really half a story. It reads like a movie tie-in. They introduce the characters in a tone that makes it sound as if I should know them, and should I know them? If I should know them, why is there no memory of them on the all-knowing Internet? On the cover Wallie's name is spelled Wallie but in the story Wallie's name is spelled Wally. The design and color leads me to believe that the author was massively influenced by the Missoni house of fashion. 
Would someone make this pain in my brain go away and tell me what this book is already!?!
A Little Schubert
Here, we have a short story about the Austrian composer, Franz Schubert; imaging what it must have been like to compose in the dead of winter, in a bare room with no fire.
But when the cold made his fingers ache, and he almost could not write his music, Franz Schubert got up. He clasped his hands and stamped his feet. He made his shabby coattails fly as he danced to keep warm.
