Although our children, now 21 and 13, have gotten past the ages of reading these beautiful picture books, they still have a fond place in my heart. Especially at this time of year, I cannot help thinking of the heart-warming illustrations from Ox-Cart Man, illustrated by Barbara Cooney, and Flannel Kisses, illustrated by Mari Takabayashi. So every year at this time, I bring them out and look at them myself, and remember reading both of these, year after year, to the boys. There was even a Reading Rainbow episode where they visited Old Sturbridge Village, in Massachusetts (where I remember visiting as a young girl with my friend, Stacy, and our mothers). In this episode, the book, Ox-Cart Man was read by Lorne Greene -- you can watch the episode in its entirety here:
Here are my favorite books illustrated by Barbara Cooney:
 photo from Amazon.com |
| Ox-Cart Man | | | |
 photo from Amazon.com |
| The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree: An Appalachian Story | | | | | | | | | | |
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| Miss Rumphius from http://www.barbaracooney.com/ |
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When I think of Flannel Kisses, I think of the year we moved from New Jersey to our house here in Virginia. The house in New Jersey was a really great house, situated on an acre and a half, partially wooded lot. It had a gigantic kitchen, light colored wood floors and a grand foyer with TWO large coat closets! The nursery had 3 large windows that overlooked the valley below and hills beyond, and a Laura Ashley wallpaper border of the nursery rhyme Hickory, Dickory Dock and the Cow Jumping Over the Moon, which my husband, parents and I installed. Brian and I also made one very large wooden cornice for the windows using the same wallpaper border to cover it. It was a bittersweet move to Virginia, because as much as I looked forward to moving to a new and exciting place -- I have always loved visiting DC -- I was going to very much miss our old house, friends and life in New Jersey. So after looking at about a hundred houses, none of which seemed right, and pretty much overly tired of house hunting, I somehow knew this house would be the one for us. I then had to leave to go back to NJ to sell the other house. When I came back 3 months later after the closing, and not really remembering what the new house looked like anymore, I was pleasantly surprised -- there were nice dark wood floors on most of the main level, even in the kitchen -- I had forgotten about that! Anyway, and this is where Flannel Kisses comes in, because our younger son was at the perfect age for reading that story, I read it a lot, and in it saw our new home -- wooden floors, staircase... and happy family in it. Nine years later, I still love these dark wood floors -- they are so warm and forgiving to walk on in your bare feet, even in the coldest months...
These are my two favorite books illustrated by Mari Takabayashi:
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| Flannel Kisses from http://www.maritakabayashi.com/ |
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| Marshmallow Kisses from http://www.maritakabayashi.com/ |
Farrow & Ball No. 247 Terre D'Egypte
