Books of my past

Hi Dear Ones :)

It’s a kind of time travel: books can take us back to certain segments of our past with a whiff of the paper and a glimpse at the illustrations. The memories come flooding back.

Before I get stuck in to talking about books and illustrations and childhood and whatnot, I might mention this:

Spirit of Autumn in a Maxi Dress (The Original) is available for sale at my etsy shop as of this afternoon. The whole print edition is on Arches paper. I re-did it because the ‘other’ paper wasn’t giving the vibrancy of colour I wanted for her.
Think of wedding presents, 21st gifts and other special birthdays! If you have any queries about the printing, purchasing or mailing processes please check out my FAQ.

Back to books. Some of my favourite, iconic childhood book memories are below.

You can see even from the covers that they are well worn from reading and rereading.

Kon Tiki and I

Have you read it? It’s by Erik Hesselberg and has not only his wonderful drawings, but is also in (presumably his) hand-writing. I have absolutely no idea how we came by it, but I love it! You don’t always know where things come from when you are little do you?
Eloise by Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight.

This is a classic. I’ve almost worn out the paper at the join on the Open Up page when she goes from floor to floor in the hotel! They must have quietly made a film of it, as we came across it on TV one day, and they did the character so well that you could tell it was Eloise even without a TV guide or knowing it was on. Note the lovely flowing page design.

Scuppers the Sailor Dog by Margaret Wise Brown.

A great recipe for life: “If he could build the house he could mend the hole in his ship.” Also, have you noticed a disproportionate number of illustrators (not in this list, but generally) have the name Margaret? I am not sure why that is, but I’m sure it’s a good tiding!

Fiji Johnny by Nancy Curtis.

My Aunty, Uncle and cousins sent me this one. Important message about making one’s ‘weaknesses’ into strengths! Hi Dave Rendall :)

The Magic Pudding written and illustrated by Norman Lindsay.

An Australian classic. Those characters have so much… hmm…  character! Confession: I didn’t understand all of it and I skipped the long songs. I challenge you to tell me you don’t want that tree house at the end! I definitely do :)

I still have these books. Whilst de-cluttering making some space I pondered whether to keep such things, and decided there’s little point throwing out something that I will at some point want to reference.

Re-reading this list I notice that all those books have a very strong illustration component. No surprises there, you might think! Sometimes when I have a down day or 2 I do wonder if I am on the right track with my attempts towards ‘being as me as possible’, trying to spend more quality time doing artwork. This has been a reminder that I do seem to be heading in the right direction.

Let me know your favourite books from childhood in the comments section below, or at my Tangerine Meg Visual Artist page on Facebook :) There’s also a list growing of favourite childhood books at this post by Aha Life Designs. As you can see, I added 2 of mine to the list :)
I am sure you had some favourites that I’ve never heard of, just as you might not’ve heard of mine!

While we’re talking about books, and keeping, feel free to go download and print the bookplates I made for that very purpose, and pass the link on, too, dearhearts! I also wrote about how they came into being here. Print and glue the bookplates into your best books, to show yourself (and maybe even the books themselves?) that you love them and have chosen them :)

Love and choose yourselves, too.
Meg x o

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3 thoughts on “Books of my past”

  1. Thanks, beautiful ladies, for your comments :)

    Brandi: We are lucky when our mum saves things, aren’t we? They are like the Keepers of the Treasures til we once again recognise them!

    Tammy: It’s amazing how we remember the verses and stories so well, isn’t it?

  2. My Margaret Brown book was “The Sleepy Book” which I cannot find in the version I had. There are other versions, but they don’t have some of the (still) memorized peices I remember from night after night. I read KonTiki as a requirement in H.S. HATED it – who knew there was one with pictures? Why didn’t I have access to it? I also loved Eloise but from a moveie on tv: Eloise Eloise Eloise. Come Come Come. Thanks for a trip down memory lane! Oh – my favorite NEW children’s book? Tuesday. No words just pictures. Frogs on lilipads flying through the air. Totally awesome (with thanks to my pre and K teaching daugher who collects children’s books)

  3. I am so grateful that mom saved for me my laura ingalls wilder set, my peter rabbit set and a couple of books on flower fairies. I consider them absolute treasures!

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