Good Books
Returning to Castles with Dragons
Ivy F. DeShield, contributing editor
A birdie with a yellow bill
Hopped upon the window sill,
Cocked his shining eye and said:
‘Ain’t you ’shamed, you sleepy-head?
As a child, I had no better place to lose myself than between the pages of a story or picture book. The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Aesop’s fables, Mother Goose’s nursery rhymes and other traditional works, like Little Red Riding Hood and The Ugly Duckling awakened my childish curiosity and left me happily secluded for hours amidst a whirlwind of fanciful winged horses, talking mirrors, and sleeping maidens. I lived like a hobbit among her most-prized possessions, only surfacing in the summer months, especially, for meals and good-night kisses.
There was a crooked man,
And he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence
Against a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat,
which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together
In a little crooked house.
Having received my first volume of classic tales, fables and children’s verses at a young age from my mother, it was befitting that she was the one to gift me as an adult with A Treasury of Children’s Literature, edited by Armand Eisen and stories retold by Sheila Black. This amazing one-volume library of children’s works includes the most beloved stories of childhood that have delighted children from generation to generation. To enhance the overall effect of whimsy and wonder of each entry, more than a dozen talented artists have colorfully depicted these beautiful stories and cherished characters with an expert hand which further ignite the imagination in places and times words cannot always travel or subsist.
At seven, when I go to bed,
I find such pictures in my head:
Castles with dragons prowling round,
Gardens where magic fruits are found;...
Do you remember John Henry swinging his two twenty-pound hammers; the emperor who loved clothes beyond all else; the Mad Hatter’s tea party; Hansel and Gretel lost in the forest; or the triumph of the three little pigs over the big, bad wolf? These lasting works of children’s literature will forever be the cornerstone of artistry from our youth to adulthood. They spur the mind’s eye from an early age and rest quietly in the background as we mature, until it is time for a new generation to explore and relive the grandeur of these classics. And once this childish spirit is reawakened within us, it is hard to put away again, but then, why should we? Let us make a leap, take a retreat, and tap into our youthful dreams to remind ourselves that we were once young and will forever be, young at heart. Happy reading, my dear friends!
Excerpts include: Time to Rise; There Was A Crooked Man; and A Child’s Thought.