Margaret Wise Brown's Wonderful Storybook: 25 Stories & Poems

by Margaret Wise Brown

The life-lesson "red means stop, green means go" is imparted with considerable charm and magic in Margaret Wise brown's book, which has everything from cars and trucks to dogs and bright red squirrels obeying the law of traffic lights. Leonard Weisgard's graphic illustrations, with their rich brown and black undertones, lend a wonderful geometric sturdiness to this tale intended for good citizens ages 3 to 6.

Genres: Childrens

61 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Margaret Wise Brown wrote hundreds of books and stories during her life, but she is best known for Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Even though she died nearly 70 years ago, her books still sell very well.

Margaret loved animals. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading.

She wrote all the time. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them.

She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn't the same way an adult would tell a story. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things. One time she gave two puppies to someone who was going to draw a book with that kind of dog. The illustrator painted many pictures one day and then fell asleep. When he woke up, the papers he painted on were bare. The puppies had licked all the paint off the paper.

Margaret died after surgery for a bursting appendix while in France. She had many friends who still miss her. They say she was a creative genius who made a room come to life with her excitement. Margaret saw herself as something else - a writer of songs and nonsense.

Reviews

[Joe Dalaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book as a gift for children. I thoroughly enjoyed it as a child, but after re-reading as an adult, I more fully appreciate Margaret Wise Brown's use of duality as a way to teach children patience and self-acceptance.

Children hear a lot of admonitions from their elders. While ideally adults help children grow into responsible, compassionate, competent, and virtuous adults, kids sometimes get the message that their whole worth as a person is balanced on behaving perfectly. Margaret Wise Brown counterbalances that message in her stories, by depicting characters that are neither good nor bad, but both.

The most obvious example of that duality in this collection is "The Good Little Bad Little Pig." In that story, the piglet that is chosen as the boy's pet is neither one of the obedient piglets nestled against the mother sow, nor the rambunctious piglet squealing and running around the pen, but rather the piglet standing on an upturned pail and leaning on the pen's fence, being present with the sights, sounds, and smells wafting on the breeze. In this image, Brown conveys that being present and appreciating life does not always look like the messages of obedience and dutifulness that are sometimes imparted to children.

Brown explores this idea of duality -- being both "good" and "bad" -- in her other stories. In "The Polite Little Polar Bear," a young polar bear struggles to balance his hunger against imposing himself on the other fauna in his community. In "They Could All Smell It--But What Was It?" the unidentified smell emanated from "a little old skunk far away, coming closer, and closer, and closer, carrying a rose in its mouth" -- a physical metaphor of the same duality. And, in this collection's clearest example of what psychologist Carl Jung referred to as apokatastasis -- the "restoration" that is sought to heal the hurts of life and death -- the little girl in "The Steam Roller" finds that her parents provided her with a special gift she could use to undo the hurts she caused others by losing control of her steam roller.

One might take issue with Brown for depicting the resolution of wrongs so lightheartedly, even frivolously. Yet, when reading her stories, one develops a way of looking at the world as a place of possibility. Seeking possibilities, and by doing so cultivating one's own resilience, is necessary in a world where hurts are real and sometimes cannot be undone in any literal sense. Moreover, doesn't it behoove us as adults to provide the sense of safety for children necessary so that they can explore and develop their own inner resources? Which of us wouldn't, like Fluff Ball Angel, come to rescue our "Green-Eyed Kitten" if they wandered too far in the great vast hall? No one can acquire experience without risk, and children's greatest task is acquiring experience. Margaret Wise Brown's stories and poems, through their overall mood and use of the duality metaphor, encourage children and adults alike to view the world as a place where the duality within oneself -- one's imperfections and fragility -- need not be fatal, but rather can be a vehicle with which one can peacefully relate to the experience of living in this world.

And besides -- that steam roller is way cool. I still want one. : )

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was recently in a conversation in an online book group and the question came up: "What was the book that got you hooked on reading?" It was hard for me to say because I can't really remember a time when I didn't love reading, from my earliest days of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. But after a bit of thought, my memories of this book surfaced, and I knew this had to be the answer.

I read this book so many times as a child, and I still vividly remember so many of those characters: The little girl with the steam roller, the curious kitten, the little boy who tried to learn how to take a bath from the animals, the puppy and all the weathers, the mysterious smell, and many more.

And the illustrations. I can still see them so vividly. How I loved (and still love) this book. I highly recommend it for any little reader in your life.

I had the 1974 edition with the brown bear on the cover.