I will buy anything illustrated by Hilary Knight - anything! I've never been disappointed by him and I don't believe I ever will be based on this, my most recent purchase, and all past experiences.
This is a collection of 21 animal themed poems. The poems here have a bit of an odd history. The cover says that they are 'based on A Child's Primer of Natural History by Oliver Herford - revived and rejuvenated by Margaret Fishback'. Odd phrasing if you ask me. I always like to know what has been changed and why so I went digging for the original source which can be read here. For the most part, I think Fishback's changes seem good, but it still strikes me as a strange thing to do.
Herford was writing in the early 1900s and so I wondered if Fishback had edited him to make the poems more PC. And it seems that's the case in some instances.
Herford's Seal Poem:
SEE, chil-dren, the Fur-bear-ing Seal;
Ob-serve his mis-di-rect-ed zeal:
He dines with most ab-ste-mi-ous care
On Fish, Ice Water and Fresh Air
A-void-ing cond-i-ments or spice,
For fear his fur should not be nice
And fine and smooth and soft and meet
For Broad-way or for Re-gent Street
Fishback's Seal Poem (an excerpt):
His fur is soft and warm and sleek --
The kind that grasping hunters seek.
But he would rather bob and float
Than be some lady's winter coat.
But then, Fishback added a poem about the elephant that wasn’t even in the original collection. It opens like this:
This is the Elephant, who lives
With but one aim – to please.
His ivory tusk, he freely gives
To make piano keys.
Ugh, gross, right?
But the illustrations totally MAKE this book worth it. It’s not hard to tell that this book was published in 1969 - the groovy colors leap off the page! Check out some examples here. Books/illustrations just don’t look like this anymore!
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