#41 - Odd Owls & Stout Pigs - Arnold Loebel

#41

Title:  Odd Owls & Stout Pigs, A Book of Nonsense

Author:  Arnold Lobel

Color by:  Adrianne Lobel

Genre:  Kid Pic Book

Publisher/Date: Harper/2009

ISBN:  978-0-06-180055-9

Dates read:  7/12/17

This book is made up of two of the three little handmade volumes that were discovered at the estate auction of George and Crosby Bonsall by Justin Schiller, a collector of rare and antique children’s books.  Adrianne Lobel, daughter of Arnold Lobell, relates this bit of information and that she worked with Justin Schiller over the years on appraisals and placements of her papa’s archives.  Her goal in coloring these sketches was to maintain the sense of joy and spontaneity that she found in the pictures.  She has deservedly achieved this accomplishment.

The verse found in this book is sweet and rubs off on us, the reader, as Adrianne had hoped.  For instance, 

    This owl is in her garden
                Just admiring her plants,
                She is singing in her garden
                And she does a little dance.
                She is watering her garden,
                Every daffodil and rose.
                She’s so happy in her garden
                That she’s wiggling her toes.

Although Adrianne's father, Arnold Loebel, passed in 1987, he would be proud that his daughter has followed in his footsteps with a talent for adding color to prints of his line art using watercolors and dyes.