Tomi Ungerer urged aspiring picture-book writers to avoid collaboration; he thought something special could happen when your own words matched your own images.
I think of this when I read Robert McCloskey. It seems that McCloskey was an artist first; his images are sensational. He may have struggled a bit with storytelling; the tales don't seem as effortless as a James Marshall book. Still, he had a vision--his own vision--and this is charming (again and again).
McCloskey's first major book was "Lentil," about a little boy in Alto, Ohio. The boy (Lentil) loves music but can't sing, and can't pucker his lips (so whistling is out of the question). To compensate, he develops a fondness for the harmonica. His nemesis, Old Sneep, hates the music, and does what he can to crush the spirits of all little boys. Guess who wins in this battle?
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