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At the Bookstore

 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?

It's a pleasure to look at any McCloskey sketch--and the sketches here are paired with a text that is tightly plotted and surprising. I recommend this one.



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