Yesterday Rick and I had some errands to do in town which included dropping some blankets off at the Salvation Army. As most of you know, I love digging through the children's books there, so I couldn't resist checking them out even though I had just been there a week ago. I ended up buying 28 children's books for about $6 -- not too shabby, huh? Eighteen of those were Little Golden Books and I even managed to come across a 1968 edition of Winnie-The-Pooh and Tigger. I also found a couple of early readers, two Franklin books, a book on Johnny Appleseed, and a book about how apples grow. Pretty cool for six bucks!
One book I found that I didn't have was Blueberries for Sal. I've seen it for as long as I can remember, but can you believe I've never read it? I stared at it in amazement wondering why I didn't have it in my collection or even had read it before. If I had read it, I don't remember. The book was written in 1948 by Robert McCloskey. It's a Caldecott Honor book and pretty much a classic when it comes to picture books. The edition I found was printed in 1976, so it's pretty old as well. I still can't believe I had never read it. Imagine that. A child picking blueberries with his mother who meet up with a bear eating blueberries with her cub. Geez, that's what my nightmares are made of.
Another book I found was this one picture above called The Fat Cat, A Danish Folktale. To be honest, I didn't even skim through the book before paying for it. I just tossed it in my pile thinking that Neil would like it because he loves cat books. OMG! Has anyone read this story? It's morbid, but hilarious! The cat goes around eating everyone he comes in contact with until he's as huge as pictured on the cover. He finally comes to a woodsman, who refuses to be eaten and hacks the cat open to free all the townsfolk. The last page shows the cat back to his original size, but with a big bandage on his belly. Funny! I'd never read this story before either, so I was surprised when I went to Amazon to look it up. New copies start at $69.95 and used start at $14.41. I paid a DIME for this 1971 edition -- I think I got a good deal.
I had the Blueberries for Sal book, don't know if I still do or not. I go through and thin my books out sometimes, I'm like you, the book section is the first place I head for when I go to a thrift store. As for the other book,I wonder sometimes how some children's books get published.I guess I write mine a little too tame, I'll have to spice them up a little.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen or read either of those books. The Fat Cat sounds crazy! I love hearing about the treasures you find. :)
ReplyDeleteLove Blueberries for Sal! We have a copy, and I've read it to both my kids and grandkids.
ReplyDeleteNEver saw the Fat Cat book before, but Blueberries for Sal is a classic. Great find!
ReplyDeleteI love Blueberries for Sal!
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