9.23.2012

Poems to Read to the Very Young, Eloise Wilkin


My daughter Colleen left today for a teaching position in Korea. It's not the first time she has gone overseas. She studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain for a year and taught in Extremadura, Spain a couple years later. So I guess I'm broken in and definitely not a nervous wreck like the first time. But I still missed her the minute she walked out the door. How is it possible to be proud and feel sad at the same time?

So I'm comforting myself by eating a bunch of candy and showing a book I read to all my kids, (3 girls, 1 boy) and my grandson. Poems to Read to the Very Young ranks high in sentimentality for me and I love some of the poems in this book. 


Beautifully illustrated by Eloise Wilkin, who had a lovely way of portraying children. Wilkin used her children and in later years, grandchildren as models. 


Eloise Wilkin (1904-1987), an award winning illustrator and author, had a career that spanned over 50 years. Wilkin is best known for her Golden Books, working for them for almost 20 years and illustrating over 50 books for Golden, some of which are still in print. Many of her books have become classics. In her career she illustrated well over 100 books!




To read about Eloise Wilkin, Cassandra of Cassandra Considers All Things Bright and Beautiful did a very comprehensive post on the life of Wilkin in 2010 - to view that click here

Eloise's daughter, Deborah Wilkin Springett, wrote a book about her mother's life, called The Golden Years of Eloise Wilkin


Poems to Read to the Very Young
Selected by Josette Frank
Illustrated by Eloise Wilkin
Random House, 1982

12 comments:

  1. Jil, This is a beautiful post! I hope you don't mind that I'm taking the liberty of linking my readers to it. I love Eloise Wilkin, and I always pull her out whenever I need an emotional "hug" too. Best wishes! Emily

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  2. Beautiful! Although I have quite a few of Wilkin's books I haven't come across this one yet.
    http://www.vintagebooksfortheveryyoung.blogspot.ca

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  3. No problem Emily and thanks for linking to me!

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  4. I have this as a board book (lap book) and it apparently has been abridged. Though we enjoy it, seeing the original makes me feel cheated.

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  5. It makes sense that it would be shortened for a board book. Maybe you can find this book secondhand?

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  6. awwww.... I've been searching all morning for this book not quite remembering the title right or who wrote it. Thanks to you and google image my heart skipped a beat as I saw an tiny illustration! This was my first book I received as a baby from a now deceased great uncle. I've always planned to pass it down to my kids, but my sister stole it for hers and it got ruined in a house fire last year. I didn't think any other copy would do as I loved my book so much the spine was broken and it had a special note in it for me. Now after seeing this blog about the book I have a strong urge to go search every book store so I can have this book when my Turtle comes in 2 months.

    so again, THANK-YOU THANK-YOU THANK-YOU!

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  7. You're welcome, welcome, welcome!

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  8. I had this book when I was little. I remember my mom loving the illustrations. ��

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  9. I read many of these books to my children and now I read them to my grandchildren. I love the art work!

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  10. The book is completely unknown to me, but it seems very beautiful to me.

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  11. Still working it's magic on me.

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