Arnold Lobel: A Children's Author Who Got it Right (continued)

A Three Hat Day (1985 Parents' Choice Gold Award)
Laura Geringer. Illustrated by Arnold Lobel.
HarperTrophy, ISBN: 0064431576

"R. R. Pottle the Third loved hats." His father "collected canes," his
mother "liked umbrellas." But "After a happy life together, Mother and
Father died." R. R. is lonely without them. Browsing in a hat store one day he meets Isabel, who recognizes a kindred hat lover. They dance down the road in the rain together. Time passes and R. R. Pottle the Fourth is born. It turns out she loves shoes. The sweet humor of this is decorated and enhanced by Arnold Lobel's full color accompaniment: the Pottle mansion is tastefully decorated in umbrellas and canes; R. R. the Third picks out a hat every morning by casting for it, while still in bed, with his fishing rod. Lobel has a gift for silliness that is never carried too far.
Reviewed by Karla Kuskin (1985 Parents' Choice)

The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose
(1987 Parents' Choice Gold Award)
Arnold Lobel
Knopf, ISBN 0679887369

The day Mother Goose met Mr. Lobel was a fortunate day. To make such handsome order out of so many bits and pieces, sayings and verses, is a Herculean task, but Arnold Lobel makes it look easy, as he organizes, decorates, and innovates. There are marvelous double-page spreads devoted to just one verse, cunning groupings in which one illustration serves a fellowship of rhymes, and spreads that use framed miniatures to accompany unrelated lyrics.

Lobel makes himself the master of each approach. His illustrations for
"The House That Jack Built" and "This is the Key of the Kingdom" are lessons in making graphic choreography of repeating verses. "Wee Willie Winkle" may be unrivaled in "Wee Willie Winkie" annals, and "The Old Woman Tossed Up In A Basket" is a symphony of windswept curves. "The 12 Days of Christmas" ought to be published on its own.
Reviewed by Karla Kuskin (1987 Parents' Choice)

The Devil and Mother Crump (1987 Parents' Choice Gold Award)
Valerie Scho Carey. Illustrated by Arnold Lobel.
HarperCollins, ISBN 0064432785

Mother Crump was so mean "her husband and children ran away from home just to get shut of her." But that doesn't faze her. She is a "baker woman"
whose disposition and bread peel would qualify as dangerous weapons. She
is quite capable of giving the Devil his due and does exactly that when he
comes calling. In fact, by the time Mother Crump kicks off, Lucifer is so
wary that he turns her away from his domain with one red-hot coal and the
advice "to go start a Hell of your own."

Arnold Lobel has less trouble with her. Working in watercolor and shading
with a black lithographic pencil, he sets her in darkly decorative pages
bursting with draped draperies, furled furbelows, funny faces and his own
brand of medieval atmosphere.
Reviewed by Karla Kuskin (1987 Parents' Choice)

The Tale of Meshka the Kvetch (1989 Parents' Choice Gold Award)
Carol Chapman. Illustrated by Arnold Lobel.
Unicorn Paperbacks (Dutton), ISBN: 0525444947
[This title is currently out of print. Please check your local library or an out of print book dealer to locate a copy.]