Great Reading: Bookmark It!

Volume 29, Number 4, April 2002

Krauss and Sendak, Reissued
Grades PreS-1

Ruth Cox

Charlotte and the white horse. Ruth Krauss.
HarperCollins, 2001. $12.89. 0-06-028641-5. The 1955 tale of a young girl and her love for a horse named Milky Way, with hand printed text and fairy tale like illustrations by Maurice Sendak.

I want to paint my bathroom blue. Ruth Krauss.
HarperCollins, 2001. $14.80. 0-06-028635-0. The 1956 flight of fancy as a little boy imagines all the things in the world he could do, such as painting his bathroom blue. Sendak’s watercolor illustrations capture the dream like quality of the text.

Open house for butterflies. Ruth Krauss.
HarperCollins, 2001. $12.89. 0-06-028637-7.
The 1960 collection of witty one-liners one might hear from the lips of a small child, such as “A baby is so you could be the boss.” Sendak’s tiny line drawn illustrations beautifully match the playfulness of the text.

A very special house. Ruth Krauss.
HarperCollins, 2001. $14.89. 0-06-028639-3. The 1953 exuberant tale of a little boy in blue overalls and the imaginary house he builds for himself and a boisterous group of noisy animals. Sendak’s line drawings gleefully capture the mischievous boy and his imaginary entourage.

Ruth Cox is assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in Houston, Texas. She can be reached at Cox@cl.uh.edu.