July 10, 2006

bizarre children's books over at daddyzine

Posted by dogpossum on July 10, 2006 1:56 PM in the category clicky

Such indeed is the premise of a well-known episode in Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day, originally published in 1968. Another book from Scarry relies of course on the conceit that a family of pigs would drive a Volkswagon to the beach. Which makes no sense, given the very real likelihood on such a trip of encountering sociopathic dingos on the fast track to suspended driver's licenses. Perhaps it would be better to stay home, my porcine friends! But then of course there's the old saying that there are only two types of stories -- a family of swine leaves home or a strange swine comes to town -- and while the small-scale domestic travails of the Pig family may have suited a fancy-pants domestic novelist, such swine would have granted Mr. Scarry but little scope for his considerable talents.

...

such tales are of course by no means anomalous, our shelves being as they are overpopulated by a mob of talking, dancing, singing, or otherwise incongruously-occupied folk from up and down the phylogenetic ladder

---daddyzine

Posted by dogpossum on July 10, 2006 1:56 PM in the category clicky