Ozma's Ozsome Style

Oh L. Frank Baum! I love you!
Just as various characters from Little Nemo in Slumberland inspire me to dress like a sugar plum fairy on acid, the World of Oz is bursting with stylish folks, most of whom have the bestest names. One such folk is princess Ozma (incidentally, the name of Baum's granddaughter), who looks like a Mucha painting and who is my style icon at the moment- I want that headband!:

You can easily find all of the Oz books and spinoff books and even old movies (like the Patchwork Girl!) online because the community of Oz lovers is understandably vast, as the Oz books are truly one of the greatest phenomenons in the history of Children's Literature. However, where is the clothing company that crates garments worn by stylish literary characters? I saw a headline stating that Zac Posen was heading that way but turns out people someimtes refer to Australia as the land of Oz. (I get it but ugh, what, no) Going to have to head up that one myself, I see...
Lovingly,
Me

oh, this is one of the many reasons I was reminded of Mucha! I would prefer the Oz headpiece though, wouldn't you?:

Hopelessly in Love: Sandra Boynton

I am hopelessly, hopelessly in Love with Sandra Boynton. PLEASE GOD do yourself a favor and look at her webpage, buy all her everythings and be happy forever. 

Her books NEVER GET OLD and EVERYONE LOVES THEM. Like the Beatles. They are like catnip for kids, trust me, and adults who ever hang out with kids or sort of still are kids. 

Here is a slew of book covers: 

   

         

   

I've read a ton of them. They are all made of gold and smiles.

ENJOY, 

ARLA

Imagination...

Shark vs.Train: by Chris Barton. Illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld
Duck! Rabbit!: by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, also illustrated by Lichtenheld.
The Secret Lives of Princesses: by Philippe Lechermier illustrated by Rébecca Dautremer
Owl at Home: written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel

I love Shark vs. Train! It's awesome! It's getting rave reviews ("not to be missed" -Washington Post, "A sure winner"-School Library Journal "This is a Genius Concept" -Publishers Weekly, etc...) because it does what a good children's book SHOULD do- it caters to the child. I have very little patience for any author who is clearly writing to please the parent and poorly coating their book with colors or cleverness to try and mask the fact that kids are not likely to be drawn in of their own accord.This book begins with two little boys holding a toy shark and then a toy train, but quickly goes directly into their richly shared imagination and depicts all the logic play/trash talk that kids are so great at. It's super fun.

The illustrator, Lichtonheld, has also collaborated on another bestseller called Duck! Rabbit! which also is a very simple yet genius concept in which a single little line drawing is debated over as to whether its a duck or a rabbit, etc. There is a great video of it here. Again, what I like is that there is no message to preach or overly clever character or concept to execute. It is a book purely about the power of the imagination.

An example of what I mean when I say some children's books seem to cater to an older audience is "The Secret Lives of Princesses", the lushly watercolored encyclopedia of/guide to Princesses, featuring several Princesses that have never had their stories told. Sumptuously, gorgeously, even dizzily illustrated by Rébecca Dautremer, the book is packed with cleverness... way too much of it, in crazy, ever-chaging, scrawling and sprawling and headache-inducing text. Even I as an adult felt fed up. To be fair, it does read well out loud.

 I do love these drawings!
Finally, I recently purchased for my own enjoyment in the comfort of my own home, the lovely collection of short little I Can Read stories titled "Owl at Home", by Arnold Lobel (also known for "Frog and Toad" and "Mouse Soup"...)

 Owl is so endearing it makes you want to cry. He hears the wind howling, so he invites Winter inside to warm itself by the fire. He sees two bumps at the bottom of his bed which move when he moves his feet, but looking under the covers all he sees are his own legs and feet, so terrified, he goes downstairs to sleep. He is at first flattered, then creeped out, then incredibly happy when the moon follows him from the seaside all the way home. And when making tearwater tea, he thinks of all the poor and forgotten inanimate objects, such as spoons that have fallen behind the stove, and it makes him weep. And so on. It warms me from the inside out. He is like a very, very young child with the sweetest and most vibrant child's imagination, but in that adorable little old-man-owl form.

Love!
Arla

The Great Pippi!!

Pippi Longstocking, created by Astrid Lingren
I simply must post not a current review but a general yelp of adoration for Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Ephraim's Daughter Longstocking. She is, hands down, my favorite fictional character. To quote in the classiest of ways from her Wikipedia article,  "Nine-year-old Pippi is unconventional, assertive, and has superhuman strength, being able to lift her horse one-handed without difficulty. She frequently mocks and dupes adults she encounters, an attitude likely to appeal to young readers; however, Pippi usually reserves her worst behavior for the most pompous and condescending of adults.

The first three Pippi chapter books were published from 1945 to 1948, with an additional series of six books published in 1969–1975. Two final stories were printed in 1979 and 2000. Time Magazine named the original book as one of the most influential one hundred novels. The books have been translated into more than 50 languages.

 Original Svedish Cover Art

 Different Cover Art for the young American

 More recent illustrations by Lauren Child 

(pretty but not wacky enough for me, to be honest)

Pippi lives alone in a small Swedish village, sharing the house she styles "Villa Villekulla" with her monkey, Mr. Nilsson, and her horse, Old Man. Her best friends, Tommy and Annika Settergren, live next door and often come over for adventures like playing in the big hollow tree, cleaning the Villa by skating about in soapy water with scrub-brushes on their feet, searching for spinks and having fun with the various adults who try to buy the Villa or evict the little girl from the house (a little girl living alone confuses some people). Pippi's two main possessions are a suitcase full of gold coins (which she used to buy her horse) and a large chest of drawers containing various small treasures. Pippi has an amazing talent for spinning tall tales, although she normally does not lie with malicious intent; rather, she tells truth in the form of humorously strange stories.

 Pippi smokes up Tommy and Annika

Going camping, shooting guns, punching sharks...Pippi is a BAMF

Pippi is the daughter of seafarer Ephraim Longstocking, captain of the sailing ship Hoptoad. Pippi retired to the Villa Villekulla after her father was believed lost at sea, determined in her belief that her father was still alive, had been made an island king, and would come to look for her there.As it turned out, Captain Longstocking was washed ashore upon a South Sea island known as Kurrekurredutt Isle, where he was made the "fat white chief" by its native people. The Captain returned to Sweden to bring Pippi to his new home in the South Seas, but Pippi found herself attached to the Villa and her new friends Tommy and Annika, and decided to stay where she was, though she and the children sometimes took trips with her father aboard the Hoptoad, including a trip to Kurrekurredutt where she was confirmed as the "fat white chief's" daughter, Princess Pippilotta.

There are three full-length Pippi books (Pippi Longstocking, Pippi Goes on Board, and Pippi in the South Seas), three original picture books (Pippi on the Run, Pippi's After Christmas Party, and Pippi Longstocking in the Park) and more picture books based on various chapter excerpts from the original three. The first Pippi movie was made in 1949 and starred Viveca Serlachius, who made 10 more movies between 1944 and 1954. There was also a Swedish TV series in 1969, and since Lindgren wasn't very happy with the 1949 adaptation, she wrote the scripts herself. It starred the cutest Pippi EVER, Inger Nilsson. In 1988 an American feature film, The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, was released. There were no new adventures, though. An animated film was released in 1997 and adapted into an animated TV series, and a sequel to the animated movie (Pippi's Adventures on the South Seas) came out in 2000.

COULD NOT BE MORE HIGHLY RECCOMENDED.

.

Love, 

me

New Header!

I made a new header! All by myself! I am very proud.

I must HAVE it!

How can ANYONE LIVE without HAVING the new Little Nemo books!?! But they are so much money. What do I DO? Every page is a work of artistic genius. Everyone should have the chance to get lost its glory. This is the third installment of my miniblogseries: Ocular Feast

Oh, Winsor Mckay. How did you do this?!

On the bright -purchasingwise- side, I totally splurged on a birthday present to myself-- a signed Shaun Tan print. I took it to get framed and felt very grown up. I've never taken anything to a framer before. It's from the book "The Red Tree", and if I could own ALL the Red Tree prints I would be on Cloud 120023. So far, I have this one, which I like not only because its amazing but because its a girl with a red bob doing a little bit of acting/puppetry/performance... which I can, you know, relate to.

You can purchase the Nemo books HERE, and see more Shaun Tan prints HERE.

Love, Arla

Livin Pretty

Oh, you pretty things!

I hope you will forgive my occasional tributaries into the land of cupcakes, apartments, dresses, movies and other things that are not books, but it is all under the same umbrella of eternal youth, and that is where my interest really lies! So I thought I would share a few photos I snatched from this website called 'The Selby', which features photos taken by Todd Selby of painfully hip apartments- many of them up the road from me in Brooklyn, to my non-surprise! Though I'm not one for lots of blaring white and right angles (too 'hospital') or for mounds of clutter, which appear a lot with these creative (and rather wealthy!) people.. I've got to give a cheer! because these guys with their toys and books and gusto are really inspiring me to match my lifestyle with my style-style.

*sigh!*

 I find that though I dream and drool over the things I want to wear and own like a 1940s housewife with nothing to do but clean her house and drape pearls all over her body in the throes of a mid-afternoon, post-shopping euphoria... I am, and have been of late, horrifically broke. Until I can extract myself from that tar pit, I must admire in a quiet, smoldering way these creative peoples who are fabulously outfitting their eternal youthfulness with so many books, toys, and pretty things:

To TRY and keep things topic-full: what childrens books might have influenced, or currently influence, your aesthetic taste? I make very Miss Frizzle-y outfits, and look at the people of Nemo's Slumberland as style icons, and though I dress a bit like Pippi Longstocking right now, I wouldnt count it a bad thing. Nor would I mind at all living in a house like hers with a hollow tree, and a horse and monkey for roomates. Who doesn't STILL want a good sloping banister, or an upside down house like Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, or secret passageways, fun dinnerware, all the art supplies and toys you could ever want, and a backpack that happens to look like Yoda? Who doesn't want to do musical numbers about cheeseburgers in your kitchen with your husband in matching sparkly rainbow leotards? ..........

You can grow old when you're dead!!
Love
Me
P.S. In other, very sad news, Harold the Owl Hat vanished at a party and seems to be gone forever. It is truly a source of misery for me. If you are reading this, happen to live in NYC and spot it, pop them one right in the nose and snatch it for me? Then tell me their identity so I can boil them alive.