what's for lunch, charley?

[hwar]

These images all came out of the 1961 children's book What's for Lunch, Charley? by Margaret Hodges. The illustrations are by Aliki who has done lots of other amazing work. (For those wondering, yes these images are copyrighted by the illustrator and Scholastic Book Services.) I picked up this copy of the book on eBay, but I also had a copy as a

Comments

[puppy52]

I love how simple yet fun and detailed these pictures are :D thanks for sharing! :3

[tikimonkey]

wow! those are so great :)

i just recently learned that my much-older colleague's father was an illustrator who, ironically, illustrated one of my favorite childhood books. it also turned out that the model for the little boy in that story was my colleague as a child -- that blew my mind! it was a book about going to the grocery store "with mother," and i remember vividly the part about the crunchy celery (i adored celery when i was a kid!).

anyway, those images were similar to these -- completely charming :) i'm so glad you posted these!

[kitty_vane]

Those are lovely! :D
I love the whole carefree style of them and how they're so expresssive yet quite simple.

Who was the illustrator again? (My Googling didn't really bear fruit on this.)

[hwar]

The illustrator is Aliki. There's a modern author/illustrator with the same name but I think it might a different person (or her style has changed dramatically). The Aliki who illustrated the Charley book did a lot of work in the 60's and 70's.

[iainzard]

What's for lunch?

A log of wood! A stuffed beaver! Yum!

I just recently got a hankering for some of the books I remember my mother getting me as a child -- the Ant and Bee series in particular. I believe I had One Two Three With Ant and Bee and Ant and Bee Go to the Doctor because I was home sick when she got them for me and she wanted me to keep learning my schoolwork.
It's funny how you can remember things like this after years and years of not thinking about them, and suddenly they seem of vital importance.

[hwar]

hey now! charley went into all the shops at the king charles hotel and made friends with the salespeople. the people in the dress shop even said he could have their beaver once winter coat season was over. :)

the ant and bee book looks fantastic. you should snag it for the future bairn.

[heartspunmom]

I taught myself to read by reading Ant and Bee books! I think my Nana brought them back from England for me when I was just small. I loved those books so much, although my mother remembers them less fondly (because I demanded that she read them to me 8,000 times a day). I still have them, but they're so tattered and worn that I'm afraid to take them out to read them for fear they will fall apart!

[momomom]

Thank you for posting. I find your non-choice choice wonderful. Don't apologize for it, we love it.