posthumous – ACHUKA

The Truth about Max by Alice & Martin Provensen

October 27, 2023 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 27 Oct 2023

See also:
The Art of Alice and Martin Provensen
The Provensen Book of Fairy Tales [ACHUKA Book of the Day 9 Nov 2021]

“Alice and Martin Provensen were the American picture book’s Ginger and Fred: a supremely poised and stylish illustrator team who, in a collaboration that spanned nearly 40 years and more than 40 children’s books (19 of which they also wrote and edited), beguiled fans with their deadpan wit, far-flung curiosity and midcentury-modernist flair.”
Leonard Marcus, New York Times [highly recommended review]
“Utterly delightful.” KIRKUS

Here is a never-before-published original work from renowned children’s book duo Alice and Martin Provensen.

In this picture book from the Provensens’ archives, the unforgettable Max, who appears in many of the Provensens’ picture books, takes centre stage. Wherever Max goes, mischief is sure to follow. He spends his days teasing, playing hide-and-seek, and prowling the barnyard. He’s also keenly intelligent and independent, with his own private life that begins at night.

Taking inspiration from their own life at Maple Hill Farm in Dutchess County, New York, great American illustrators Alice and Martin Provensen shared the changing seasons that give rhythm to life in the country in A Year at Maple Hill Farm and the lovable antics of their barnyard animals in Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm. This picture book includes backmatter from Karen Provensen, with more information about Max, the real-life cat who lived on Maple Hill Farm.

Long-lost Dr Seuss book to be published in July

February 19, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

A new Dr Seuss book is to be published in July, following the discovery of a box of manuscript and sketches in the La Jolla, the California home of the much celebrated children’s author Ted Geisel.
RandomHouse Children’s Books announced on Wednesday that What Pet Should I Get? will be published on July 28, 2015.
At least two more books will be published from matieral found in the same box of manuscripts, though their titles have not yet been disclosed.
The box filled with pages of text and sketches was found shortly after Geisel’s death in 1991 by his widow Audrey Geisel.
At the time, the box was set aside with other of Geisel’s materials, and was not rediscovered until more than two decade later, in late 2013 by Mrs Geisel and Claudia Prescott, Geisel’s longtime secretary and friend, when they were cleaning out his office space.

via Long-lost Dr Seuss book to be published in July – Telegraph.

Diana Wynne Jones’ last book is finished, thanks to her sister

April 28, 2014 By achuka 1 Comment

Ursula Jones talks exclusively to The Star about completing her sister Diana Wynne Jones’ final book, which was left unfinished when Diana died two years ago.

The Islands of Chaldea, however, looked like it would never reach readers, as Wynne Jones had given no indication how she intended to end the story. When Diana’s family decided Ursula was the best person to complete the novel, Ursula admits she was stumped.
“(The biggest challenge was) trying to work out how on earth she meant (the book) to go on,” Ursula says in an exclusive e-mail interview. “She was a masterly storyteller, and though she never cheated and always gives her readers clues as to where things were going, they are impossibly difficult to pick up on.”
Ursula explains in The Islands Of Chaldea’s afterword that several months went by with no progress, with her unable to discern where the book was supposed to go. During this period, she was plagued by weird and even frightening dreams, and very much felt her sister’s presence. But once she found one of Diana’s clues in the manuscript, Ursula’s writing took off.
It was as if, “Diana were at my elbow, prompting, prodding, turning sentences around, working alongside – and then it was finished, and she was gone again. That was a terrible wrench. But her book was there – complete,” Jones says.

via Diana Wynne Jones’ last book is finished, thanks to her sister – News | The Star Online.

Margaret Wise Brown’s unearthed lullaby poems to be published

March 1, 2014 By achuka Leave a Comment

A previously unpublished collection of lullaby poems by the much-loved author has been discovered in an old trunk, and is set for release in March.

Brown, who died in 1952, is the author of more than a hundred children’s books, but is best remembered for Goodnight Moon (“In the great green room/ there was a telephone/ And a red balloon”), and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd. Sterling Books in the US is now preparing to release Goodnight Songs, a collection of 12 children’s lullabies by Brown, which were found in a trunk in her sister’s barn, and have now been illustrated by 12 different artists.
“Baby sail the seven seas/ Safely in my arms/ When the waves go up and down/ You are safe from harm,” writes Brown in one of the songs. And: “When I close my eyes at night/ In the darkness I see light/ Blue clouds in a big white sky.”
Kirkus Reviews called the forthcoming book a “treasure trove“, revealing that it was written in the last year of Brown’s life, “when she was travelling in France for a book tour and under contract to create songs for a new children’s record company”.

Goodnight Songs will be published by Sterling Children’s Books in March.

via Margaret Wise Brown’s unearthed lullaby poems to be published | Books | theguardian.com.