While doing my usual random searches of the Interwebs, I ran across some press release information about a series of Little Critter collections called the "Big Little Critter" series.
It will be a series of books that collect four previously released Little Critter books each. Most of the books were originally part of the Little Critter Book Club series of hardcovers, and some are very hard to find nowadays. The series will launch with five titles during 2012 all released by FastPencil Premier (starting in May):
Staying Well (ISBN 1-607-46732-1) (featuring This is My Body, Taking Care of Mom, I Was So Sick, and The Loose Tooth)
On the Go (ISBN 1-607-46983-9) (featuring Just a Bad Day, Just an Airplane, Just Me and My Bicycle, and Going to the Races)
My Family (ISBN 1-607-46810-7) (featuring: It's Mine, Just Like Dad, Just Too Little, I Didn't Mean It)
Helping Out (ISBN 1-607-46071-8) (featuring: I'm Sorry, Just Say Please, Just Leave Me Alone, Just a Gum Wrapper)
Fair Play (ISBN 1-607-46763-1) (featuring: I Didn't Know That, That's Not Fair, Just a Little Different, The School Play)
That is all I know for now... no pictures of the covers are available yet. So, good-night, sleep tight, and don't let the Zipperump-a-zoos bite.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Possum Child Goes Shopping by Mercer Mayer and an Introduction to His Panorama Books.
Possum Child Goes Shopping by Mercer Mayer
ISBN: 0-590-32806-9
Well, it is a brand new year. I am going to start it out by featuring
Mercer Mayer’s Panoramic Board Book series featuring Little Critter and the
Critter Kids. This series of books came
out from Scholastic in 1983 for $2.95 a pop.
Two of the books weren’t re-released and two were re-named (just to confuse
us kiddos) for paperback and hardcover releases. Note for collectors: If you are looking for
the Panorama versions of these books they all start with ISBN “0-590-328.”
The books in the Panorama version of this series are:
Possum Child Goes Shopping (never re-released)
Malcom’s Race (never re-released)
Sweetmeat’s Birthday (later renamed Bun Bun’s Birthday)
Too’s Bracelet (later renamed Little Sister’s Bracelet)
Each book is thick cardboard (like a Board Book, but maybe a
touch thinner) and has a folded accordion/Panoramic style. When fully opened, the book is over four feet long (for a little over eight feet of fun art and story). Each book is 8 double sided panels long (16 panels total). This ends up being about 13 pages of story (6
pages on one side, 7 on the other), a cover page, a back page featuring all of
the Critter Kids, and a removable page featuring four of the Critter Kids (“collect
all 16!”…one card features two of the 17 characters: Maurice & Molly).
The seventeen Critter Kids are:
Little Critter: a critter
Too (name eventually changed to Little Sister…naming a
character an adverb is just confusing): a critter, Little Critter’s little sister
Sweetmeat (name eventually changed to Bun Bun…look up “sweetmeat”
and you’ll see why): a rabbit
Frud (name eventually changed to Frog…what was wrong with
"Frud"?): a frog
Weenie (name eventually changed to Mouse… we wouldn’t want a
character named “Weenie” in a book, would we?): a mouse
Muso (name eventually changed to Mooso…possibly so people
would pronounce it correctly…it probably didn’t help…also “muso” means mouse in
some languages): a panda
Skat Owl (no name changes for this guy, even though his name
sounds like “scat”…look it up): an owl
Malcom: a tiger (or a tiger-striped cat)
Max: a koala
Huggums: a raccoon
Gator: an alligator
Bat Child: a bat
Oscar: an otter
Seaweed: a skunk
Maurice: a mole
Molly: a mole, Maurice’s sister
Possum Child: a possum
The versions of these books that were re-released by Random House / B. Dalton
Booksellers, Inc. / Green Frog Publishers Inc. (in association with John R.
Sansevere) had some changes made and most came with a disclaimer on the
copyright page, “Originally published in a different format by Scholastic Inc.,
in 1983.” Some of the re-releases have
what looks like extra pages in them… some of which were borrowed from other
books in the series.
Today’s book is one of the ones that wasn’t re-released (as
far as I know). Possum Child Goes Shopping. It seems to be very rare
and it took me a few years to find a decent ex-library copy. It comes with four Critter cards: Possum
Child, Oscar, Little Critter, and Huggums.
The story: Possum
Child goes shopping for a new red bow for her head. Before she’s able to leave she gets bombarded
with requests from her friends to pick up some things for them. As she shops she rhymes her grocery list, “For
Huggums, lots of nuts and fruit. Gator needs a bathing suit.” She isn't mad that her friends asked for these things, and she even seems happy to do it. BUT, she does end up forgetting to buy her red bow.
Sadly, this particular book doesn’t take advantage of the Panorama
publication style. Some of the pictures
are two-panels long, but most are single panel.
The shopping motif could have easily leant itself to showing a whole
one-stop-shopping center with Possum Child in the different sections with a
touch of bleed-over from picture to picture. As to why this book didn't get re-released... I have no idea. Kids love to play "shopping," and the book is fun, short, and sweet. Maybe there is a low demographic for "possom"-related children's fiction?
Being picky: In the story, Possum Child buys some cheese for
Weenie the mouse (per Weenie’s order), but she never delivers it to Weenie in
the story (everyone else is shown getting what they wanted). The jacks don't get delivered either, but Max got a bunny on top of that gift (Possum Child got him two things). Also, Malcom, Too/Little Sister,
Sweetmeat/Bun Bun, Skat Owl, Bat Child, and Frud are not in this book at all.
That’s all for this one.
Goodnight, sleep tight, and don’t let the Zipperump-a-zoos bite!
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