My husband and I visited our local Friends of the Library bookstore today. Usually I'm the one coming out with handfuls of books...and often nostalgia items. Today was no different...but my husband also spied a couple of "Big Little Books" sitting among the comic book display. He grabbed up Donald Duck: The Lost Jungle City and Batman: The Cheetah Caper and we brought them home. As an added bonus, the Donald Duck book is a flip book with those cool little cartoons in the corner that make it look like Donald's moving when you flip the pages. I had some of these books when I was little (I definitely remember a Road Runner book and a Bugs Bunny book). Well, I decided that I just couldn't resist the trip down memory lane, so I just read the newest acquistions.
Of course, these are geared for children and they're picture-oriented...so the plots and the story-telling aren't very complicated. But they were a lot of fun.
In The Lost Jungle City, Uncle Scrooge has been backing an inventor who lives near the Amazon River. He receives a letter telling him that the inventor has nearly completed his work, so he rounds up Donald and the nephews and they head to South America. He's worried because the letter also mentions a "new partner" and he's afraid that he may lose the profits on the invention. When they arrive, the inventor is nowhere to be found. He's packed up and left with the "new partner." A very angry Uncle Scrooge is ready to just up and leave, but the nephews make friends with a lost Indian boy who says that there is an evil "Great One" terrorizing his village and making everyone work as slaves for him. The duck family decides to help the boy get back to his village--of course, this leads to an adventure involving valuable crystals, an ancient city, and the discovery of what happened to Uncle Scrooge's inventor.
Meanwhile, in The Cheetah Caper, Batman & Robin get involved in a strange string of crimes--the theft of 20 cases of peanut butter and the release of deadly cobras and dangerous cats (lions) from the zoo. All clues point the return of one of Gotham City's foes--the Cheetah! The Cheetah is the fastest man on earth and extremely 
hard to catch. It's up to the dynamic duo to trip up his speeding feet.
Of the two, I enjoyed the Uncle Scrooge story more. It was a fun, straight-forward Disney story. The nephews save the day using their Woodchuck Scout book and all is well. The Batman story is full of incredibly bad puns and metaphors...something that might well appeal to young kids (I remember loving the live-action Batman show when I was small and it was really silly). But, all in all a fun, quick evening's read.
Just got The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle from the library today. I had no idea that this children's book had been around as long as I have. I haven't read it since my son was small (about 14-15 years ago), but decided to add this to Birth Year Reading Challeng list when I couldn't find the book of poetry that was on the Wikipedia list for books of 1969.
Of course, this was a quick read--but it was fun. Just to enjoy the pictures and the brief story of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. And to remember the days when my son was still small enough to fit on my lap and have his mom read to him.
Last Week's Top Ten Tuesday List from The Broke and the Bookish: What are your top ten childhood favorites?
I just can't resist questions and lists about books. Here goes.....
1. Nancy Drew (all of the classic series--before Nancy went modern with leather mini skirts and all that other nonsense): Most particularly The Clue of the Broken Locket. This one just captures everything I loved about Nancy and I probably read it at least 50 times. Every time I ran out of new things to read, I went back to this. My mom (who gave me her set of 5-6 1950s editions) and Nancy are responsible for my irrepressible love of mysteries. It's the genre I always return to.
2. Trixie Belden (again, all of the classic series): But if I have to choose one then I'll go with The Secret of the Mansion--the first of the series and the one that introduces us to Trixie and most of the core group for the Bob Whites. When I was growing up, I wanted to be in the Bob Whites. Another mystery series, naturally.
3. The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright. I wish I had known that there were more of this series about the Melendy family when I was young. My grandmother (who worked at the local school) often was allowed to bring home books that were culled from the school library from one reason or another. She brought this one to me and I fell in love with the Melendy kids. No real mysteries in this one, just a great story about a family of city dwellers getting used to their big, rambling house and life in the country.
4. Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith. This story about a boy who loves chocolate so much and eats it on everything who suddenly breaks out in chocolate spots always cracked me up.
5. Ghosts Who Went to School by Judith Spearing. This one is about the interactions of Wilbur & Mortimer, two ghosts who are bored with staying at home and decided to join the fun at the local school. This book marked my first acquaintance with the musical instrument called the glockenspiel. It's the instrument Wilbur, I think, wants to play in music class....
6. Clarence the TV Dog by Patricia Lauber. A rollicking good story about Clarence who loves tv and actually winds up on TV.
7. Harry Cat's Pet Puppy by George Selden. The stories by Selden about the animals who live in the Times Square subway station are classic, feel-good children's stories. I loved this one where Harry and Tucker Mouse take in the poor bedraggled puppy and then have to find a home for him when he outgrows the drainpipe where they live.
8. The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang. Although the fairy tales and fables in his collections weren't actually written by Lang, he put together some great collections of the darker versions of popular stories (like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty). These aren't Disney's take on fairy tales, but I loved them.
9. Tom Thumb (not sure of the author on this one). Another one brought home to me by my grandma. An old version (like, 1909 or so...I don't have it in front of me), but no matter how many times I come across different versions, this one's my favorite.
10. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. I loved reading about this plucky, fearless girl and her wacky adventures. Made me want to have adventures of my own....not that I ever did, really.
Unfortunately, my book-binge vacation is drawing to a close. In way too few hours I'll be back to work. But before the binge ends...I've added one more to the tally (that makes 31 books grabbed up this week)--and read another two.
Just finished The Lost Gallows by John Dickson Carr. Carr was a true master of the detective novel. Locked rooms are his specialty, but he shines in other mysterious realms as well. This one features Bencolin, his French detective. These books are always full of a bit more atmosphere than his other two series. In this one the shadow of Jack Ketch (an early, sadistic British executioner--as well as a by-word for the devil himself) hangs over every page. "Jack Ketch" is stalking his victims and it's up to Bencolin to discover his identity and foil his plans. Just when I was sure (for the fourth or fifth time--I lost count) who Jack was, Carr pulled out another twist and proved me wrong. Absolute pleasure for the mystery fan! Three and a half stars out of five.
Just before this I squeezed in The Truth Machine--a children's Star Trek book from the '70s. It was a very cute story. The best part was the graphics--the crew are especially well done...if you disregard Spock's expression on the last page. (I did cringe a bit at the purple skinned ape/mugato type creatures dressed in loincloths with belts and black leather boots that look suspiciously like regulation starfleet boots. In case you don't know, the mugato is a creature encountered on one of the Star Trek episodes. Mugato body shape with ape-like face.) Naturally, Spock saves the day by telling the truth....but not ALL of the truth.
hard to catch. It's up to the dynamic duo to trip up his speeding feet. 
