The Candlemaker and Other Tales [Library Binding]

Victoria Forrester (Author), Susan Seddon Boulet (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1984

Four original tales written by Victoria Forrester and illustrated by Susan Seddon Boulet.
For all ages.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

There are four tales in all, all original.
   "The Candlemaker" tells of a man who makes candles for his village - all white - until he discovers that a mysterious vial, given to him by someone with whom he shared a candle, contains a substance that dyes candle wax glowing colors. The result: the candlemaker finds it hard to part with his lovely creations.
   In "The Two Bowls of Water" a father uses bowls of water and a difficult question to determine the proper husband for his beautiful daughter, for in their answers the suitors reveal their true selves.
   "The Crocodile with the Roller-Coaster Smile" has some very inconvenient habits and preferences, at least as far as his neighbors are concerned.  But with a little thought and and a few tricks, the crocodile's habits, and the crocodile himself, are changed.
   "The Butterfly with No Keys" is caught in the net of a boy who likes to keep things all to himself. When the butterfly gives the boy his dearest wish, the boy discovers that greed will not let him take best advantage of his good luck.
   These are stories that come out of a wise understanding of people.  They are good stories for reading and reading aloud, and good stories for remembering and thinking about.

From the Back Cover

VICTORIA FORRESTER SAYS:
When I was a girl of perhaps fifteen, I began to realize that liking to write poetry made one a bit different.  I was as "horse crazy" as any girl my age; the difference was that my horse had wings and couldn't be saddled except in my dreams.
  A few years later, at the university, I majored in English.  Most of the classes were interesting but a bit dry. Not so, the course taught by Frances Clarke Sayers; in it we read fantasy and fables, folk tales and fairy tales, and I was drawn to them as to a starry night.  I sensed that they grazed in the same pasture as my horse.
   I wondered if I would ever be lucky enough to make up a tale myself.  What I learned in the years that followed is that nobody can "make up" a tale, that only if you are very ready will a good story allow you to catch it.  And what does it mean to "be ready"?  Perhaps it means to wait with nothing but pure expectation and to listen for the sound of wings.

SUSAN SEDDON BOULET was born and spent her early years in Brazil.  She attended high school in Switzerland and had further education in Brazil and the United States.   She now lives with her son in California, where she is a fine artist.  This is the first picture book she has done.

Product Details

• Library Binding: 44 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum (April 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689310137
• ISBN-13: 978-0689310133
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 6.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,742,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I worked most of my life as a children's librarian although I began my library career as a reference librarian in Santa Monica Public Library. Feeling something missing, I went back to UCLA for a second master's degree in art in hopes of someday illustrating books for children. After completing the degree, an opening in the Children's Department came along, so I went back to work as a librarian until our son was born. Shortly after his birth we moved to northern California to a home on a quiet hillside surrounded by redwood trees and squirrels. I stayed home with him until he was in third grade and continued to write and draw on the kitchen table. I kept my work in a shirtbox. Through an unexpected kindness from one of the few people with whom I ever shared my work, my box full of unpublished manuscripts was sent to Edith and Clement Hurd who lived in the next town. My friend had known them for many years and thought their advice would be helpful. They wrote a letter of encouragement and suggested that I send my work to Jean Karl at Atheneum. So the next week, I sent the whole shirtbox to New York! You're not supposed to do things that way, but I knew so little about what I was doing that perhaps in a way it was a blessing. Three months later a letter arrived from Jean Karl saying that everything I had sent to her would be published. I was not at all prepared for this success but very grateful. At about the same time I went back to work as librarian for the school our son attended. Jean encouraged me to keep writing and was particularly interested in my poetry. "They're not really poems for children," she confided to me, " and they're not what Atheneum usually publishes for adults, but I love them, and I want to see them published." After my beloved editor retired and passed away, I lost my interest in publishing. Now I too have retired after being with the school community for over thirty years, and I feel that now perhaps it's time to revisit this corner of my life. I have come to believe that art and poetry and stories matter because, in so far as they embrace goodness, truth and beauty, they are echoes of a greater, truer Reality for which we were all created. Please don't think I wrote about heavenly things, except occasionally in poetry; mostly I just enjoyed the playfulness of letting myself be carried away by the creative process. But, for me, creativity itself was not possible without a basic, simple faith in God and in the goodness of creation.