Customer Reviews

Storybook Culture: The Art of Popular Children's Books

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The collaborative effort of Joseph Homme and Cheryl Homme, Storybook Culture: The Art Of Popular Children's Books is a gorgeous coffee-table artwork filled from cover to cover with full-color photographs showcasing the cover art of a wide variety of classic and vintage children's books and magazines. Storybook Culture is enhanced with a few cogent essays about these classic and popular books (and their inspirational cover art), but the majority of this enchanting tome is dedicated to the cover illustrations themselves, each with an informative caption about the book's author, illustrator, and publisher. A treasure trove timeless art and visual memories, Storybook Culture is especially recommended as a school or community library Memorial Fund acquisition selection.

This book is a companion to Pulp Culture, which I enjoyed thoroughly. This book, however, was a singular disappointment. The book's subtitle "the art of popular children's books". First, it's important to be clear that Storybook Culture doesn't cover all children's books but focuses on 'series books for the under-16': Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, Rick Brant, X-Bar-X, Chip Hilton, Cherry Ames, etc.. Not a problem for me as that's an area that I'm keenly interested in. The authors' championing of the Judy Bolton and Rick Brant series is welcome.

However, the subtitle promises that the book will be about the !art! of the children's book. The layout, with most of the book's pages devoted to examples of book covers, also suggests that the book will discuss the art and artists of the genre. However, the author's commentary is about the stories, plots, and authors of the books. At most 25% of the chapter, shoved to the end, is devoted to the art or artists. If the authors did any research in this area, very little of it shows. The vast majority of the artists whose works appear in this book are never discussed. Nor is the process that artists went through in producing the art for these books discussed in any depth. Very few authors get their bios and those are almost invariably the most famous artists where information would be readily available (N.C. Wyeth, Dr. Suess). As an example, of the many artists whose work for Westerns is shown in the book, only four (Rogers, Gretter, Luane, and Williams) get any real discussion of their work. Since Rogers, Gretter, and Luane are also discussed for their work in the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, only Williams is new for this chapter. One illustration by Eggenhofer is discussed in the chapter's second last paragraph. Only Williams is honoured with a biography.

Instead what we get are the authors' impressions of the art on the covers of these books. Typically, they take one or two covers and describe them in detail (which seems unnecessary since the covers are reproduced in the book), commenting on the character of the picture. Personally, I only occasionally found this commentary insightful or informative.

I assume that the authors had a word count to fulfill. With very little to say about the art, they wander off topic frequently. I'm not aware that Russell or Remington ever illustrated children's books but they are mentioned by name and get a paragraph of discussion, while the artists that actually produced children's books do not. It's not clear to me that synopsis of plots from H.G. Wells' and Jules Verne's novels add anything to the chapter on science fiction novels. Were the authors under the impression that Wells and Verne wrote for children's science fiction series? Did they think that the readers of Storybook culture wouldn't be familiar with the plot of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? Nor is any art from those books is shown to justify this excursion. The same could be said for the long discussion of the theories of teaching reading that introduce the last chapter. Only the background for the Dick and Jane books is at all relevant.

The authors' writing style can only be described as precious. As an example, in discussing Williams: "Williams interest in architecture waned when he found limited job opportunities. Fortunately, Williams's artistic abilities were recognized, and he was offered a scholarship to study painting." Questions left unanswered are: Recognized by who? Offered a scholarship by who? Study painting where? Studied with who? The sentence really boils down to 14 words: "Williams studied painting on a scholarship when he couldn't find a job in architecture" but the authors take 26 words to convey that.

The material on the authors and series is great (though not the topic of the book). If you can get past the writing style, and are interested in childrens' book series, this is an excellent source. If you are interested in the art or the artists--well, there is an abundance of sample covers (very little interior art, though, but that's probably not the authors' fault).

Note: Your "helpful" votes are appreciated, and please remember that a short review (recommendation) is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to a great book.

I'll simply point out some of the great bookcovers in this collection:
"Balboa: Swordsman and Conquistador" has a great picture of a sailing ship.
I liked the "Miss Lizzie" scenes of the children playing by a fence.
It was also fun to look through the old "Dick and Jane" books.
"Trixie Belden and the Secret of the Mansion" was a great illustration.

I bought this book new, and I thought it was a bit expensive. If you buy a used copy, I'm sure you'll be entirely satisfied with it.

"Storybook Culture" makes for a dismayingly short stroll down memory lane. While the book contains a whopping thirty examples of cover art from the Tom Swift books, too many other staples of kid lit are completely ignored. Some of these ommisions are shocking. They include Wesley Dennis' beautiful illustrations for "King Of The Wind" and other of Marguerite Henry's famous horse books, Tasha Tudor's art for "A Little Princess" and "The Secret Garden," Maurice Sendak's "Where The Wild Things Are" and Pauline Baynes' memorable drawings for Lewis' Chronicles Of Narnia.

These are just to name a few. Childhood is normally marked by a fascination with animals. Although the editors show a few examples of horse and dog illustrations and several covers from the Uncle Wiggly books the menagerie of beloved animal friend from A.A. Milne and Rudyard Kipling and others are missing in action.

Berkeley Hunt