This August: Sweet Stories
- lindsey4824
- Aug 1
- 7 min read
With charming resolutions including a bath for an unrecognizably dirty dog, an apron full of pockets for a kangaroo without a pouch, restocking a pantry after a visit from a tiger, and a young man who must eat all the pasta that he mistakenly flooded the town with, we’re focusing on some sweet and heartwarming stories in August.
This month we’ll explore the lives and legacies of creators Emmy Payne, Tomie DePaola, Judith Kerr, Margaret Bloy Graham, and Gene Zion.
Join us for Story Hours and our adults-only Let’s Take a Dive program to learn more about these creators and celebrate their inspiring work.
Emmy Payne (1919 - 2001)
Katy No-Pocket is a story about identity, what it means to belong, and how much the kindness of others can help us discover ourselves. Katy Kangaroo does not have a pouch for her joey, so she asks different animals how they carry their babies. Her journey takes her to the city, where she encounters a handyman wearing a work apron full of pockets that he generously gives to Katy. Equipped with small, medium and big pockets, Katy goes from not being able to carry her baby, to carrying all the animal babies in the whole forest!
Originally published in 1944, Katy No-Pocket was written by Emmy Payne and illustrated by H. A. Rey. Though Rey and his wife Margret are best known for creating Curious George, Katy No-Pocket has remained a beloved title and has been translated into 10 different languages. (Read more about the Reys in our April blog.)
Very little is known about Katy No-Pocket’s author, Emmy Payne, also known as Emmy Govan West. She came from a family of Southern writers in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It’s estimated that Emmy and the other members of the Govan-West-Steel family authored more than 200 books.
She attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority and U.S. Census Bureau for many years. She also co-authored a mystery series and other short stories for children with her mother, Christine Noble Govan. Her sister Mary Steele won a Newbery Honor for Journey Outside, and Steele’s husband, William Owen Steele, won a Newbery Honor Award for The Perilous Road. According to her obituary, she devoted her later life to volunteering in her Chattanooga community, donating countless hours to the Hamilton County Juvenile Court, the American Red Cross, multiple libraries, and the Humane Society.
Margaret Bloy Graham (1920-2015) and Gene Zion (1913-1975)
What lengths would you go to in order to avoid something you dislike? Would you leave your home? Change your identity? That’s exactly the journey a bath-averse dog embarks on in the classic picture book Harry the Dirty Dog, written by Gene Zion and illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham.
Since its publication, this classic has never been out of print. It’s often among educators’ lists of top 100 books for children and provides an important transition for readers from picture books to beginning chapter books. Creators Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham are considered one of children’s books’ power couples, along with Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson, and Margret and H. A. Rey.
Graham grew up in Canada and showed interest in art from an early age. After majoring in art history at the University of Toronto, she relocated to New York and continued her studies at the Art Students League, the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and the New School for Social Research. As a commercial artist she worked for a naval architecture and marine engineering firm and Condé Nast Publications, where she met Zion.
Gene Zion was born in New York City and raised in New Jersey. He attended the Pratt Institute and the New School for Social Research. During World War II, he joined the army and served in the Anti-aircraft Artillery Visual Training Aids Section, designing training manuals and filmstrips. After the war he worked at CBS and for various publications as an art designer.
Zion and Graham married in 1948. Harper & Row editor Ursula Nordstrom (who they met through their friends Margret and H.A. Rey) encouraged Zion to try writing children’s books. In 1951 All Falling Down written by Gene Zion and illustrated by Maragret Bloy Graham was published.
Before divorcing in 1968, Zion and Graham collaborated on 13 books together, including three more Harry books. Graham’s illustrations for All Falling Down and The Storm Book both received Caldecott Honors.
Our Harry the Dirty Dog exhibit was the first of a series of bathtub benches, where you become part of the story and illustration just by taking a seat. Visitors can sit surrounded by bubbles and Harry, who is insistently holding his scrub brush.
Judith Kerr (1923 – 2019)
While the tiger in The Tiger Who Came to Tea has no interest in eating people, he does help himself to all the sandwiches, cakes, dinner on the stove, and even Daddy’s beer! When Daddy returns home to a distressed wife and child who tell him about the tiger who had “eaten all the food and drunk all the drink,” he suggests they go out to eat. The next morning, a shopping trip replenishes their fridge and pantry, and they even purchase a large can of Tiger Food, should their striped friend come to tea again.
Describing her own childhood, Judith Kerr recalls parents who also made the best out of an otherwise chaotic situation. Kerr was born in Berlin, Germany to German Jewish parents. Her father, Alfred Kerr, was a writer who was outspoken against the Nazis and just before Hitler’s election the family fled to Switzerland, narrowly escaping Alfred’s arrest. She told The Guardian that her father, whose books were publicly burned by the Nazis, was her initial inspiration to write.
The family lived in Switzerland, France, and then England, and Kerr says her parents made it all feel like a great adventure for her and her brother Michael. Kerr was 16 when World War II began followed by the Blitz bombings on London. She said it was during those difficult times that she felt she became a Brit.
During the war, Kerr was a firewatcher during air-raid warnings and worked as a secretary for a Red Cross colonel coordinating knitters across the country who were making garments for those in the Armed Forces. She also began attending art classes part time. Once the war ended, Kerr landed a trade scholarship, in which she attended art school and illustrated patterns for textiles.
After art school she taught at several different schools, the last one across the road from BBC Television Studios. There she met writer Tom Kneale who helped her find work at the BBC. They married in 1954 and together raised two children, often making up stories to tell them. Kerr notes in her biography that they checked out books from their local library but found so many of the didactic books disappointing.
After their children started school, Kerr wrote down and sketched illustrations for one of her children’s favorite made-up stories: The Tiger Who Came to Tea, which was published in 1968. Her second book Mog the Forgetful Cat was published in 1970 and launched a series of books about their eccentric cat. During her career she wrote more than 35 books.
Asked how she was able to create books with so much innocence despite the challenges of her own childhood, she said, “Well, stories are a huge comfort when things are bad.”
Tomie DePaola (1934 - 2020)
When a grandmother witch tells you not to touch her magic pasta pot, you better take heed. Otherwise, you might end up like Strega Nona’s bumbling hired helper, Big Anthony. His foolhardy behavior led to flooding an entire town with noodles, which he then had to eat after Strega Nona calmly came to the rescue. After all, “the punishment must fit the crime.”
Tomie dePaola was born and raised in Connecticut. Even though he grew up during the Great Depression and the family did not have much income, books and art were important to them. His mother recalled, “He took to reading at a very young age, and he always had a pencil in his hand. I remember him coming from kindergarten one day and telling me he was going to draw pictures for books, dance and sing on stage, and paint all the scenery.”
After high school he studied art at the Pratt Institute, which he described as heaven on earth. He was able to immerse himself in creative pursuits and his classmates included other future children’s book creators Anita and Arnold Lobel, Ted Lewin, Charles Mikolaycak, Cyndy Czakeres and John Schoenherr.
In the early 1960s dePaola taught art at universities on both the east and west coasts. During that time he struggled to find a foothold in the children’s book industry. Sound (1965), written by Lisa Miller, was the first book he illustrated. The following year The Wonderful Dragon of Timlin, which he wrote and illustrated, was published. During his more than 50 year career, he created more than 270 books and won numerous awards including the Children's Literature Legacy Award, a Newbery Honor for 26 Fairmount Avenue, and a Caldecott Honor for Strega Nona.
Tomie dePaola’s distinct illustration style is immediately identifiable by his rustic use of color and ability to convey complex emotions through simple illustrative gestures. His Italian and Irish heritage largely informed both his writing and illustrating style, as did his Catholic upbringing and lifelong interest in Catholic iconography.
An admirer of global folk art traditions (even calling his love for the genre “close to obsessive”), dePaola’s deep appreciation for stories that simultaneously respond to and reflect cultural traditions is apparent in his oeuvre.
At the Rabbit hOle, dePaola’s work is celebrated with a series of miniature vignettes from his iconic Strega Nona book come to life through simple mechanical motions.
Tomie himself is depicted above the smaller diorama windows in a monk-like fashion — a nod to his deep interest in religious artwork and his brief stint at a priory, to which he maintained a close relationship for the duration of his life. The image of him is inspired by an illustration he drew of himself that was featured on the cover of The Horn Book Magazine. This particular issue was celebrating LGBTQIA+ children’s book creators, including Maurice Sendak, Remy Charlip, Arnold Lobel, and James Marshall.
