Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?

I see a goof in a hair bow looking at me.  Etsy shop is RoxysBowtiqueShop.

Today is Eric Carle's birthday.  Eric Carle was a children's author and illustrator, and to my surprise he's only been deceased a couple'a years.  His best-known work is The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but he also illustrated a number of other kids' books, including one of my old favorites, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  I was six when I first heard Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and while it was a bit under me (I was already a proficient reader by then) I loved the rhythmic rhyming and the colors in the book.  Things didn't get really trippy until the blue horse was introduced!  Up until then the animals had been more or less normally colored, even though ducks are only yellow if they're babies...or rubber.

My bow sports the last pages of the book, where a group of children are asked what they see.  The children proceed to name everything in the book, ending it with "That's what we see."

Oddly, when my teacher read it to us, she called this illustration "Mother" rather than "Teacher."  Either one fits, I s'pose.  She also called the horde of children "beautiful children," which was nice even though I felt about as beautiful as the blue horse in the book.  But then again, horses ARE beautiful, so maybe I was too.

Despite my fondness for frogs and cats, my favorite character in the book was the black sheep.

He reminded me of one of my favorite nursery rhymes:

Baa-baa, black sheep, have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

One for my master and one for my dame,

And one for the little boy that lives down the lane.

The last line sometimes varies, with the little boy having been naughty and receiving no wool, but the gist of the whole thing is the same.  In recent years "Baa-Baa, Black Sheep" has come under fire for perceived racist undertones, which I think is idiotic.  Don't people know that back when those rhymes were written black wool was hard to come by?  Black sheep were the oddballs of a flock and were thus valued.  Either way the black sheep was my favorite of Brown Bear's vibrant friends.

As much as I love Brown Bear, Brown Bear, I always giggle when I see the book at the library, because my sister HATES it.  Like me, Sister was a proficient reader by the time kindergarten rolled around (Mama read to us a lot, okay???), but unlike me she didn't appreciate being made to read along with the rest of the class.  I never minded it, because it meant all I had to do was sit in a circle and repeat what everyone else said.  No writing, no stupid hand motions, no stupid questions, just recitation.  But my sister wasn't a big fan of that, especially when it was what she termed "a baby book."  The teacher, whom Sister loved, told her that if she didn't participate her name would be taken off the weekly "sweet list," something that had never happened before.  Sister remained stubborn and got her name taken off the list, and when she got home that afternoon she had a slobbering angry hissy about being taken off of the sweet list for the week.  She made such a big deal that Daddy made his own sweet list!  He listed himself, Mama, me, every pet in the house (two cats, two dogs, eight birds, two newts, and a large tank of fish), and simply left Sister's name off.  Sister exploded in a comical rage and countered with HER own sweet list.  She followed Daddy's example, listing everyone in the house (pets included), but at the bottom she wrote "BUT NO DADDY!!!"  She left it on his pillow, presumably hoping to make him upset, and then she got mad all over again when Daddy laughed.  Heck, we ALL laughed, and for a long time after that if Sister was bad at home Mama would tell her "You better behave or I'll tell Mrs. K and she'll take you off the sweet list."  LOL, we were so rotten!  And all because sister refused to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear aloud.

Happy birthday in heaven, Mr. Carle!  Thanks for the books and the artwork!

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987