Helen Oxenbury

Picture Books: A Reading for Children

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• published: 19 Mar 2014
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Children's book creators Barbara McClintock, Phyllis Root, and Helen Oxenbury read their stories aloud to a group of children at the Boston Athenaeum. Barbara McClintock reads from her book Dahlia. One morning Charlotte gets a package from her Aunt Edme. Inside is a delicate doll. Charlotte never wanted a doll, and she certainly doesn't want this one. She names the doll Dahlia and tells her that she and Bruno, her bear, "like digging in dirt and climbing trees. No tea parties, no being pushed around in frilly prams. You'll just have to get used to the way we do things." Dahlia doesn't seem to mind. What's more, she seems to like getting dirty while making mud cakes and racing wagons. But at the end of the day, Charlotte's aunt arrives for a visit and wants to see how Dahlia is doing and Charlotte gets another surprise. Phyllis Root and Helen Oxenbury read from their book Big Momma Makes the World. When Big Momma makes the world, she doesn't mess around. Earth, she says, get over here. And it does. With a little baby on her hip and laundry piling up, Big Momma asks for light and dark, sea and sky, creepers and crawlers, and lots of folks to trade stories with on the front porch. And when the work is done, Big Momma is pleased all right. "That's good," she says, "That's real good."