Anniversary editions celebrate timeless classics

REVIEWS BY ALICE CARY

Need some great gifts for a special young reader? There's nothing like a classic book, and this year there's a bumper crop of beautiful new anniversary editions sure to make adults nostalgic and kids engaged.

Can Charlie Bucket really be 40 years old? Yes he is, and everyone can help celebrate with the 40th anniversary edition of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Most everyone knows what a jaw-breakingly good story this is, as poor Charlie Bucket takes a fantastical tour of the chocolate factory belonging to the mysterious Willy Wonka. It's one of my all-time favorites, and, of course, also a splendid movie (with a new version slated for release next summer, starring Johnny Depp as Wonka). This full-color anniversary book is particularly yummy, printed on a series of candy-colored pages—lavender, pink, blue and yellow.

Drawings of wrapped pieces of candy fill these pages: on endpapers, at the end of chapters, around borders. Quentin Blake's illustrations have long been a delightful hallmark of Dahl's novels, and their energy and humor bursts through in a rainbow of colors. With its roomy layout, easy-on-the-eyes print, and illustrations galore, this edition is perfect for both read-alouds and read-alones. Just grab some candy and turn the pages.


Blessings to count

About 50 years ago my dear friend Elizabeth Orton Jones won the 1945 Caldecott Medal for illustrating Rachel Field's poem Prayer for a Child, now published in a special diamond anniversary edition. I love giving this book to newborns and their families. Regard- less of denomination, it contains a lifelong message of childhood love, comfort and well being, as a young girl says her bedtime prayer and blesses what is dear to her:

Bless my friends and family.
Bless my Father and my Mother
And keep us close to one another.
Bless other children, far and near,
And keep them safe and free from fear.

Miss Jones led the way in multiculturalism before it had such a highfalutin name. She paints a sea of little faces from around the world to accompany these last lines, a beautiful sight and a tribute to world understanding.


The vampire bunny

In our central Massachusetts town, all fourth-graders are required to read two classic books: The Hundred Dresses and Bunnicula. For 25 years now, kids have been howling at Deborah and James Howe's Bunnicula. The tale is narrated by a lovable dog named Harold, who tells how a pet bunny arrived at his household—not just any bunny, but a vampire bunny. Just read a few pages and take a look at the spooky new cover art showing Bunnicula with glowing red eyes, and you will be hooked.

This was the first of many books about Bunnicula and his pals, and in this edition James Howe explains how it came into being: "One night in 1977, two underemployed actors, a husband and wife who didn't know the first thing about writing a children's book, sat down at their tomato-red kitchen table and jotted some notes about a vampire rabbit and the 'typical American family' with whom he came to reside." Sadly, Deborah Howe died before the book was published. The book's popularity led James Howe to his true calling, and he's been writing ever since.


Setting things right

Eleanor Estes earned a Newbery Honor in 1945 for The Hundred Dresses, the story of a little immigrant girl named Wanda who wears the same dress to school every day. When she gets tired of being teased, she tells her classmates that her closet at home contains 100 dresses. This "restored" edition brings the delicate lines and colors of Louis Slobodkin's art to life.

There's also a new letter to readers from Helena Estes about how her mother came to write this classic (these background notes are always fascinating). It turns out that the author was inspired by a girl in her own class who always wore the same dress and was teased, and then moved away. Helena Estes explains that her mother never had a chance to apologize: "What could she do so many years later, my mother wondered, to set things right—to reach out to the girl who had stood lonely and silent against the red brick wall of the school? Well, she thought, the one thing she could do was to write her story."

Why does our school district pick such a book for required reading, one so seemingly a "girl's story"? It's a splendid tale—that's why—and a grand lesson on teasing, bullying and forgiveness.


Sticking his neck out

Lordy, lordy, look who's 40! It's Shel Silverstein's A Giraffe and a Half. This cumulative tale starts out with a giraffe stretching, and thus the title, with an added, hilarious complication on each page. Silverstein's line drawings and poems are always simple, but so rich that they never lose their appeal. This latest edition contains a giraffe tape measure for recording your little reader's changing stature. Put this book between other Silverstein classics (such as The Giving Tree) and Dr. Seuss books, and you'll be set with a tall order of classic children's rhymes and humor.

Happy birthday to these literary gems, just as fresh and wonderful today as they were when first published. The only difference is that now they are already well known and loved all around the world. It's safe to say that 50 and 60 years from now, new generations of readers will be clamoring for 100th anniversary editions of these classics.


More classic reading: everything old is new again

* Candlewick Press has just released a stunning collection of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories ($22.99, 128 pages, ISBN 0763626295). First published in 1902, Kipling's imaginative tales grew out of his daughter's questions: How did the camel get his humps? How did the leopard get his spots? With new illustrations by top contemporary artists like Peter Sìs and Satoshi Kitamura, this beautifully designed book is an excellent choice for bedtime read-alouds.

* Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped (Atheneum, $18.95, 64 pages, ISBN 0689865422) is available in a new abridged version, the latest entry in Scribner's Storybook Classics series. With luminous paintings by N.C. Wyeth, Stevenson's swashbuckling story of betrayal and intrigue in 18th century Scotland comes to life for younger readers.

* Until we saw Algonquin's new edition, we had never heard of Janusz Korczak's book King Matt the First ($13.95, 352 pages, ISBN 156512441). But when we read the evaluation by Esmé Raji Codell ("one of the greatest children's books ever written") we knew it was worth a look. A Polish pediatrician who was killed in the Holocaust, Korczak created a charming world in which a young boy unexpectedly takes the throne. Soon, there's summer camp and chocolate candy for everyone in the kingdom! But King Matt also offers weightier lessons on justice and friendship. This is a rediscovered gem not to be missed.

* The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (HarperCollins, $16.99, 48 pages, ISBN 0060556501), C.S. Lewis' classic story about the magical land on the other side of the doorway, has been transformed into a picture book for readers ages 3-7. This adaptation by Hiawyn Oram, with imviting illustrations by Tudor Humphries, captures the mystery and adventure of the original in a format suitable for the preschool set.

* Two of our favorite things about Babar books are the vivid illustrations and the guarantee that great adventures always happen. Babar's Mystery (Abrams, $16.95, 40 pages, ISBN 0810950332), a resissue of a book first published in 1978, keeps up that lively tradition. Here the beloved elephant and his family track down a gang of robbers. Don't miss it—Babar books are some of the most exciting capers we know.


Alice Cary writes from Groton, Massachusetts.

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