By: Paula Becker,
on 3/24/2015
I love doing big, busy spreads with a lot of activity going on. This one was for Cricket magazine. See if you can find the sports-related “wrongs” in this illustration.
(c) Cricket Magazine/Carus
By: Laura Zarrin,
on 7/12/2012
By: Paula Becker,
on 5/1/2012
Using Illustration Friday this week for my warm-up drawings. This is #3.
By: jeff,
on 10/2/2009
Growing up, I had a lot of girl friends (or, more accurately, friends who were girls). As a consequence, I became quite good at hula hoop, hopscotch, jump rope and various hand clapping games.
When I saw a certain cell phone hawking robot on TV playing jump rope with some children and singing, “My cousin Sally, sittin’ on…” I asked my wife if she knew that rhyme and she said, “No, I always did, ‘Cinderella, dressed in yella…’” to which I responded…
Went downstairs to kiss a fella’
Made a mistake,
Kissed a snake,
How many doctors will it take?
1, 2, 3, 4…
I realized these rhymes are not the kind you find in books, but they endure in an oral tradition that many people think is extinct. Here are some of my faves that I have never read, but remember anyhow because the rhyme and rhythm is burned deep in my brain. The first was a great elimination hand slap game similar to hot potato, the last person in the circle when the rhyme gets to “Ker-plop” is out.
Down by the banks of the Hanky Panky,
Where the bullfrog jumps from bank to banky,
Eep, Op, over the top,
East side, West side, KER-plop!
This next hand clap song is a little racy and always caused a little tittering when it was sung.
Miss Suzy had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell, (Ding! Ding!)
Miss Suzy went to heaven, the steamboat went to…
Hello, operator, please give me number nine,
And if you disconnect me,
I’ll kick your old…
Behind the ‘frigerator, there was a piece of glass,
Miss Suzy slipped upon it, and broke her little…
Ask me no more questions, I’ll tell you no more lies,
The boys are in the bathroom, zipping up their…
Flies are in the meadow, the bees are in the park,
Miss Suzy and her boyfriend are kissing in the Dark!
One reason our custom kids books are written in rhyme is that it is more fun to read aloud. Another benefit of rhyme is that it is easier to remember and to guess which words come next as your little one attempts to read the book “all by themselves”. Maybe, like me with ‘Miss Suzy’, they’ll even remember the texts for years to come!
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