The Green Machine by Polly Cameron (1969)

Back when I stole/saved an entire picture book section from a Detroit school that was getting scrapped, I posted a picture of some of the books I found there. Every few months, I get an e-mail from someone who scanned the titles and recognized something long out of print that they remembered from childhood, asking me if I'll send it to them. I've sent away a few, but this is the one I get the most requests for, and I realized why: it sells for anywhere between $50 and $180 on Amazon and doesn't come up often on eBay. I think ounce-for-ounce this book is worth way more than if it were solid copper. Take that scrappers!

Unfortunately for those who've e-mailed me, my son LOVES this book and I refuse to part with it. It is possibly his favorite, as his grandfather is an auto body man who works exclusively on antique cars like the green machine and has much more tolerance for his grandson tooting the horns on the cars and playing inside them than he ever had for his son.

The author of this book, Polly Cameron, also wrote the more well-known I Can't Says the Ant. This book is written in a similar rhyming structure and tells the story of an ordinary summer day in a huge garden when it's suddenly invaded by a tiny antique automobile called "the green machine." One of my favorite things about old children's books is that sometimes the best ones don't need to make any sense. This book is basically a bunch of fruits, vegetables, and garden implements commenting on what the green machine is doing, in sentences that rhyme with what they are (?).

The book is illustrated by Consuelo Joerns, who I can't find much about online but has one of those great self-written bios that makes her sound quite fantastic: "She has travelled and painted all over, living in a primitive house on a volcanic lake in Guatemala with a wild ocelot, another time making her studio in the kitchen of a 12th century chateau in France and more recently on the Ile Saint Louis, a 17th century island in the heart if Paris. . ." After The Green Machine, she illustrated about a dozen other children's books.

 

Previous Book: Brian Wildsmith's 1,2,3

A Little Old Man, by Natalie Norton (ill. Will Huntington) (1959)

It's a real treat to share one of our absolute favorite picture books today: Natalie Norton's A Little Old Man. It's been out of print for almost half a century, but it sure can entertain a couple of 21st century kids. I would say it's one of those rare books where the story is not overshadowed by the illustrations, and vice versa. I highly recommend picking it up for those dirt cheap used prices on Amazon or eBay. This book is one you won't mind reading over and over: it's got just the right amount of text. The subject seems like an odd one for a kid's book, but it is such a lovely story.

The little old man lives alone, but he manages to keep busy.

Maybe I enjoy this book because the old man reminds me of the kindly old farting Quaker who used to run a book store in downtown Kalamazoo? As busy as he keeps, sometimes such a life can still get a bit lonely:

All he wants is a cat! But there's no way a cat could get to his island. One day, there is a terrible storm that blows his house away. . .

But this is a lucky old man, and a boat washes up on the shore of his island. Its occupants are nowhere to be found. Maybe they drowned! Who cares, it's a kid's book!

It's even got a fully-stocked kitchen:

 

But it turns out the houseboat wasn't totally unoccupied:

The smile on the old man's face on this page always makes my kids howl with joy:

They just don't make children's books about lonely old men marooned on tiny islands who yearn for feline companionship like they used to.

 

Previous Book: Night Markets

This blog seeks to share excerpted content from out-of-print children's books. If you are the copyright holder of any of these books and are unhappy with this usage, please contact me immediately and I will rectify it.