Synopses & Reviews
Its bad news when you wake up in the morning and find youve lost your head, especially if its an especially agreeable and handsome head, but there you go, such things happen. In any case, the man who loses his head in
The Man Who Lost His Head isnt about to grin (that is, if he could grin) and bear it. No, hell make himself a new one, and starting with a pumpkin and moving on to a parsnip and finally picking up a block of wood, he sets about getting it just right. Still, for all his efforts, it somehow isnt right. It isnt the head he had before. It turns out that only a brash bold boy can save the man who lost his head from losing it altogether.
Claire Huchet Bishops charming parable is illustrated by the great Robert McCloskey, whose books for children include One Morning in Maine, Blueberries for Sal, and the Caldecott Medal–winning Make Way for Ducklings.
Synopsis
When a man discovers he has lost his head he tries several substitutes, but none is satisfactory.
Synopsis
Its bad news when you wake up in the morning and find youve lost your head, especially if its an especially agreeable and handsome head, but there you go, such things happen. In any case, the man who loses his head in
The Man Who Lost His Head isnt about to grin (that is, if he could grin) and bear it. No, hell make himself a new one, and starting with a pumpkin and moving on to a parsnip and finally picking up a block of wood, he sets about getting it just right. Still, for all his efforts, it somehow isnt right. It isnt the head he had before. It turns out that only a brash bold boy can save the man who lost his head from losing it altogether.
Claire Huchet Bishops charming parable is illustrated by the great Robert McCloskey, whose books for children include One Morning in Maine, Blueberries for Sal, and the Caldecott Medal-winning Make Way for Ducklings.
About the Author
Claire Huchet Bishop (ca. 1899-1993) was a librarian, storyteller, critic, and writer. She grew up in Le Havre, France, and attended the Sorbonne for a time before founding Frances first library for children, LHeure Joyeuse. Her childrens books grew out of the popular stories she told both at LHeure Joyeuse and at the New York Public Library, where she worked after marrying the pianist Frank Bishop and settling in the United States. Among the seventeen works of fiction she wrote for children are
The Five Chinese Brothers (1938),
Twenty and Ten (1952), and the Newbery Honor books
Pancakes-Paris (1947) and
All Alone (1953). Bishop also wrote several biographies for children and nonfiction works for adults, and served as childrens book editor at
Commonweal during the 1930s. Active during the Second World War in the cause of European Jews, she devoted herself after the war to fostering better understanding between Jews and Christians, writing
How Catholics Look at Jews (1974) and encouraging the Vaticans recognition of the State of Israel.
Robert McCloskey (1914-2003) was born in Ohio and moved east to study art in Boston and New York. He was awarded a prestigious Rome Prize, but World War II made it impossible for him to go to Rome. Renowned as a draftsman, McCloskey provided illustrations for a variety of authors and also wrote and illustrated eight books of his own, including Blueberries for Sal (1948), One Morning in Maine (1952), and the Caldecott Award-winning stories Make Way for Ducklings (1941) and Time of Wonder (1958). McCloskeys last book, Burt Dow: Deep-Water Man, came out in 1963. In 2003, he died on the Maine island where he had lived with his family since the 1940s.