Synopses & Reviews
In his years of collecting and cataloging the vast Green Tiger library of classic children’s picture books, editor Welleran Poltarnees has singled out scenes containing particularly unusual images and situations and he has compiled the best and rarest of these discoveries in Weird and Wonderful. The results are both engaging and delightful and reveal a world of children’s books where imagination is given free rein. Artists and authors include Frank Baum, Edward Lear, Gelett Burgess, Peter Newell, John R. Neill and Charles Doyle.
Review
Drawn from the archives of the Blue Lantern Studio (Poltarnees is a pen name for Blue Lantern cofounder Harold Darling) this compilation of excerpts and illustrations from 19th- and early 20th-century picture books should captivate connoisseurs and curious young readers with an artistic bent. Palmer Cox’s Brownies make an appearance, as do offerings from Johnny Gruelle, Edward Lear, and Dorothy Kunhardt, but most of the images are little-known rarities from the vault, often paired with the verse that accompanied them. Every page holds a surprise: a 1916 work by Hazel Frazee has a pair of elegant “chocolate ladies” playing dominoes, while an anonymous 1884 illustration depicts a hive of winged capital letter Bs carrying signs that read “cheerful,” “penitent,” etc. Poltarnees’s brief, glowing commentary is largely superfluous (“The Swiss artist Ernst Kreidolf, in a wonderfully consistent body of work, shows us the wonderful beings who inhabit the world of plants”), as the whimsical, bizarre, and sometimes nightmarish illustrations stand alone as fascinating relics of bygone eras in children’s publishing. Readers will likely long for more of the beguiling images: luckily, as Poltarnees notes in his introduction, “There are thousands more buried in our library.”
Publisher's Weekly, June 2010
Review
Thanks to Weird and Wonderful, I now know what one book I would take with me to a desert island.
-Tom Robbins (author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Still Life with Woodpecker, and many more).
This incredible collection of enchanting and magical artwork is my favorite book of 2010.
-Glen Baxter (author of Atlas, Blizzards of Tweed, Meurtes à La Table de Billard, among others)
Synopsis
Throughout his years of collecting and cataloging his vast library of classic children's picture books, Welleran Poltarnees has singled out particularly unusual images and situations. He has compiled the best and rarest of these discoveries in this book.
Weird and Wonderful reveals an engaging and delightful world where imagination is given free rein. This compilation of excerpts and illustrations from 19th and early 20th-century picture books includes artists and authors like Frank Baum, Edward Lear, Gelett Burgess, Peter Newell, John R. Neill, and Charles Doyle. The book is full of rarities from the vault, often paired with an accompanying verse. Every page holds a surprise: Palmer Cox's Brownies make an appearance, as do offerings from Johnny Gruelle, Dorothy Kunhardt, a 1916 work by Hazel Frazee where a pair of elegant ladies plays dominoes, works from Ernst Kreidolf that depict the wonderful beings who inhabit the world of plants, and an anonymous 1884 illustration depicts a hive of winged capital letter Bs carrying signs. Poltarnees's brief, glowing commentary is largely superfluous, as the whimsical, bizarre, and sometimes nightmarish illustrations stand alone as fascinating relics of a bygone era in children's publishing.
These wonders and oddities are sure to captivate connoisseurs and curious young readers with an artistic bent. You will likely long for more of these beguiling images. Luckily, as Poltarnees notes in his introduction: "There are thousands more buried in our library."
About the Author
Welleran Poltarnees characterizes himself as “a normal, perhaps boring, member of the human race.” Most would not agree with his assessment. Poltarnees spends his life searching for the memorable image. This search leads him to a relentless siege of garage sales, auctions, libraries, flea markets and antique stores. He has collected thousands of pictures books, old and new. He travels extensively, always searching. Poltarnees collects useful elephant objects, plastic charms, Jai-alaina, wooden rulers, cloth animals, children’s card games and etc. He has seven children, each with an exotic name. He is more comfortable in a suit than in casual dress. He loves the rain, usually wears a fedora, and attends more than one hundred classical music concerts a year.