About the Author

Eugene Field (1850 - 1895) was an American writer best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays.

Johanna Westerman is a graduate of Scripps College, where she majored in studio art. She has illustrated numerous books for children. She lives in Altadena, California.

Reviews

ea. vol: unpaged. (Pudgy Pals Board Bks.). Grosset. Feb. 1986. BD $3.95. PreS Three board books that present stories telescoped to fit the 16-page format. Chicken Little and her friends are spared the consequences of their own foolishness and gullibility when the king rides up and scares off the fox, leaving the chicken with a silly umbrella with which to ward off acorns. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod is the only text to escape surgery. Field's sentimental bedtime poem is presented in its entirety but illustrated in electric colors and a quasi-colonial setting. Peter Rabbit omits incidents from the last third of Potter's original story, while illustrations depict on one double-page spread what Potter leisurely and gracefully pictured on four or five pages. Two of the titles attempt to clarify and unscarify classic tales in an effort to present them to the very young, but why bother? In a few years, they'll be ready for the real things, available in so many other versions. Susan Hepler, Windsor Public Library, Conn.

PW praised Westerman's "thoroughly dreamlike" characters and setting in her "soothing" interpretation of a classic bedtime verse. Ages 5-8. (Oct.)