This book was really memorable for me as a child. As a flip through it there are a few key elements that made it really important.
1) The colors. They are deep, saturated blues, greens, and purples. You can stare at the pages and immerse yourself in the sea.
2) The details. "He hung his hat on the hook for his hat, and his rope on the hook for his rope, and his pants on the hook for his pants, and his coat on the hook for his coat, and his spyglass on the hook for his spyglass, and he put his shoes under his bed, and got into bed, which was a bunk, and went to sleep." There were so many little things to look at! I thought it was wonderful and still do.
3) Okay, who doesn't love building forts as a kid. This dog builds his own fort! Then he survives on his own--he fishes and lives by himself by the seashore. This is a kid's dream. Of course you can't have a child doing these things because where is the parent? This is when you put an animal in the child's place, so that the animal can live out the child's fantasy without some parent shouting out child abuse! (and of course they'd be right).
4) Foreign lands! So cool.
5) I loved this shoe page.
6) Finally, there's a song at the back to sing and my mom used to sing it to us every time she finished the book. "I am Scupers The Sailer Dog--"
Beautiful! I've never seen this. What colors!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if this was still in print and it looks like there's a new edition, but from people's posts it seems that some of the illustrations and text have been cut out. I'm not sure why! Boo.
ReplyDeleteI loved this book as a kid... it was my favorite.. I still have a copy, but not the original.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the memories. This is one of those perfect picture books.
ReplyDeleteThis was one of my favorite books growing up!! thanks for posting
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