Alice Provensen (1918–2018)

Many of us have a book or two from their early childhood that we seek out as adults with memories based on half-remembered (and frequently misremembered) details. This picture book was one of mine, and I just found it! The only particulars I had to work off of were 1) an illustration of an ice-skating boy positioned with his skates perpendicular to one another (incidentally, this gave me the conviction that this is how one skated), and 2) the last page depicted a garden archway covered in flowers.

As for the book itself, it's a joyful look at all the fun things there are to do as the seasons change (assuming you live in a clime with changing seasons). The illustrations are cute, and I'm delighted to have successfully hunted it down, despite it being out of print and not having aged well with respect to diverse representation.… (más)

A truly beautiful, charming book. Newly released from a set of unpublished dummy pages by the celebrated illustrators Alice and Martin Provenson, it’s a character sketch of the farm cat Max, a singleton kitten who grows up to taunt other cats, smile at the horse, torment the dog, chase the chickens, and who LOVES to help make the bed. The ink and watercolor pictures are riotous, funny, and display Max in all his moods, and his lovely farm in all its glories of trees and grasses and the evening sky…when Max’s “real life” begins. The final image brought a tear of wonder to this reader’s eye, evoking my own rambunctious, complicated, serious and mischievous rural tabby cat. I cherish this little book… (más)