Description
Poor dust jacket, sections missing and wear at the head and foot of spine, small tears and chips at the edges of the jacket, some tape repaired. The Good+ binding is light blue cloth over boards, black line illustration of a pelican on the cover, black lettering on spine, wear at the head and foot of the spine, wear at the corners, blacked out name on front free endpaper. The binding is tight and pages are clean. The black-and-white illustrations by Madeleine Gekiere can be found with the turn of every page.
About the book: (from the dust jacket)
“The reason for the pelican Is difficult to see; His beak is clearly larger Than there’s any need to be.”
It may be difficult to see the reason for the pelican, but there is no difficulty to seeing the reason for this book, Here are twenty-three poems for children that are funny and gentle and gay. Here is nonsense of the highest quality that will be understood and laughed at by young readers, and by the more perceptive of their adult friends Only a poet could understand so perfectly the child’s love of the bizarre and ridiculous.
Madeleine Gekiere, in her brilliant drawings, has caught John Ciardi’s humor and intimacy with a child’s point of view. Together they have made a memorable addition to the poetry shelf of any child’s library.
The Reason for the Pelican was chosen by The New York Times as one of the Ten Best Children’s Books of 1959 and also as the first of the Ten Best Picture Books of 1959.
About the author: (from the dust jacket)
JOHN CIARDI is well known to adult readers for his several volumes of poetry, his translation of The Inferno. for his teaching and his lecturing. He is also Poetry Editor of the Saturday Review. His books for children include, in addition to The Reason for the Pelican: Scrappy the Pup, John J. Plenty and Fiddler Dan, You Know Who, You Read to Me, II Read to You, The King Who Saved Himself from Being Saved, and The Man Who Sang the Sillies. Mr. Ciardi has taught at Harvard and at Rutgers University. He lives in Metuchen with his wife and three children.
About the illustrator: (from the dust jacket)
MADELEINE GEKIERE was born and educated in Switzerland. It was not until she came to this country that she became interested in art as a profession. Since 1952 she has had several one man shows in New York and has illustrated many books that have received wide recognition. She now lives in New York.
