With a bright moon following me home during my daybreak walk, especially welcome this week, I am reminded of the story of “Owl and the Moon”: “Moon, you have followed me all the way home. What a good, round friend you are!”
The story is from Arnold Lobel’s Owl at Home, a favorite “I CAN READ Book” from 1975. Later that decades, son Dan and I enjoyed the five delightful stories in it: “The Guest,” who turned out kinda pushy, “Strange Bumps,” which were more benign that naive Owl thought, “Tear-Water Tea,” which I enjoyed reading tearily, “Upstairs and Downstairs,” with poor Owl finding out he couldn’t be both places at once, and the dear “Owl and Moon.”
Arnold Lobel was such a favorite author while Dan was small. He wrote the Frog and Toad series, Mouse Tales and Mouse Soup, and more.
We wrote fan letters to the author. His reply was such a delight, including a sketch of Owl himself. “Dear Mrs. Kidney and Dan, Thanks so much for your nice letters. I am delighted to hear that I have such ardent fans in Iowa. My newest book will be Fables and it will be published in the fall of this year. Here is a sketch of Owl for you. Your friend, Arnold Lobel”
Fables won the 1981 Caldecott Medal for the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published in the U.S. during the preceding year, so the letter must have been written in 1980.
Our treasured copies of the “Lobel books,” along with others, are about to go home with granddaughter Kate. I hope she enjoys them as much as we did. I hope that when the moon follows her home, the words “What a good, round friend you are!” will also follow her home.
What a fine writer.
I’ll bet son Dan can quote several of his stories!
I think it’s wonderful that the author took the time to send his fans a personal letter like that.
We thought so as well, and I’ve kept it ever since!
What a delightful story, Joy. Kudos to the author for returning your thoughtful comments with a note.
I wonder how we learned how to contact the author, but it was fun for Dan to learn that he was real and that he even responded!
I had the same experience with John Cheever. I just wrote to the publisher.
That may have been what we did. Good for you, John.
Frog and Toad was a beloved series enjoyed by many young children. I read many of Arnold Loebel’s books to second graders when I taught at that level. Each short story always had a wonderful moral imbedded. Then I’d have kids act out the stories, which was great fun.
What fun! Pete, you made memories for them they’ll never forget!
I’m going to look up Lobel’s books for my grandchildren. They must be good if your son liked them even though they weren’t about cars and trucks! Hats off to this considerate author! Thank you for sharing this, Joy. 🙂
You need Richard Scary for cars and trucks! Thank you, Nancy!
Oh, I will have to look up Scary’s books, too. I have a preschool grandson that’s all about cars and trucks. Thanks for the tip! 🙂
I wish I’d known about this book when my daughter was little!
Dan will be 50 in December, so I guess he was at just the right age. We both enjoyed all of his books, but Owl and Home and those dear Frog and Toad books were favorites.
Joy, are you all right? No posts over a few days makes me wonder.
Gail, you are dear! I’m usually afraid readers will think I post too often. I did repost one on Saturday, about a WWII book, but those don’t drop in your email. Have ones scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday, then maybe a repost of a bookish one. We both are doing remarkably well for the shape we’re in! Thank you.