The Saggy Baggy Elephant

June 1, 2003
Golden Books brings back three Big Little Golden Books, picture books from the 1940s and '50s now available in larger-sized, paper-over-board editions. Originally published in 1954, The Friendly Book by Margaret Wise Brown, illus. by Garth Williams, uses rhyming verse to explore a whole series of likable things. It's a paean to dogs and boats, cars and stars-as in "I like stars/ Far stars/ Quiet stars/ Bright Stars/ Light stars/ I like stars/ A star that is shooting across the dark sky/ A star that is shining right straight in your eye/ I like stars." Williams packs the illustrations with quirky, often hilarious details; for the spread about stars, for example, a rabbit balloonist floats through the night sky in a patched-up balloon, labeled "starship," with a bird's nest on top of it. The Saggy Baggy Elephant by K. & B. Jackson, illus. by Tenggren, debuted in 1947. A happy little elephant named Sooki dances through the jungle until a saucy parrot makes fun of Sooki's saggy, baggy skin. This pachyderm-cum-ugly-duckling story features richly hued artwork against white backgrounds. A spare text tells the tale of a fire and the heroic firemen who rush to put it out, in The Great Big Fire Engine Book (1950) by Tibor Gergely, "Quick! Connect the hoses! S-s-s-s! goes the water." The rescuers swarm over each spread with reassuring efficiency.

July 1, 2003
Poor Sooki doesn't know what kind of animal he is. When a parrot mocks his saggy skin, he's undone until some fellow elephants save him from a hungry lion. It's unclear if the book is about the importance of being oneself or of finding one's place, but the tale and its guileless illustrations are engagingly, old-fashionedly told ("The tiger didn't care a fig") and rendered.

(Copyright 2003 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)