The Turned-Intos by Elizabeth Gordon

The Turned-Intos: Jane Elizabeth discovers the Garden Folk by Elizabeth Gordon was first published in 1920 by P. F. Volland in Great Britain. I have an American copy printed by Wise Book Company in 1935. The book is illustrated by Janet Laura Scott.

The book is dedicated to "children who love to work in gardens and who enjoy the big out-of-doors and the little friends who live there."

The Garden Folk mentioned are butterflies and insects, frogs and spiders, bees and hornets.

 Most of the full-page illustrations feature Jane Elizabeth in gardens.

  A few show Jane Elizabeth with her family or at home.

The cricket on the hearth harkens back to the Christmas story by Charles Dickens!

 Jane Elizabeth discovers a ladybug, below, while her cat looks on.

Jane Elizabeth stitching in the garden with her dollies looking on.

 Jane Elizabeth is not afraid of the spider.

 Jane Elizabeth and the honeybees.

 Jane Elizabeth in the cottage garden.

 And skipping through the fields after the butterflies.

This was meant to be a teaching book. Teaching aids include a vocabulary analysis and activities for each chapter.

Next week I will share the illustrations of the Garden Folk!

Jingle Bell Jack, a 1955 Yo-Yo Clown Doll

I remember Ding Dong School on television. And I remember owning this book when I was a girl. What I don't remember is ever making or having a yo-yo doll. Every girl had a yo-yo doll and a sock monkey, and I wanted them, too.

This Rand McNally book dates from 1955. It tells the story of a girl who loved the circus clown she had seen, who had been wearing bells. Her mother shows the girl how to make her own circus clown, a yo-yo doll with bells.

Yo-yos are very simple to make. Circles are cut from fabric scraps. A basting thread is sewn along the edge so that when the thread is drawn the fabric forms a circle.

I found a tutorial online at
http://sunshinescreations.vintagethreads.com/2006/10/how-to-make-yo-yo-friend.html

The yo-yo circles are sewn together with a heavier thread to make the arms and legs of the doll.

 At the end of each unit is a bell. The head, collar, and a hat is added.

 The girl has her own clown with bells, Jingle Bell Jack.

A quick search online shows various ways of making the clown's face. In the book, the girl uses crayons to add the features. Many dolls have premade plastic faces. The tutorial shows how to make the head with fabric.

I found this copy of Jingle Bell Jack at the Royal Oak Farmer's Market from Acron Books. The owner, Jim Deak, told me a story about Miss Frances--Dr. Frances R. Horwich--whose program I watched as a preschooler. The Ding Dong School program was never expected to succeed, and when it took off Miss Frances was asked to turn it into an hour-long show. She said children should not be watching that much television! Then she was pressured to allow advertising for a BB gun, which she declined to do. She resigned over this issue, but her resignation was not accepted.

Miss Frances paved the way for children's television programming that was educational while considering the needs of children, including Mr. Rogers.

You can see an episode of Ding Dong School in which Miss Frances turns a handkerchief into a bunny on Youtube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad6UxxL4yi8

***See the Jingle Bell Jack I later found at a flea market! I finally have my doll!
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/03/jingle-bell-jack-comes-to-my-house.html

Robin Goodfellow's Pranks on Hallowe'en

Robin Goodfellow's Pranks on Hallowe-en

When little boys on Hallowe'en are up to some sly trick,

I hearken to their whispered plans and silently and quick,

A mischief laughing to myself, right after them I hop

And scare them 'most to death by changing to a cop.

And next I am the Goblin's screech-owl, shrieking awful loud,

Ar rise right up before their eyes, a ghost with long white shroud;

When brimstone blazes from my eyes they see a big black cat,

And home at last I chase them, a witch with peaked hat.

from A Year with the Fairies by Anna M. Scott, 1924

Lady Fall's Harvest Ride: A Year With the Fairies

Lady Fall's Harvest Ride 
On harvest chariot piled sky high
Lady Fall is passing by
With garnered fruits and wealth untold
Of royal purple mixed with gold;

To Lady Summer's faerwell nod
She waves a plume of Goldenrod,
And as the birds fly south again
She cries, "Good bye, auf Wiedersehen."

from A Year with the Fairies by Anna M. Scott, 1924

April in "A Year With the Fairies"

The Gardeners

When April comes with sun and showers
The Pixies plant a million flowers;
Each Pixie brings his little spade
And digs and delves in vale and glade.

The whole day long he spades and weeds
And gives to Earth his little seeds,
And begs from April sun and showers
Til little seeds grow into flowers.












April Wakes the Flowers

April clad in crystal rain-drops
Danced across the sunny skies,
Found Earth's children still lay sleeping,
Yearned once more to see their eyes.

So she pelted them with rain-drops,
Sprinkled them with soft warm showers,
Till the pattering of her crystals
Waked the sleep, smiling flowers.












from A Year With the Fairies, by Anna M. Scott, illustrations by M. T. Ross
1914, P. F. Volland & Co,

A Joke on Cinder by Romney Gay

I found a charming 1944 children's book at the church book sale. A Joke on Cinder by Romney Gay, published by Grosset & Dunlop, Inc. was "designed and produced by Artists and Writers Guild, Inc."

The book had belonged to Suellen O'Dell And William. O'Dell was my mother-in-law's maiden name, an interesting coincidence.

 

I think the joke was on the children as well!

To read more about Romney Gay see

http://hihohome.blogspot.com/2008/08/vintage-toys-and-books.html