Richard Scarry (1919–1994)

Who doesn't love Richard Scarry's work? Well I certainly do. I was hooked from the very first time I came across it and my kids have all loved the various books. I'm just looking at the current book and the story about Uncle Willy and the Pirates. What a wonderful story....it combines adventure, inventiveness, humour, and has a feel-good ending. Just great for kids. (And I still love it). And the drawings and the characters; so inventive, so clever, so much fun! I did a little research and found Scarry had to re-write some of his stuff to cater for changing social attitudes: eg "pretty stewardess" changed to "flight attendant". I actually find this quite interesting because it really reflects changing public morals. What was quite ok in 1950 is not longer quite ok. But clearly he was able to adapt. Often there is some sort of moralistic ideas behind some of the stories; good triumphs over bad, people are generally good, or have good intentions; careless and unthinking people like "speedboat spike" are brought to heel and constrained in a paddling pool; there are often some lovely footnote twists ...such as "But who is that that I see in a tiny speedboat......etc".So much to engage the mind and imagination of children. And lovely characters. Who can forget "lowly worm", or "Sergeant Murphy"?.......though is Sergeant Murphy somewhat of an Irish Stereotype? Well, anyway, Scarry gets a big 5 stars from me. Just love his work and love his art.… (lisätietoja)