Title: Pepper & Salt and The Wonder Clock
Author: Howard Pyle
Filed Under: Read-Aloud, Fairy Tales, Great Illustrations
When I was a child, I actually had very few books. But they were wonderful books. I like to think, now, of my guardian angel curating my library for my ultimate spiritual, emotional, and intellectual development, encouraging my mother and my father to give me just what I needed. By “ultimate” I mean “what they were to become in the end,” not “fabulous.” It is what it is. But it's me.
They were all my favorites. (Other than one weird one that indulged my father's penchant for the grotesque — a sort of pointless picture book in which the illustrations resolved into one image when held upright and another when turned upside-down. I don't know how to explain it. I just ignored it.)
Your child doesn't need a lot of books. Children need a small number of amazing books. With good illustrations.
Pepper & Salt and The Wonder Clock and, indeed, anything by Howard Pyle will set you up very nicely.
The stories make sense of a crazy world. (I have written about fairy tales in another post.) The youngest, least experienced, most trusting brother wins the sweet maiden in the end. The old hags are helped and turn out to be good guardians in disguise. Coins multiply, kings relent, cottages turn to palaces, magic sticks give robbers drubbings. In short, life with its hidden meaning makes itself known to the pure of heart.
I love Pyle's writing. He has that knack of telling a story in few words, but the right ones!
The illustrations might be the best part. To me they were (and are) perfect. I could happily throw each and every one into this post!
Don't you really want to read a story with this title? Don't you want to be this goose girl? She's taking care of geese and knitting! And her dress is awesome, patches and all. (If you're a boy you can be Claus. |
In both books, do take the time to read the one page “facing” illustrated story-poems. In The Wonder Clock, these (written by his wife,[ed: sister] Katharine Pyle) capture the quality of each hour in a little vignette; in Pepper & Salt, they are self-contained amusing, wry slices of life.
These books are available online as ebooks. The reproductions I've linked to here are preferable, as these are exactly the kind of book a child needs to just pore over in a comfy chair. But best of all would be to find some second-hand editions of the originals, for the quality of the printing.
Dover Books carries acceptable editions, some of which seem to be available from Amazon.
Other books by Pyle for the reader who's been hooked:
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions and all the Arthurian books in this series.
salomeellen says
I didn't know there were picture(ish) books! I only had Robin Hood and “Men of Iron.” Both of which I still can quote parts of.
kimberlee says
Huzzah for Howard Pyle! He has been absolutely 'foundational' (to use your word) in my house. His books were among my sons' favorites especially, the Arthurian ones you linked to are much loved here, but really all of his books. They've influenced greatly my kids writing, illustration, even handwriting and sewing. (my kids have their own Etsy shop, and my son makes a hat similar to the one in that top picture which he calls 'the Ashipattle'). So fun to consistently see our beloved favorites popping up in your (wonderful!) library project.
magistratrium says
Howard Pyle's four books on Arthur and the knights of Camelot are deeply loved here. When I gave my youngest son the first one, the language was too archaic for him to read easily by himself so he asked me to read it aloud. We have gone on to read them all together and I wouldn't have traded that for anything. The language, the chivalry, the morality, the beauty of ideas and pictures will remain with us both always.
We've also read The Wonder Clock and Men of Iron but I didn't know about Pepper and Salt. I need to go find a copy. Thanks, Leila.
Susan says
We love Howard Pyle but didn't know about Pepper and Salt, so thank you. A while back, before you began the Library Project, you had a post with several book recommendations–I think you showed the covers of many good children's books. I wrote down some of the titles, been have not been able to find it since. Help?
_Leila says
Susan, I think the post you are referring to is the one I linked to here in this one. It's http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org//2011/07/d…
If you click on the pictures, you will go to the book in question!
Terra says
Oh I could see me buying one of these for me, I love the illustrations. The print version would be best, I agree. Did you see my current blog post, where I list some favorite bed time stories?
Briana says
I actually picked that one up free at a library book sale. I agree, amazing book and the illustrations are unbelievable.
Alicia says
Amazon currently has a kindle version of Pepper and Salt for free. I don't think there are illustrations, but it's somewhere (free!) to start.
Lisa G. says
Oh yes – I used to have books where the maidens had wonderful dresses also – I know exactly what you mean. Illustrations mean so much.
Julie says
My 13 year old son just read King Arthur and His Knights and loved it!
Amanda says
Thank you, Leila! We just started The Adventures of Merry Robin Hood by Pyle a few days ago, reading on archive.org and I quickly realized I should order a hard copy. My son had enjoyed Roger Lancelyn Green's version and I had heard such good things about Pyle's. I'd never heard of the Wonder Clock but when I saw your post at lunch I looked on my ibooks shelf ( I have an ebook set from Yesterday's classics) and found I had it right there already. We read the Preface and Bearskin over lunch and my children were enthralled. So I think we'll be finding a nice old used copy, as well as of Pepper and Salt and as many of the other titles as I can. 🙂 Oh, and Librivox just added it yesterday – not on itunes yet. I prefer to read aloud myself but Librivox is a nice option at times. http://archive.org/details/wonderclock_1309_libri… Mainlesson.com also has an easily read version, though not as pretty as a scanned in version or hard copy: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=pyle… Thanks, I am loving this series, Leila!!
Gwenny says
When you talk about books like this being perfect for children, what aged children do you mean? 3 years old? Six? 10?
_Leila says
Gwenny, these two books are really perfect for any age (unless they actually eat the books :)!
I think a 9 yo or so would love to have Pepper and Salt read aloud to him (yes, read out loud even to children who can read!). But I think a 3 yo loves the pictures and will listen along too. An older child might pick it up to read on his own, and a 5 yo would ask to have it read over and over.
Sunny-Gem says
I have just bought a box set of Alfie books for my my Goddaughter and her Sister. They have beautiful illustrations. I remember these books as a child. Also I had a cassette tape narrated by Thora Hird which I listened to over and over. Here is a link http://www.alfiebooks.co.uk/index.asp
Cathy Dufresne says
May I offer a correction? The poems and illustrations in the Wonder Clock are by Howard Pyle’s sister, Katharine Pyle, the youngest of five who learned her craft from her brother and her mother. Katharine Pyle was an accomplished poet as well as an illustrator. Thanks.
Wendy A. says
Thank goodness someone else caught this glaring error! I’m a Katharine Pyle aficionado, and she really needs to correct this!
Leila says
I have a 1915 edition of this book. The title page says: Written and illustrated by Howard Pyle, embellished with verses by Katharine Pyle.
I will try to upload a picture of this page for you.
If you have some evidence to the contrary, of course I am happy to see it!
Wendy A. says
OOPS! I need to modify what I wrote on April 8, 2017… I didn’t read everything I was replying to, so I want to make clear that Katharine Pyle was Howard Pyle’s SISTER, not his wife, AND she did extra embellishments for, “The Wonder Clock,” while the bulk of the book was illustrated by her (more famous) brother. (Katharine wrote the verses between chapters AND illustrated them with her special flair!)
Wendy A. says
Yes, my 1887 copy says the same thing; I know her work backward and forward and, Leila, since receiving your emails, now it’s verified: On page 42 (in the chronology) of, Tales of Folk and Fairies – The Life and Work of Katharine Pyle, it says: “1886-1887 The Wonder Clock is published weekly in Harper’s Young People from March 1886 to March 1887. Katharine wrote and illustrated the verses; her older brother Howard wrote and illustrated the stories”
If you’re interested, this book was published by the Delaware Art Museum where I ordered it directly from them. Delaware was the birthplace of both Howard and Katharine Pyle.