The Iron Horse -1931

Ten years later, according to This article  Adele Gutman Nathan(1889-1986) would be chief script writer for the U.S. Department of education. The article says:

""Her greatest successes came as a writer and producer of historical pageants. She staged commemorative events for cities, corporations, and groups, including the centenaries of the B&O Railroad (1927) and of International Harvester (1929), the 1933 and 1939 World’s Fairs, the cities of Rochester, New York (1934), and Winston-Salem, North Carolina (1949), the American Jewish Tercentenary in Trenton (1955), and the Hundredth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (1963). In 1974, she wrote How to Plan and Conduct a Bicentennial Celebration for the American Bicentennial."

She wrote 12 books that I know about, three of which involved trains. She also stared in what looks like a superlatively creepy movie.

Margaret S. Ernst seems to be lost to the internet; maybe someday her time will come.

Regarding boys who have a "train interest" - I imagine a list like this:

Diseases of Childhood:

• Chickenpox
• Mumps
• Measles
• "Train Interest" (incurable)

Diggers and Builders - 1931

Henry Bolles Lent wrote non-fiction books for boys from the 30s through the 70s.
 Many of them are available on amazon and have titles like Jet Pilot Overseas, I Work on a Newspaper and Man Alive in Outer Space; our Space Surgeons' Greatest Challenge.

I can't find Diggers and Builders in the public domain, but you can read a .pdf of Wide Road Ahead! Building an Automobile Here.

It is interesting to note that Sam the cement mixer is a person, unlike Dizzy the cement mixer who is an anthropomorphic machine.

"Good pictures"....who was the illustrator?

Skipping Along Alone - 1931

The poem quoted seems to be Winifred Welles' most famous.

In its entirety it reads:

      "I'd like a different dog
      For every kind of weather -
      A narrow greyhound for a fog,
      A wolfhound strange and white,
      With a tail like a silver feather
      To run with in the night,
      When snow is still, and winter stars are bright.
      In the fall I'd like to see
      In answer to my whistle,
      A golden spaniel look at me.
      But the best of all for rain
      A terrier, hairy as a thistle,
      To trot with fine disdain   
      Beside me down the soaked, sweet smelling lane."

There isn't much information available about Ms. Welles (other than that she wrote several books of poetry) but Marguerite Davis has quite a fan following. She has her own tumblr tag.

As far as I can tell, the illustrations for Skipping Along Alone where in black and white and looked pretty good. (see  examples Here and Here and Here.)

I like the pictures better than the poems....Perhaps by "delicate" she meant "ungrammatical"?

What do you think?

The Hole in the Wall - 1931

Mr. René D'Harnoncourt (1901-1968) is much more famous for being the curator of the Museum of Modern Art than he is for illustrating children's books. He was very interested in Mexican and South American artwork.

Hole in the Wall is available from amazon...if you have $200.

The Painted Pig is much more readily available - it was written by Annie Morrow Lindbergh's mother.
You can read a review of it Here.

Ms Dalgliesh's sense of what is "complicated" I do not trust. (Remember Benny ans His Penny?)

The cover of The Painted Pig:

Source

Peter's Voyage - 1931

(credit)
Elsa Beskow (1874-1953) also wrote Pele's New Suit, a favorite story of mine. She wrote in Swedish and her stories have been translated by many different people; her pictures need no translation. Many of her stories are still in print; however, Peter's Voyage is not among them.
Elsa had a brother and four sisters, she was the mother of six boys.

Benny and His Penny - 1931

An example of  the "amusing but complicated" style referred to:

 Complicated is not the word that springs to mind.

Lois Lenski (1893-1974) was the fourth of five children and she wrote and/or illistrated about a bazillion books, for many different age levels.
Benny and His Penny is a fairly early work. Later her illustrations would look more like this,  realistic pencil drawings with lots of shading. They remind me of Kate Seredy's drawings but with different subject matter.
I have read two of Lois Lenski's other books (Strawberry Girl and Cotton in my sack) and enjoyed them. She also did the illustrations for the first four Betsy-Tacy books, which I also enjoyed.
Lois' husband was an artist as well, and painted murals like this. They stayed married from 1921 until his death in 1960.

I have not been able to find Benny and His Penny, so I cannot comment on his lack of sense; however I do not think that an un-sensible character always prevents enjoyment of a book. What do you think?

The Greedy Goat - 1931

The Greedy Goat is now available (used) cheap on Amazon; however there is no review or cover image available.

Emma Lilian Brock (1886-1974) was a prolific author and illustrator of children’s books. This source says she did 36 of them, the first of which was called The runaway Sardine. Many are available from amazon, but none are available from our local library system.

Knopf was a publisher.

A certain preoccupation with things “Tyrolean” on the part of Ms. Dalgliesh may become a theme.
Stay tuned.

Johnny Penguin -1931

Parents’ Magazine had a column of reviews of children’s books.
 Now (82 years after these reviews appeared) I am trying to find all the books mentioned, learn about their authors, and comment on all things as the fancy takes me. I originally started this series on my old Posterous blog in October of 2011.

 Most of the books where reviewed by Alice Dalgliesh, who was identified as “Instructor in Story Telling for Children, Teacher’s College, Columbia University.” According to Wikipedia, Alice Dalgliesh wrote children’s books herself, notably this one.(which I have not read.) She was also Robert Heinlein’s editor for many years.

What does she have to say about Johnny?

Well, I think we have very different views on books. You see, I found Johnny quite charming.
She-and-the-mouse-in-her-pocket wondered at the text? But it is so plainly illustrated:

Dorothy and Marguerite Bryan seem to have been quite prolific. I have only seen two of their books (Johnny Penguin and “Michael who Missed his Train”) and both of them had the same formula: an incident, a chase with accompanying map, and a happy ending. Good stuff.

 

 Everything is better with a Penguin.

Pink Rose

Embigginable